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