Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

THE VICTIM.

64

Poetry.

My harp! of the barbarous deed it shall sing;
Indignant shall swell the short strain,
The sea-gull was seen on her quick-glancing
wing,

Her home is the wave of the main.

But the wave of the main, though her pityless home

Was treach'rous, and wafted a foe;

For sudden the dark tube of death was its doom,

And the bird on the billow laid low.

And thus my heart said are the friends that we trust,

In the season of sorrow and need, Their treachery tramples us down to the dust, And their cruelty laughs at the deed.

How pure was the plumage that whitened thy breast

Now up and now down on the wave; And oft have the gentle winds rock'd thee to rest

On the mariner's sorrowful grave.

Thou nursling of tempests, the storm was thy bed,

Thy pittance the boon of the sea; Yet, happy thy moments, and thoughtless thy head

While a scream told thy desolate glee.

How hard was the heart, how relentless the hand

That murdered the joy of thy grief, But the pastime of man on the far distant land,

Is to torture who needs their relief.

The cannibal gluts on the carnage of war
With a yell and a horrible smile;
And dim through the dusky night seen from

afar

Is the victim's funereal pile.

The negro from love and from liberty torn Sadly murmurs the prayer of the slave, "God pity poor negro that suffers forlorn

"By the hands of the white man so brave."

But the cannibal wild from his wildest resort,
And the buyer and seller of blood,
And the man that will injure the helpless in
sport

Shall be judged by our all-seeing God.

Thou Eden, how fair, how unsullied thy shade
When innocence haunted thy grove!
O when shall that spring which thy forests
array'd,

Soften cruelty's winter to love?

And thus have I hurried the wild note along, And heedless have wandered astray;

For the lonely bird's fate was the theme of my song,

But I silence the murmuring lay.
Atlantic Ocean.
J. Lawson.

[blocks in formation]

THE VISION OF ELIPHAZ. Job. iv. 12.

Ar midnight's lonely, solemn hour, When silence reigns o'er field and tow'r, When slumbers, such as sleep the dead, (Tho' not so cold and drear the bed) Give ease from pain-from ills of life release For now the weary rest, the bad, from troubling cease.

As musing by my taper's flickering light. My thoughts like shapeless visions of the night,

Roam'd undefin'd o'er scenes of joy and woe, Now turn'd on God above, and now on inan below,

On time and chance-on dark decrees of fate.

On man's sad present, unseen future state
I mus'd-what was it broke the chain ?
What was't I saw-what is't I see again?
A spirit flash'd before my sight,

My hair rose stiff'ning with affright-
It silent stood, and formless seem'd,
I wist not, if I wak'd, or dream'd-

I gaz'd with straining eye-balls-wild despair,

And trembling seiz'd on me-it still was there,

At last, it wav'd a hand, and in such tones, As mortals hear not, spake-fear thrill'd my bones

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

"Is He not wise submit to his decree"Art thou not weak adoring bow the knee, Angels above are faulty in his sight, "He trusts not ev'n those radiant sons of light.

"And shall God then put confidence in Thee? "And durst thou say, "I am more just than He?

"Your home's the dust, from morn to evè ye die,

"No one regards or asks the reason why"Before the moth, ye perish, and your fame, "Is like the brief memorial of a dream."

P. B. I.

Epitaph in Margate Church Yard in memary of Ann Sachett, who died the 14th of June, 1802. Aged 25.

How frail and false the hopes of earthly joy,
That unperceiv'd our busy thoughts employ;
Yet still for this we pant, on this we trust,
And dream of happiness allied to dust..

But surer hopes, a joy that was sincere, Warm'd the dear breast of her that slumbers here:

On this intent, she smil'd at death's alarms, And long'd to rest within her Saviour's arms; The Saviour saw-he heard the falt'ring

[blocks in formation]
[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THE

NEW EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE,

AND

Theological Review.

MARCH, 1817.

MEMOIR OF THE LATE MR. ABRAHAM AUSTIN.
[Continued from page 9.]

formed respecting them, and es-
pecially wherein he differed from
the generality of his brethren;
and with a view to that, we shall
here sketch an epitome of them.

