THE CHRONICLE OF ANGELS.

BY JAMES MONTGOMERY, ESQ.

Suggested by the perusal of a manuscript treatise, "Concerning the Holy Angels and their Ministry," by a deceased friend, which was afterwards printed for private distribution only, in 1826, having the first clause of the following lines for a motto.

ALL that of angels God to man makes known,
Here by the light of his clear Word is shewn:
'Tis Jacob's dream; - behold the ladder rise,—
Resting on earth, but reaching to the skies;
Where faith the radiant hierarchies may trace
Abroad in nature, providence, and grace,
Descending and returning by that path,
On embassies of mercy or of wrath;
Here the stone pillow and the desert sod
Become the gate of heaven-the house of God:
Put off thy shoes; approach with awe profound;
The spot on which thou stand'st is holy ground!

U

Spirit made perfect,- Spirit of the Just!—

Thine hand, which traced these lines, hath fall'n to

dust;

Yet in the visions of eternity,

Things unconceived by mortals thou canst see;
Angels, as angels stand before the throne,

By thee are, without veil or symbol, known:
Oh! couldst thou add one brilliant page, and tell
What those pure beings are that never fell,-
Those first-born sons of God, ere time began,
Elder and greater,—not more loved than man;
Thrones, principalities, dominions, powers,
Cherub and Seraph, 'midst empyreal bowers,
Who in themselves their Maker only see,
And dwell in the abyss of Deity.

But 't is forbidden; earthly eye nor ear,

Heaven's splendours could behold, heaven's secrets

hear;

To flesh and blood that world to come is sealed,

Or but in hieroglyphic shades revealed.

We follow thee, blest saint! our tongues ere long
May learn from thine the church-triumphant's song;
For well, I ween, thy minstrel-soul of fire
Can compass all the notes of Raphael's lyre;—
That soul which once, beneath the body's cloud,
Sang, like an unseen skylark, sweet and loud ;-
Sweeter and louder now thy raptures rise,

Where cloud nor sun are seen,-in purer skies!