What if their lives in selfishness be passed,
Amassing gold, or living carnally,
Dare such Religion and its formal Fast
Deceive, or bribe a just Creator at the last?

XV.

Was Sabbath meant to be a current coin,—

A mental purchase for a week of Sin?
By which, both Self and Worship could combine
To buy up Heaven, yet keep their heaped corn-bin,
And worship God by mockery-within?

Can soulless Form,-though Prayer and Praise arose,
In glorious harmony to Heaven, ere win

One look of sympathy from Him, the Man of woes,
Whose Life, too real, was,-to be deceived by shows?

XVI.

Shall such the nearer to the Godhead stand

Than those who, blind, yet openly blasphemed ?
Shall they who prayed, but secretly trepanned

Another's rights,-and mocked the Cross-be deemed
More pure in Heaven because on Earth they dreamed
That decent Form, and hollow praise, was all

Their selfish souls could give to be redeemed ?—
Ah! say, what Faith! what priestly wand dare call
Such souls to Heaven, and these to Hell eternal fall?

XVII.

Let none be proud who bears a selfish heart,

Who has not soul to live for good and God,-
Who fails to know Man's chiefest, noblest part,
Is to enjoy his God, and walk abroad
Uncumbered by Earth's heavy golden load.
Who stooped not to relieve a brother's pain,

Nor shared Affliction's spirit-crushing rod;
Heedless if what they gave returned again,-
True Charity,-Just God, was never given in vain!

XVIII.

Although we doom not wickedness to Hell,1

We give it not a Heavenly-future sphere;

"I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the Lord."-Jeremiah li. 39.

66

Behold, I will

To Justice 'twere a mockery to tell

That those, whose lives in sinful pleasure here
Were spent in selfishness from year to year,
Should have one long, eternal Sabbath day,
As glorious as the good who lived in fear,
Lest grosser
Pleasure led their souls astray,

Not Sons of God were these, but only sons of clay.

XIX.

Of clay and dust their bodies were,

Their souls-if such their grovelling thoughts might be— They, too, were dusty, and deserved no higher fare

Than silently to rot within the grave or sea,

A fitting finish to their finity.1

gather them out of all countries whither I have driven them in Mine anger, and in My fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them." -Ibid. xxxii. "And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them au heart of flesh."-Ezekiel xi. "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one Shepherd."-John x.

Which may

"Yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book which Thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses. Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book."--Exodus xxxii. 'Drought and heat consume the snow-waters; so doth the Grave those which have sinned."-Job xxiv. "If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come."-Ibid. xiv. "When a few years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall not return."-Ibid. xvi. Yet, when Jesus "yielded up the ghost," we are told by Matthew that "the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many."-Matt. xxvii. "And shall come forth; they that have done Good, unto the resurrection of Life; and they that have done Evil, unto the resurrection of Damnation."-John v. mean Annihilation, blotted out of the Book of God, out of Existence, like snowwater, in the Grave,-none knows; but, for the Good there is the hope of everlasting Life. Yet the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit ;" and they put a very pointed question to Jesus regarding the woman with the seven husbands. The Sadducees, which say there is no resurrection, asked Him, saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother; likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore, in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels of God in heaven."--Matt. xxii. 23-30.

At least kind Charity must surely deem

Such souls unfitted for Eternity.

To be the sport of Hell's most dreadful dream,—

Oh, God of Love! could'st Thou Thy creatures thus condemn ?

II.

Yes! Charity to them, and only just to God!

For why should Man, because he bears the form Alone, of Man, without the soul, be trod

Upon for ever by a still baser worm ?— By God created, too,-as if for harm!— Nor here alone, but other worlds must own

A fearful power-a mental thunderstorm— To blow Man's fluttering Soul to Hell, to groan

For ever helpless -Oh, God, hast Thou a heart of stone!

XXI.

