CREATION.

And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.

ETERNITY'S predestined moment came,

GENESIS 1., 3.

When countless ages, now, had ta’en their flight,
To break the fetters of chaotic night,

And bid the shining universe proclaim,
The power and glory of Jehovah's name:

Then earth and heaven rose at his word of might,
But dark and lustreless: "Let there be light!"
The Almighty said, and lo! the living flame,
That, wrapped in chaos' sable mantle, lay,
From out the darkened depths, all-glorious sprang,
The lightning's blaze-the comet's milder ray,—
The moon, the night-the sun to rule the day;
And all the morning stars together sang,

Till heaven's high dome with the full chorus rang.

SENNACHERIB.

And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred four score and five thonsand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all corpses.

So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned and dwelt at Nineveh.

And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, smote him with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Árminia.

2 KINGS, XIX., 33, 35, 37.

ON Kishon's ancient water gleams

The full-orbed moon, like silver bright;
The reedy shores beneath her beams,

Are clothed in robes of living light,
And the white tents, in long array,

.

That dot its banks, clear, and half hid
Amid the trees that skirt the bay,

Flash like a silver pyramid;

And brazen chariots armed for war,
Are ranged around the spacious field,
And silver spear and burnished shield

Send their bright radiance from afar,
While high above the banner spreads
Its guardian wings above their heads.

They sleep-Assyria's warlike pride,
Their dreams upon the coming dawn,
When their proud king shall lead them on
To death and devastation wide;
When the tall cedar trees, that gem,
Like emeralds, the diadem

Of hoary Carmel, all shall bow

Their towering heads beneath the stroke,

And Lebanon's tall fir and oak,

Their branching honours laid full low—
A highway open for the roar

Of brazen chariots fiercely driven,
Where late the grove its ringlets hoar,

Waved proudly to the winds of heaven; A highway, where the Assyrian band, Its myriads may roll, like sand

Innumerable, to surround

Jerusalem's high citadel,

With mining ditch and hostile mound, To lay its walls low with the ground, And leave a smouldering pile to tell

Where priests the sacred pavements trod― How, 'neath th' invader's engine fell, The city of the living God.

'Twas midnight-all still and sereneNo sound o'er all the battle plain

The winds, as if held by a chain, Stirred not the wild-wood's foliage green;

And the meridian moon that rode

In her celestial pathway high,

With the pale clouds that round her flowed

Like drapery, veiled her fearful eye ;

'Twas still, like nature, held her breath,

To look upon a work of death.

And silent all, an angel stood—

An angel by th' Almighty sent,

For daring guilt's high punishment ;