forth

His tremulous hand o'er Pharaoh's uncrown'd head,

Prays that the Lord would bless him and his land.

THE FINDING OF MOSES. Ex. ii. 5, 6.

GRAHAME.

SLOW glides the Nile: amid the margin

flags,

Closed in a bulrush ark, the babe is left,Left by a mother's hand. His sister waits

A tree of beauty and of light,
Involv'd with unconsuming flame,
That made the moon around it night.

Thence came the eternal voice that spake
Salvation to the chosen seed;
Thence went the Almighty arm, that brake
Proud Pharaoh's yoke, and Israel freed.

By Moses, old, and slow of speech, These mighty miracles were shown, Jehovah's Messenger!-to teach That power belongs to God alone.

beholds

The royal maid, surrounded by her train,
Approach the river bank,-approach the spot
Where sleeps the innocent; she sees them
stoop

With meeting plumes; the rushy lid is oped,
And wakes the infant, smiling in his tears :-
As when along a little mountain-lake,
The summer south-wind breathes, with gentle
sigh,

Ex. ix. 22.

ANON.

'Twas morn-the rising splendour roll'd
On marble towers and roofs of gold;
Hall, court, and gallery below,
Were crowded with a living flow;
Egyptian, Arab, Nubian there,
The bearers of the bow and spear;
The hoary priest, the Chaldee sage,

MOSES IN THE DESERT. Ex. iii.

MONTGOMERY.

Go where a foot hath never trod,
Through unfrequented forests flee;
The wilderness is full of God,
His presence dwells in every tree.

To Israel and to Egypt dead,
Moses the fugitive appears;
Unknown he lived, till o'er his head
Had fall'n the snow of four score years.

But God the wandering exile found In his appointed time and place; The desert-sand grew holy ground, And Horeb's rock a throne of grace.

Helm, turban, and tiara shone

A dazzling ring round Pharaoh's throne.

There came a man-the human tide
Shrank backward from his stately stride;
His cheek with storm, and time was tann'd;
A shepherd's staff was in his hand;
A shudder of instinctive fear
Told the dark king what step was near.
On through the host the stranger came,
It parted round his form like flame.

He stoop'd not at the footstool stone,
He clasp'd not sandal, kiss'd not throne;
Erect he stood amid the ring,

His only words-" Be just, O King!"
On Pharaoh's cheek the blood flush'd high,
A fire was in his sullen eye;

Yet on the Chief of Israel
No arrow of his thousands fell:
All mute and moveless as the grave
Stood chill'd the satrap and the slave.

Thou'rt come," at length the monarch spoke;

Haughty and high the words outbroke:
Is Israel weary of its lair,

The forehead peel'd, the shoulder bare ?—
Take back the answer to your band:
Go, reap the wind; go plough the sand;
Go, vilest of the living vile,
To build the never-ending pile,
Till, darkest of the nameless dead,
The vulture on their flesh is fed.
What better asks the howling slave
Than the base life our bounty gave?"-

There came no word.-The thunder broke!
Like a huge city's final smoke,
Thick, lurid, stifling, mix'd with flame,
Through court and hall the vapours came.
Loose as the stubble of the field,
Wide flew the men of spear and shield;
Scatter'd like foam along the wave,
Flew the proud pageant, prince and slave:
Or, in the chains of terror bound,
Lay corpse-like, on the smould❜ring ground.
Speak, King! the wrath is but begun-
Still dumb?-then Heaven, thy will be
done."

Echoed from earth a hollow roar,
Like ocean on the midnight shore;
A sheet of lightning o'er them wheel'd,
The solid ground beneath them reel'd;
In dust sank roof and battlement;
Like webs the giant-walls were rent;
Red, broad, before his startled gaze,
The monarch saw his Egypt blaze.
Still swell'd the plague-the flame grew pale;
Burst from the clouds the charge of hail;
With arrowy keenness, iron weight,
Down pour'd the ministers of fate;

Till man and cattle, crush'd, congeal'd, Cover'd with death the boundless field.

