The Sun.
London, England, 1850-06-19 00:00:00

LITERAT URE.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. By Robert Mont-
gomery, M.A. Third Edition.
Having already twice before directed public atten-
tion to this beautiful effusion of poetic fancy, of
religious sentiment, and of genuine benevolence, we
find ourselves almost restricted to the simple announce-
' ment of its present republication. Not but that the
volume still affords ample material for criticism—its
fruitfulness in this regard being in a manner inex--
haustible—but that we would refrain as much as
possible from effacing that bloom of novelty which
constitutes the intrinsic attraction of poetry, and
which may lose much of its freshness through over-
punctilious analysis, or through unnecessary ampli-
tude of quotation. The mere circumstance that the
" Christian Life" has attained the honotirs of a third
edition, even within the limited period which has
elapsed sine' its first appearance, is a sufficient token
that its merits have been very generally recognized, and,
whatis yet more, that those merits have been peculiarly
adapted for recognition. For ourselves, we are in no
degree surprised at the rapid popularity acquired by a
work which appeals directly to some of the noblest
sympathies of our nature. In his miscellaneous
collection of poems, now before us,Mr. Montgomery
gives utterance to all those affections which congre-
gate round the domestic hearth, to all those aspira-
tions which form the inner " life" of the Christian, to
all those pensive regrets which, while they tend to
agonise, tend also to elevate and to dignify humanity,
to all those fears of futurity and hopes of a here-
after which alternately enervate and strengthen our
imagination,—
" Those hopes, and fears that kindle hops,
An undistiaguishable throng;
And gentle wishes long subdued,
Subdued and cherished long."
The subjects thus selected for the display of his me-
trical eloquence being of this wide and universal ap-
plication, it is surely not surprising to observe their
ready acceptance and spontaneous appreciation. The
public heart could not well fail to respond to those
strains which' evoked from its innermost chords a
sympathetic vibration. However much any particu-
lar school of 'criticism might differ from the author
of the " Christian Life " in his theory of poetic art,
even the most infatuated representatives of that
school could hardly resist the influence of that
natural and -commanding pathos which, for example,
throughout the exquisite poem descriptive of a young
I girl dying of consumption (pp. 37-.43), sounds like
some plaintive air—‘' most musical, most melan-
choly -In illustration of this delicate and yet vigor-
ous and nervous command over our feelings, exer-
cised by Mr. Montgomery in his happier moments—
in those moments happier for him as an artist, but
fraught with most poignant sorrow for him as a man
—we must be permitted to extract some at least of
those beautiful verses, entitled " Departed, not Dead,"
(pp. 121-126), in which the writer expresses his
paternal grief under bereavement
C. H. E. M.
Born May 4th, 1848.
Died June Bth, 1848.
Thou art not dead my vanish'd one!
But living in the light
Of some pure world beyond the sun,
Where death creates no night,
And sumless babes' are 'smiling pow
As bright and beautiful as thou.
When first I saw thy baby form
With eyes of tearful love,'
I little thought a hidden storm
Was looming from above,
So soon to blast my May-born flower
Beneath the blight of deathful power.
The Lord who gives, bath ta'en away,
And blest be His high name!
Oh, that with calm I this could say
And feel God's hallow'd claim:—
Cease, rebel heart! be calm and still
And bow beneath a Father's will.
Pale relic! now enrobed for death,
Nursling of hopes and fears.
How did I watch each ebbing breath
And kiss thine infant tears
When throbs of suff'ring o'er thee came
Thy wordless tongue could never name.
Departed babe! how many a dream
Brighten'd thy father's heart,
When like a vision thou didst seem
In life to take such part,
That o'er his hours there breath'd a spell
More exquisite than tones can tell.
With thy soft features round me glowing
Amid the world I went,
And with a heart to heaven o'erflowing
Bless'd thee, bright innocent!
And telt howe'er my path should roam
My little star-beam reign'd at home.
Already Hope's prophetic eye
Beheld some future spot,
And underneath life's vernal sky
Pictured thy maid 'n
Where truth and grace would be thy guide,
And all thy wants by heaven supplied.
I drea:ri'd, if God thy life should spare,
How blessed it would be
To hear thy budding lips declare
Young words of Deity,'
To watch thy spirit day by day,
Rise into sptech and learn to pray.

