Seen mirrored in the holy wave that rolled A sacred charge for weal or deeper woe, To bless if treasured-brightened as a gem, If crucified like him, the witness to condemn. 13. He feels it all-intenser life is poured Through every fibre of his subtle frameIntense as lightning- and his heart adored, With new born rapture Jesus' holy name. Yet little did he ken whence shone the flame That gleamed upon the diamonds, as he flew, Till to a portal grand, full soon, he caine, When Lila stood with all e'er born anew, And crosses from the heaven of each brow shone through. 14. So his, that oft drew blood, in earth below, Night's billows back, and leave him all alone. Its beauty, bursting from the wreck of time, And sound ten thousand harps, more glad than matin chime. 15. This gallery, (if such 'twere meet to name, Twelve glorious portals, each with other vie, 16. O'er each high portal, radiant as day, Nay, brighter far than day, to mortal eyeA throne is reared, fronting; where sit alway Twelve kings-around them in the distance lie, Like isles of ocean, other thrones that vie With jasper and the sardine stone; those bear The first apostles, and they hourly try Judea's sons; while these have only care And judgment of those souls whose bishops on them are. 17. 'Neath them sit robed priests, and they who bore The holy cup; while far beneath these spread, O'er "sea of glass, like unto crystal," and with shore Of great mountains, all by the spirit led. Of lake or river, till it meet the sky, Where myriad stars like eyes on mystic head* Gaze down, so the twelve portals lie Opened ever to the thronging thrones on high. 18. And if, perchance, some ill-instructed soul, Ardent with love, and burning to be free," But yet unborn to Christ, approach the goal, No star on brow of other may he see, And before the throne there was a sea of glass, like unto crystal, and were four beasts full of eyes before and bebind. But myriad warning hands raised silently, That won our earnest hearts, they back have flown To bide the final judgment of their master's throne. 19. These Pelito beheld, and turned to her Whose star had lighted him from world below; Their nature, though improved, could never grow 20. Behold, on either side of heaven, two stars, Of one-a higher nature than was given 21. Th' Atonement late do hapless mortals deem Is more congenial to the sons of earth; O'er which bad spirits smirked with bitter scoin, Console them thus: "For you those precious hands were torn." 22. Malignant fiends! full well ye know that sin, For injured faculties, nor make a soul; 23. 'Neath the first star, behold yon bow appears, Like that of earth when angry storms are hushed; There did it spring when myriad angels' tears, From yon Empyrean down to Calvary rushed. And though they fall no more, nor be, since gushed Messias' blood, the bow doth shine as fairSo fails philosophy; and he who blushed, That skeptic tongue, on earth, the palm could bear, Exults in mystery here, and meets it everywhere. 24. 'Neath the fair arch which, o'er a gate To higher heaven, expands, and whence is shed Immortal glory, souls to consecrate, The Virgin Mother stands, for ever wed, But cursed with blindness dark as hell's despair, The heart that honors not our holy mother there! 25. Nearest the gate of heaven doth she dwell, AN EASTERN TOMB.-How exactly the of stone, like a thin millstone, set on its edge following description of a tomb, found on the in a groove cut behind the jamb of the doorleft bank of the Euphrates, corresponds with way. The bottom of this groove inclined the account given in the Gospels, of the one slightly, so that the stone, if left free, would in which our Saviour was laid! It is cut out roll down of itself, and there being a corresof the rock. A sloping descent leads down ponding groove on the opposite side, the ento the doorway. The aperture of the door-trance of the tomb would be completely way is about three feet high, so that to look closed; and to roll back the stone would reinto the tomb one must stoop. The door quire considerable strength. which closed this aperture was a circular disk { THE STILL SMALL VOICE. HEN the pious Elijah,, fleeing from his enemies, abode in the top of Horeb, the Lord came and held converse with him there. It is related, that as the Prophet sat within the cave, which was at once his lodging and his safe retreat, there came a mighty rushing wind, which rent in pieces the rocks, but that the Lord was not in the wind; and that after the wind was an earthquake, but that the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake, a fire, but that the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire, a still small voice, announcing His presence. teem those as but lukewarm, or in error, who have no account to relate of deep anguish of mind, of sleepless nights, under the conviction of sin, of a sudden light breaking in upon them, and of ecstatic joys at sins forgiven. The children of the Church are