And brazen trumpets rend the air, A soldier of salvation's Lord, His hour of triumph now is come; Gladly he listens to the word, That bids him onward to the tomb. Nor Sweden's Lion of the North* More glorious fell on Lutzen's plain,Crowned with the diadem of worth, Deathless, though numbered with the slain, Than sinks the hoary saint to sleep, Where children round the grandsire weep. Yes:-on that lowly couch he lies, By kings unheeded, but by God Called to the armies of the skies; And though above the humble sod, That soon shall shroud his mortal part, No blazoned trophies meet the day--A few shall say, "In heaven thou art, Thine is eternal Zion's ray:" And splendour higher far is thine, Than lingered e'er round monarch's shrine. Gustavus Adolphus. LOVE DUE TO GOD. (From Psalm xviii.) LYTE. WHOм should we love like Thee, The rock to which we cling? O, for a thousand tongues to shew The storm upon us fell, The floods around us rose, The depths of death and hell Seemed on our souls to close: To God we cried in strong despair; He heard, and came to help our prayer. He came, the King of kings, He bowed the sable sky; And, on the tempest's wings, Walked down serene from high: The earth beneath his footsteps shook, The mountains quaked at his rebuke. Above the storm he stood, And awed it to repose; He drew us from the flood, And scattered all our foes: He set us in a spacious place, And there upholds us by his grace. Whom should we love like Thee, The rock to which we cling? O, for a thousand tongues to shew SINNERS CALLED IN VARIOUS WAYS TO REPENTANCE. WOODWARD. SOME, in arriving at saving knowledge, pass through the deepest shades of an affrighted conscience. The terrors of God set themselves in array against them. Before this, the sinner had, like the world around him, slept on, and taken his rest. But he now starts from his dreams; and, like some criminal upon the morning of his execution, wakes only to the conviction of the sentence that is past, and of the gulph that lies before him. "The sorrows of death encompass him-the pains of hell get hold upon him." In short, no language can describe the horrors of that man who feels himself under the wrath of God; and before whose view eternity rises without hope. But these dark clouds are sometimes big with mercy. Amidst these terrors a voice is heard to say-"Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world." The sinner is given to see, by faith, that sacrifice on whom his iniquities are laid. He learns, and understands, that the pardon of all his sins is in entire accordance with the unbending justice and unchangeable righteousness of God. The doors of his prison-house are now open, and he can come forth; he can look abroad, and see all Nature smile around him; he can lift up his the pure heavens, and cry, "Abba, Father." eyes to Others are led to seek salvation by a sense, not so much of the danger, as of the misery of sin. Persons in their natural state are ignorant of themselves. Many a man who prides himself on his knowledge of the world, is at home every where but in his own breast; and, wonderful to say, is a stranger to his own motives. His constant habit of appearing to others different from what he is, re-acts and recoils upon himself; and thus he takes his estimate of himself from the character he has established in the world. From my own experience as a clergyman, I can testify to the truth of this. I find such self-deception one of the greatest obstacles to my ministry. I find men often, not so much unwilling, as unable to take advice. And this, because the motives which I can clearly perceive to actuate them, are hidden from themselves. This is a strange delusion; nay, how great is that darkness! When the Spirit of God begins to move, then, on such a mind,-when he designs a new creation there, and, as at the first creation, says, "Let there be light,"-things strange and unknown before are made manifest to the awakened sinner. And often does the man, who was looked up to by the world, and who sincerely thought that all was well deserved, appear to himself, by this higher light, to be the slave of inward corruption -of the lowest principles, the most paltry motives, and the foulest passions. Pride-festering with wounds, and sickening with mortifications, which the proud man would not own, even to himself. Malice-which cursed in secret, when the countenance was clothed in servility and smiles. Impure desires-withdrawn from the eye of man, and indulged in before the pure and holy God. Such is the misery of indwelling sin. But out of this misery we have no power, of ourselves, to rise. We may hate sin, and feel its load, and pant for liberty. But we shall find a law of sin within us, too strong for all our wishes and resolutions. We shall do the very things we despise ourselves for doing; and return to those sins which we feel to be the burden of our existence. When we become deeply convinced of our weakness and wretchedness, Christ is not slow or impotent to save. The Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. And when he is apprehended by that faith which realizes its Y |