Love divine did all create
For a blest eternal state:

Love divine (exulting tell!)
Man redeem'd from death and hell.

Love divine is high, intense,
Baffles science, reason, sense.
Love divine came down to earth:
Wisdom join'd to give it birth.

Love divine, our race to save,
Suffer'd sorrow and the grave.
Love divine is still the same:
Nought can quench its ardent flame.

Love divine! O charming sound!
Angels, bear the echo round!
Love divine inspire our song,

Fill each heart, and tune each tongue!'

"Do we desire to exult in some of the highest truths of the New Dispensation, which bring the divine name and nature to our apprehension with a clearness heretofore unknown,-to worship from the truths of celestial good, and thus to praise the Lord with the psaltery and harp? Surely, would we but elevate our hearts to the proper feeling, it may be done, and the Infinite Manifested" may be not unbecomingly adored in the following strains:

'Some seraph lend your heavenly tongue,

Or harp of golden string;

Help me to raise a lofty song

To our eternal King!

We would, great God, exalt thy name,

Thy majesty make known;

We would thy goodness loud proclaim,

And worship thee alone.

Thine Esse is a vast abyss,

Where finite thought is drown'd;

An ocean of infinities,

For angels too profound.

But cloth'd with human form divine,
Thine essence brought to view;
How mildly thy perfections shine,

With glories ever new!

We view the Father in the Son,

In thee, Incarnate Word!

Thine essence and thy person one,
Jehovah, Jesus, Lord!'

* John i. 18.

"Or if we desire to strike on the harp another glorious strain, and to celebrate those wonders of divine love and power,-the Lord's glorification of his Humanity, and redemption of mankind, by suffering himself to be assaulted with temptations; what more suitable language can be used for the purpose than the following?

Thy God his highest glory shews,

Jerusalem, in thee;

His yielding love to all his foes,

His deep humility.

All hail, O King!' the scoffing crowd,

With bending knee exclaim:

Whilst angels sing Hosannas loud,

And bless his holy name.

But what were these to that dread hour,

Gethsemane, in thee?

No tongue can tell what then he bore,

No human eye could see.

And in that still more awful gloom,
The cross's fearful night:-
There could no ray of comfort come
From heav'n's all-cheering light.

Now Satan triumph'd; 'Now,' he cried,
'Who shall my power oppose ?'-

But when the Son of Mary died,

The Son of God arose.

He finish'd, with his dying breath,
Redemption's grand design :

His Human bare our sins to death,

And then arose divine."

"Do we again desire to praise the Lord with the timbrel and pipe?" to raise a strain that breathes of spiritual love,-the love of goodness and truth? How shall we do so more expressively than by adopting the feeling of the following stanzas, and singing thus?

'Come, Love Divine, thy power impart!

Come Wisdom, from above!

Come Charity, possess the heart,

And prompt to deeds of love!

O God of truth, the gift is thine,
To those who truth obey:

O God of love, thy love shall shine
On all who own thy sway.

Now Love and Truth together meet:

Thus heavenly laws ordain:

And from their union, joy complete
Shall bless the earth again.

May ardent zeal our bosoms warm

To make each other blest!

Then Love and Truth, conjoin'd, shall form
Their heaven within the breast.'

"Are we desirous to praise with stringed instruments and organs ?" to exult in the innumerable truths, with their affections, which the Word, as unfolded to the New Church, discloses? Here the variety which the Selection before us offers, is almost unbounded: but perhaps it would be difficult to compress more truths of heavenly consolation into a small compass, and to express them with more ardent feeling, than in the following address to the soul on the prospeet of death:-may we all, when placed in that situation, as we all must be, ere long, be enabled to appropriate such sentiments with their proper confidence and delight!

Deathless principle, arise!
Soar, thou native of the skies!
Made for God, to God return!
All his wond'rous goodness learn!
Angels, joyful to attend,
Watchful o'er thy pillow bend,
Wait to catch the signal given,
And conduct thee quick to heaven,

Is thy earthly house distress'd,
Willing to retain its guest?
'Tis not thou, but it, must die:
Fly, celestial tenant, flý!
Shudder not to pass the stream!
Venture all thy care on him!
Not one object of his care
Ever suffer'd shipwreck there.

Saints in glory, perfect made,
Wait thy passage through the shade:
Ardent for thy coming o'er,

See! they throng the blissful shore !
Mount, their transports to improve!
Join the happy choir above!

