THE TOWER OF BABEL.

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth.

And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one; and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do.

Go to, let us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

GENESIS IV., 6, 7.

WHEN judgments thicken, from the hand of God,

And desolation's blast of fury blows,

Man, like a bulrush, boweth down his head
Beneath the tempest, and, with humble voice,
Confesses the supremacy of heaven:

But when the hand of mercy strews his path
With blessings, and around him all is peace,
He lifteth up the haughty head of pride-
With voice presumptuous, asks, Who is the Lord?
And takes the holy name of God in vain.

Remembrance of the goodness of the Lord, Which, from the devastation of the flood, Preserved their fathers, and his sacred pledge,

Were blotted from their memories; and, in pride Of heart and self-sufficiency of power,

They boasted, "Let us build a city up,

And tower whose lofty top may reach to heaven, That, when a deluge shall o'erspread the earth, We may, amid its billowy terrors, laugh.

They toiled; and high above the clouds went up
The work of pride and folly, till the sun
Turned, first, his eye upon it when he rose,
And paused to ponder on it ere he set :

But God went down in anger, mid thick clouds
And lightnings; and the thunder-stricken pile
Rocked to its mighty base; while all around
Fear fell upon the crowds, as, to and fro,
They hurried in despair; and uttered cries,
Strange cries of terror; and astonished heard
The altered speech of their companions' tongues;
But wondered rather at the sudden change
Their own had undergone, as barbarous tones
Jarred harshly in their bosoms; and their lips
Were trembling with the utterance of strange sounds.

THE morning sun,

In splendour bright,

Gilt Salem's towers

With living light;

And streaked the fair ethereal blue With tints of gold and purple hue; Earth bloomed in loveliness and grace, And robed in smiles was Nature's face; But soon the fading sun grows pale,

Quenched are his beams o'er tower and vale. The quaking earth

The battlement ;-
The bursting tombs
Disclose their dead;
The saints forsake
Their earthly bed;
And midnight gloom

Veils earth and skies,
For, "Lo! the God
Of Nature dies!"

P