THE HOLLY-BUSH. 159 



day ! I grant that these are only shadows ; yet, 

 when the sun shines brightly, what body is with- 

 out one ? It may be our pride to cast away such 

 shades ; but when I can no longer trace them, I 

 am incHned Jo apprehend, either that the substance 

 has melted away, or that the sun-beam falls not so 

 clearly as it was wont to do. 



Yet not alone to the sufferings of a crucified 

 Saviour do I hold llie holly sacred. I know that 

 He who once came to visit us in great humility 

 shall yet come again in his glorious majesty, to 

 judge both the quick and dead. I know that he 

 will appear, in the splendours of immortality, in 

 the grandeur of his Almighty power, while the 

 wrecks of all that this world cherishes, of pomp, 

 pn 1 pride, and greatness, shall crumble beneath 

 his feet, and pass away like the last fragments of 

 November's shrivelled leaves before the whirlwind. 

 Then every eye shall see him, and they also which 

 pierced him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall 

 wail because of him. No longer stained with the 

 crimson drops of his own life-stream, his vesture 

 shall then be dipped in the blood of his enemies. 

 He, who, with tears and groans, achieved, unas- 

 sisted, the work of our redemption, shall then 

 alone tread the great wine-press of the wrath of 

 God. Then his enemies shall feel his hand : for 

 he will tread them in his anger, and trample them 

 in his fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon 



