Dared in thy cause to wage unceasing war,
Triumphantly 'gainst Satan and his host.

The sun no more his light-creating beams
Affords to man-th' ethereal arch is veiled
In Stygian darkness; ever and anon,

The lightning darts from out th' electric cloud,
And for a moment spreads such light around,
As makes the next still darker.-

Two youths, whose limbs can scarcely yet aspire
To full-grown manhood, silent move along,

And scarce dare breathe when great Jehovah speaks.
But see, a flash, whose echo rends the pole,
Darts from on high and spreads an awful splendour
Around its path, the messenger of death,
Ordained to cut the vital thread of one
Of these devoted youths; behold, he sinks
A blackened corpse upon his fellow's arm,
But he, whose faculties were numbed by fear,
Possessed no power to bear the lifeless load;
The lightning-blasted corpse fell stiffened on the
ground.

With agonizing feelings Luther kneels
O'er the dead body of his youthful friend :
At first his tongue refused to do its office,
But in a while his falt'ring lips pronounced
These mournful accents: Wake, my dear Alexius,
Nor leave your friend in this disastrous state.
He speaks not moves not—and a solemn dread
Freezes my faculties with icy coldness:
One moment full of health and youthful vigour,
The next inactive as the sculptured stone.
One triumph more o'er Adam's fallen race
The king of terrors has achieved, with dart
Pointed with lightning. Merciful Jehovah!
Whose secret actions man can never fathom,
If, in compassion to my youthful years,
Thou wilt a father's fost'ring hand extend,
And save thy servant from the raging storm,
My grateful lips shall spread thy boundless praise,

And the remainder of a sinners's life
I'll dedicate to thee :-but should 1 die,
Into thy hands, my Saviour, I commend
My parting spirit.'-

Another flash, on viewless pinions borne,
Illumes the dark horizon; when 'twast past,
A glorious vision met the astonished eyes
Of Luther; seated on an ebon cloud,

The Angel of the Lord came down from heaven,
And thus the trembling votary addressed:

Luther, thy vow has reached the Eternal's ears,
And when the sentence issued from thy mouth,
A smile played round his features, while he bade
The spirit write it in the book of life.

Know then, most favoured of the human race,
That I am Gabriel, chief of those who stand,
The archangelic seven, round the throne;
Commissioned from the empyreal arch I flew
To speak the message of the King of kings.
Weep not for him, whose corpse lies stiff before you,
Repress the fruitless fountain of your tears,
For God has chosen you his instrument,
To work the glory of your heavenly Master,
To hasten on the time, when, (as 'tis promised)
The kingdoms of the lower world shall be

The kingdoms of our God, when Christ shall reign
In peaceful triumph o'er the subject earth,
And all his foes shall be as dust before him:
Thy arm, empowered from on high, shall strike
A mortal wound on Babylonia's queen.
Go, and the Lord will bless the undertaking,
To his own glory.'-

The vision spoke, and, shrouded from his sight,
Flies back to heaven-and Sol's translucent beams,
(Thrice welcome from their absence,) cheer the earth,
The hour of death and desolation's past.--

Halifax.

GULIELMUS.

:

THE ATHEIST.

A FRAGMENT.

Conscience thus makes cowards of us all.-Shakspeare.
A death-bed's a detector of the heart.-Young.

Rapt in the scene, he saw not that the boat was floating towards an eddy; his arms were folded, and the oar trailed along in the water. The current slowly and imperceptibly bore him towards the cataract, its echoes were wafted faintly on the breeze at intervals, but he heard it not, his thoughts were far away-they were with his infant years-the visions of the past were floating before his eyes; but they came unbidden it was not his hand that flung back the veil of oblivion and pointed to the past: he called not up the forms which rose before him-no, if the pride of unbelief' had not blinded him he would have seen that it was the Divine Spirit making one more effort to retrieve him from perdition; appealing, and for the last time, to his best and purest feelings; those feelings that even yet flowed through the dark and troubled sea of his mad thoughts in one pure, little rill, unmingled and unpolluted with its turbulent waves, even when the storm of passion worked them into very nigh a frenzy. But he saw it not.