ALTHOUGH Mr. Austin, almost from the first of his settlement in London, was classed among the Particular Baptists, yet it is a well-known fact that there are not many ministers of that denomina. THE GOSPEL, he considered to tion, whose doctrinal sentiments be a revelation of mercy and and views of divine truth in grace to guilty men, unfolding the general, fully accorded with his way of salvation, in which all the own. At the last interview which perfections of Deity gloriously the writer of this memoir had with harmonize, and in which they will him, and which took place on the eternally shine forth with resplenSabbath preceding his departure dent lustre, to the admiration of out of this world, he mentioned saints and angels. This plan this circumstance, and expatiated originated in the divine mind, and upon it at some length, remarking was according to God's eternal that he did not recollect any one purpose, which he purposed in of them, whose views in all points himself, before he gave birth to were so congenial to his own as time or existence to creatures-it those of Mr. Stephens of Man- is the pure result of his own selfchester, who happened, on that moved love and pity, irrespective very day, to be supplying his lack of the least degree of merit or of service at Fetter-lane. We be- desert in the creatures, who were lieve however that it would be pos- all viewed as in a fallen and guilty sible to mention another or two, state-a plan directed in all its who would come under the same parts by infinite wisdom-and class, though they might not be combining in its result the praise known, or at least recollected by of the glory of his grace with the him at the moment; and parti- eternal happiness of the redeemed. cularly Mr. Gray of Blackburn, In this wondrous scheme of rewhose excellent "Circular Letter" demption, Christ was Jehovah's we lately laid before our readers, first, or chief, elect; and to HIM (See Vol. II. p. 363–369, 409—the heirs of salvation were given 417.) As Mr. Austin was not in to be redeemed and brought to the practice of committing his glory. In the fulness of time, sentiments to the press, it may God sent forth his Son, (the Word perhaps be acceptable to the rea- made flesh, John i. 14.) to redeem der to be more particularly in-them from the curse of the law

[blocks in formation]

which he did by being "himself in general. A few remarks on

[ocr errors]

three particulars will do this.

1. As Jesus Christ came into the world for the express purpose of saving sinners, so he left nothing undone that was necessary to accomplish that grand design-a design so worthy of God and so beneficial to man. In his death upon the cross he acted as the substitute and representative of his

own body on the tree, and made expiation for them.

made a curse for them." Thus He who knew no sin, was made a sin offering, that he might put it away, (or fully expiate it) by the sacrifice of himself. In this work of the divine substitute, the law was magnified and made honourable the claims of justice fully satisfied-sin atoned for-the curse removed and everlasting righteousness brought in for the jus-elect people, bare their sins in his tification of the ungodly. In this work of his beloved Son, Jehovah is for ever WELL-PLEASED; and of that delightful truth he hath given us the most indubitable evidence in raising the Saviour from the dead, and exalting him to the highest glory and blessedness in the heavens, as the reward of his obedience unto death. All who are persuaded of the truth and certainly of this fact, according to the apostolic testimony concerning it, namely, that God is reconciled unto us by the death of his Son, (which, however, none are but through divine teaching) they are thereby justified, obtain peace of conscience, and have the promise of a faithful God, that if they hold fast this truth unto the end, walking under its holy influence, and bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, to the praise and glory of his name, they shall assuredly obtain eternal life.

From this general outline of the scheme of redemption, it is probable that few of the Baptist ministers of the present day would be found to dissent. But, unhappily, while they would be ready enough to yield an assent to it in theory, very few of them really understand it so as to distinguish it from the popular doctrine of the day, or study to regulate their preaching by it. We shall therefore endeavour to be a little more explicit in defining the difference between Mr. Austin's views and those of his ministering brethren

As there could be no remission of sin, without the shedding of blood, so when God's own Son laid down his life as a sacrifice for the sins of many, he at once effected that atonement which was prefigured by the various typical sacrifices of the Levitical economy. This atonement, without any thing more, is the sole requisite to justification. In that wondrous transaction, all the perfections of Deity are glorified in the highest possible degree that can be conceived by men or angels. The wisdom, power, and faithfulness; the mercy, love, and holiness of the blessed God, are all equally displayed in this work of redemption, and each gloriously harmonizes with the other, while all shine forth with resplendent lustre as engaged in effecting the salvation of guilty man, in a way altogether independent of himself, so that the whole of it, in all its various branches is of grace. As the justice of God obtained full satisfaction for our violations of the holy law, in the divine blood of Immanuel, the atonement and that alone exhibits a foundation of everlasting consolation and of good hope, to every sinner who hears of it. The first and leading object of Mr. Austin's ministry, therefore, was directed to point his hearers to "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,"-to the great work finished on Mount

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »