網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

ASCENSION.

LIFT up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.

Who is this King of glory? The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of glory.--Psalm xxiv. 9, 10.

Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.--Psalm 1xviii. 18.

While they beheld, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

And while they looked steadfastly toward Heaven, as He went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel;

Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into Heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven.-Acts, i. 9, 10, 11.

Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.--Ephesians, iv. 9, 10.

LIFT up your heads, ye everlasting gates,
And give the King of glory to come in;
Who is the King of glory? He who left
His throne of glory for the pang of death;
Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates,
And give the King of glory to come in;
Who is the King of glory? He who slew
The ravenous foe that gorged all human race!
The King of glory, He whose glory filled
Heaven with amazement at His love to man,
And with divine complacency beheld
Powers most illumined wildered in the theme.

Lift up your heads, ye gates, and O prepare,
Ye living orbs, your everlasting doors,

The King of glory comes!

Young.

What King of glory? He, whose puissant might Subdued Abaddon, and the infernal powers

Of darkness bound in adamantine chains:

Who, wrapt in glory, with the Father reigns,
Omnipotent, immortal, infinite!

James Scott.

Majestical He rose Upborne, and steered a flight of gentlest wing His native Heaven to gain; whilst from their eye, That to its centre fixed, in mute survey Pursued the ascending glory, a bright cloud, Of bidden access, his latest presence caught: By angel forms supported, who in song, Not unperceived, and choral symphony. Through Heaven's wide empyrean loud rejoiced. Thomas Hughes.

Now, O my soul,

On the blest summit light a holy flame!

From the last foot-print of the Prince of Peace,
The conqueror of death, let incense rise,
And enter Heaven with thine ascending Lord!
Shake off the chains, and all the dust of earth!
Go up and breathe in the sweet atmosphere
His presence purified, as He arose!

Hannah F. Gould.

Oh! what a night was that which wrapt
The heathen world in gloom:

Oh! what a sun that broke this day
Triumphant from the tomb!

Jesus, the friend of human kind,
With strong compassion moved,
Descended, like a pitying God,
To save the souls He loved.

The powers of darkness leagued in vain
To bind His soul in death:

He shook their kingdom, when He fell,
With His expiring breath.

And now His conquering chariot wheels
Ascend the lofty skies;

While broke beneath His powerful cross,
Death's iron sceptre lies.

Mrs. Barbauld.

ATHEISM.

THE wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.--Psalm x. 4.

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.--Psalm xiv. 1. And they say, How doth God know; and is there knowledge in the Most High!--Psalm lxxiii. 11.

Is not God in the height of Heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!

And thou sayest, How doth God know? can he judge through the dark cloud?--Job, xxii. 12, 13.

For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water, and in the water.--II. Peter, iii. 5.

Having no hope, and without God in the world.--Ephesians, ii. 12.

"THERE is no God," the fool in secret said:
"There is no God that rules or earth or sky."
Tear off the band that binds the wretch's head,
That God may burst upon his faithless eye!
Is there no God?-The stars in myriads spread,
If he look up, the blasphemy deny;

While his own features, in the mirror read,
Reflect the image of Divinity.

Is there no God?-The stream that silver flows,

The air he breathes, the ground he treads, the trees,
The flowers, the grass, the sands, each wind that blows,
All speak of God; throughout, one voice agrees,
And, eloquent, His dread existence shows:
Blind to thyself, ah, see him, fool, in these!

Giovanni Cotta.

Hardening by degrees, till double steel'd,
Take leave of Nature's God, and God reveal'd-
Then laugh at all you trembled at before;
And, joining the freethinker's brutal war,
Swallow the two grand nostrums they dispense-
That Scripture lies, and blasphemy is sense;

If clemency, revolted by abuse

Be damnable, then damn'd without excuse.-Cowper.

These are they

That strove to pull Jehovah from His throne,
And in the place of Heaven's Eternal King,
Set up the phantom Chance.

Glynn.

The owlet Atheism,

Sailing on obscene wings across the noon,

Drops his blue-fringed lids, and shuts them close,
And, hooting at the glorious sun in Heaven,
Cries out, "Where is it?"

They eat

Coleridge.

Their daily bread, and draw the breath of Heaven
Without or thought or thanks; Heaven's roof, to them,
Is but a painted ceiling hung with lamps,
No more, that lights them to their purposes.
They wander loose about; they nothing see,
Themselves except, and creatures like themselves,
Short-lived, short-sighted, impotent to save.
So on their dissolute spirits, soon or late,
Destruction cometh, like an armed man,
Or like a dream of murder in the night,
Withering their mortal faculties, and breaking
The bones of all their pride.
Charles Lamb.

No God! Who warms the heart to heave
With thousand feelings, soft and sweet,
And prompts the aspiring soul to leave
The earth we tread beneath our feet,
And soar away on pinions fleet,
Beyond the scene of mortal strife,
With fair ethereal forms to meet,
That tell us of an after life?

William Knox.

"There is no God," the foolish saith

But none, "there is no sorrow:"

And Nature oft the cry of Faith
In bitter need will borrow.

Eyes which the preacher could not school,
By way-side graves are raised;

And lips say "God be pitiful,"

That ne'er said, "God be praised."

Miss Barrett.

Burns.

An Atheist's laugh's a poor exchange,

For Deity offended.

ATONEMENT.

As he hath done this day, so the Lord hath commanded to do, to make an atonement for you.--Leviticus, viii. 34.

Wherewith shall I make the atonement, that ye may bless the inheritance of the Lord?--II. Samuel, xxi. 3.

We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.--Romans, v. 11.

Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past.--Romans, iii. 25.

He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.--I. John, ii. 2.

Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.--I. Peter, ii. 24.

So Man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for man, be judged and die,
And dying, rise, and rising, with Him raise
His brethren, ransomed with His own dear life.

[blocks in formation]

But by fulfilling that which Thou didst want,
Obedience to the law of God, imposed
On penalty of death, and suffering _death,
The penalty to Thy transgression due:
So only can high justice rest appaid.

Milton.

'Tis nothing thou hast given; then add thy tears
For a long race of unrepenting years;
'Tis nothing yet, yet all thou hast to give;
Then add those may-be years thou hast to live;
Yet nothing still; then poor and naked come;
Thy Father will receive his unthrift home,
And thy blest Saviour's blood discharge the mighty
Dryden.

Look humbly upward, see His will disclose
The forfeit first, and then the fine impose;
A mulct thy poverty could never pay,
Had not eternal wisdom found the way,
And with celestial wealth supplied thy store;

[sum.

His justice makes the fine, His mercy quits the score. See God descending in the human frame;

The offended suffering in the offender's name:

All thy misdeeds to Him imputed see,

And all His righteousness devolved on thee.-Dryden.

« 上一頁繼續 »