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

LITERATURE.

TIIE C.III?ISTIAN LIFE.

By Robert Muni-

gomery, .111.44. Third Edition.
Having sdready tw ice before directed public atten-
tion to this beautiful effusion of poetic fancy, of
religious sentiment, and of genuine benevolence, we
find ourselves elmost 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 se
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 honours Of a third
edition, even within the limited period which has
elapsed since its first appearance, is a sufficient token
that its merits have been very generally recognized,and,
what is yet more, that those merits have been peculiarly
ac hired for recognition. For ourselves, we are in no
degree surprised at the rapid popularity acquired by a
work which appeals directly to some of this nobleet
sympathies of our nature. In his miscellaneous
collection of poems, now before us,iMr. 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 ‘shich, while they tend to.
agonise, tend also to elevate and to dignify humanity,
to all those feara of faturity and hopes of a here-
after which alternately enervate and strengthen our
imagination,—
" Those hopes, and fears that kindle hop,
An undistinguishablo throngs
And gentle wishes long subdued,
Subdued and cherist.ed 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
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 now
As bright and beautiful as thou.
When first I ssw 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 hatlow'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 aatrring o'er thee came
Thy wordless tongue could never name.
Departed babe! how many a dreata
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 use 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 reigu'd at home.

Already Hope's prophetic eye • •
Beheld some future spot, • -
And uhderneath life's vernal sky
Pictured -thy maiden la,
Where truth and grace would be thy guide.
And all thy wants by heaven supplied.
I dream'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 speeli and learn to pray.

But thou art pale, a perish'd flower,
A blossom on Lire'. tree
Nipp'd in the bud, before the power
Of sin corrupted thee:—
Wash'd iu the blood of Jesu white.
Babe, art not thou in glory bright?
Cold, cold, my child! I view theo now
Like sleep in marble lying-,
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'er had'at been,
And they who seen the brow and cheek
And judge by outward mien,
Can little dream how much we hide ~,

Under the heart's unwitness'd tide.
The purest thoughts lone spirits bear
Are marred by bei►g Rpoken,
And more than deepest words dealar•

Lives in some heart half-broken;

A transient grief light tongues can tell,
But cloiater'ct Anguish keeps her cell.

•
Farewell, my child, but not farewell
For ever; we shall meet
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 babel thy beauteous soul
To some bright world ascended,
How glorious that celetaial goal
Where thy brief course is ended!--

And most divine that hour will be
That bids me mount, and follow thee.
Regretting that our want of space has necessitated
only a fragmentary quotation of this touching and
exquisite poem—It tribute of love softened by grief
and sanctified by resignation—we are at the saute
time satisfied that the tenderness of feeling and gen-
tleness of sentiment, which are so risible in the above
stanzas, must render all those who have not already
seen the poem in its complete form anzioua fro fla.
mine the rest of those pages from which it ins In
selected as about the most appropriate specirno4; 'roan
the " Beatitudes," moreover (pp. 302.336), WO;
make many similar extracts—extracts similar to the*
evidences of sensibility and in their power of fasoinatle, •
Here and there throughout the volume we eanaot tura
over the leaves without being arrested by eapreesiane
of thoughtful felicity. Thus, in the Vern. 911004
Life is a Fading Leaf " (p. 131), it is cbarnringly said
of twilight that

soft dejection seems.to mantle all,
Like Nature mourning for the death of dsy."
Again, in " Religion Gazing on the Sea" (p. 19)
it is finely exclaimed of the ocean that its
deep thunders with a dying fall,
Roll like Hosannahs to the Lord of all."

----- ---
Equally striking is that expression in regard to mule
(p. 102), where it is said that it is
" Like broken echoes, that have thus o'erran
Angelic lyres, and trembled down to man."
In the luxury of illustration, however, we are lona;
sight of the restrictions of space imposed upon us M
a daily journalist. We must content ourselves, theft-
fore, with what we have already thrice observed in
regard to the excellences of this admirable volute• of
poetic meditations. In its present compact form
(the third edition being a beautifully printed minis-
tore of 475 duodecimo pages) the " Christian Life"
cannot fail to secure to itself a yet wider popularlity.
His numerous admirers may well felicitate DU;
Montgomery on having in his present work materially
extended bis reputation.

‘,
WATERLOO DAY.--Yesterday being the thirty-
fifth anniversary of the memorable battle of Waterloo, the
customary ceremony °: t trooping the guards for the duty of
guardo
s
f
the day was of an unusually imposing character. At half-
pait nine o'clock thehonour at Buckingham and
St. James's palaces, and the minor guards furnished by the
battalions quartered in the metropolis, were searched en to
the parade-ground facing the Horse Guards in St. Janet's-
park. The helmets of the Life Guards and caps of the Foot
Guards were decorated with laurel-leaves. The line having
the guards of honour at the palace
ttiaekidenoffidoceurbolen odpuetny
;order, minutsy inspected by the
were then marched to the Tilt Guard-room, preceded by the
band, to receive the colours of the battalion, which w•rs
surmounted by an immense branch of laurel. The guards
then took up a position on the right of the line, the re-
mainder of the troops saluting, with arms presented, se the
colours passed.
Sydney papers of the 22d of Fslaraikey furn!sk
little intelligence. A memorial against the new constituttott
had been prepared, and would, it was anticipated, be seat W
this country. Her Majesty's ship Alexander bad Wrived or;
the 7th, and had been in danger from a Ire of en alarming
character which had broken out on board, bltt Whidi had
been subdued without important damage.