Glanced through his thoughts, what deep and cureless wound Fate had already given.-Where, man of wo! 20 Where wretched father! is thy boy? Thou callest His name in vain:-he cannot answer thee. Loudly the father called upon his child: No voice replied. Trembling and anxiously He searched their couch of straw: with headlong haste 25 Trod round his stinted limits, and, low bent, Groped darkling on the earth:- -no child was there. Of his accursed fetters,-till the blood Seemed bursting from his ears, and from his eyes 40 Raging to break his toils,-to and fro bounds. The father saw, And all his fury fled:-a dead calm fell 50 That instant on him:-speechless, fixed he stood, 55 Silent and pale The father stands:-no tear is in his eye: The thunders bellow-but he hears them nót: The ground lifts like a sea:—he knows it nót:The strong walls grind and gape:-the vaulted roof 60 Takes shapes like bubble tossing in the wind: See! he looks up and smiles;-for death to him It will be given. Look! how the rolling ground, 65 At every swell, nearer and still more near Moves towards the father's outstretched arm his boy:Once he has touched his gàrment;-how his eye Lightens with love-and hope-and anxious fears! Ha! see! he has him now!-he clasps him round— 70 Kisses his face;-puts back the curling locks, That shaded his fine brow:-looks in his eyesGrasps in his own those little dimpled handsThen folds him to his breast, as he was wont To lie when sleeping-and resigned awaits 75 Undreaded death. And pangless. And death came soon, and swift, The huge pile sunk down at once Into the opening earth. (..) Walls-arches-roof80 And deep foundation stones-all.. mingling .. fell! EXERCISE 87. The Orphan Boy.-MRS. OPIE. 1 Stay, lady stay, for mercy's sake, And my brave father's hope and joy: 2 Poor, foolish child! how pleased was I To see the lighted windows flame! She could not bear to see my joy! 3 The people's shouts were long and loud! 4" What is an orphan boy?" I said; When suddenly she gasped for breath, But now no more a parent's joy; EXERCISE 88. Christian Consolation.-ANONYMOUS [The annexed feeling, and beautiful lines are said to have been writ ten by a young English lady, who had experienced much affliction.] 1 Jesus-I my cross have taken, Thou, from hence, my all shalt be! Perished every fond ambition All I've sought, or hoped, or known, God and heaven are all my own! 2 Go, then, earthly fame and treasure- Storms may howl, and clouds may gather- 3 Soul! then know thy full salvation— Something still to do or bear! 4 Haste thee on, from grace to glory, Armed by faith, and wing'd by prayer— EXERCISE 89. Cruelty to Animals.-CowPER. I would not enter on my list of friends, Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. Sacred to neatness and repose, th' alcove, A necessary act incurs no blame. 15 Not so, when held within their proper bounds, There they are privileg'd. And he that hurts As God was free to form them at the first, By budding ills, that ask a prudent hand By which Heav'n moves in pard'ning guilty man; 40 And conscious of the outrage he commits, EXERCISE 90. Christianity.-MASON. The cardinal fact of Christianity, without which all her other facts lose their importance, is the resurrection, from the dead, of a crucified Saviour, as the prelude, the pattern, and the pledge of the resurrection of his 5 followers to eternal life. Against this great fact the "children of disobedience," have levelled their batteries. One assails its proof; another its reasonableness; all, its truth. When Paul asserted it before an audience of Athenian philosophers, 66 some mocked”– -a short 10 method of refuting the Gospel; and likely, from its convenience, to continue in favor and in fashion. Yet with such doctrines and facts did the religion of Jesus make her way through the world. Against the |