phet, and are described by him as if they were simultaneous. This circumstance naturally follows from the fact that the events predicted were not communicated to the ordinary intelligence or sense of the prophet, for then the order of time would be uniformly observed, which is not the case; they were communicated in vision: a panorama as it were of events are laid before him, ordinarily without any intimation of the succession of time. It is in space, and not in time that the visioned events appear to his entranced spirit.

This view appears to us to harmonize with the general structure of prophecy, and to be free from those many difficul. ties with which every other interpretation yet proposed is incumbered. It also has the advantage in common with others less defensible, of preserving the connexion entire between the sign and the circumstances which call it forth. The hearts of God's faithful people, even in that degenerate and apostate age, could see by faith, even as the prophet saw in vision, the entrance into the world of Immanuel, the mysterious Being, divine and human; and in the fulfilment of this hope, they joyfully recognized the power and faithfulness of Jehovah. No longer did they fear the coming day of trouble -though Pekin and Rezin were strong, yet God was stronger than they. Assyria's help was no longer desired, for the panoply of divine protection was assured to them and that God Who all along had preserved their nation as the progenitors, and their land as the birth place of Messiah, would preserve His people amid every danger, yea would bring them back from captivity in the strangers' land, and would stretch forth the arm of omnipotence to defend them from ruin, until the promised Deliverer, the Shiloh, the Prince of Peace should come, to save a lost, and to bless a suffering world.

III.

VICTORIA. A DREAM OF THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE.

From "Original Ballads by living authors." Edited by the Revd. Henry Thompson. London, 1850.

Victoria! our own loved Queen! I dreamed a dream of thee,

A dream of thee in an island home, with thy children at thy knee,
No pomp of royalty was there, for England's Sovereign meet,
Only an English mansion fair, in a still and green retreat.

It needed not that outward pomp the Lady's rank should tell,
Marked by each word so firm and clear, like a silver sounding bell:
'Twas graven on her queenly brow; and who could doubt that hand
Was formed to wield with gentlest grace the sceptre of command ?

Victoria! with a prouder love to see thee on thy throne

A subject's heart might glow; but here the light that round thee shone Was all of holiest womanhood, while on thy gracious head

I prayed that God might evermore His choicest blessings shed.

I heard one call thee by thy name, not as a subject might,

But by thine own baptismal name, with a wedded husband's right;
And then I saw thy consort stand in gladness at thy side;
And in each other's face, ye read a parent's joy and pride;

What time the royal children talked of Windsor's stately pile,
Yet how they loved their summer house, in this their little isle,
Where waves kept cadence on the shore with sweet continuous song
To little feet that lightly dance those velvet lawns along.

The dimpling smiles on each young face seemed radiantly to play,
Like the twinkling brightness in that hour of the water's ceaseless spray ;
And I saw ye walk 'neath shadowing trees-birds in the branches sang,
And round you in the sunny shine all gladsome voices rang.

I marvelled not Britannia's Queen should love a home like this,
And to watch the tide come gently in, its Sovereign's grounds to kiss,
To tell the Lady of the land, albeit she knows it well,

Of One Who with the feeble sand hath girdled ocean's swell.

Was it a shade of anxious thought that dimmed her radiant glance
When a crested wave beyond the rest seemed boldly to advance?
It might be so,-few days had past since on her listening ear
E'en at her palace gate had thrilled a sound of strife and fear.

But the wave receding seemed to say, "Fear not the ocean's roar,
Since in the hollow of His hand God holds it evermore.
And while thy trust is stayed on Him, and He defends thy right,
The sceptre in thy small white hand hath more than Cæsar's might."

The scene is changed-the Sabbath bells were sounding in the air;
Anon I saw the Lady kneel within the House of Prayer,

With her princely husband and her babes, a lovely sight to me,
As they clasped their tiny hands to pray, and bent to God their knee.

Oh sweeter than an Angel's song, methought it was to hear
Those little ones, so early trained in God's most holy fear,
Echoing their mother's clear Amen, their father's fervent tone,
Though each young voice had even then an accent of its own.

"Pray on," within my heart I said, "while many pray for you!
Ye will need the might that in prayer is won, although your hearts be true."
Another change came o'er the scene, I looked on a fitful sky,
And the foaming waves of an angry sea were darkly rolling by ;

Voices were sounding in the air, a wild tumultuous sound,
Cries of a maddening multitude, raging to burst their bound,
And I heard it told that power and might were by the people given,
And they laughed to scorn the anointing shed on kings and priests from
heaven.

"The people's voice is God's," they said, "and no other voice we own; And what care we for the tale that links the Altar and the Throne?

We are kings each one, and we brook no more the chains that have held us long;

And we count them fools who pin their faith on an old nursery song!

