Like Lazarus unsepulchered,—
Forsaken in the bonds of death,
All stinking with corruption’s breath;
Yet when her Head the word has spoken
The stone is raised; Death’s power is broken;
The Patron’s power disappears,
And we’ll have praise instead of tears.
The “State of the World,” or the worldly, is another poem of considerable merit. It not unlikely represents much of the style of thinking and manner of the bard in his preaching addresses. Indeed our religious bards in general give us a good deal of general preaching and exhortation in their productions. Buchanan has done so; so has Macgregor; while Grant’s hymns, as well as those of Dr Macdonald, are very much evangelical sermons in verse. The following translation is as literal as the exigencies of rhyme and metre can admit:—
THE WORLDLY.
When proudly they stand