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Thunder and hail, and fires and storms,

The troops of his command, Appear in all your dreadful forms,

And speak his awful hand.

Shout to the Lord, ye surging seas,
In your eternal roar;

Let wave to wave resound his praise,
And shore reply to shore:

While monsters sporting on the flood,
In scaly silver shine,
Speak terribly their Maker-God,
And lash the foaming brine.

But gentler things shall tune his name
To softer notes than these,

Young zephyrs breathing o'er the stream,
Or whispering through the trees.

Wave your tall heads, ye lofty pines,
To him that bid you grow,
Sweet clusters, bend the fruitful vines
On every thankful bough.

Let the shrill birds his honour raise,
And climb the morning sky:

While grovelling beasts attempt his praise
In hoarser harmony.

Thus while the meaner creatures sing,

Ye mortals, take the sound,

Echo the glories of your king

Through all the nations round.

The eternal name must fly abroad

From Britain to Japan;

And the whole race shall bow to God,
That owns the name of man.

THE ATHEIST'S MISTAKE.

LAUGH, ye profane, and swell and burst
With bold impiety:

Yet shall ye live for ever curs'd,
And seek in vain to die.

The gasp of your expiring breath
Consigns your souls to chains,

By the last agonies of death
Sent down to fiercer pains.

Ye stand upon a dreadful steep,
And all beneath is hell;

Your weighty guilt will sink you deep,
Where the old serpent fell.

When iron slumbers bind your flesh,
With strange surprise you'll find
Immortal vigour spring afresh,

And tortures wake the mind!

Then you'll confess the frightful names
Of plagues you scorn'd before,

No more shall look like idle dreams,
Like foolish tales no more.

Then shall ye curse that fatal day,
(With flames upon your tongues)
When you exchang'd your souls away
For vanity and songs.

Behold the saints rejoice to die,

For Heaven shines round their heads; And angel-guards, prepar'd to fly, Attend their fainting beds.

Their longing spirits part, and rise
To their celestial seat;
Above these ruinable skies

They make their last retreat.

Hence, ye profane, I hate your ways,
I walk with pious souls;
There's a wide difference in our race,
And distant are our goals.

THE LAW GIVEN AT SINAI.

ARM thee with thunder, heavenly Muse,
And keep the' expecting world in awe ;
Oft hast thou sung in gentler mood
The melting mercies of thy God;
Now give thy fiercest fires a loose,
And sound his dreadful law:
To Israel first the words were spoke,
To Israel freed from Egypt's yoke,

Inhuman bondage! the hard galling load
Over-press'd their feeble souls,
Bent their knees to senseless bulls,
And broke their knees to God.

Now had they pass'd the' Arabian bay,
And march'd between the cleaving sea;

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The rising waves stood guardians of their wondrous

But fell with most impetuous force,

On the pursuing swarms,

And buried Egypt all in arms,

Blending in watry death the rider and his horse,

O'er struggling Pharoah roll'd the mighty tide,
And sav'd the labours of a pyramid.

Apis and Ore in vain he cries,
And all his horned gods beside,

He swallows fate with swimming eyes,
And curs'd the Hebrews as he died.

Ah foolish Israel to comply

With Memphian idolatry!

And bow to brutes (a stupid slave)

To idols impotent to save!

Behold thy God, the Sovereign of the sky,
Has wrought salvation in the deep,
Has bound thy foes in iron sleep,
And rais'd thine honours high:
His grace forgives thy follies past,
Behold he comes in majesty,
And Sinai's top proclaims his law :
Prepare to meet thy God in haste;
But keep an awful distance still:
Let Moses round the sacred hill
The circling limits draw.

Hark! the shrill echoes of the trumpet roar,
And call the trembling armies near;

Slow and unwilling they appear,
Rails kept them from the mount before,

Now from the rails their fear:

'Twas the same herald, and the trump the same,

Which shall be blown by high command,
Shall bid the wheels of nature stand,
And Heaven's eternal will proclaim,
That time shall be no more.

Thus while the labouring angel swell'd the sound,
And rent the skies, and shook the ground,
Uprose the' Almighty; round his sapphire seat
Adoring thrones in order fell;

The lesser powers at distance dwell,

And cast their glories down successive at his feet: Gabriel the great prepares his way,

'Lift up your heads, eternal doors,' he cries; The' eternal doors his word obey,

Open and shoot celestial day

Upon the lower skies.

Heaven's mighty pillars bow'd their head,

As their Creator bade,

And down Jehovah rode from the superior sphere, A thousand guards before, and myriads in the rear.

His chariot was a pitchy cloud,

The wheels beset with burning gems,
The winds in harness with the flames
Flew o'er the' ethereal road;
Down through his magazines he past
Of hail, and ice, and fleecy snow,
Swift roll'd the triumph, and as fast
Did hail, and ice, in melted rivers flow.

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