THE SONG OF STEAM.

Harness me down with your iron bands,
Be sure of your curb and rein,

For I scorn the power of your puny hands,
As the tempest scorns a chain.

How I laughed, as I lay concealed from sight
For many a countless hour,
At the childish boast of human might,
And the pride of human power!
When I saw an army upon the land,
A navy upon the seas,
Creeping along, a snail-like band,

Or waiting the wayward breeze;
When I marked the peasant faintly reel
With the toil which he daily bore,
As he feebly turned at the tardy wheel,
Or tugged at the weary oar;

When I measured the panting courser's speed, The flight of the carrier dove,

As they bore the law a king decreed,

Or the lines of impatient love;

I could not but think how the world would feel,
As these were outstripped afar,

When I should be bound to the rushing keel,
Or chained to the flying car.

Ha ha ha! they found me at last;

They invited me forth at length,

And I rushed to my throne with thunder blast,
And laughed in my iron strength.

Oh, then ye saw a wonderous change
On the earth and ocean wide,
Where now my fiery armies range,
Nor wait for wind or tide.

Hurrah! hurrah! the waters o'er
The mountains steep decline;
Time-space-have yielded to my power-
The world! the world is mine!

The rivers the sun hath earliest blest,
Or those where his beams decline,
The giant streams of the queenly west,
Or the orient floods divine.

The ocean pales where'er I sweep,
To hear my strength rejoice;
And the monsters of the briny deep
Cower, trembling, at my voice.

I carry the wealth and the lord of earth,
The thoughts of the god-like mind;
The wind lags after my flying forth,
The lightning is left behind.

In the darksome depths of the fathomless mine
My tireless arm doth play,

Where the rocks never saw the sun decline,
Or the dawn of the glorious day.
I bring earth's glittering jewels up
From the hidden cave below,
And I make the fountain's granite cup
With a crystal gush o'erflow.

I blow the bellows, I forge the steel,
In all the shops of trade;

I hammer the ore, and turn the wheel,

Where my arms of strength are made;
I manage the furnace, the mill, the mint;
I carry, I spin, I weave;

And all my doings I put into print
On every Saturday eve.

I've no muscle to weary, no breast to decay,
No bones to be "laid on the shelf,"
And soon I intend you "may go and play,"
While I manage the world by myself.
But harness me down with your iron bands,
Be sure of your curb and rein,

For I scorn the strength of your puny hands,
As the tempest scorns a chain.

Anon.

PROPHECIES CONCERNING CHRIST.

[BEILBY PORTEUS, an eminent English prelate, was born at York in 1731, and died in 1808. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1787 he was appointed to the bishopric of London, over which diocese he continued to preside till his death. Bishop Porteus was a man of deep erudition and considerable ability.]

THE word Messiah signifies anointed, that is, a person appointed to some high station, dignity, or office; because, originally, among the eastern nations, men so appointed, particularly kings, priests, and prophets, were anointed with oil. Hence, the word Messiah means the person preordained and appointed by God to be the great Deliverer of the Jewish nation, and the Redeemer of all mankind. The word Christ means the same thing.

Now it was foretold concerning the Messiah, that he should come before the sceptre departed from Judah, that is, before the Jewish government was destroyed (Gen. xlix. 10); and, accordingly, Christ appeared a short time before the period when the Jewish government was totally overthrown by the Romans.

It was foretold that he should come before the destruction of the second temple: "The Desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts; the glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former" (Haggai ii. 7, 9). Accordingly, Christ appeared some time before the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem by the Romans.

It was foretold, by the prophet Daniel, that he should come at the end of 490 years after the rebuilding of Jerusalem, which had been laid waste during the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, and that he should be cut off; and that, afterwards, the city and sanctuary of Jerusalem should be destroyed and made desolate (Dan. ix. 26). And, accordingly, at what time soever the beginning of the 490 years can, according to any fair interpretation of the words, be fixed, the end of them will fall about the time of Christ's appearing and it is well known how entirely the city and

sanctuary were destroyed by the Romans some years after he was cut off and crucified.

It was foretold that he should perform many great and beneficial miracles-that the eyes of the blind should be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped-that the lame man should leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing (Isa. xxxv. 5); and this we know was literally fulfilled in the miracles of Christ: the blind received their sight, the lame walked, the deaf heard.

It was foretold that he should die a violent death-that he would be wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities—that the chastisement of our peace should be upon him, and that with his stripes we should be healed -that God would lay on him the iniquity of us all (Isa. liii.; Dan. ix. 26); all which was exactly accomplished in the sufferings of Christ, "who died for our sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter iii. 18).

It was foretold that to him should the gathering of the people be, and that God would give him the heathen for his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for his possession (Ps. ii. 8); which was punctually fulfilled by the wonderful success of the gospel, and its universal propagation throughout the world.

Lastly, many minuter circumstances were told of the great Deliverer, or Redeemer, that was to come- -that he should be born of a virgin-that he should be of the tribe of Judah, and the seed of David-that he should be born in the town of Bethlehem--that he should ride upor an ass, in humble triumph, into the city of Jerusalem-that he should be a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefthat he should be sold for thirty pieces of silver-that he should be scourged, buffeted, and spit upon-that he should be numbered with the transgressors (that is, should be crucified, as he was, between two thieves)-that he should have gall and vinegar given him to drink-that they who saw him crucified should mock at him, and at his trusting in God to deliver him—that the soldiers should cast lots for his garments-that he should make his grave with the

rich and that he should rise again without seeing corruption.*

All these circumstances, it is well known, were foretold, and, to the greatest possible exactness, fulfilled in the person of Christ.

What now shall we say to these things? Here are upwards of twenty different particulars, many of them of a very extraordinary nature, which it was foretold, 700 years before our Saviour was born, would all meet in him, and which did all actually meet in his person. Is not this a most extraordinary consideration? There are but three possible suppositions that can be made concerning it: either that this was a mere fortuitous coincidence, arising entirely from chance and accident; or that these prophecies were written after the events had taken place; or, lastly, that they were real predictions, delivered many years before the events came to pass, and all fulfilled in Christ. That any

one should by chance hit upon so many things, which should all prove true, and prove true concerning one and the same person, though several of them were of such a nature as were unlikely to happen singly, and by far the greatest part of which had never before happened singly to any person whatever-this, I say, exceeds all bounds of credibility, and all power of conjecture or calculation.

That these prophecies were not written or delivered after the things predicted had happened, is most certain; because they are found in books which existed long before these events came to pass-that is, in the books of the Old Testament; and the Jews themselves, the mortal enemies of Christ and his religion, acknowledge that these prophecies were in those books, exactly as we now see them, many hundred years before Christ came into the world.

The books themselves were in their own keeping, in the keeping of our adversaries, who would undoubtedly take effectual care that nothing favourable to Christ should be fraudulently inserted into them. The Jews were our

* Isa. vii. 14; Micah v.; Zech. xi. 12; Isa. liii. 12; 1. 6; Ps. lxix. 22; xxiv. 7-18; Isa. liii. 9; Ps, xvi, 10.

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