VII. There's nothing dark, below, above, SOUND THE LOUD TIMBREL. MIRIAM'S SONG. Air.-AVISON.* "And Miriam, the Prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her, with timbrels and with dances."-Exod. xv. 20. I. SOUND the loud Timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! His chariots, his horsemen, all splendid and brave * I have so altered the character of this air, which is from the beginning of one of Avison's old-fashioned concertos, that, without this acknowledgment, it could hardly, I think, be recognized. How vain was their boasting!—The LORD hath but spoken, And chariots and horsemen are sunk in the wave. Sound the loud Timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! JEHOVAH has triumph'd,-his people are free. > II. Praise to the CONQUEROR, praise to the LORD! His word was our arrow, his breath was our sword!_ Who shall return to tell Egypt the story Of those she sent forth in the hour of her pride? For the LORD hath look'd out from his pillar of glory,* And all her brave thousands are dash'd in the tide. Sound the loud Timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea! JEHOVAH has triumph'd,-his people are free. * "And it came to pass, that, in the morning watch, the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians, through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians."-Exod. xiv. 24. GO, LET ME WEEP. Air.-STEVENson. I. Go, let me weep! there's bliss in tears, II. Leave me to sigh o'er hours that flew The heart, where pure repentance grieves More idly than the summer's wind, COME NOT, OH LORD! Air.-HAYDN. I. COME not, oh LORD! in the dread robe of splendour Thou worest on the Mount, in the day of thine ire; Come veil'd in those shadows, deep, awful, but tender, Which Mercy flings over thy features of fire! II. LORD! thou rememb'rest the night, when thy Nation* Stood fronting her Foe by the red-rolling stream; "And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, * On Egypt thy pillar frown'd dark desolation, While Israel bask'd all the night in its beam. III. So, when the dread clouds of anger enfold Thee, From us, in thy mercy, the dark side remove; While shrouded in terrors the guilty behold Thee, Oh! turn upon us the mild light of thy Love! WERE NOT THE SINFUL MARY'S TEARS. Air.-STEVENSON. I. WERE not the sinful Mary's tears An offering worthy Heaven, She wept-and was forgiven? but it gave light by night to these.”—Exod. xiv. 20. My application of this passage is borrowed from some late prosewriter, whose name I am ungrateful enough to forget. * Instead of "On Egypt" here, it will suit the music better to sing "On these;" and in the third line of the next verse, "While shrouded" may, with the same view, be altered to "While wrapp'd." |