Man, still unchanged, and still afraid
Of power by human hands unmade,
For her high Altar's rights divine,

Will name his priest, will chuse his shrine; And votaries, doomed in other days to bow Within the idol's fane, throng the false prophet's now.

C.

α.

WHEN I Would search the truths that in me burn,
And mould them into rule and argument,
A hundred reasoners cried ;-" Hast thou to learn
"Those dreams are scattered now, those fires
are spent?"

And, did I mount to simpler thoughts and try
Some theme of peace, 'twas still the same reply.

Perplexed, I hoped my heart was pure of guile,

But judged me weak in wit, to disagree; But now I see, that men were mad awhile,

And joy the AGE TO COME Will think with me; 'Tis the old history;-Truth without a home, Despised and slain,-then, rising from the tomb.

CI.

"I saw all Israel scattered upon the hills, as sheep that have not a shepherd.

POOR wanderers, ye are sore distrest

To find that path which CHRIST has blest
Tracked by His saintly throng;

Each claims to trust his own weak will,
Blind idol !-so ye languish still,

All wranglers, and all wrong.

He saw of old, and met your need,
Granting you prophets of His creed,
The throes of fear to suage;

They fenced the rich bequest He made,
And sacred hands have safe conveyed
Their charge from age to age.

Wanderers! come home! when erring most
Christ's Church aye kept the faith, nor lost
One grain of Holy Truth;

She ne'er has erred as those ye trust,
And now shall lift her from the dust,

And REIGN as in her youth!

RELIGIOUS STATES.

CII.

PATRIARCHAL FAITH.

WE are not children of a guilty sire,

Since Noe stept from out his wave-tossed home, And a stern baptism flushed earth's faded bloom. Not that the heavens then cleared, or cherub's fire From Eden's portal did at once retire;

But thoughts were stirred of Him who was to come, Whose rainbow hues so streaked the o'ershadowing

gloom,

That faith could e'en that desolate scene admire.
The Lord has come and gone; and now we wait
The second substance of the deluge type,
When our slight ark shall cross a molten surge;
So, while the gross earth melts, for judgment ripe,
Ne'er with its haughty turrets to emerge,

We shall mount up to Eden's long lost gate.

d.

CIII.

HEATHENISM.

Mid Balak's magic fires
The Spirit spake, clear as in Israel;
With prayers untrue and covetous desires
Did God vouchsafe to dwell;

Who summoned dreams, His earlier word to bring To holy Job's vexed friends, and Gaza's guileless king.

If such o'erflowing grace

From Aaron's vest e'en on the Sibyl ran,

Why should we fear, the Son now lacks His place Where roams unchristened man?

As tho', when faith is keen, He cannot make Bread of the very stones, or thirst with ashes slake.

CIV.

JUDAISM.

O piteous race!

Fearful to look upon,

Once standing in high place,
Heaven's eldest son.

O aged blind

Unvenerable! as thou flittest by,
I liken thee to him in pagan song,
In thy gaunt majesty,

The vagrant King, of haughty-purposed mind
Whom prayer nor plague could bend ;*
Wronged, at the cost of him who did the wrong,
Accursed himself, but in his cursing strong,
And honoured in his end.

O Abraham! sire

Shamed in thy progeny ;

Who to thy faith aspire,

Thy Hope deny.

*Vide the dipus Coloneus of Sophocles.