Alighting by that road on earth,
Th' Avenging Spirit beckon'd forth
Th' apostate pair from Eden's happy realm;
Or, when no longer wrath could sleep,
He bade the very heavens weep,

And with their tears a godless world o'erwhelm :
So, when in front of Judah's King
Assyria's hosts were marshalling,

He pluck'd a red flame from his sheath,
And smote th' encamped phalanxes with death;
Or, curbing headlong crime with penal rein,
He swept with fire the city-tufted plain,
Or blew o'er Egypt's range his pestilential breath.
Hark! for the voice of battle wakes!/

The noise of rushing chariot shakes

Yon cloven skies; the smould'ring clouds explode;
The LORD'S Sabaoth hover nigh,
Caparison'd in majesty ;

Again the path of judgment must be trod;
For insult and iniquity

Again for list'ning vengeance cry,

And vengeance speeds him from afar,

To brandish o'er the nations direful war.

Ah! stay from Albion's coasts thy fury's tide;
Ah! turn the rod, though blossoming,* aside;

And spare, 'tis mercy pleads,-Angel of Vengeance, spare!
Thrice hail! JEHOVAH's witnesses,
Thrice hail! ye ministers of His,

That do his pleasure, and his mandates sound
That wield his curses in your hands,
Or rain them o'er the guilty lands;

Most venerable, potent, and renown'd!
Who shall not on your mighty ways
With no irrev'rent wonder gaze?

Who shall not think of Him, your Head?
So great his princes, then Himself how dread!
But, are ye alway clad in terror's guise,

;

And, save in stern and solemn ministries,
Have ye not e'er below your peerless pomp display'd?
When erst the weary Patriarch slept,

And wand'ring winds around him swept,
Beheld he not in dreams your countless band?
Beheld, but with no dreamer's eye,"-
It was the glance of prophecy,-

The scroll of promise its fair page expand;
And whilst o'er scenes of distant good,
Dim specks on Time's dark-flowing flood,
Fancy could wearilessly stroll,

Your circling glories rivetted his soul :-
So, when at night-watch Judah's honour'd seer
Deep mus'd, some kind-descending Messenger
Soft on his solitude, with news of mercy, stole.
With robes of sanctity endued,
The Priest beside the altar stood;
"Twas ZACHARIAS, weigh'd and worn by age :
But GABRIEL came in brightness down,
And with the prospect of a son

Made glad the bosom of the childless sage.
When at Bethesda's every gate
The cripple and the leper sate,

He stirr'd the waters of the pool,

And spake to plunging multitudes, "Be whole."
And in the shades of "dread Gethsemane,"

And in the hour of JESU's agony,

He came, with words untold, to strengthen, soothe, console!

* Ezek. vii. 10.

Strike, strike! and from each bending string
Its notes of exultation wring:
There is a path of Mercy through the sky!
Across yon azure wilds of air

It downward winds; nor seldom there
The Bow of Cov'nant hangs its canopy :
"Twas by that road ye flew to tell
The birth of our IMMANUEL ;

"Twas by that road He hither flew,

On halcyon plume, a SAVIOUR's work to do ;
And when 'twas done, remounting by that road,
He mark'd the consecrated track with blood,
That we might learn the way, and mount to glory too.
SAVIOUR!-to whom my strain I bring,
My lowly, loyal offering,-

What excellencies cluster not in Thee?
The arm to slay, the heart to bless,
Omnipotence, and tenderness,

A sov'reign's grandeur,-brother's sympathy!
For thou could'st stoop with men to dwell,
Incarnate GOD! IMMANUEL!

And then for men wert crucified :

Heights! depths! to reach of finite minds denied:
O Cherubim, to you 'tis mystery!

O Seraphim, ye cannot love like me,

For whom the Prince of Love, despis'd, rejected, died!--
-And lives again! my suit to plead,

To guide my steps, and guard my head,

And help and hope, and peace and power afford.
Yea! ever as my need shall be,

With thy" dear might " encompass me,

Thou Angel of the Presence of the LORD!
Then onward dauntlessly I'll press
O'er ocean, steep, or wilderness.
And ah! if thou sustain my faith,
Haply I could with thee descend beneath,
Where chilling airs, and mists funereal fall,
And midnight heaves her sombre-spreading pall,
The sepulchre of man, the noiseless vale of death.
When this poor body droops and dies,
Its strength in desolation lies,

And all is pain, and tremor, and decay,
When, as the gates of Zion ope,
These eyes to thee are lifted up,

While their last light is languishing away;
Then send me from thy holy hill

Thine Angels, to befriend me still,
And, all the world's endearments fled,
Curtain with unfurl'd wings affliction's bed:
So be my chamber, 'neath their sweet controul,
The sanctuary of a suff'ring soul,

Where rays of Paradise their gradual glory shed.
Then, welcome joys invisible,
Transcending thought, ineffable!

Fruition and Eternity be mine!

Welcome the' assembly of the blest,
Whose myriad voices never rest,

But in one long triumphant anthem join!
Yet, when I mingle with the throng,
That to the upper church belong,
This, this my first desire shall be ;

Give me the sight of HIM who ransom'd me!
JESU! of all the good to Angels given,
Of all the beauty and the bliss of heaven,-

Bliss, Beauty, Heaven itself,-I ask a sight of THEE!

Printed by T. Cordeux, 14, City-Road, London.

ALEC.

Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine,

FOR DECEMBER, 1823.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF MISS MARY DOLBELL, OF JERSEY,
BY THE REV. WILLIAM TOASE.

THE late MISS MARY DOLBELL was naturally of a mild and gentle disposition; and was much beloved by all who knew her. Like most young people, who are strangers to the power of religion on the mind, and whose circumstances enable them to enjoy the world, she was, however, fond of fashionable amusements; and, having the means at command, she mixed much in gay parties, and sought happiness in vain and fleeting objects.-When she was about seventeen years of age, her father, MR. J. DOLBELL, then a respectable and affluent Merchant, experienced a change in his circumstances, as painful as it was unexpected. To this trying dispensation of Divine Providence, Miss D. submitted with becoming fortitude, and with a degree of resignation. She was often the subject of great bodily weakness and pain; and frequently, in her affliction, certain passages of the Holy Scriptures occurred to her mind, which convinced her that she was not in the way of peace and salvation. After some time she began to attend the ministry of the Wesleyan Preachers, then stationed in Jersey. She did not long sit under the Word of the Gospel before she was gently drawn to seek the LORD: nor did she rest till she obtained a clear sense of God's pardoning love by faith in the LORD JESUS.In reference to this great blessing, she writes as follows:

"January 17th, 1819. The Sacrament of the LORD's Supper was administered; and it was truly a blessing to my soul. Previously to my receiving it, I was full of doubts and fears; but during that ordinance, they were all removed. The justifying and cleansing blood of CHRIST was applied; and I had reason to cry to my Almighty FATHER, to enlarge my faith's capacity wider and yet wider still.' Since that time, I have felt more settled peace; and those things which once troubled and irritated my mind, have not now any power over me."

VOL. II. Third Series. DECEMBER, 1823.

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