"We were children once-we are wiser now-we have done with a puppet's play,

And we know our manhood's might to cast our leading-strings away."

And the mighty trembled on their thrones, and their faces paled with fear, For the deafening cry of the lawless rang like a death-knell on their ear.

Victoria! with a yearning heart I thought of thee and thine,
And prayed thy strength that hour might prove a strength indeed divine,
And my heart within me thrilled to mark thy calm and steadfast look,
Whose royal majesty might well the waverers rebuke.

And yet I heard thee call for help, and white-robed ones drew nigh,
Who bade thee hold thy sceptre firm, and on thy God rely;

I saw thee kneel,-I saw thee rise,-and the seal upon thy brow,
The seal of the anointing shone with brightening lustre now.

A faithful band were gathering round, who told thee of the prayer
Still daily at the Altar poured by those who worship there;
And England's royal arms that hour a lesson read to thee,
For the quaint device was rich in lore of saintly chivalry.

The unicorn revealed the foe, but round him was a chain;
And Judah's Lion guards the crown, by Whom the anointed reign;
And at His feet there blooms the rose, our country's royal flower,
But thistles of the curse upspring where the haughty foe hath power.

* Such was the reading of my dream; but in this sense the thistles are not intended to have reference to Scotland, and she may put in her claim to the Lion; if it be not glory enough to have fastened the chain to the crown round the neck of the foe.

And then in sleep upon me gushed the tide of joyous song,
And tuneful numbers all unsought in cadence flowed along ;
Yet few and faint on waking ear the echoes of that lay,

Whose melody from memory's cell hath all but passed away.

Yet it told of one who in troublous time stood firm in anointed might, While she bowed her knee to the King of kings, and held of Him her right,

And her trust was stayed on the Lord of Hosts, Who only unto kings,
For David's sake, with His own right hand peace and salvation brings.

It is He Who hears His servant's cry, and saves from the hurtful sword;
He stilleth the sea when the waters arise, for He only is the Lord :
And she who trusted was not dismayed, but she proved the priestly grace,
And the sons of Belial quailed to mark the light of her queenly face;

For she banded her brow in the might of faith with the sapphire stones of heaven,

And her glad thanksgiving told from whence the strength to her throne was given,t

And a song from the isles of the sea arose above the sounding sea,
A song of praise to the Lord of Hosts, the Giver of Victory!

"DIEU ET MON DROIT"

J. E. L.

The only lines clearly remembered on waking. The seven large sapphires were reset in the front of the royal crown for the Queen, and the sapphire stone being the one anciently used in England for the Bishop's ring, the seven sapphires suggested a reference to the seven Angels of the Seven Churches (Rev. i. 20.), seven being the number of completeness.

IV.

SOME FURTHER REMARKS ON MR. WORTLEY'S MARRIAGE BILL.

It is not at all too late to add somewhat to the strictures of a previous writer in the Benares Magazine. It is now many years since the question first was broached, and there seems every reason to believe that we have not yet heard the last of it. Besides, those of the public who wish to see the laws changed have had their expectations raised by the number of those who advocated the repeal, by the sanguine manner in which they took it up, and by the somewhat tardy opposition of the Church. At least we cannot help looking upon these as the reasons which weighed with many of those who persisted in desiring the repeal of the existing law. For at the first thought of the question, we will venture to say that it appeared to every one a mere chimæra to think that the Law of Marriage could ever be altered-a law which in the opinion of all religious men, and also of many who have adopted a conventional tone of mind from religious men, could not be altered without sacrificing the stability even of God's Holy Word. But now the idea has been entertained and discussed and publicly announced, and has found favour in many responsible quarters; nor was there any great burst of public indignation as at some monster too horrible to name. And thus men's minds have become familiar with the idea, and can push the matter without those compunctions of conscience with which a step of this kind is at first generally accompanied.

At one time also in the midst of the discussion there was great danger of the question's being made a party*

*We are able to subjoin a morsel from Mr. Champneys' brochure, which gives the cream of the arguments of these four great Divines. The italics

are our own.

"It appears to me that, first, as Scripture shows that there is nothing immoral in such a connexion; and secondly that as it is obvious much evil would be prevented, many poor children saved from misery and ruin, by having that person over them who, in the majority of instances, would be the next best substitute for a mother; my own mind is led to believe that the law of man ought to tally in this instance with the law of God."

It appears to us, from his arguments, and his inconclusiveness on what his own mind is on the matter, that Mr. Champneys, though a great Rector is a very small logician. Scripture does shew the immorality of marriage with near kindred. Experience does not shew that such marriages would prevent evil, and save many children from misery and ruin. The loss of

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