Still swell'd the plague, uprose the blast,
The avenger, fit to be the last;
On ocean, river, forest, vale,
Thundered at once the mighty gale.
Before the whirlwind flew the tree,
Beneath the whirlwind roar'd the sea:
A thousand ships were on the wave--
Where are they?-ask that foaming grave!
Down go the hope, the pride of years,
Down go the myriad mariners;
The riches of earth's richest zone,
Gone! like a flash of lightning, gone!

And, lo! that first fierce triumph o'er, Swells Ocean on the shrinking shore; Still onward, onward, dark and wide, Engulphs the land the furious tide. Then bow'd thy spirit, stubborn king, Thou serpent, reft of fang and sting; Humbled before the prophet's knee, He groan'd "Be injured Israel free."

To heaven the sage upraised the wand;
Back roll'd the deluge from the land;
Back to its caverns sank the gale;
Fled from the noon the vapours pale;
Broad burn'd again the joyous sun;
The hour of wrath and death was done.

THE LAST PLAGUE OF EGYPT. Ex. xii. 29, 30.

ANON.

WHEN life is forgot, and night hath power, And mortals feel no dread;

When silence and slumber rule the hour,

And dreams are round the head; God shall smite the first-born of Egypt's race, The destroyer shall enter each dwelling place

Shall enter and choose his dead.

"To your homes," said the leader of Israel's

host,

"And slaughter a sacrifice :

Sublime the triumph swells! to him, the Lord,

The God of battles,wakes each tuneful chord; Their full applause the deep-mouthed clarions raise,

And virgin-timbrels join their softer praise : From thousand altars holy perfumes rise, And myriads bow in one vast sacrifice.

When wealth and honour led his youth along, And pleasure wooed him with her siren song, For this, (as warmed he felt his spirit rise, And, kindling, claim its high-born destinies,) For this he spurned them all; and now his hand

Sheds pale dismay on Egypt's trembling land,

And waves exulting the triumphant rod,

geance cried?

'Tis past-that hour of death! the eye of light

bright:

around:

Yet did the day-spring rise; the captive's

groan

Went not unheeded to his Father's throne: He heard the mother's shriek, in anguish wild,

Ask from the tyrant's hand her murdered child:

He saw the toiling slave, the inhuman lord, And the keen tortures of the knotted cord. Thrice favoured race! Jehovah's parent eye Marked every tear, and numbered every sigh;

And though full many a dreary age had shed Slavery's worst woes upon the unshelter'd head,

Though dark and long the night, yet morn could bring

Joy in its eye, and healing on its wing. And lo! he comes, the Seer whom Greece would claim

Her guardian-power by many a fabled name; Meekest of men, by God's own voice decreed,

His chosen flock, with shepherd-care to lead;

For this, was mercy's arm out-stretch'd to

save

His infant promise from an early grave, When Nile's tame billow kissed his rushy bed,

And the green snake played harmless o'er his head;

For this, when science taught his wondering view

To read the stars, and look all nature through;

stream

Of mingled man and herd, from Goshen's land

Pours frequent forth,a more than locust-band.

They go; but all is silent as the tomb ! For look! where, columned high, in massy gloom,

Deep as the darkness of the coming storm, Moves slow before the host a giant-form; And see, as all the twilight landscape fades, A pale and dubious light the mass pervades, And, as the night rolls on, the wondrous frame Pours a broad glare, and brightens into

flame.

'Tis not the beacon-fire, which wakes from far

The wandering sons of rapine and of war ;
'Tis not of night's fair lamp the silvery beam,
Nor the quick-darting meteors angry gleam;
No! 'tis the pillar'd cloud, the torch of
Heaven,

Pledge of the present God, by mercy given;
The sacred boon, by Providence supplied,
By day to cover, and by night to guide.
And He, the great, the Eternal Lord, whose
might

All being owns, "who spake and there was light,"

Who gave the sun the tower of day to keep, And the pale moon to watch o'er nature's

sleep;

He, present still, shall aid, shall safety yield; Tby lamp by night, by day thy guide and sh e