taught a far different lesson from this. Have they forgotten the vows made for them in their baptism, and wandered far from the fold of Christ? What though no whirlwind or terrific storm has warned them, yet often have they heard that still small voice, calling in tenderest accents, "Return, for why will ye die ?" That warning voice which men call conscience, might often with far more propriety be attributed to God. In His infinite condescension, he stoops to plead with sinners, and they destroy not themselves. To how many standing on the verge of destruction, about to commit some act which should forever preclude the possibility of return to virtue, has that still small voice spoken, and led repentant back! To how many a bruised and mourning heart, to which all earth could not give consolation, has this voice spoken, in never-to-be-forgotten tones of love, healing and reviving! And it may be, that in the recollection of some of us, there has been a time when something has warned us not to undertake an intended journey, or a projected amusement: and by listening to it, we afterwards found that we had escaped some great danger; did we then remember that that still small voice came from Him, without whom even "a sparrow falleth not to the ground?" There is something more than usually sub-to beseech them, as it were, personally, that lime, even for the book of sublimities, in this description. The scene is brought most vividly before us. We see the gray-haired Prophet sitting within the cave, meditating on his past escapes, and on the wonderful interpositions of a kind Providence in his behalf, when the stillness of that solitude was broken by the rush of the whirlwind. Onward it swept; uprooting trees, tearing from their beds the solid rocks, and casting them far down the sides of the mountain, while he sat there undismayed, for the Lord was not in it, it was but the mesenger of his coming. Then follow the earthquake and the fire, but he is still unappalled, for they too but foretell the coming of the Lord. At length there comes to his ear, a still small voice; small, but awful; sweet, but indescribably solemn; a voice that sent a thrill to the very heart of the Prophet, as he went forth, and, covering his head, adored the God who he felt and knew was now there. "The still small voice!"-how beautiful the title, and how agreeable to our own experience of the communion of the Deity with man. Some are ever looking for the presence of God in the whirlwind of excitement, and es To those who in their hours of suffering or of sorrow, have never heard that voice, what consolation or comfort was offered? Was it the World's? Alas! its gayeties were but as a mockery of their sorrows. Was it Philosophy's? How signally it failed; promising, in the hour of ease, what in the hour of trouble it was unable to perform. That voice has been to us a safeguard as well as a con solation. Has passion raged unrestrained in (to fleshly ears, the soul is filled with its meour hearts? That voice, like oil cast upon lody; and ever present, amid the different the troubled waters, has stilled the tumul-phases of this mortal life, it in turn warns, tuous tossings. Has the syren voice of pleasure lured us from the way-those solemn tones have brought us back repentant. Have we repined at our earthly lot, and imagined that our troubles were greater than those of others-it has, directing our thoughts to promised happiness above, commanded that we rejoice always." 66 consoles, and promises. In the hour of his prosperity, when dazzled by the false glitter around him, it tempers his worldly rejoicing, by reminding him that "here we have no continuing city." In the hour of his adversity, it reminds him that his treasures are laid up where "moth and rust corrupt not," and "where thieves do not break through nor, steal." In the hour of death, when shuddering nature shrinks affrighted back, it whis passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." It is a solemn thought, that the voice which is now so gently, so mildly, beseeching the impenitent to come and receive a free salva-pers peace to his soul, and says, "When thou tion, will soon change its tones towards them. O, when that trembling soul shall stand all unprepared before the Eternal Judge, that voice shall be heard no longer speaking in And in the day of judgment, when he shall accents of love and persuasion, but in thun- stand amid the myriads of earth there assemder tones will pronounce the sentence, "De-bled to hear their final doom, that voice, so part, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." It is one of the consolations of the Chris-ing the good fight upon earth, shall say to tian while on earth that he may, as it were, him, "Well done, thou good and faithful serin hearing that voice, hold verbal communion vant, enter into the joy of thy Lord." with his God. What though it speaks not Newburgh, N. Y. long his consoler and encourager when fight H. B. C. |