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There the Arab shall not pitch his tent,

Nor the shepherds make their flocks to lie down there.
But there the wild beasts of the desert shall lie down,
And howling monsters shall fill their houses;
There the ostriches shall dwell,

And the satyrs shall revel there.

The jackals shall howl in their palaces,

And the dragons in their magnificent pleasure-houses;
For her time is near,

And her days shall not be prolonged.

Then it shall come to pass, that thou shalt

Utter this song over the king of Babylon, and say,

How hath the oppressor, the exactor of golden tribute ceased! Jehovah hath broken the staff of the wicked,

The rod of the tyrants.

The whole earth is at rest, they break forth into song.

The fir-trees also exult over thee, Babylon,

And the cedars of Lebanon say,

Since thou art cast down, no axe-man has come up against us.

All the kings of the nations will accost thee, and say,

Art thou also become feeble, as we are,

And become like unto us?

Those that gaze upon thee shall say,

Is this the man who made the earth to quake,

And legions to tremble?

Who made the earth a desert,

And laid waste the cities thereof ?

Who dismissed not his prisoners to their homes?

All the kings of the nations, yea, all, repose in glory,

Every one in his own place;

But thou art cast out from thy sepulchre

As a loathsome branch; as the raiment of those
That are slain, thrust through with the sword,

That go down to the stones of the pit;

As a carcass trodden under foot!

I will make it, Babylon, a possession for the porcupine
And for pools of water, and will sweep it with the
Besom of destruction, saith Jehovah, Lord of hosts!
MOSES STUART'S TRANSLATION.

18. THE HEBREW MINSTREL'S LAMENT.

FROM the hills of the West, as the sun's setting beam.
Cast his last ray of glory o'er Jordan's lone stream,
While his fast-falling tears with its waters were blent,
Thus poured a poor minstrel his saddened lament :

"Awake, harp of Judah, that slumbering hast hung
On the willows that weep where thy prophets have sung;
Once more wake for Judah thy wild notes of woe,

Ere the hand that now strikes thee lies mouldering and low.

"Ah, where are the choirs of the glad and the free
That woke the loud anthem responsive to thee,,
When the daughters of Salem broke forth in the song,
While Tabor and Hermon its echoes prolong?

"And where are the mighty, who went forth in pride
To the slaughter of kings, with their ark at their side?
They sleep, lonely stream, with the sands of thy shore,
And the war-trumpet's blast shall awake them no more.

"O Judah, a lone, scattered remnant remain,
To sigh for the graves of their fathers in vain,
And to turn toward thy land with a tear-brimming eye,
And a prayer that the advent of Shiloh be nigh.

"No beauty in Sharon, on Carmel no shade;
Our vineyards are wasted, our altars decayed;
And the heel of the heathen, insulting, has trod
On the bosoms that bled for their country and God."
NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE, 1832, page 60. "Z."

19. JERUSALEM AVENGED.

BABYLON was captured by the Persians about the year 538 B. C., during a night of royal debauchery, when the king, Belshazzar, made conspicuous use of the golden vessels of the Jewish Temple, which Nebuchadnezzar had stolen. King Cyrus, the Persian, diverted the Euphrates River from its bed, and entered the city by the empty channel. The prediction of Isaiah, uttered about the year 712 B. C., was fulfilled as to Babylon, and every new discovery adds confirmation to its accuracy.

THE king was on his throne; the satraps thronged the hall;
A thousand bright lights shone o'er that high festival.
A thousand cups of gold, in Judah deemed divine,
Jehovah's vessels, held the godless heathen's wine.

In that same hour and hall, the fingers of a hand
Came forth against the wall, and wrote as if in sand;
The fingers of a man, a solitary hand,

Along the letters ran, and traced them like a wand.

The monarch saw and shook, and bade no more rejoice;
All bloodless waxed his look, and tremulous his voice :
"Let the men of lore appear, the wisest of the earth,
And expound the words of fear which mar our royal mirth."

Chaldea's seers are good, but here they have no skill,
And the unknown letters stood untold and awful still.
And Babel's men of age are wise and deep in lore,

But now they were not sage; they saw, but knew no more.

A captive in the land, a stranger and a youth,
He heard the king's command, he saw that writing's truth.
The lamps around were bright, the prophecy in view;
He read it on that night; the morning proved it true:

"Belshazzar's grave is made, his kingdom passed away;
He, in the balance weighed, is light and worthless clay;
The shroud his robe of state, his canopy the stone;
The Mede is at his gate, the Persian on his throne."

BYRON.

20. A NATION'S STRENGTH.

Psalm xxxiii.

LET all the earth fear the Lord :

Let all the inhabitants of the earth stand in awe of him:
For He spake and it was done. He commanded and it stood
fast.

The Lord bringeth the counsels of nations to naught,
He maketh the thoughts of the people to be of no effect.

The counsel of the Lord standeth forever,
The thoughts of his heart to all generations.

Blessed is that nation whose God is the Lord,
The people whom he hath chosen as his inheritance.

The Lord looketh down from heaven,

He beholdeth all the sons of men;

From the place of his habitation he looketh forth

Upon all the inhabitants of the earth,

He that fashioneth the hearts of them all,

That considereth all their works.

There is no king that is saved by the multitude of an host, A mighty man is not delivered by great strength;

An horse is a vain thing for safety,

Neither shall he deliver any by his great power.

Behold, the
eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him,
Upon them that hope in his mercy.

21.

THE PATRIOT'S CRY.

PARAPHRASE OF PSALM CXXXVII.

Verses 1, 2, and 3.

By Babylon's still waters we sat down and wept;
Yea, we wept as we thought of Zion, our pride;
And we hung our mute harps, once in harmony swept,
On the willows that mournfully bent o'er the tide:
For they who had carried us captives away

Would awaken our bosoms to gladness once more,-
Our spoilers commanded that Salem's sweet lay
Should be breathed from our lips on Assyria's shore.

Verses 4, 5, and 6.

But how could we sing the high song of the Lord
In the land of the stranger, or yield us to mirth,
When back to our bosoms, on every loved word,

Would cluster regrets for the land of our birth?
O Jerusalem dear, when no remembrance shall come
Of thy splendors and glories to darken my heart,
Let my tongue be in silence perpetual dumb,
Let my hand be forgetful of cunning or art.

Verses 7, 8, and 9.

Remember the children of Edom, O God,

When the day of Jerusalem's vengeance is found.
Oh, blast with thy lightning, and smite with thy sword,
All who shouted, "Raze, raze her proud walls to the
ground!"

And thou, O daughter of Babylon, doomed to the dust,
Blest ever be he that rewardeth thy crime,

Who meteth thee measure thou gavest to us,

And leaveth thee, shattered, to ruin and time!

HENRY B. CARRINGTON.

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