XXIV.

Air" A Spirit passed before me."

THE whirlwind burst.-God answer'd Job and said, "Proclaim when Earth's foundations first were laid ;

"Describe each single atom of the sea,

"And give, at once, their added quantity; "Produce the varied treasures of the deep,

"And say where rain and frost in silence sleep!

"From whence do clouds their clatt'ring thunder spread, And how the lightnings heav'n's high mazes thread? "Will bright Orion give his belt to thee? "Or owns Mazzaroth thy supremacy?

"Canst thou direct Arcturus with a wand?

"Or bind Pleiades with silken band?

"Or make the Unicorn plough up thy ground? "Or wilder Ass, whose range vast forest bound? "Yon Horse who snuffs the battle from afar, "And dashes forward on the bristling spear, "Did he receive his strength from thee? Or hast "Thou giv'n his sinewy neck and nostril's blast?

"Does proud Behemoth come at thy decree, "Or will Leviathan thy plaything be? "Has yon proud peacock ow'd his plumage gay, "To fairy tints thine artist's hands display? "Or does the eagle, 'mid the realms of light, "Receive, from thee, his sun-aspiring flight?

"Will Nature tremble at thy uprais'd arm,

Or can, thy voice, the raging storm disarm?

"Or

"If not be still.

Know thou thy time and place

"Before me, seraphs hide their downcast face

"With veiling wing, and patiently await

"The sov'reignty that holds their changeless state.

Notes to the Melodies.

NOTE (a)- Page 46, Line 4.

NOTHING is more frequently mentioned in the writings of the Jews, than the Shekinah, by which they understood the presence of the Holy Spirit. In the Targums, or Chaldee paraphrases, we find the name, Jehovah, or God; Memar, or the Word; and Shekinah, or the Holy Ghost.-See BASNAGE, Hist. of the Jews, lib. vi. cap. 5. art. 19.

The Shekinah was the most sensible token of the presence of God among the Hebrews: it rested on the propitiatory, or over the golden cherubim, which adhered to the propitiatory, the covering of the ark. Here it abode in a cloud; from hence God gave his oracles, vocally, when consulted by the high priest on account of the people. The Rabbins assert that the Shekinah first resided in the tabernacle prepared by Moses, in the wilderness, into which it descended on the day of its consecration, in the figure of a cloud. It passed from thence into the sanctuary of Solomon's temple, on the day of its dedication; where it continued till the destruction of Jerusalem, and the temple by the Chaldees, and was not afterwards seen there.-Vide CALMET, Art. Shekinah.

The Shekinah appeared at the baptism of Jesus, and at his transfiguration: by Peter it is called the excellent glory, (2d Epist. ii. 10); by the Evangelist it is described as a bright cloud, a radiance, a glory, a mild effulgence. In 2 Cor. iii. 18, it is alluded to as distributed to believers; manifested by the descent of "cloven tongues like as of fire," which rested on each of the hundred and twenty.-Idem.

NOTE (b)-Page 48, Line 4.

"And as they spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them; but they were terrified, supposing they saw a spirit. And he said, Why are ye troubled? Behold! it is I, myself; handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have. And he said, Have ye any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and a piece of a honey-comb. And he took it, and did eat before them."-LUKE Xxiv. 36-43.

NOTE (c)-Page 50, Line 15.

"God declared unto Moses his holy name, which it is not lawful for me to utter," says Josephus. This superstitious fear of discovering the name with four letters, usually pronounced Jehovah, but originally Jahoh, or Jaoh, was common to all the Rabbinical Jews.

NOTE (d)-Page 53, Line 16.

Vide Labours of the Scotch Missionaries in the Crimea.