And sweetly sang the time away;
But scenes like this we oft survey,

But peace had winged the golden hours Through all the happy world that day.

No hatred burnt 'twixt rival powers,

No warriors scowled from hostile towers; The poor, the rich, the young, the grey,

Had given to love and joy the hours,

And nought resounded o'er the earth,
But dancing, feasting, song and mirth.
Save in one solitary spot,

Where stood a fabric huge and high,
Which thousands erst had wandered by,

Which all alike had now forgot,

Which all had long regarded not,

Or looked on with contemptuous eye, And laughed at him whose frenzied mind, The wondrous novelty designed.

With patience he their taunts withstood,
And for their evil rendered good.
A venerable sage was he.

Six hundred years had passed away,
Since first he saw the light of day,

Yet perfect, to the full degree,
The vigour of his mind and frame,

As when he first to manhood came.

Inspired by him who looked from heaven,
On earth the tribes of man to see,
And found their hearts entirely given

To sin, and foul idolatry,

For ages had he toiled to shew

The error of the way they tród,

And sought to win them to his God, But all in vain, they would not know, They would not hear the truths he taught, But walked contemptuously astray, Each in his own perverted way, And every evil pleasure sought, And bowed the worse than idle knee To gods that could not hear nor see.

Until Jehovah, grieved to mark

The deep ingratitude displayed,
Repented he the world had made,
And bade his favoured Patriarch
A vessel build, wherein secure

To rest, while he his wrath should pour
O'er all the realms on earth that lay,
And sweep the godless race away.

The sun had reached his highest height,

And, here and there, a few

Attenuated clouds of white

Lay in the vaulted blue.

And Noah went into the ark,

And God the Lord made fast the door;

And suddenly the skies grew dark,
As they had never grown before,
A palpable, deep blackness: Hark'

What noise is that so full of dread?
Say, is it meant to wake the dead?
And what portends yon burning mark
Athwart the sky, all fiery red?

Explain the unprecedented sign,
What is it but the wrath divine,

So long delayed, so soon to fall,
And overwhelm and ruin all?

Once more the air is still : Where have those noisy revellers fled? My ear receives nor sigh nor sound: Amazement every tongue has bound: A moment hushed, even as the dead; A silence audible.

"Tis past, a universal cry

Of deepest woe ascends the sky.
Again that horrid noise, again

Along the heavens that living light,
Burning insufferably bright;

Say, is there now no God of might,
Ye Atheists? Ye blasphemers vain,
Who dared so late his power despise,
And question his existence, say
Who backwards rolls yon flaming skies,

That fill your souls with such dismay;

And ye who down to idols fell,

Your wishes and your wants to tell,

Why not as reverently bow,

And supplicate their favour now?

Or shines the truth at length too plain,
Those things of wood and stone are vain?
Secure upon the swelling tide,

That o'er the earth indignant pours,

The insulted few, triumphant, ride,

Now whose was madness, theirs or yours? Your homes, your towers, your temples, all In undistinguished ruin fall.

Earth crashes to her centre; see,

The everlasting hills fall down: Oh! to the few yet trembling flee,

And hide ye from his angry frown.

Ye need it not; the sea its shores
Has burst, and o'er the plains it pours,

Heaves, sinks, and boils, and foams, and roars.

From heaven auxiliar torrents come,

And fierce the incessant lightnings play,

But scarce can tear their fiery way, Through water and commingled gloom.

And time rolls on, and day and night

That should have been, but stars and sun
Have faded; vain, indeed, their light
If given: beyond the mountain's height
The unrestricted waves have run;
And earth and all her myriads sleep
Under the dark, avenging deep.
All, all are gone; all save the few
Preserved in yonder floating ark,

Now faintly breaking into view,

As light at length dispels the dark. To these the earth restored shall be;

From these new tribes of man be born;

The rest, beneath the whelming sea,

Await the resurrection morn.

T. K.

BRIEF COMMENTARY ON PASSING EVENTS.

Luton Bible Society. The Annual Meeting of the Luton Branch Bible Society and the Ladies' Association, was held in the Wesleyan Chapel, on Thursday Evening, Sept. 8th. The chair was taken by Joseph Payne, Esq. and was occupied by him with his accustomed liberality and skill. The meeting was addressed by ministers and gentlemen of various denominations, and the harmony and good feeling which the Bible Society is so admirably adapted to promote pervaded the engagements of the evening. The speech of the Rev. George Browne, one of the Secretaries of the Parent Society, excited the deepest interest.

The total receipts of the Branch Society and the Ladies' Association, during the past year, amounted to £105.

Luton British School. This valuable. Institution has at length arrived at such a state of forwardness, that it is expected to be in full operation on October 10th. The School Room was opened on Thursday, Sept. 1st, when a lecture on education was delivered by Mr. Althans, from London. Mr. A. unfolded the principles of the British system, and shewed their adaptation to the mental improvement of young persons. His discourse was useful but not brilliant.

It is pleasing to observe how the over-ruling designs of Providence make the passions and prepossessions of men to advance the interests of civilization and religion. The National School of Luton was enlarged and placed under a more vigilant superintendence, by which the Sunday School children of other denominations of christians were drawn away. The illiberal restriction of the National system to those children who attend the Church on Sunday, in this instance wrought its own cure. The dissenters were justly