HUSH'D is the voice of Judah's mirth-
And Judah's minstrels too are gone;
The harps that told Messiah's birth
And hung on heaven's eternal throne.
Fled is the bright and shining throng
That swell'd on earth the welcome strain,
And lost in air, the choral song
That floated wild on David's plain.
'or dark and sad is Bethlehem's fate, Her valleys gush with human blood; Despair sits mourning at her gate,
And murder stalks in frantic mood.
At morn, the mother's heart was light,
Her infant bloom'd upon her breast,
At eve, 'twas pale and wither'd quite,
And gone to its eternal rest.
Veep on, ye childless mothers, weep!
Your babes are hush'd in one cold grave!
1 Jordan's stream their spirits sleep,
Their blood is mingled with the wave.
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, 39 good will toward men Luke ii. 14.
ARRAY'D in clouds of golden light,
More bright than Heaven's resplendent bow, Jehovah's angel came by night,
To bless the sleeping world below!
How soft the music of his tongue!
How sweet the hallow'd strains he sung!
"Good-will, henceforth to man be given;"
The light of glory beams on earth;
Let angels tune the harps of heaven,
And saints below rejoice with mirth :
On Bethlehem's plains the shepherds sing,
And Judah's children hail their King!
FALLEN is thy throne, O Israel!
Silence is o'er thy plains;
Thy dwellings all lie desolate,
Thy children weep in chains.
Where are the dews that fed thee
On Ethom's barren shore?
That fire from heav'n which led thee,
Now lights thy path no more.
LORD! thou didst love Jerusalem ;-
Once she was all thy own;
Her love thy fairest heritage,*
Her power thy glory's throne.†
Till evil came, and blighted,
Thy long lov'd olive tree ;‡
And Salem's shrines were lighted
For other gods than thee!
Then sunk the star of Solyma;
Then pass'd her glory's ray,
Like heath, that in the wilderness!
The wild wind whirls away.
Silent and waste her bowers,
Where once the mighty trod,
And sunk those guilty towers,
Where Baal reign'd as god.
"Go," said the LORD--"ye conquerors!
Steep in her blood your swords,
And raze to earth her battlements;||
*"I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly-beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies."-Jer xii. 7.
t "Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory."
"The lord hath called thy name a green olive tree: fair and of goodly fruit," &c.—Jer. xi. 16.
"For he shall be like the heath in the desert." -Jer xvii. 6.
"Take away her battlements; for they are not the Lord's"-Jer. v. 10.
For they are not the Lord's!
Till Zion's mournful daughter
O'er kindred bones shall tread,
And Hinnom's vale of slaughter,*
Shall hide but half her dead!"
Go, let me weep! there's bliss in tears,
When he who sheds them, inly feels
Some lingering stain of early years,
Effac'd by every drop that steals.
The fruitless showers of worldly wo
Fall dark to earth and never rise;
While tears that from repentance flow,
In bright exhalement reach the skies.
Go, let me weep! there's bliss in tears,
When he who sheds them, inly feels
Some lingering stain of early years,
Effac'd by every drop that steals.
Leave me to sigh o'er hours that flew,
More idly than the summer's wind,
And, while they pass'd, a fragrance threw,
But left no trace of sweets behind,-
The warmest sigh that pleasure heaves,
Is cold, is faint, to those that swell
"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place."-Jer. vii. 32.
The heart, where pure repentance grieves
O'er hours of pleasure lov'd too well!
Leave me to sigh o'er hours that flew
More idly than the summer's wind,
And, while they pass'd, a fragrance threw,
But left no trace of sweets behind.
"The day is thine; the night also is thine; thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; thou hast made summer and winter"-Psalm lxxiv. 16, 17.
THOU art, Oh God! the life and light
Of all this wondrous world we see;
Its glow by day, its smile by night,
Are but reflections caught from thee.
Where'er we turn, thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine.
When day, with farewell beam, delays
Among the opening clouds of even, And we can almost think we gaze
Through golden vistas into heaven; Those hues that make the sun's decline So soft, so radient, LORD! are thine.
When night, with wings of starry gloom,
O'ershadows all the earth and skies,
Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume
Is sparkling with unnumbered dies;-
|