In ages past all glorious was thy land,
And lovely were thy borders, Palestine!
The heavens were wont to shed their influence bland
On all those mountains and those vales of thine;
For o’er thy coasts resplendent then did shine
The light of God’s approving countenance,
With rapturous glow of blessedness divine;
And, ’neath the radiance of that mighty glance,
Bask’d the wide-scatter’d isles o’er ocean’s blue expanse.
But there survives a tinge of glory yet
O’er all thy pastures and thy heights of green,
Which, though the lustre of thy day hath set,
Tells of the joy and splendour which hath been:
So some proud ruin, ’mid the desert seen
By traveller, halting on his path awhile,
Declares how once beneath the light serene
Of brief prosperity’s unclouded smile,
Uprose in grandeur there some vast imperial pile.
O Thou, who through the wilderness of old
Thy people to their promis’d rest did’st bring,
Hasten the days by prophet-bards foretold,
When roses shall again be blossoming
In Sharon, and Siloa’s cooling spring
Shall murmur freshly at the noon-tide hour;
And shepherds oft in Achor’s vale shall sing[Z]
The mysteries of that redeeming power
Which hath their ashes chang’d for beauty’s sunniest bower.[AA]
Thou had’st a plant of thy peculiar choice
A fruitful vine from Egypt’s servile shore
Thou mad’st it in the smile of heav’n rejoice;
But the ripe clusters which awhile it bore
Now purple on the verdant hills no more,
The wild-boar hath upon its branches trod;
Yet once again thy choicest influence pour,
Transplant it from this dim terrestrial sod,
To adorn with deathless bloom the paradise of God.
Wadh. Coll. Oxon.
FOOTNOTES:
[Z] Isaiah xv. 10.
[AA] Isaiah lxi. 3.
Miscellaneous.
Influence of Religion on a State.—Religious faith is necessarily and unavoidably political in its influence and bearings, and eminently so. Christians are generally well informed—and knowledge is power. They have there in Christian countries, as citizens and subjects, directly and indirectly, a large share of influence in the state. In most Christian states, if not in all—for a state could hardly be called Christian, if it were not so—Christianity is made a party of common law, and, when occasion demands, is recognised as such by the judicial tribunals. It is eminently so in Great Britain; it is so in America; and generally throughout Europe. It is also, to a great extent, established by constitutional law, and thus incorporated with the political fabric, furnishing occasion for an extended code of special statutes. The great principles of Christianity pervade the frame of society, and its morals are made the standard. The second table of the decalogue is adopted throughout as indispensable to the well-being of the state; and a thousand forms of legislation are attempted to secure the ends of the great and comprehensive Christian precept—“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” More especially is it deemed the highest perfection of civilized life and manners, in the code of conventional politeness, to exemplify this latter divine injunction. Otherwise life would be much less comfortable—hardly tolerable.—A Voice from America to England.