In yon proud palace to disown His hand

Who thus has saved him: should he e'er embrace
(As sure he will, if bred in Pharaoh's court)
The gross idolatries which Egypt owns,
Her graven images, her brutish gods,
Then shall I wish he had not been preserv'd
To shame his fathers, and deny his faith.

Mir. Then to dispel thy fears and crown thy joy, Hear farther wonders.-know, the gen'rous Princess To thine own care thy darling child commits.

Joch. Speak, while my joy will give me leave to listen!

Mir. By her commission'd, thou behold'st me here,

To seek a matron of the Hebrew race

To nurse him thou, my mother, art that matron.
I said I knew thee well; that thou wouldst rear him
E'en with a mother's fondness; she who bare him
(I told the Princess) would not love him more.

Joch. Fountain of mercy! whose pervading eye
Can look within and read what passes there,
Accept my thoughts for thanks! I have no words.
My soul, o'erfraught with gratitude, rejects
The aid of language-Lord! behold my heart.
Mir. Yes, thou shalt pour into his infant mind
The purest precepts of the purest faith.

Joch. O! I will fill his tender soul with virtue, And warm his bosom with devotion's flame! Aid me, celestial Spirit! with thy grace,

And be my labours with thy influence crown'd!
Without it they were vain. Then, then, my Miriam,
When he is furnish'd, 'gainst the evil day,

With God's whole armour,* girt with sacred truth,
And as a breastplate wearing righteousness,
Arm'd with the Spirit of God, the shield of faith
And with the helmet of salvation crown'd,

* 2 Thess. v. Ephes. vi.

Inur'd to watching and dispos'd to prayer;
Then may I send him to a dangerous court,
And safely trust him in a perilous world,
Too full of tempting snares and fond delusions!
Mir. May bounteous Heaven thy pious cares
reward!

Joch. O Amram! O my husband! when thou

com'st,

Wearied at night, to rest thee from the toils
Impos'd by haughty Pharaoh, what a tale
Have I to tell thee! Yes: thy darling son
Was lost, and is restor❜d; was dead, and lives!
Mir. How joyful shall we spend the live-long night
In praises to Jehovah; who thus mocks

All human foresight, and converts the means
Of seeming ruin into great deliverance !

Joch. Had not my child been doom'd to such strange perils

As a fond mother trembles to recall,

He had not been preserv❜d.

Mir.

And mark still farther;

Had he been saved by any other hand,

He had been still expos'd to equal ruin.

Joch. Then let us join to bless the hand of Heaven, That this poor outcast of the house of Israel, Condemn'd to die by Pharaoh, kept in secret By my advent'rous fondness; then expos'd E'en by that very fondness which conceal'd him, Is now, to fill the wondrous round of mercy, Preserv'd from perishing by Pharaoh's daughter, Saved by the very hand which sought to crush him! Wise and unsearchable are all thy ways,

Thou God of mercies!-Lead me to my child!

DAVID AND GOLIATH:

SACRED DRAMA.

O bienheureux mille fois,
L'Enfant que le Seigneur aime,
Qui de bonne heure entend sa voix,
Et que ce Dieu daigne instruire lui-même !
Loin du monde élevé; de tous les dons des Cieux,
Il est orné dès sa naissance;

Et du méchant l'abord contagieux
N'altère point son innocence

ATHALIE

The Scene lies in the Camp in the Valley of Elah, and the adjacent plain.

The subject is taken from the Seventeenth Chapter of the First Book of Samuel.