He contemplated the scenes of his childhood, and his mind became calm-calm as the treacherous stream that was hurrying him to eternity. The spell of bygone affections was upon him, and earth, and its glory, and beauty, were forgotten, and even the majesty of nature was absorbed in their presence. He saw the home of his early years-the mother who cradled him in her breast, and who taught his infant lips the voice of thanksgiving. He was kneeling upon her footstool, repeating, in half-formed accents, his evening prayer: he rose, and her embrace and joyful smile were his reward: her sweet arms laid him upon his smooth pillow, and her kiss and blessing were his protection through the hours of darkness. The morning sun

awoke him, and his light step bounded through the garden, and over the fields, and his little heart was overflowing with joy and happiness.

The dream passed on. Years had intervened, but his mother's form was there again. He was to depart for another clime, and the hour was come. She was giving him her parting counsel, and the book of Godthat book that he now despised—that book that, to seal his apostacy, he tore piecemeal, and sacrificed to the flames. Her arms were round him, and her fresh, warm tears were falling fast upon his face. He felt them then-he feels them now entering into his very soul. Her soft heavenly voice breathed forth a prayer for his safety. His feelings were warm then, the gloom of infidelity was not upon him, and his heart was full even to bursting; but the pang passed over, and the deep sea bore him away upon its bosom, and the clime of Italy received him. There he drank deep of the cup of sensuality-drank to intoxication; there did the demon of atheism fasten upon him, drinking up his life-blood, and searing and blighting the noblest affections of his nature: it flung the veil of despair before the prospect of eternity, and buried his bright hopes of heaven and immortality in the black and everlasting darkness of annihilation. There it was that, unrestrained by care for his mental or physical energies, and without the guiding hand of pure affection, he gave way to the torrent of all the passions that agitate the human breast; there, amidst the wreck of his holiest hopes and feelings, he cast away, in the pride of his unbelief, the plank that would have saved him-the belief in a superintending Providence.

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The vision passes into oblivion, and he looks once more. Again, and for the last time, he saw his mother's face : she was on the bed of death: he would have asked the cause of her illness, but his conscience gave the answer ere his lips unclosed. He sat down and took her hand. It lay upon the Bible: his eyes fell on it, and a change

came over his features. His mother saw, and a tear rose in her eye it fell upon his hand. (Aye! there! there! there!' he mutters now, as his eye strains, as it would start from its socket, to look upon the spot). She attempted to speak once-twice, but there was a choking in her utterance: she tried yet again. My son,' she said, and her sweet eyes were lighted up with a gleam of maternal tenderness as she spoke, my dear son, 1 am about to appear before my God, but I dread it not, for I have a mediator in my Saviour. This book,' and she pressed the Bible to her heart, this book has been my guide through life. It is my hope in death, and my assurance of immortality. Promise-' and her voice deepened into the tone of one who felt that she should speak no more on earth, promise your dying, broken-hearted mother that it shall be the same to you, that my God shall be your God; promise me this, and I die happy.'

Her words were uttered with great difficulty at the last, and when she had finished she sunk down upon her pillow: her eyes closed; and she seemed expiring; but her spirit delayed a moment in its flight: she unclosed her eyes again, and turned them, with imploring earnestness upon her son. His brow was bent, and his frame trembled with agony: all the better feelings of his breast were struggling long and awfully for the mastery over the fiend; but it prevailed. With an almost super-human effort of mental power he quelled the strife, but it cost him dear one of the smaller vessels in his head burst, and a stream of blood gushed from his nose and mouth, and he sank backwards in the chair: his mother turned her dying eyes upon him for an instant-and expired. He saw that look, even then he saw it-that look of agony--it is before him now; and he hides his face with his hand, as he would shut it out; but in vain; his spirits' eye beholds it still.

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The boat was hurrying on, now, with fearfully rapid speed; the trunk of a tree floating by struck against VOL. II. July, 1829.

C