The chance is gone for ever, and is past the reach of prayer:

For men and angels, good and ill, have rendered all their witness;
The trial is over, the jury are gone in, and none can now be heard ;
Well are they agreed upon the verdict, just, and fixt, and final,
And the sentence showeth clear before the Judge hath spoken:
Now-while resting matter is at peace within the tomb,

The conscious spirit watcheth in unspeakable suspense;

Racked with a fearful looking forward, or blissfully feeding on the foretaste,

Waiting souls in eager expectation pass the solemn interval:

They slumber not in death, but awaken, quickened to the terror of the judgment;

They lie not insensate among darkness, but exult, looking to the light.
Idiotcy, brightening on the instant, when that veil is torn,

Is grateful that his torpor here hath left him as an innocent;
The young child, stricken as he played, and guileless babes unborn,
Freed from fetters of the flesh, burst into mind immediate:
Madness judgeth wisely, and the visions of the lunatic are gone,
And each hasteneth to praise the mercy that made him irresponsible.
For soul is one, though manifold in act, working the machinery of brain,
Reason, fancy, conscience, passion, are but varying phases;

If, in God's wise purpose, the machine were shattered or confused,
Still is soul the same, though it exhibit with a difference :

Therefore, dissipate the brain, and set its inmate free,
Behold, the maniacs and embryos stand in their place intelligent.
That solvent eateth away all dross, leaving the gold intact:
Matter lingereth in the retort, spirit hath flown to the receiver:
And lo, that recipient of the spirits, it is some aerial world,
An oasis midway on the desert space, separating earth from heaven,
A prison-house for essences incorporate, a limbus vague and wild,
Tartarus for evil, and Paradise for good, that intermediate Hades.

O Death, what art thou? a Lawgiver that never altereth,

Fixing the consummating seal, whereby the deeds of life become established;

O Death, what art thou? a stern and silent usher,

Leading to the judgment for Eternity, after the trial scene of Time;

O Death, what art thou? an husbandman, that reapeth always,
Out of season, as in season, with the sickle in his hand :
O Death, what art thou? the shadow unto every substance,
In the bower as in the battle, haunting night and day.
O Death, what art thou? nurse of dreamless slumbers
Freshening the fevered flesh to a wakefulness eternal:
O Death, what art thou? strange and solemn alchymist,
Elaborating life's elixir from these clayey crucibles:

O Death, what art thou? antitype of Nature's marvels,
The seed and dormant chrysalis bursting into energy and glory.
Thou calm safe anchorage for the shattered hulls of men,—
Thou spot of gelid shade, after the hot-breathed desert,—
Thou silent waiting-hall, where Adam meeteth with his children,--
How full of dread, how full of hope, loometh inevitable Death:
Of dread, for all have sinned; of hope, for One hath saved;
The dread is drowned in joy, the hope is filled with immortality!
-Pass along, pilgrim of life, go to thy grave unfearing,

The terrors are but shadows now that haunt the vale of Death.

OF IMMORTALITY.

GIRD up thy mind to contemplation, trembling inhabitant of earth;
Tenant of a hovel for a day,—thou art heir of the universe for ever!
For, neither congealing of the grave, nor gulfing waters of the firmament,
Nor expansive airs of heaven, nor dissipative fires of Gehenna,

Nor rust of rest, nor wear, nor waste, nor loss, nor chance, nor change,
Shall avail to quench or overwhelm the spark of soul within thee!

THOU art an imperishable leaf on the evergreen bay-tree of Existence; A word from Wisdom's mouth, that cannot be unspoken;

A ray of Love's own light; a drop in Mercy's sea;

A creature, marvellous and fearful, begotten by the fiat of Omnipotence. I, that speak in weakness, and ye, that hear in charity,

Shall not cease to live and feel, though flesh must see corruption;

For the prison-gates of matter shall be broken, and the shackled soul go free,

Free, for good or ill, to satisfy its appetence for ever:

For ever,―dreadful doom, to be hurried on eternally to evil,—

For ever,―happy fate, to ripen into perfectness-for ever!

AND is there a thought within thy heart, O slave of sin and fear,

A black and harmful hope, that erring spirit dieth!