But God is Love, His every work proclaims
Benevolence, for Goodness reigns around;
But this Eternal, deep Damnation shames
Each attribute!—if thus a fiend could wound
Man's dearest part, his soul immortal, bound
To Woe-without a hope-a hopeless prey

For the vindictive pleasure of a hound,—
A fallen fiend,-a Spirit, but of clay,-

If so, he's more a God than God, to have such sway!

XXII.

All noble minds revolt at cruelty,

And Man, the fallen image of a Soul,

Might give a lesson to Eternity;

The meanest brute o'r which he has control, By law is safe from even a human Ghoul. Who thus would dare to pain the poorest dog, With cruelty a millionth part, as stole

O'er Man, in fire, as if he were a log,

A demon's foot-ball for a scheming priest to prog.

XXIII.

But Ah! dear Truth!-far higher thoughts than these

Will pierce the gloom which chains the soul of Man.

Yes! come they must, like Morning, by degrees,
When he shall clearer see his little span

On Earth, just as a child before it ran;
And feel, like Newton, wandering by the shore
Of Truth's eternal, boundless main,

A grey-haired child, with a half-worn shell, before

He knew Man's boasted Knowledge could extend no more.

XXIV.

When all shall feel kind Sabbath1 is for rest indeed,
And God the preacher, preaching everywhere—
Knowledge and Goodness,-His one,-simple creed,
To help the virtuous, and to banish Care !-
Then no established House will be for formal prayer,
But, loving one another, kind to all,

Shall rend the net of Priesthood's subtle snare,
And, when the last trumpet shall for Judgment call,
Far higher shall he be than e'en before his fall!

YOUTH LIKE A RIVER.

CEASELESS-noisy-endless gushing,
Ever onward to the sea;

The river-Youth, is constant rushing,
After Fun and Jollity.

Until it meets the Ocean's wave,

And mingles with the Deep,

So Youth-at last must meet the Grave,
And take its last,-long sleep!

1 There is an amusing, and almost characteristic anecdote told in reference to the keeping of the Sabbath in the Highlands. In a certain district, the bellman one day made the following proclamation: "O yes! O yes! and O yes! and that's three times! you'll all pe tak notice that there will pe no Lord's day here next Sabbath, because the Laird's wife wants the kirk to dry her clothes in."

KNOW OUR POSITION.

"Honour, and shame from no conditions rise,

Act well your part, there all the honour lies."-Pope.

"Be anxious for nothing, but, in all things, make known our requests to God." -Holy Writ.

"Sufficient for the day are the evils thereof."-Ibid.

"Fortune has her throne upon a rock, but brave men fear not to climb."Sir W. Scott, in "Quentin Durward."

He that knows himself, will be sensible that he has something Divine, and will always do something worthy of so great a gift from God.

"The fool doth think that he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool."" As you like It," Shakespeare.

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none,-be able for thine enemy rather in power than use: and keep thy friend under thy own life's key: be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech.”—Shakespeare, “All's Well that ends Well."

"Aye free aff hand your story tell
When wi' a bosom crony

But, still, keep something to yoursel
You scarcely tell to ony--
Conceal yoursel-as weel's you can
Frae critical dissection,

But, keek through every ither man

Wi' sharp and slie inspection."—Burns.
"Our rash faults,

Make trivial price of serious things we have,

Not knowing them, until we know their grave:

Oft our displeasures,-to ourselves unjust,

Destroy our friends, and after, weep their dust."-Shakespeare.

THE utmost wisdom which wise men can show
Is his position in this world,-to know,
To find it out, and careful keep in bounds
His thoughts, not led astray by empty sounds,-
Within, a cheerful spirit always carry,

For, that is Heaven's weapon none can parry.
By all means strive to reach a higher sphere-
But climb not up with over-anxious fear,
For, doing so, you lose much more than gain
As peace of mind, must ever highest reign,-
The poorest man that lives,-if he's content,
Can sleep in peace, for all his wants are sent;