With heavenly balm that sting of death destroy,(97)
To give to all good tidings of great joy ;(98)
Descend to heal the broken heart,(99) and bring
The yet uncleans'd to Sion's sacred spring,(100)
"Unfold the prison doors, bid discord cease,
The world rejoice before the Prince of Peace;"
And bless'd that faith which, trusting in the Lord,
Believ'd when not fulfill'd his promis'd word;
Which meekly from a conscious heart confess'd
It sought a more abiding place of rest.

(97) "The sting of death is sin."—1 Cor. xv. 56.

(98) "And the angel said unto them, Fear not, behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people."-Luke ii. 10.

(99) Isaiah, in the sixty-first chapter, first verse, thus beautifully prophecies concerning the office of Christ: "The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."

(100) "In that day (says Zechariah, speaking of the coming of our Lord) there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness."—xiii. 1.

Like Abel's faith,(101) which taught him to prepare

His rightly proffer'd gift with fervent prayer ;

A prayer in humble spirit, to insure

God's special favour, and His grace secure.

Yes! it was fervent, offer'd up in love,

And was accepted at the throne above ;

As Abraham's steadfast faith, which could endure

(101) "By faith (says St. Paul, in the eleventh chapter, fourth verse, of his Epistle to the Hebrews) Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." But the faith by which Abel was induced to offer the better sacrifice, not only recognized God's existence, authority and power, but was directed to a promised Redeemer, Christ being given and slain from the beginning of the world, even for those to whom he was not known; for the benefits of Christ's death are not confined to those to whom the Gospel has been actually revealed; the promise that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, was to be commemorated in patriarchal and all succeeding sacrifices, until the seed should come: and holy men of old, though they are not named Christians, yet exercised a Christian faith, seeking as we do all the benefits of God the Father, through the merits of his son Jesus Christ, and differing from us only in this, that whereas they looked when Christ should come, we be in the time when he is come. Το the fulfilment of this prophecy was the faith of Abel directed; and that which by faith he offered, an animal sacrifice, being much more of the true nature of sacrifice, and offered in a different spirit to the offering of Cain, procured for him that acceptance from God, and witnessing of his offerings, which was refused to Cain.-Dr. Magee.

E

Each fiery trial to come forth more pure,

Proof of a love, which led him to depart

And sojourn far from home with cheerful heart,

To seek the promis'd soil, by God decreed

A special gift to him, and to his seed;

As when sore troubl'd, with a tearful eye

He heard the sentence that his son must die,
Yet murmur'd not, but with submission bent
To that sad stroke, and where commanded went.
Yes! rose up early, ere the sun's bright ray
Shot down its heat upon his tedious way,

To seek, with one dear son at God's command,

The fatal mountain in Moriah's land.

Faith which could then support, which fail'd him not

When he drew near the Lord's appointed spot,

Where ev'ry hope of earthly promise given

Seem'd sinking in one sacrifice to heaven.

Yet he had help to know a gracious Lord

Could never fail one tittle of his word:

And though his then(102) unconscious child was led

(102) And Abram took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son: and he took the fire in his hand,

Beneath his load to number with the dead,

The same dread power who ask'd the sacrifice

Might at his will command the dead to rise-(103)
To be restor❜d—though at his Maker's will

He bound that child, and raised the knife to kill.(104)

As Jacob's faith, when, on his lonely way,

He woke to rear the stone on which he lay,

To leave upon that spot if e'er so rude
A record of his humble gratitude,

That there God once had mercifully kept,
With angel guard, his pillow while he slept,
That he might well remember it was there,
Departing from his home, he knelt in pray'r;
Had told Jehovah, If thou wilt preserve, (105)

and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering ?”—Gen. xxii. 6.

(103) "Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.” -Hebrews xi. 19.

(104) See Gen. xxii. 10.

(105) ❝ And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me

And bring me back, Thee only will I serve,

Then shall this place on which I slept, be thine,
This place thy temple, here thy sacred shrine.

A trust which well maintain'd that faithful, when

Increas'd in wealth, he sought his home again :
With thankfulness exclaim'd,(106) O God, I know

I am not worthy that thou shouldst bestow
On me thy gifts, for with my staff alone

I pass'd this stream, an outcast and unknown,
And now, of thy great goodness, am possess'd
Of earthly goods, yea, all I have is bless'd.
Faith, as the faith of Moses,(107) who could bear,

bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again unto my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house."-Gen. xxviii. 20.

(106) “ And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me return into thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast shewed unto thy servant, for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands."-Gen. xxxii. 9.

(107) "By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to