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THERE IS A LAND.

the burden and the conflict, and with all those who have preceded us in the righteous struggle, enjoy the deep raptures of a Mediator's presence. Then, reunited to the friends with whom we took sweet counsel upon earth, we shall recount our toil only to heighten our ecstasy; and call to mind the tug and the din of war only that, with a more bounding throb and a richer song, we may feel and celebrate the wonders of redemption. And when the morning of the first resurrection breaks on this long-disordered and groaning creation, shall the words, whose syllables mingle so often with the funeral knell that we are disposed to carve them on the cypress tree rather than on the palm, "I am the resurrection and the life," form the chorus of that noble anthem, which those for whom Christ "died, and rose, and revived," (Rom. xiv. 9,) shall chant as they march from judgment to glory.

THERE IS A LAND.

REV. A. C. CoXE.

"And I said, O that I had wings like a dove! then would I fly away and be at rest."-PSALTER.

THERE is a land like Eden fair,

But more than Eden blest;

The wicked cease from troubling there,

The weary are at rest.

There is a land of calmest shore, Where ceaseless summers smile, And winds, like angel whispers, pour Across the shining isle.

There is a land of purest mirth,
Where healing waters glide;
And there the wearied child of earth
Untroubled may abide.

There is a land where sorrow's sons, Like ocean's wrecks, are tossed; But there revive those weeping ones, And life's dull sea is crossed.

There is a land where small and great
Before the Lord appear;

The spoils of fortune, and of fate,
Whom Heaven alone can cheer.

There is a land where star-like shine The pearls of Christ's renown; And gems, long buried in the mine, Are jewels in his crown.

There is a land like Eden fair,
But more than Eden blest;
O for a wing to waft me there,
To fly, and be at rest!

244

THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL.

THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL.

POPE.

VITAL spark of heavenly flame,
Quit, O, quit this mortal frame:
Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,
O, the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.

Hark! they whisper angels say,
Sister spirit, come away.
What is this absorbs me quite?
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

The world recedes-it disappears;
Heaven opens on my eyes; my ears
With sounds seraphic ring:
Lend, lend your wings; I mount, I fly.
O grave, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?

THE FINAL JUDGMENT.

JOHN HARRIS, D. D.

HE who "sees the end from the beginning" has imparted to man a subordinate prescience of the same comprehensive kind- has sketched on his mind an outline of the great system of providence, and filled him with presentiments of the principal events which are to attend the development of that system. The consequence is, that, wherever the Bible comes, it finds our nature preconfigured to many of its truths, waiting for an interpreter, and ready to respond to the truth of many a prediction, as a prophecy or an anticipation with which it had long been familiar in thought, and for which it only wanted divine authentication, and a name, in order to regard it as a solemn reality. Indeed, in this respect, the work of God only resembles his word; for as in his word he has often disclosed the infinite affluences of his mind by revealing, with all the simplicity of apparent unconsciousness, an eternal principle in a passing word, an infinite project in an incidental allusion, so, in the construction of the human mind, he has traced on it characters and imagery which can only be read by the light of eternity; thrown on it the unsteady shadows of objects which stand yet far distant on the plains of futurity. Of these preintimations we know of none more deeply

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THE FINAL JUDGMENT.

inlaid in the mind than that of future retribution. That the ancient saints lived in the faith of it, we know; for the spirit of inspiration has recorded the very words in which, in the prospect of that day, they triumphed over their persecutors, and sang of the joy that would crown them in "the day of the Lord." And, relying on the uniformity and immutability of the human constitution, we may safely infer that ancient sinners anticipated it also. There were moments when they possessed the warning of its approach in the restless apprehensions of their own breasts; moments when the fires of that day seemed to rise up in the distant horizon, and to cast a lurid glare on the face of their startled and trembling consciences; when the mention of such a day would have fallen in with the smothered forebodings of their minds, would have aroused an inward monitor, which, however carefully laid to sleep, was ready to awake at the slightest summons, and to bear testimony in the cause of righteousness.

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But, though the doctrine of a future judgment did not originate in the teaching of Christ, though, from the earliest ages, mankind had variously received it, — yet the light they possessed, even the revealed light, did but just suffice dimly to show them the Judge enthroned in clouds, and surrounded with judgments; while, from his superiority to temptation, his greatness and perfection, they inferred that the Judge of all the earth would do right. But the person of the Judge, the pomp and process of the judgment, its most solemn circumstances and affecting results, all this was comparatively unknown to them; and, in supplying the information, our Lord has greatly enlarged the original part of his teachings.

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