REMARK.

The foregoing lines, independent of their spiritual meaning, are a moft delicate and beautiful description of country fcenes, furpaffing in charms the defcriptive poetry even in Thompfon's Seasons.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE DESOLATING MARCH OF AN

ARMY OF LOCUSTS.

Joel 2d Chap.

18....A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a defolate wildernefs; yea, and nothing fhall efcape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horfes; and as horsemen, so fhall they run. Like the noife of chariots on the tops of mountains fhall they leap, like the noife of a flame of fire that devoureth the flubble, and a ftrong people fet in battle array.

19....They fhall run like mighty men they fhall climb the wall like men of war; and they fhall march every one on his ways, and they fhall not break their ranks neither fhall one thruft another, they fhall walk every one in his path. They fhall run to and fro in the city; they fhall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the houfes; they fhall enter in at the windows like a thief. The Sun and the moon fhall be dark, (by reafon of the swarms of locufts that fill the air) and the ftars thall withdraw their fhining.

REMARK.

It is gratifying to compare this with the correfponding defcriptions, which modern travellers give of the maich of locufts through the land of Syria -keeping their ranks like difciplined troops, and their frightful progrels every where marked with utter defolation.

CHAPTER XXIII.

BABYLON STREAMS; AN ELEGY.

BY

1... Y the rivers of Babylon there we fat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midft thereof. For there, they who carried us away captive required of us a fong; and they who wafted us requir ed of us mirth, faying, fing us one of the fongs of Zi

on.

2.... How fhall we fing the Lord's fong in a ftrange land! It I forget thee, O Jerufalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.-If I prefer not Jerufalem above my chief joy.

O daughter of Babylon, who art to be deftroyed; happy the man that rewardeth thee, as thou haft ferved

us.

CHAPTER XXIV.

AN ABSTRACT OF JEREMIAH'S ELEGY ON THE BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY.

1....

How

OW doth the city fit folitary that was full of people! How has fhe become a widow! She weepeth fore in the night, her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her.

2.... Judah is gone into captivity; the dwelleth among the heathen, the findeth no reft. The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the folemn feafts all her gates are defolate: her priests figh, her virgins are afflicted, and fhe is in bitterness.

From

the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed; her enemies profper, and her children have gone into captivity.

3.... Jerufalem remembered in the days of her affliction, and of her miferies, all the pleasant things which fhe had in the days of old. Jerufalem hath grievoufly finned; therefore fhe is removed: all who honored her, defpife her, because they have feen her fhame. adverfaries faw her, and did mock at her Sabbaths.

Her

4....Zion fpreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her: the remembered not her last end; therefore the came down wonderfully; fhe had no comforter. All her people figh, they feek bread; they have given their pleafant things for meat to relieve the foul.

5....Is it nothing to you, all ye who pafs by ? Behold, and fee if there be any forrow like unto my forrow. For these things I weep: mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that fhould relieve my foul is far from me.

6....My children are defolate: I called for my lovers, but they deceived me; my priefts and mine elders gave up the ghoft in the city, while they fought their meat to relieve their fouls.

7....Behold, O Lord, for I am in diftrefs; my bowels are troubled: mine heart is turned within me; for 1 have grievously rebelled: abroad the fword bereaveth, and at home there is as death. My fighs are many, and my heart is faint they have heard that I figh, and that there is none to comfort me: all mine enemies have heard of my troubles; they are glad that thou hast done it.

8....How hath the Lord covered the daughters of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and caft down the beauty

of Ifrael! All who pafs by clap their hands at thee; they hifs and wag their head at the daughter of Jerufalem, faying, Is this the city that men call the pertection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth ?

9....The elders of the daughter of Zion fit upon the ground, and keep filence: they have caft up duft upon their heads; they have girded themselves with fackcloth the virgins of Jerufalem hang down their heads to the ground. Mine eyes do fail with tears, for the deftruction of the daughters of my people; because the children and the fucklings fwoon in the ftreets of the city.

10....They fay to their mothers, Where is bread, and what fhall we drink? When they fwooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their foul was poured out into their mother's bofom.

11.... What thing fhall I take to witnefs for thee? What thing fhall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerufalem? What fhall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daugter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the fea; who can heal thee?

12.... Daughter of Zion, let tears run down like ariv. er day and night; give thy felt no reft; let not the apple of thine eye ceale. Arile, cry out in the night; in the beginning of the watches pour out thy heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, who faint for hunger in the top of every freet.

13...Behold, O Lord, and confider to whom thou haft done this. Shall the women eat the fruit of their own body? Shall the priest and the prophet be flain in the fanctuary of the Lord ? the young and the old lie on the ground in the fireets; my virgins and my young men are fallen by the fword; thofe whom I have iwaddled and brought up hath mine enemy confumed,

14....How is the gold become dim! How is the moft fine gold changed! The precious fons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers!..

15....The tongue of the fucking child cleaveth to the root of his mouth for thirst; the young children afk bread, and no man breaketh it unto them. They who did feed delicately are defolate in the street; they that were brought up, in fcarlet embrace dunghills.

16....The Nazarites were purer than Tnow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of fapphire: their visage is (now) blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

17....They who be flain with the fword are better than they that be flain with hunger; for thefe pine away in a lingering death.

18....Even the tender-hearted and pitiful fex, the women, have fodden their children for food; this was their meat in the fiege of the city. The punishment of the iniquity of my people is greater than the punishment of the fin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and did not fuffer the lingering torments of famine.

19...Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us : confider, and behold our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens. We are orphans and fatherlels, our mothers are as widows. Our necks are under perfecution; we labour, and have no reft.

20....Servants have ruled over us : there is none who doth deliver us out of their hand. Our skin was black like an oven, because of the terrible famine.