work, is then put by hypocatastasis for man attempting, in his spiritual blindness, to judge of God's moral and providential sway; a picture as dark and sad as the other is bright and cheering.

LESSONS.

The greatness and

The following hymn is eminently fine. splendor of the thoughts, the distinctness with which the objects they respect are presented, and the appropriateness and glow of the sentiments that are expressed, touch the heart, like a lofty strain of music, with an entrancing power, and fill it with a sense of divine beauty and bliss:

"Father! how wide thy glory shines!

How high thy wonders rise!

Known through the earth by thousand signs,

By thousands through the skies.

"But when we view thy strange design,

To save rebellious worms;

Where vengeance and compassion join

In their divinest forms;

"Here the whole Deity is known;

Nor dares a creature guess
Which of the glories brightest shone,

The justice or the grace.

"Now the full glories of the Lamb

Adorn the heavenly plains;

Bright seraphs learn Emmanuel's name,

And try their choicest strains.

"O, may I bear some humble part

In that immortal song!

Wonder and joy shall tune my heart,

And love command my tongue."

Though so eminently poetic, however, and shedding through the mind a sense of beauty and sublimity, its charms are not referable, except in a slight degree, to the images which it employs; as there are but seven figures in it, and none of them are of the boldest cast. A passage of high poetic excellence, though almost without a figure, is quoted in a preceding chapter, and the reason stated that such compositions do not need the aid of tropes to invest them with their resistless attractions. Does this song owe the impression it makes to the same cause? If so, let the scholar state what the secret of its beauty is. Let the figures also be pointed out that occur in it.

The following hymn has a pointed expression, and a sprightly movement:

"Servant of God, well done!

Rest from thy lov'd employ;
The battle fought, the victory won,
Enter thy Master's joy.

"The voice at midnight came,

He started up to hear;

A mortal arrow pierced his frame;
He fell-but felt no fear.

"The pains of death are past;

Labor and sorrow cease;

And life's long warfare closed at last;
His soul is found in peace.

"Soldier of Christ, well done!

Praise be thy new employ;

And while eternal ages run

Rest in thy Saviour's joy."

Where lies the ground of the life and stirring power of this spirited hymn? Is it in the thoughts mainly, or largely in its images, figures, and modulation? There are three figures in the first stanza; the first is an apostrophe; what are the two others? In the second there are four figures; where are they, and of what kind? There is a single figure in the third stanza; what is it? In the last there are two; what are they? Which of the lines commence with a trochee; and what effect has that foot on the modulation?

The following hymn has a quick and stirring movement:

"Come, let us anew our journey pursue;

Roll round with the year,

And never stand still till the Master appear.

"His adorable will let us gladly fulfil,

And our talents improve,

By the patience of faith, and the labor of love.

"Our life is a dream; our time, as a stream,

Glides swiftly away;

And the fugitive moment refuses to stay.

"The arrow is flown; the moment is gone;

The millennial year

Rushes on to our view, and eternity's here.

“O, that each in the day of his coming may say—
I have fought my way through;

I have finished the work thou didst give me to do.

"O that each from his Lord may receive the glad word

'Well and faithfully done;

Enter into my joy, and sit down on my throne," "

Each long line consists of two short ones of equal length, and forming a rhyme; and each short or half line contains two metrical feet. What are they; and in what order do they occur? In the first stanza there are two figures; where and what are they? Is there any figure in the second stanza In the third there are four metaphors and one comparison; point them out. In the fourth there are two figures; designate them. There is one in the fifth; what and in which expression is it? There is one in the last stanza; point it out, and give its name.

The rhythm of the following eleven syllable hymn, the first and third lines of which commence with a dactyl, and close with a trochee, the second and fourth begin with an iambic and close with an anapest, is very spirited and pleasing:

"Daughter of Zion, awake from thy sadness;

Awake! for thy foes shall oppress thee no more;
Bright o'er thy hills dawns the day-star of gladness;
Arise! for the night of thy sorrow is o'er.

'Strong were thy foes; but the arm that subdued them
And scattered their legions was mightier far;

They fled like the chaff from the scourge that pursued them;
Vain were their steeds, and their chariots of war.

'Daughter of Zion, the power that hath saved thee,

Extolled with the harp and the timbrel should be;
Shout! for the foe is destroyed that enslaved thee;
The oppressor is vanquished, and Zion is free!"

This, when sung in an appropriate tune, and with suitable expression, steals over the heart with an entrancing power. Where

lies the secret of its charm? What tropes are there in it? What especially is the figure that reigns in it throughout, and, like a flash of light from a midnight cloud, shedding illumination over hill and vale, and rendering their objects perceptible, kindles the fancy with the conception, and touches the heart with the feeling, that the redeemed people of Zion are present, listening to the chant, and exulting in the triumph which it celebrates?

THE END.