Swiftly to their wish be given!

Kindle higher joy in heaven!'

"But as, before the soul is prepared fully to appropriate such triumphant strains as these, many vicissitudes will be experienced and many conflicts endured, it was necessary that the stringed instruments and organs' should here vary their tones: and it appears to me that the Collection is peculiarly rich in hymns which describe the alternations of state in the regenerate life, and the feelings of the mind when under temptation. When, for instance, there is no ability to raise a song of joy, but the spiritual traveller is only disposed to say, 'I mourn in my prayer and am vexed;

how applicable will be felt the following versification of part of Psalm cii. in which the words flow in the most perfect accordance with the sentiments, and the language of the Divine Word itself is so preserved as to come to the feelings with all its pathos and power:

' O Lord, thou know'st my soul's distress,

No longer at thy table fed:

While in the lonely wilderness,

In vain I seek the heavenly bread.

My bread is ashes; and my drink
Is mingled with the bitter tear:
By evils pressed, behold, I sink,
O'erwhelm'd by more than I can bear.
Now lifted up, and now cast down,
My days like flitting shadows pass:
Like to the desert owl I'm grown;
I'm wasted, like the wither'd grass.

Hide not thy face from me, O Lord!
Incline thine ear! on thee I call:
Only in thee, and in thy Word,

I seek for hope, for life, for all.' &c.

"But I must not continue these illustrations, or we might go through the whole book: I will conclude with one, which seems to speak with the voice of the cymbals.

"That Jesus reigns, let ev'ry nation hear,

And at his footstool bow with holy fear!
Let heaven's high arches echo with his name,
And the whole peopled earth his praise proclaim;
Wide and more wide the homage still extending,
Through space immense, and ages never ending!

He rules, with full unlimited command,
O'er the wide ocean and the steadfast land:
As sovereign Lord he rules supreme, alone,
And worlds unnumbered hang beneath his throne:
O'er all exalted reigns his Human Essence,
And in all space, without space, is his presence.

High raise the song! Let sweetest accents swell!
Tell of his greatness! of his goodness tell!-
But ah! how mean the highest notes we raise !
How far unworthy of the theme, our praise!

Fall, then, in silent homage fall before him,

And deep within your inmost hearts adore him!'

"I have selected these examples from those hymns which to us are new; but I need not say that the Collection contains many of equal excellence, with which we were before well acquainted. Altogether, I trust it will be

made the means of great benefit to the Lord's New Church. How far it will be a benefit to us individually, depends upon ourselves. To make it such, we must not read or sing its contents as mere amusement, or for the sake, only, of the harmony of the verse or of the music: we must ever endeavour to join with the words their proper affection; and as every affection of a heavenly character can only be insinuated into the mind from the Lord, we must, to use the book profitably, ever raise our hearts at the time towards him. By thus using this, and all the other means of improvement which Divine Mercy has put into our hands, accompanying always our exercises of devotion, our mental aspirations after purification and growth in heavenly graces, with the life of obedience to the divine commandments, we shall arrive at the enjoyment of every heavenly state and affection which these hymns describe and breathe, and all the sublime truths that they utter will become, not merely doctrines learned in the memory, but the spontaneous dictates of our own minds: all our affections and all our thoughts will flow in agreement with the Divine Love and Wisdom of the Lord,-with the laws and truths of his Holy Word; till at length every faculty of our constitution rises to his praise, and each, respectively, cries out within us, Praise him with the sound of the trumpet; praise him with the psaltery and harp: praise him with the timbrel and pipe: praise him with stringed instruments and organs: praise him upon the loud cymbals, praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.' 'Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord!'"

In justice to author of the above recommendatory effusion, we ought to say, that we understand the Sermon was prepared without the most remote view to publication, and was committed to the press on the spur of the moment, at the urgent request of the congregation. To save our own trouble, we have selected the passages which review the Hymn Book: had our principal intention been to recommend the Discourse, we should have made a different extract.

MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

SEVERAL Reports of Societies and Meetings have been published since our last; which afford ample evidence that the friends of the cause of pure Truth and Goodness, which is the cause of the New Church, are more active than ever, and that, all things considered, the cause itself is more prosperous than at any former period. The interesting extracts, however, which these Reports will afford us, are not so considerable as might be expected from their number; not from any deficiency in the Reports themselves, but because much of the most interesting part of their contents has been anticipated in former numbers of our work. In order of time, the first is the