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to inequalities which no earthly tribunal can adjust, and which compel us, from the mere light of reason, to believe that there is a day coming when the Creator and righteous Governor of the Universe will vindicate his providential course, and convince "the assembled tribes and kindreds of the earth," that "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints."—Rev. xv. 3.

It has been shown how beautifully the Poem opens; the peroration is equally fine :

"Such is that awful, that tremendous day,

Whose coming who shall tell? For as a thief

Unheard, unseen, it steals with silent pace

Through night's dark gloom.-Perhaps, as here I sit,
And rudely carol these incondite lays,

Soon shall the hand be check'd, and dumb the mouth

That lisps the falt'ring strain.-O may it ne'er

Intrude unwelcome on an ill-spent hour;

But find me wrapt in meditations high,

Hymning my great Creator!

Pow'r Supreme!

O, everlasting King! to thee I kneel,

To thee I lift my voice. With fervent heat

Melt, all ye elements! And thou, high Heav'n,
Shrink like a shrivell'd scroll! But think, O Lord,
Think on thine own bright image! Think on Him
Who died to save us from thy righteous wrath;

And midst the wreck of worlds, remember man!"

* How perfectly in harmony with the above is the following passage from Bishop Horne's Preface to his Commentary on the Psalms. After alluding to his own experience of the unspeakable benefit of the method he had adopted of considering and applying the Psalms, he concludes with the wish, that "if it so pleased God, death might find him employed in meditations of this kind."

The finest sermon with which I am acquainted on the awful subject of the Day of Judgment, is Bishop Horne's, from Acts xvii. 31, "He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained;"—and I do not know how I can adorn my pages better, or afford those, who may happen to peruse them, a higher or a purer gratification, than by setting forth a few parallel passages, from which it will be seen how pleasing and remarkable a coincidence there is between the Poet and the Divine.

Thanks to the inflexible integrity of the wise and learned men who preside over our Courts of Judicature, and to that statute of George III., of pious memory, which sets the appointed Judges of the land above the caprice of regal power, it cannot be said that, under the British Constitution,

"Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice."

Yet even here, as Bishop Horne too truly tells us, "the penal sanctions of human laws will not always come up to the necessity of the case; men will still continue to put evil for good and good for evil.' Much wickedness must remain unpunished, and great misery must go unrelieved. Monsters of iniquity will creep from their dens to infest and annoy the public, although they cannot be dragged from thence to suffer as they deserve. Avarice and ambition will conceive and bring forth crimes, of which no earthly tribunal can take cognizance. Some sins will be too common, and some

sinners too powerful, to be put down by general animadversion. The prosperous villain will often die unmolested in his bed, and bequeath the fruits of his oppression to his heir; while injured innocence shall descend before him with sorrow to the grave, and quickly pass away out of remembrance; the orphan's cries will still ascend to heaven; the tears will still run down the widow's cheek; and the poor man will frequently find no helper upon earth. This the royal preacher and judge of Israel saw and lamented; and the renown which he had through all the world for his wisdom and justice is nowise sullied by the conclusion to which long experience and observation of mankind led him, or when he said in his heart," God shall judge the righteous and the wicked."*

In the present life, man may "walk in the ways of his heart, and in the sight of his eyes;" he may devote his youth to pleasure, sacrifice his manhood to ambition, and wear out his old age in avarice. He may corrupt the innocent for the indulgence of the first, depopulate kingdoms for the gratification of the second, and impoverish thousands to satisfy the cravings of the last; but "for all these things God will bring him into judgment." In that day, "the day of the Lord," God shall speak, and man must hear; then the viol and the harp shall no longer lull the effeminate in sensuality, nor the trumpet any more rouse the warrior to battle; and then the thousands of gold

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and silver shall have lost all their charms in the eyes of the miser; shame shall be the portion of pride, and covetousness shall inherit eternal poverty.

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'I saw the dead,” saith the well-beloved Apostle Saint John, "both small and great, stand before God." All the senates that ever were convened, and all the assemblies that ever met upon business or pleasure; all the armies that were ever conducted into the field, and all the generals who conducted them; all the kings and princes who ever swayed a sceptre, and all the multitude of the nations that were ever in subjection under them. High and low, rich and poor, learned and unlearned, will then be distinguished only by their virtues and their vices; so that the whole world shall perceive and acknowledge, that "God is no respecter of persons." The injured virgin, the afflicted widow, and the oppressed orphan, shall then see those face to face, who have spoiled them of their innocence, their reputation, or their substance. Amidst all this unimaginable multitude, there shall not be one unconcerned spectator. Every man will have a cause to be heard, and how will he be straitened, until it be determined !"-BISHOP HORNE.

Dr. Glynn, it will now be seen, pursues precisely the same train of thought. After setting forth in long and splendid array the various tribes and nations of the earth who shall all assemble at the judgment seat of Christ, and having established that—

"Whate'er their nation, and whate'er their rank,

Heroes and patriarchs, slaves and sceptred kings,

With equal eye the God of all shall see,

And judge with equal love."*

He proceeds with his theme in the following animated

strain :

"What though the great

With costly pomp and aromatic sweets

Embalm'd his poor remains; or through the dome
A thousand tapers shed their gloomy light,
While solemn organs to his parting soul
Chaunted slow orisons? Say by what mark
Dost thou discern him from that lowly swain,

Whose mould'ring bones beneath the thorn-bound turf
Long lay neglected?+ All at once shall rise,

* Here Dr. Glynn has taken up almost the very words of St. Peter, Acts x. 23: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." "Upon which text, some persons,' "Dr. Hales has remarked, "have engrafted a dangerous error, as if to fear God and work righteousness, under any form of religious belief, were the only duties essentially necessary to salvation. Such an opinion is fully refuted by the case of Cornelius himself, who, though he possessed these requisites, was, by a special revelation, required to embrace Christianity." That the effects of our Saviour's death are not, however, limited to such only as have been admitted into the fellowship of his religion, is evident from many passages of Scripture. "How," asks St. Paul, "shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?"-Rom. x. 14. Whilst we know, from the same unerring authority, that there is "the excusing or accusing conscience," which makes every son and daughter of Adam, more or less, a morally responsible agent. Whether Christians, Jews, or Gentiles, all have had their respective rules of life by which they will be judged at the last day; yet certain, nevertheless, it is, "that there is one only name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." This is one of those mysteries which we should seek in vain to penetrate. Let it, therefore, suffice for us to know, that there is pardon of sins, and reconciliation with God, for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and keep his commandments.

+ It is curious to find how quaintly, not to say ludicrously, the most serious, and even sacred thoughts, have occasionally been dealt with. There is no ques

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