But thou art palo, a perish'd flower,

. .
A blossom on Li tree
Nipp'd in 'he bud, before the power
Of sin corrupted thee:—
Wash'd in the blood of Jesu white,
Babe, art not-thou in glory bright? •
Cold,' cold, my 'child I I View'thee now.
Like sleep ia.rearble
'With paleness on thy placid brow
That sets my heart a-sighing;
And round thy lips there linger still
Dead smiles that shall remembrance fill.

Yet I shall smile, and act, and speak,
As though thou ne', r had'st be ,n,
And they who scan the brow and cheek
And judge by outward mien,
Can little dream how much we hide
Under the heart's unwitncss'd tide.

The purest thoughts lone spirits bear
Are marred by being spoken,
And more than deepest words declare
Lives in some heart half-broken;
A transient grief light tongues can tell,
But cloister'd Anguish keeps her cell.

•
FaFrtowreelvle,r in;ywcelisilhda,ibiumteentot farewell
When sounds creation's dooming knell
Before the judgment-seat;
And I shall know thy little face
Amid the world's assembled race.
Thrice happy babe! thy beauteous soul
To some bright world ascended,
How glorious thut celestial goal
Where thy brief course is ended!—
And most divine that hour will be
That bile me mount, and follow thee.
Regretting that our want of space has necessitated
only a fragmentary quotation of this touching and
exquisite poem—qt tribute of love softened by grief
and sanctified by resignation—we are at the same
time satisfied that the tenderness of feeling and gen-
tleness of sentiment, which are so visible in the above
stanzas, must render all those who have not already
seen the poem in its complete form anxious to exa-
mine the rest of those pages from which it has been
selected as about the most appropriate specimen. From
the " Beatitudes," moreover (pp. 302-335), we might
make many similar extracts—extracts similar in their
evidences of sensibility and in their power of fascination.
Here and there throughout the volume we cannot turn
oovfetrhtobueghletafvuelsfewlieit
ithoy. r
ut beingrhus,in the verses arrested bvyeexspressions
entitled
" Life is a Fading Leaf " (p. 131), it is charmingly said
of twilight that

--- soft dejection seems to mantle all,
Like Nature mourning for the death of day."
Again, in " Religion Gazing on the Sea" (p. 178)
it is finely exclaimed of the ocean that its
" - deep thunders with a dying fall,
Roll like -ifosannans to the Lord of all."
Equally striking is that expression in regard to music
(p. 102), where it is said that it is
" Like broken echoes, that haie thus o'erran
Angelic lyres, and trembled down to man."
In the luxury of illustration, however, we are losing
sight of the restrictions of space imposed upon US as
a daily journalist. We must content ourselves, there-
fore, with what we have already thrice observed in
regard to the excellences of this admirable volume of
poetic meditations. In its present compact form
(the
of
fi r4d7se d
duodecimoi ti o n being
pa a
gb
ee
sa t i
thef u l I y,
Christianpr i t d minia-
ture
Life"
cannot fail to secure to itself
apayreysweetnetlwl,tivder popularity.
foerlkicmitaatteeriAalllyr.
numerous admirers
havingadm i re
irns
eAtixliotsenntomded his reputation.

WATERLOO DA.T.-1: estf-rday being the thirty-
fifth anniversary of the memorable battle of Waterloo, the
customary ceremony
of h o.)ping the guards for the duty of
the day was of an unusually imposing character. At half-
past nine o'clock the guards of honour at Buckingham and
i
St. James's
battalions quartered in the metropolis, were marched on to
Palaces, and the minor guards furnished by the
the parade-ground facing the Horse Guards in St. James's-
park. The helmets of the Life Guards and caps of the Foot
Guards were decorated with laurel-leaves. The line having
taken double open order, wrs minutey inspected by the
field officer oa duty; the guards of honour at the palace
were then marched to the Tilt Guard-room, preceded by the
band, to receive the colours of the battalion, which were
P° .on the right of the line, the surmounted by by an immense branch of laurel. The guards
then took up a
mainder of the troops saluting, with arms presented, as the
colours passeo.
Sydney paPers of the 22d of February furnisk
little intem6euce. A memorial against the new constitution
had been prepared,and would, it was anticipated, be sent to
this country. Her Majesty's ship Alexander bad arrived on
the 7th, and had been in danger frnm a fire of an alarming
character which.hacl.brokerv, out on board, bUt which had
been subdued without important damage.