"Thou err'st again, but innocently err'st; Not knowing sin's depravity, nor man's Sincere and persevering wickedness.” "All were redeemed?"
"Not all, or thou had'st heard
No human voice in hell. Many refused, Although beseeched, refused to be redeemed; Redeemed from death to life, from wo to bliss!"
"Canst thou believe my song when thus I sing? When man had fallen, was ruined, hopeless, lost--Ye choral harps! ye angels that excel
In strength! and loudest, ye redeemed of men!
To God, to Him that sits upon the throne
On high, and to the Lamb, sing honor, sing
Dominion, glory; blessing sing, and praise!-
When man had fallen, was ruined, hopeless, lost,
Messiah, Prince of Peace, Eternal King,
Died, that the dead might live, the lost be saved.
Wonder, O heavens! and be astonished, earth!
Thou ancient, thou forgotten earth! Ye worlds,
admire!
Admire, and be confounded! and thou, hell,
Deepen thy eternal groan! Men would not be
Redeemed-I speak of many, not of all—
Would not be saved for lost, have life for death!"
"Mysterious song!" the new arrived exclaimed;
"Mysterious mercy! most mysterious hate'
To disobey, was mad; this, madder far;
Incurable insanity of will.
What now but wrath could guilty men expect? What more could love, what more could mercy do?'
FREE GRACE OFFERED TO ALL.
"No more," resumed the bard, "no more they could.
Thou hast seen hell: the wicked there lament. And why?-For love and mercy twice despised. The husbandman, who sluggishly forgot
In spring to plough and sow, could censure none, Though winter clamored round his empty barns. But he who having thus neglected, did
Refuse, when autumn came, and famine threatened,
To reap the golden field that charity
Bestowed-nay, more obdurate, proud, and blind,
And stupid still, refused, though much beseeched,
And long entreated, even with Mercy's tears,
To eat what to his very lips was held,
Cooked temptingly—he certainly, at least,
Deserved to die of hunger, unbemoaned.
So did the wicked spurn the grace of God;
And so were punished with the second death.
The first, no doubt, punition less severe
Intended, death belike of all entire ;
But this incurred, by God discharged, and life
Freely presented, and again despised—
Despised, tho' bought with Mercy's proper blood-
'Twas this dug hell, and kindled all its bounds
With wrath and inextinguishable fire.
"Free was the offer, free to all, of life
And of salvation; but the proud of heart,
Because 'twas free, would not accept; and still To merit wished: and choosing-thus unshipped, Uncompassed, unprovisioned, and bestormed— To swim a sea of breadth immeasurable,
They scorned the goodly bark, whose wings the breath
Of God's eternal Spirit filled for heaven,
That stopped to take them in! and so were lost.”
THE GRACE OF GOD OMNIPOTENT.
"What wonders dost thou tell! To merit? how? Of creature meriting in sight of God,
As right of service done, I never heard
We never fell; in virtue stood
Upright, and persevered in holiness;
But stood by grace, by grace we persevered;
Ourselves, our deeds our holiest, highest deeds—
Unworthy aught; grace worthy endless praise.
If we fly swift, obedient to his will,
He gives us wings to fly; if we resist
Temptation, and ne'er fall, it is his shield
Omnipotent that wards it off; if we,
With love unquenchable, before him burn,
"Tis he that lights and keeps alive the flame.
Men surely lost their reason in their fall,
And did not understand the offer made."
THE LIGHT OF THE BIBLE.
"They might have understood," the bard replied: They had the Bible. Hast thou ever heard Of such a book?-the author, God himself;
The subject, God and man; salvation, life,
And death-eternal life, eternal death—
Dread words! whose meaning has no end, no bounds.
Most wondrous book! bright candle of the Lord!
Star of eternity! the only star
By which the bark of man could navigate
The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss
Securely; only star which rose on Time,
And, on its dark and troubled billows, still,
As generation, drifting swiftly by,
Succeeded generation, threw a ray
Of heaven's own light; and to the hills of God,
The everlasting hills, pointed the sinner's eye:
By prophets, seers, and priests, and sacred bards,
Evangelists, apostles, men inspired,
And by the Holy Ghost anointed, set
Apart and consecrated to declare
To earth the counsels of the Eternal One,
This book-this holiest, this sublimest book— Was sent. Heaven's will, Heaven's code of laws entire
To man, this book contained; defined the bounds
Of vice and virtue, and of life and death;
And what was shadow, what was substance taught.
Much it revealed; important all; the least
Worth more than what else seemed of highest
worth;
But this of plainest, most essential truth:
That God is one; eternal, holy, just,
Omnipotent, omniscient, infinite;
Most wise, most good, most merciful, and true;
In all perfection most unchangeable:
That man that every man, of
every clime
And hue, of every age and every rank—
Was bad; by nature and by practice bad;
In understanding, blind; in will, perverse;
In heart, corrupt; in every thought, and word,
Imagination, passion, and desire,
Most utterly depraved throughout, and ill,
In sight of Heaven, though less in sight of man;
At enmity with God his maker born,
And by his very life an heir of death:
That man that every man-was, farther, most
Unable to redeem himself, or pay
One mite of his vast debt to God; nay, more,
Was most reluctant and averse to be
Redeemed, and sin's most voluntary slave:
That Jesus, Son of God, of Mary born
In Bethlehem, and by Pilate crucified
On Calvary for man thus fallen and lost,
Died; and, by death, life and salvation bought
And perfect righteousness, for all who should
In his great name believe: that He, the third
In the eternal Essence, to the prayer
Sincere should come, should come as soon as asked,
Proceeding from the Father and the Son,
To give faith and repentance, such as God
Accepts; to open the intellectual eyes,
Blinded by sin; to bend the stubborn will,
Perversely to the side of wrong inclined,
To God and his commandments, just and good;
The wild, rebellious passions to subdue,
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