THE ASCENT OF THE PROPHET. BY THOMAS TOD STODDART, Author of the "Death-Watch," a Necromaunt, In Three Chimeras. By the waters of Jordan descending abroad, They stood in their sorrow, the prophets of God! And the eye that was stern as the flash of a flame, Grew dim in the tear-drop that cloudily came, When the heart felt alone in the parting away Offriendships, that bloomed on the bosom of day. Elijah his mantle flung back on the wind, Like the spread of a banner that floated behind; And he smote the wild waters, that curvetted past With the speed of a horse, and the rush of a blast. High curled the dark streams from their channel beneath, As the night rolleth back in a shadowy wreath, When the dawn of the morn breaks gloriously through, And the stars are exhaled in the beautiful blue. The prophets have passed, my father! my sire! I see the red chariot and horses of fire, The chariot of Israel!-the horses thereof! The whirl of a tempest hath borne them above! And rose angel-plumed to the palace of God. of Time, Flew up on the wings of his chariot sublime, ON RELIGIOUS CHARITIES. O chief let comfort flow, THE various magnificent institutions of public charity which adorn this beauteous country, are certainly imposing features in its moral scenery. Beautiful are they for situation, the joy of the whole earth; sending abroad their beams of comfort and their gifts of blessing to the remotest districts of the world. When, however, it is considered that Britain has become the land which the Lord has been pleased, in these later years of the church, to exalt above every other nation by the peaceful and perfect establishment of his reign, and when it is remembered what are the specific principles of that reign, and the consequent obligations and requirements of the people whom the Lord thus delights to honour, instead of wondering at the number and the imposing appearance of those institutions, the subject of surprise will be, that these obligations are to so small an extent acknowledged, and these requirements so insignificantly fulfilled. Instead of what has been achieved by those institutions forming a subject of congratulation, the mournful question will press itself upon the mind: "Why does so much misery still remain unalleviated, does it not bespeak that the Christian name is professed without any commensurate and great practical recognition of the obligations of Christianity ?" Were it indeed otherwise, the result would be, that the public religious societies would not only receive an incalculable increase of funds, but they would stand forth in their legitimate character, the offsprings of piety; whereas, in the present aspect of religious profession, is it not but too true, that all those various charitable institutions, however good and glorious their objects, are little else than splendid exhibitions of pride and vanity, affording, as they do, the opportunity of enabling their supporters to make a seemingly honourable compromise of the everyday habit of benevolence, and of pledging the demands of those unfortunates who are authorised by providence to make to us their personal appeal, at the paltry expence of a few guineas annually, with the complacent satisfaction of having one's name emblazoned in the pages of certain printed reports. But ah! as well may it be imagined, that the object of fertilization could be obtained by opening up a few canals, at the compromise of draining off the silent brooks, whose salubrious streams meandering through the length and breadth of the country, had communicated both benefit and beauty to the scene, as that the object of conveying comfort to the broken-hearted and succour to the indigent, can be effected by the institution of public charities, at the expence of rendering dormant all those heavenly sentiments which characterise genuine piety. |