THE

COURSE OF TIME.

BOOK VI.

ARGUMENT.

The Millenium ended.-Satan unbound.-Violence and crime prevail over all the Earth, now ripe for final doom.-The Bard foretells the descent of the Almighty and the dissolution of Nature and the elements.-Apostrophe to holy bards of the latter time. Wretchedness and terrors of the wicked.-The daughters of Men and all Nature called to lament.-The Bard again reverts to the sinful state of the world after the Millenial rest.— The ambition of Priests. The corrupt union of Church and State. Profanation of the Sabbath.-The frothy orator then admired above the faithful preacher. The workings of the opposing principles of Sloth and love of approbation in the human heart:-Both principles alike dangerous.-The love of praise exemplified in a variety of characters.-Pernicious effects of sloth in the literary man.-Maturity of every species of crime in the latter days.-The Theatre.-Excess of ceremonial and treacherous politeness.-Symptoms of the approaching Catastrophe :-The sun reeling in the heavens :-Unearthly portents.— Men alarmed but not reformed :-Their false notions and explanations of the warning prodigies.-Deceitful calm succeeds -Men return to their former courses. In heaven the elders round the Throne gaze on the Dial by which Time is measured. -Mercy pleads that Vengeance may be stayed :-Gleams of love still mingle with the terrors of Omnipotence.-The Earth increasing in wickedness, Satan, Death, and Sin, have full sway: -Every species of crime abounds. The last hour come-the number of the elect complete-Mercy withdraws and Justice bares his sword.-The trumpet of Heaven summoning to evening worship, the Bard suspends his narrative.-The heavenly worshippers.-The various employments of the inhabitants of heaven.-God and the Lamb the centre and object of all the blest spirits. None unemployed in heaven :-The songs of heaven ever new.-Anthem sung before the Throne-the Bard of Judah leads the strain which redeemed and angel harps repeat. The Amen repeated by all the hosts of heaven-echoed through Eternity.—The New-arrived accepted and welcomed.— Evening landscape of Paradise.

THE

COURSE OF TIME.

BOOK VI.

RESUME thy tone of wo, immortal Harp!
The song of mirth is past, the Jubilee

Is ended, and the sun begins to fade!

Soon past, for Happiness counts not the hours.
To her a thousand years seem as a day;
A day, a thousand years to Misery.
Satan is loose, and Violence is heard,
And Riot in the street, and Revelry

Intoxicate, and Murder, and Revenge.

Put on your armour now, ye righteous! put
The helmet of salvation on,
and gird

Your loins about with truth; add righteousness,
And add the shield of faith, and take the sword
Of God-awake and watch!-The day is near,
Great day of God Almighty and the Lamb!

The harvest of the earth is fully ripe;
Vengeance begins to tread the great wine-press
Of fierceness and of wrath; and Mercy pleads,
Mercy that pleaded long, she pleads no more!
Whence comes that darkness? whence those yells
of wo?

What thunderings are these that shake the world?
Why fall the lamps from heaven as blasted figs?
Why tremble righteous men? why angels pale?
Why is all fear? what has become of hope?
God comes! God in his car of vengeance comes!
Hark! louder on the blast, come hollow shrieks
Of dissolution! in the fitful scowl

Of night, near and more near, angels of death
Incessant flap their deadly wings, and roar
Through all the fevered air! the mountains rock,
The moon is sick, and all the stars of heaven
Burn feebly! oft and sudden gleams the fire,
Revealing awfully the brow of Wrath!

The Thunder, long and loud, utters his voice,
Responsive to the Ocean's troubled growl!

Night comes, last night, the long, dark, dark, dark night,

That has no morn beyond it, and no star!

No

eye of man hath seen a night like this!

Heaven's trampled Justice girds itself for fight!'
Earth, to thy knees, and cry for mercy! cry
With earnest heart, for thou art growing old
And hoary, unrepented, unforgiven!

And all thy glory mourns! The vintage mourns!
Bashan and Carmel, mourn and weep! and mourn,
Thou Lebanon, with all thy cedars, mourn!
Sun! glorying in thy strength from age to age,
So long observant of thy hour, put on
Thy weeds of wo, and tell the Moon to weep;
Utter thy grief at mid-day, morn, and even;
Tell all the nations, tell the Clouds that sit
About the portals of the east and west,

And wanton with thy golden locks, to wait
Thee not to-morrow,-for no morrow comes!
Tell men and women, tell the new-born child,
And
every eye that sees, to come, and see
Thee set behind Eternity,-for thou
Shalt go to bed to-night, and ne'er awake!
Stars! walking on the pavement of the sky,
Out-sentinels of heaven, watching the earth,
Cease dancing now; your lamps are growing dim,
Your graves are dug among the dismal clouds,
And angels are assembling round your bier!