All Nature to him has been blasted and banned, The groans of a father his slumber shall start, And the wife of his bosom-the faithful and fair- And his offering may blaze, unregarded by heaven; THE PROPHETS OF BAAL. 1 Kings xviii. 21--41. "Ye prophets of Baal! let an offering be laid To the Lord that I worship, the Lord that I fear: When Elijah had spoken, an offering was laid "Ye prophets of Baal! cry aloud, cry aloud, Cry aloud, cry aloud, with your voices of woe, When Elijah had spoken, an altar was reared To the Lord that he worshipped, the Lord that he feared; (1771-1854.) JAMES MONTGOMERY, the son of a Moravian missionary, was born at Irvine, in Ayrshire, in 1771; and was educated at the Moravian school at Fulneck, near Leeds. In 1792, he commenced his connection with the 'Sheffield Iris," a newspaper which he afterwards conducted for the space of thirty years, retiring from his editorial duties in 1825. In January 1794, and again in January 1795, he was prosecuted for alleged political offences, and sentenced the first time to a fine of £20 and three months' imprisonment, and the second time to a fine of £30 and six months' imprisonment. He lived long enough to record that all his political an "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto ME."-MATTHEW XXV. 40. tagonists of those years had, without exception, died at peace with him. In his latter years, he enjoyed a pension of £200 per annum from the discriminating bounty of his sovereign. His death occurred in the year 1854. James Montgomery's chief poetical works are, The Wanderer of Switzerland and other Poems" (1806); "The World before the Flood" (1813); "Greenland" (1819); and "The Pelican Island,” which is in many respects the most finished of his productions. His smaller poems exhibit great facility and smoothness, and an unfailing and exquisite amiability and devoutness of feeling. THE POOR WAYFARER. A poor wayfaring man of grief That I could never answer, Nay. Once when my scanty meal was spread, I gave him all; he blessed it, brake, I spied him where a fountain burst Clear from the rock; his strength was gone; He heard it, saw it hurrying on: I ran to raise the sufferer up: Thrice from the stream he drained my cup, Y |