ed, it seems hardly within the power of a fair and ingenuous mind to resist the impression of their united force. If such a combination of evidence as this is not sufficient to satisfy an honest inquirer into truth, it is utterly impossible that any event, which passed in former times, and which we did not see with our own eyes, can ever be proved to have happened, by any degree of testimony whatever. It may safely be affirmed, that no instance can be produced of any one fact or event, said to have taken place in past ages, and established by such evidence as that on which the Christian Revelation rests, that afterwards turned out to be false. We challenge the enemies of our faith to bring forward, if they can, any such instance. If they cannot (and we know it to be impossible) we have a right to say, that a religion, supported by such an extraordinary accumulation of evidence, must be true; and that all men, who pretend to be guided by argument and by proof, are bound, by the most sacred obligations, to receive the religion of Christ as a real Revelation from God.

POETICAL ESSAY.

FRIEND to the wretch, whom every friend forsakes,

I woo thee, DEATH! In fancy's fairy paths

Let the gay songster rove, and gently trill

The strain of empty joy.-Life and its joys
I leave to those that prize them.-At this hour,
This solemn hour, when silence rules the world,
And wearied nature makes a gen'ral pause,
Wrapt in night's sable robe, through cloysters drear
And charnels pale, tenanted by a throng
Of meagre phantoms shooting cross my path
With silent glance, I seek the shadowy vale
Of DEATH.-Deep in a murky cave's recess,
Lav'd by Oblivion's listless stream, and fenc'd
By shelving rocks, and intermingled horrors
Of yew and cypress' shade, from all intrusion
Of busy noontide beam, the Monarch sits
In unsubstantial majesty enthron'd.

At his right hand, nearest himself in place
And frightfulness of form, his parent Sin
With fatal industry and cruel care
Busies herself in pointing all his stings,
And tipping every shaft with venom drawn
From her infernal store: Around him rang'd

M

In terrible array and mixture strange
Of uncouth shapes, stand his dread Ministers :
Foremost Old Age, his natural ally

And firmest friend; next him diseases thick,
A motly train; Fever, with cheek of fire ;
Consumption, wan; Palsy, half warm with life,
And half a clay cold lump! Joint tot'ring Gout,
And ever gnawing Rheum; Convulsion, wild;
Swol'n Dropsy; panting Asthma ; Apoplex
Full gorg'd.-There too the Pestilence that walks
In darkness, and the sickness that destroys
At broad noon day. These, and a thousand more,
Horrid to tell, attentive wait; and when

By Heaven's command DEATH waves his ebon wand,
Sudden rush forth to execute his purpose,

And scatter desolation o'er the Earth.

Ill fated Man, for whom such various forms Of Mis'ry wait, and mark their future prey! Ah! Why, All righteous Father, didst thou make This Creature Man ? Why wake the unconscious dust To life and wretchedness? Oh, better far

Still had he slept in uncreated night,

If this the lot of Being !-Was it for this
Thy breath divine kindled within his breast
The vital flame? For this, was thy fair image
Stampt on his soul in godlike lineaments ?
For this, dominion giv'n him absolute
O'er all thy works, only that he might reign
Supreme in woe ?-From the blest Source of Good
Could Pain and DEATH proceed? Could such foul ills
Fall from fair Mercy's hands ?-Far be the thought,
The impious thought! Gop never made a creature

But what was good.—He made a living Soul :
The wretched Mortal was the work of MAN.
Forth from his Maker's hands he sprung to life,
Fresh with immorta! bloom: No pain he knew,
No fear of change no check to his desires,

Save one command.-That one command, (which stood 'Twixt him and DEATH, the test of his obedience)

Urg'd on by wanton curiosity,

He broke.-There in one moment was undone
The fairest of GoD's works.-The same rash hand,
That pluck'd in evil hour the fatal fruit,
Unbarr'd the gates of Hell, and let loose Sin,
And Death, and all the family of Pain,

To prey upon Mankind.-Young Nature saw
The monstrous crew, and shook through all her frame.
Then fled her new born lustre, then began

Heav'n's cheerful face to low'r, then vapor's choak'd
The troubled air, and form'd a veil of clouds
To hide the willing Sun. The Earth convuls'd
With painful throes threw forth a bristly crop
Of thorns and briars; and Insect, Bird and Beast,
That wont before with admiration fond
To gaze at Man, and fearless croud around him,
Now fled before his face, shunning in häste
Th' infection of his misery. He alone,
Who justly might, th' offended Lord of Man,
Turn'd not away his face; he, full of pity,
Forsook not in this uttermost distress

His best lov'd work. That comfort still remain'd,
(That best that greatest comfort in affliction)
The countenance of God, and through the gloom
Shot forth some kindly gleams, to cheer and warm

Th' offender's sinking soul. Hope sent from Heav'n
Uprais'd his drooping head, and show'd afar

A happier scene of things, the Promis'd Seed
Trampling upon the Serpent's humbled crest,
DEATH of his sting disarm'd, and the dark grave
Made pervious to the realms of endless day,

No more the limit but the gate of life.

Cheer'd with the view, MAN went to till the ground
From whence he rose ; sentenc'd indeed to toil
As to a punishment, yet (ev'n in wrath

So merciful is Heav'n) this toil became
The solace of his woes, the sweet employ

Of many a live long hour, and surest guard

Against disease and DEATH. DEATH, though denounc'd Was yet a distant Ill, by feeble arm

Of age, his sole support, led slowly on..

Not then as since, the short liv'd son's of men
Flock'd to his realms in countless multitudes;
Scarce in the course of twice five hundred years
One solitary ghost went shiv'ring down
To his unpeopled shore.-In sober state,
Through the sequester'd vale of rural life,
The venerable Patriarch guileless held
The tenor of his way; Labor prepar'd
His simple fare, and temp'rance rul'd his board
Tir'd with his daily toil, at early eve
He sunk to sudden rest; gentle and pure

As breath of evening Zephyr and as sweet

Were all his slumbers; with the Sun he rose,

Alert and vigorous as He, to run

His destin'd course. Thus nerv'd with Giant Strength

He stem'd the tide of time, and stood the shock