The barley harvest was nodding white,
When my children died on the rocky height,
And the reapers were singing on hill and plain,
When I came to my task of sorrow and pain.
But now the season of rain is nigh,
The sun is dim in the thickening sky,
And the clouds in sullen darkness rest.
When he hides his light at the doors of the west,
I hear the howl of the wind that brings
The long drear storm on its heavy wings;
But the howling wind, and the driving rain
Will beat on my houseless head in vain :
I shall stay, from my murdered sons to scare
The beasts of the desert, and fowls of the air.

When the Israelites took possession of the land of Canaan, they were commanded to extirpate the occupants of the country. This was but imperfectly fulfilled: in Israel and its borders there always remained some of the descendants of the primitive inhabitants. About a thousand years before Christ, Saul, king of Israel, slew some of the Gibeonites, a remnant of the Amorites. A few years after, the Gibeonites, like other savages, demanded of David, as a satisfaction for the injury they had sustained from his predecessor, life for life. They required that seven men of the posterity of Saul should be delivered to them to be hanged, and David consented to this cruel proposition. The king took two sons of Saul and Rizpah, and five sons of Michal, Saul's daughter, and delivered them to the Gibeonites.-The fearful vengeance executed upon these men, and the constant heart-rending fondness of Rizpah, are already known from the words of the scripture and the pathetic verses of the poet.

FRISBIE.

The author of the two hymns inserted below, was a professor of Moral Philosophy in Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Professor Frisbie died in 1821. He was almost entirely deprived of sight, but it happened to him, as to the divine Milton, and to many other highly gifted men, that Providence made him amends for the imperfection of external vision by a more profound insight of holy and heavenly things. Human happiness and virtue, were the subjects of Professor Frisbie's habitual and anxious inquiries; "but all his serious thoughts had rest in Heaven"-Piety was the constant frame of his mind, and his conversation and example af- » forded uniform illustrations of the Christian temper and faith. His death was a loss to the young particularly, and his worth as a man, a scholar, and a Christian, was duly appreciated and felt by those of his college who * looked up to him for the exposition of duty and of truth. Perhaps the good seed which he scattered in many minds, is now expanded to fruit, an it may be that the devotional pieces here annexed will yet serve to awaken gratitude to God, and to strengthen resolutions of virtue.

MORNING HYMN.

While nature welcomes in the day,
My heart its earliest vows would pay
To him whose care has kindly kept
My life from danger while I slept.

His genial rays the sun renews;
How bright the scene with glittering dews!
The blushing flowers more beauteous bloom,
And breathe more sweet their rich perfume,

So may the sun of righteousness,
With kindliest beams my bosom bless,
Warm into life each heavenly seed,
To bud and bear some generous deed.

So may the dews of grace distil,
And gently soften all my will;
So may my morning sacrifice

To heaven like grateful incense rise.
Wilt thou this day my footsteps guide,
And kindly all I need provide ;
With strength divine my bosom arm,
Against temptation's powerful charm?

Where'er I am, oh, may I feel
That God is all around me still;
That all I say, or do, or mean,
By his all-searching eye is seen.

Oh may each day my heart improve!
Increase my faith, my hope, my love;
And thus its shades around me close
More wise and holy than I rose.

EVENING HYMN.

My soul, a hymn of evening praise
To God, thy kind preserver, raise,
Whose hand this day hath guarded, fed,
And thousand blessings round thee shed.
Forgive my sins this day, O Lord,
In thought or feeling, deed or word;
And if in aught thy law I've kept,
My feeble efforts, Lord, accept.

While nature round is hush'd to rest,
Let no vain thought disturb my breast;
Shed o'er my soul religion's power,
Serenely solemn as the hour.

Oh, bid thy angels o'er me keep

Their watch, to shield me while I sleep! Till the fresh morn shall round me break, Then with new vigour may I wake!

Yet think, my soul, another day

Of thy short course has roll'd away:
Ah, think how soon in deep'ning shade
The day of life itself shall fade!

How soon death's sleep my eyes must close,
Lock every sense in dread repose,

And lay amid the awful gloom

And solemn silence of the tomb !

This very night, Lord, should it be,
Oh may my soul repose on thee,
Till the glad morn in heaven shall rise,
Then wake to triumph in the skies !

JERUSALEM.

-Like a queen,

Armed with a helm in virgin loveliness,
Her heaving bosom in a bossy cuirass,
She sits aloft, begirt with battlements
And bulwarks swelling from the rock, to guard
The sacred courts, pavilions, palaces,

Soft gleaming through the umbrage of the woods
Which tuft the summit, and like raven tresses,
Wave their dark beauty round the tower of David.
Resplendent with a thousand golden bucklers,
The embrasures of alabaster shine;

Hailed by the pilgrims of the desert, bound
To Judah's mart with orient merchandise.

Hillhouse.

Jerusalem, a city of modern Palestine, and the capital of Judea, was more anciently Jebus, and was taken by David, incorporated into his dominions, and consecrated to the worship of the God of Israel. David fortified and embellished Jerusalem, and his son Solomon erected the temple, whither the Jews repaired annually to celebrate

the feast of the Passover. Jerusalem was ever an object of attachment and veneration to the Jews, and in the time of Christ was the resort and residence of many foreigners. Jerusalem was at that time subject to the Romans, but a spirit of revolt against their foreign masters exposed the Jews to their vengeance.-Christ foretold the destruction of this city, and his prophecy was accomplished by Titus, A. D. 70.

Modern Jerusalem is included in the Turkish dominions-none of the splendour which Mr. Hillhouse describes now remains, but there are many monuments of Christianity, and it is interesting to the traveller as the scene of the greatest splendour and dignity of that extraordinary nation, the Jews; and more particularly as the place where Jesus Christ performed many of his miracles, where he promulgated the doctrines of our religion, and where he was crucified and buried.

Mr. Milman is a British poet. He takes his subjects principally from scripture history. The following article is rendered intelligible by the XIVth chapter of Exodus.

SONG OF THE JEWS.
Chorus.

King of Kings! and Lord of Lords!
Thus we move, our sad steps timing
To our our cymbals' feeblest chiming,
Where thy house its rest accords.
Chas'd and wounded birds are we,
Through the dark air fled to thee;
To the shadow of thy wings,
Lord of Lords! and King of Kings!
Behold, oh Lord! the Heathen tread
The branches of thy fruitful vine,
That its luxurious tendrils spread
O'er all the hills of Palestine,

And now the wild boar comes to waste
Even us, the greenest boughs, and last,