The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1828-04-16

VI indil, Wnen reused up to take decisive DO
sitions, Is well illustrated in the history of
tne Egyptian plaques. The nature of the
greater part of these calamities was such as
wouid scarcely permit them to be referred
TO natural causes. They had all been
threatened as warnings to the proud king
70 favor the oppressed people of the Lord :
.nese warnings were UNDECIDED, and the
Ju.'gments came. Every time the impious
monarch arrayed himself against his MAX
er, ne had failed. He had seen the prophet
Iaise IN his hand the rod which had been
Turned INTO serpent, and smite the waters
Inc waters turned into blood he had seen
frogs cover the land, and invade his he'd
Hchambers he had seen the dust of the earth
Ipecome loathsome animation Il he had seen
the air burdened with flies: he had seen
the cattle of his plains afflicted he had
seen his people affected with a disease
IN common with every living thing he had
seen the atmosphere gather blackness. and
when the appalling thunder broke in the
gloom, hail mingled with fierce flames smote
upon the wales Of Egypt; he had seen To-
Gusts IN countless millions swarm on his
coasts, and leave no green thing behind
them; he had seen and felt the Stveian
darkness that lay like dreadful incubus
over all his land-ra blackness alike imper-
vlous to the SUMS bright ray, or the glare
OF earthly fires lie had heard the melan-
choly midnight cry arise from one extremi
ty OF his realm to the other as the angel of
death struck the ntiless brow on every first
born-and yet, eFen now, he barely con-
SCENTS to let this people go.
Ten times warned and punished. who
would have thought that the plains of Eqypt
would have cleaned far and wide with mar
tai array, and that vengeance should have
put on Its cruel rappings to sweep from the
earth long afflicted and enslaved people
The circumstances of the chosen people, the
gathering wrathof their pursuers-the Red
sea with its rnlltitudinous waves before.
and the rough waves of plumes, of spears,
and chariots AMI archers behind, and the
passage through the parted 5illows,-are
well described in an unfinished poem of the
late, elegant and pious Bishop Heber of In
dla. The following is brief extract.
Friend of the poor the poor and friendless save
GlVer and Lord of freedom help the slave.
North, South, and West, the sandy whirlwinds
The circlingpale of Egypts chivalry,
- the weeping TRAIN,
Their cloudy guide moves on-and must we
swim the main
Mid the light spray their snorting camels stood,
Nor bath d fetlock in the nauseous flood.
lie cones-their leader comes-the man of God
Ger the wide waters lifts his mighty rod,
And onward treads the circling waves retreat.
In hoarse, deep murmurs, fru1n his holy foot
And the chafed surges, inly roaring show,
The hard wet sand, and coral hills below
With limbs that falter, and with hearts that
swell
Down, down they pass, steep and slippery dell:
Round them arise in pristine chaos hurld,
The ancient rocks the secrets of the world
And flowers that blush beneath the ocean green
And caves, the sea-calfs low roofd haunts are |
SEEN
Down, safely down the narrow pass they tread,
The seething waters storm above their head
While far behind retires the sinking day,
And fades on Edoms hills its latest raw
Yet not from Israel fed the friendly light,
Or dark to them, or cherries came the night
Still in the van along that dreadful road,
Blazed broad and fierce the brandishd torch of
God;
Its meteor glare tenfold lustre gave
On the long mirror of the rosy wave,
ZiOn'S Herald.