That primal disobedience hath ensured the death of soul,

And separate evil sealed it thine-thy curse, Annihilation?

Heed thou this; there is a Sacrifice; the Maker is Redeemer of his crea

ture;

Freely unto each, universally to all, is restored the privilege of essence:

Whether unto grace or guilt, all must live through Him,
Live in vital joy, or live in dying woe:

Death in Adam, life in Christ; the curse hung upon the cross:
Who art thou that heedest of redemption, as narrower than the fall:
All were dead,-He died for all; that living, they might love;
If living souls withhold their love,--still, He hath died for them.
Eve stole the knowledge; Christ gave the life:

Knowledge and life are the perquisites of soul, the privilege of man :
Mercy stepped between, and stayed the double theft;

God gave; and giving, bought; and buying, asketh love:
And in such asking rendereth bliss, to all that hear and answer,
For love with life is heaven; and life unloving, hell.

CREATURE of God, his will is for thy weal, eternally progressing;
Fear not to trust a Maker's love, nor a Saviour's ransom:
He drank for all,-for thee, and me,-the poison of our deeds:
We shall not die, but live,-and, of his grace, we love!
For, in the mysteries of Mercy, the One fore-knowing Spirit
Outstrippeth reason's halting choice, and winneth men to Him:
Who shall sound the depths? who shall reach the heights?
Freedom, in the gyves of fate; and sovereignty, reconciled with justice

Ir then, as annihilate by sin, the soul was ever forfeit,
Godhead paid the mighty price, the pledge hath been redeemed:
He, from the waters of Oblivion raised the drowning race,
Lifting them even to Himself, the baseless Rock of Ages.
None can escape from Adam's guilt, or second Adam's guerdon:
Sin and death are thine; thine also is interminable being:

Let it be even as thou wilt, still are we ransomed from nonentity,
The worlds of bliss and woe are peopled with immortals:

And ruin is thy blame; for thou, the worst, art free

To take from Heaven the grace of love, as the gift of life:
Yet is not remedy thy praise; for thou, the best, art bound
Ir. self, and sin, and darkling sloth, until He break the chain :
None can tell, without a struggle, if that chain be broken;
Strive to-day,--one effort more may prove that thou art free!
Here is faith and prayer, here is the Grace and the Atonement,

Here is the creature feeling for its God, and the prodigal returning to his

Father.

But, behold, His reasonable children, standing in just probation,

With ears to hear, neglect; with eyes to see, refuse:

They will not have the blessing with the life, the blessing that enricheth

immortality;

And look for pleasures out of God, for heaven in life alone :

So, they snatch that awful prize, existence void of love,

And in their darkening exile make a needful hell of self.

THEREFORE fear, thou sinner, lest the huge blessing, Immortality,

Be blighted in thine evil to a curse,—it were better he had not been born;
Therefore hope, thou saint, for the gift of immortality is free;
Take and live, and live in love; fear not, thou art redeemed!
The happy life, that height of hope, the knowledge of all good,
This is the blessing on obedience, obedience the child of faith:

The miserable life, that depth of all despair, the knowledge of all evil,
This is the curse upon impenitence, impenitence that sprung of unbelief.
God, from a beautiful necessity, is Love in all he doeth,

Love, a brilliant fire, to gladden or consume:

The wicked work their woe by looking upon love, and hating it :
The righteous find their joys in yearning on its loveliness for ever.

WHO shall imagine Immortality, or picture its illimitable prospect?
How feebly can a faltering tongue express the vast idea!
For consider the primeval woods that bristle over broad Australia,
And count their autumn leaves, millions multiplied by millions;
Thence look up to a moonless sky from a sleeping isle of the Ægæan,
And add to those leaves yon starry host, sparkling on the midnight
numberless;

Thence traverse an Arabia, some continent of eddying sand,

Gather each grain, let none escape, add them to the leaves and to the stars,
Afterwards gaze upon the sea, the thousand leagues of an Atlantic,
Take drop by drop, and add their sum to the grains, and leaves and stars;
The drops of ocean, the desert sands, the leaves, and stars innumerable.
(Albeit, in that multitude of multitudes, each small unit were an age,)
All might reckon for an instant, a transient flash of Time,