The floating bodies, darkening o'er the sea
Like the strewed planks of shipwreck.

Now o'er the ocean waters swelled the sound
Of harp and timbrel, while the solid earth
Was trembling 'neath the far-resounding peal
Of myriad voices, as they lifted up

The song of triumph to the mighty God,
Whose eye had marked each burning tear that fell
In all their bondage,-who, with arm of power,
Had led them out, and had in anger broke
In pieces the oppressor, when the depths
Engulphed both horse and rider in the sea.

BEHEADING OF JOHN THE BAPTIST.

And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me, by and by, in a charger, the head of John the Baptist.

And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought, and he went and beheaded him in prison.

And brought his head in a charger and gave it to the damsel, and the damsel gave it to her mother.

MARK VI., 25, 26, 27.

NIGHT with her holy calm hung brooding. Stars, Like angel eyes, gazing upon the earth, Through heaven's broad tapestry of cloudless blue, Were pouring down their showers of silver light, And the fair moon rode in her flashing car Up the Empyrean steep, a queen triumphing; While not a breeze fanned the soft cheek of night, And all the busy bustling hum of day

Had died away into Sabbatic rest.

How holy is the hour, and full of awe,

When in the vault of heaven's high temple burn
The starry vesper lamps; and from the earth
Ascends the spicy incense; while with lip
Hushed into silent reverence, nature bows
In adoration, passing utterance all.

Oh! then the blessed light of heaven falls Upon the feverish breast like drops of dew Upon parched flowers; and the exulting soul, Fluming its eagle pinions, soars from earth And basks in rays ineffably sublime; Iaith reads immortal truth on starry page, And hears sweet music from the living wires Of rolling spheres swept by the mighty hand Of vast Omnipotence. Yet grovelling man, Unconscious of the "glory unobscured;" Dead to the living beauties, and unmoved By the inspiring holiness, when stars Shine out in radiance, and the vesper hymn Of nature's adoration peals, will fly

The converse of a smiling God, and bow

I

Amid the haunts of men, in revelry,

His sky-born spirit to polluted shrines.

Profaning night's deep-brooding holiness,
And wounding her chaste ear, arose the sound
Of bacchanalian mirth within the halls
Of princely Herod. Gorgeously arrayed
In royal robes, upon their damask beds
Reclined the Chief Estates of Galilee,
At the full board, resplendent with the glare
Of polished silver; and while flashing wine
Purpled their goblets, and the merry laugh
Rung, echoing through the vaulted corridors,
And music's fingers woke to extacy,

The bosom's thrilling chords, a virgin came
Bounding in lightness to the viol's sound,
Like a bright dream of magic.

She was rich

In all youth's loveliness. Her jewelled hair

Hung o'er the marble throne of thought in folds Of graceful drapery, or cloud-like waved

In curls upon her alabaster neck.

From out the fringes of the snowy lid

Her intellectual eye its radiance sent,

And lit with living flame her blooming cheek,
Where smiling love amid the roses played;
And, parting o'er a string of pearls, her lips,

Arching and curved, shone like the coral bow
Whence Cupid points his darts. Her graceful form
Its fair proportions, through her robe, revealed,
In sylph-like beauty; and as in the dance.

She threaded the wild maze, her presence bound
With magic spell, while 'neath her eye's bright ray,
The floodtide of each bosom gushed amain,

As heaves the sea beneath the silver moon.

Then broke the strain of rapture from the lips Of royalty and tender of a boon

Large, full and free, even unto the half

Of his fair kingdom, sanctioned by an oath.
His word his oath, the chiefs of Gallilee

That heard it-all constrained him; and the king

Sent forth the bloody mandate with the sword.