things is portrayed under figures the most beautiful and affecting. "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den; they shall no more hurt nor destroy."* What a picture of innocence! What emblems of transformation among the most untoward and barbarous characters and classes! From this harmony will result a happiness never previously known on earth. The same writers exult in the anticipation of those glorious days of peaceful joy, and thus summon the universe to celebrate the goodness of the heavenly King:-"Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear him." "The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."+

What times will those be, my Lord, in which these things shall be brought into actual existence! What a change will come over the legislation of our world, and over the spirit of man! Hitherto, in all lands, through all time, the multitude has always been despised,

Isa. xi. 6-9.

† Psa. lxvii. 3-7.

Psa. xxxvii. 11.

neglected, oppressed. Government, at once perfectly free, and wholly righteous, is a thing unknown in our world. Cruel despots, of all states, small and great, have only thought of themselves; and wherever an aristocracy has sprung up, its main study has been to imitate, and combine with, the chief ruler in despoiling and enthralling the millions! Laws have seldom been framed from any other motive, than to promote the supposed benefit of those who made them. And then as to war, it hath always been a double curse-a curse both to the victor and to the vanquished. The eyes of the Jewish writers were open to all the aspects of bondage and of slaughter. In their writings there is an all-pervading spirit of justice, humanity, and compassion, wholly unknown to the literature of Greece and Rome. This is a fact, my Lord, as remarkable as it is unaccountable, upon any other principle than that which Christians assign. The bulk, indeed, of those heathen authors who have written of liberty, slavery, and legal wrong, appear always to have written with the dread of the despot's sword and the spear before them. They wrote as they thought-in fetters! The exceptions, such as Tacitus, and one or two more, only confirm the rule and even where he and others spoke as freemen of freedom, their regards were not directed to the masses of mankind. They had no conception of lifting up the spirits of the prostrate millions, by providing them with intellectual and moral culture. They sought nothing, and deemed nothing desirable, beyond immunities and privileges for the wealthier classes of society.

One of the most extraordinary and peculiar features of the new kingdom, according to the Jewish authors,

was the intense and undeviating regard to be had for the poor. Indeed, pity for the poor is a distinguishing characteristic of the Jewish writers generally, to an extent infinitely surpassing all others. How emphatic, and bitter, and full of pathos, is their complaint in behalf of the oppressed! Nor was this confined to minds of a plebeian order: the best of the Jewish kings were the friends of the afflicted poor. Take, for example, the following reflection of the royal philosopher: "So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun; and beheld the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter: : on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter! Wherefore, I praised the dead which are already dead, more than the living which are yet alive! Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun!"* How touching is the following delineation of the character of the new king!" He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. He shall judge the poor of the people; he shall save the children of the needy; and shall break in pieces the oppressor! He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence; and precious shall their blood be in his sight."†

How unlike is this predicted course of the new king to every thing that has hitherto been associated with crowns and thrones! The history of the past is before

* Eccles. iv. 1-3.

† Psa. Ixxii. passim.

the eye of your lordship, and it will be advantageous to the claims of the Messiah, to contrast him with all who have ruled mankind. The compassion which he will cherish for the poor will result from the same rectitude of mind and tenderness of spirit, that will lead him to denounce and abolish war. The Messiah's peaceful reign will be full fraught with blessings to all, but especially to the millions of working people and of the poor. A few of the aristocracy gain fortunes and titles by war; but the poor are invariably losers. How sublime and awful is the language of Isaiah, relative to the bloodstained and remorseless tyrant of Babylon!—

"The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us. Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. All they shall speak, and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall nar

rowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble; that did shake kingdoms; that made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners? All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house. But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned. Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers: that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. For I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the Lord. I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water; and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts."*

Critics talk of invective, my Lord; was there ever invective like this? Your lordship will not fail to mark the subjects of it. This is the circumstance which calls for special notice. The deadly crime of the imperial destroyer of mankind, was his unparalleled pride and ambition, in which, apart from its Luciferian atrocity, there was something inconceivably grand and awful! The Searcher of hearts exposes the secrets of the tyrant's bosom. No human spirit, probably, ever so fully entered into infernal communion with the prince of the

* Isa. xiv.