at the super-aboundings of their minister's labors. We scarcely see why a preacher who has genuine poetry in his soul, should descend to the mere rhythmic and versifying methods of expression. What exercise affords a better opportunity for the poetic than that of composition? and what is more worthy of poetic fire and beauty, than a gospel discourse? With a more poetic life breathed into our sermons they would command larger ordinances, and operate on some deeper springs in human nature. Poetry need not go into verse when it has a pulpit. In all this we are far enough from wishing or intending to undervalue the poetic versification of Mr. Graham; for most of his poetry will justify publication. Some of it is of a high order, and touches some of the finest chords in our nature: that for example on Holloway, the martyr of Linyanty, rings out the true and touching thing in numbers sweet and flowing.

PSALMS AND HYMNS ADAPTED TO THE SERVICES OF THE CHURCH. By the late J. SMITH, M. A. London: Wertheim and Co.

THIS volume of Psalms and Hymns has evidently been well received; for it has passed through ten editions. The volume contains a goodly number of the Hymns and Psalms usually employed in the Evangelical Churches. In looking through it an impression, which we have long had in regard to all Hymn books intended for public worship, is deepened, namely, that only a small minority of hymns are singable with any kind of propriety. We should like to see a hymn book formed upon this one canon, namely, that every hymn should have an appeal to the great object of worship. The language of penitence, confession, supplication, adoration, should in all psalms and hymns be directed to HIM. We intend compiling a hymn book for the use of our own congregation, constructed on this principle, and we believe that the canon will allow us to bring in the best pieces from all hymn books extant. Such as "Thee we adore the eternal name," &c. "Show pity Lord, O Lord forgive," &c. "Come holy spirit, heavenly dove," &c. "Guide me, O thou great Jehovah." "Come thou fount of every blessing." "O thou from whom all goodness flows," &c.

A HOMILY

ON

The Lord Jesus Christ.*

"God hath given him a name which is above every name.' Phil. ii. 9.

W

HEN I have considered," says Bunyan, in one of his practical treatises, "that the very timing of scripture expression and the season of administering ordinances have been.

argumentative to the promoting of the faith, and are of justification by Christ, it has made me think that both myself and most of the people of God look over the scriptures too slightly, and take too little notice of that or of those many honors that God for our good has conferred upon Christ. Shall He be called a King, a Priest, a Prophet, a Sacrifice, an Altar, a Captain, a Head, a Father, a Fountain, a Door, a Rock, a Lion, a Saviour? And shall we not consider all these things?" We shall. We enter on the consideration of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. The vocabularies of earth are barren in words to express His manifold excellencies; and yet, while acknowledging this barrenness, we see in the variety of the appellations of Holy Scripture the extent of language in conveying to the human mind the most enlarged conceptions, and indicating the grandeur of His nature, as well as its fitness to

* An address to the Members of the George Square Branch of the Glasgow Young Men's Sabbath Morning Society for Religious Improvement; read at their 8th anniversary, April 7th, 1861.

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unfold the spiritual life of man. His character is described in the book, which He has given to man. He is its pervading theme. His life gives completeness and unity to Scripture, binding together the Old and New Testaments; and while Genesis describes the creation of our earth, Revelation unfolds the spiritual glory of the New Jerusalem,—the holy city, presided over by Him who brought order out of chaos, and who, by His blood, has fitted men for becoming citizens of the heavenly Zion. If the life of Jesus pervades the entire book, it is clear that the more we know His character, the better shall we appreciate His Book. He being its central theme, it can only be comprehended when considered in connexion with Him. Take away Christ from the Holy Scriptures, and you take away its life. Its promises have no reality, and its prophecies are empty words; its laws lose their power, and its hopes their animation; heaven is shorn of its splendor, and hell of its agony. The faith of Patriarchs and Prophets becomes a passing dream, and the Sacrifice of Jesus a common martyrdom. Such, however, is not the His coming gladdened the heart of Abraham, and shed a lustre over the death-bed of the hoary-headed Jacob; it imparted vitality to the worship of the Hebrews on their wilderness journey; it kindled the strains of David into holy rapture; evoked the burning lyres of Isaiah and Ezekiel; and consoled the Patriarch of Uz in his desolation, when he said, "I know that my Redeemer liveth.” And as His life is the life of the book, the dew of the morning still glistens on the pastoral odes of David, and the freshness of spring still breathes through the story of Ruth. And are not the Proverbs of Solomon still as fruitful as the mellow boughs of autumnal orchards, or the clustering grapes of the vine? Have the years of centuries rendered the life of Joseph less attractive? or have the epics of the world ever equalled the sublime descriptions of Him who walketh on the wings of the wind, and who, in the amplitude of His power, hung the earth upon nothing? Or tell me has the song of peace, sung by the choristers of heaven on the ad

case.

Is

vent of the King of Peace, lost its gladdening power? the sermon on the Mount less authoritative? or are the parables of our Lord less instructive than they were when He uttered them on earth? Or is the great atoning sacrifice less efficacious now in saving souls than when about 3,000 were converted under the first sermon of Peter? Or are the Epistles addressed to the Primitive Churches, with their. pathos and power, no longer needed to instruct, warn, and console, the Church of God on earth? Nay, verily, the Alpha and Omega of Scripture, the Creator of the Universe, and the Builder of the Holy City (the New Jerusalem) liveth still the head of the church-the life of the soul. If His life, then, illuminates the Bible as the sun enlightens our world,—if His life imparts unity to its messages and makes it a perfect whole, it also renders it unique in the literature of our world; and as it stands alone, like the pyramids of Egypt, the wonder of ages-unlike them in their colossal mystery, it beams forth with living instruction, regarding Him who is the Light of the world. If such be the case, it must be evident, that the study of His character, is the loftiest of all studies; the knowledge of His life, the best of all knowledge, inasmuch as our minds and hearts will be in communication with Him in whom are hid all treasures of wisdom; it will interpret life, it will illustrate history, it will shed its broad beams of light over regions of thought; and will restrain the eager hunter after truth from speculations in the dizzy regions of the infinite and the absolute; and will make him content to sit like a little child at the feet of Him "who is meek and lowly in heart.” If it is so, the grandeur of the theme awes our spirits, we shrink back from its contemplation because we can never hope to grasp it. But still the fact of His character having been revealed under so many aspects and illustrated in so many ways, is evidence that it is our duty as well as our privilege, to concentrate our minds in devout and meditative thought. It is very possible that after reading the Cosmos of Humboldt, you would be awed by the vast sweep

of the territories of knowledge which he opens up to your wondering gaze, and while a desire might be born in your bosom to understand our globe, not only in itself but in its relation to the planetary worlds, you would be restrained by the thought of the impossibility of ever being able to accomplish it. Many have so felt, but they have been drawn to the study of some of the sciences; and whether it has been stars or shells, flowers or rocks, insects or animals, they have felt that while conquering one department of nature, they were being introduced to another-for there is no isolated science—and thus while studying facts they rose to laws, until they perceived the relation of one kingdom of nature to another, and intuitively they realized the magnificence of our earth, its relation to other worlds as well as its dependence on the sun. And so it will be found in studying the character of Christ. Some will meditate on Him as the Son of God, in the bosom of His Father, in the past eternity; others will contemplate Him as the Creator, or delight to trace Him as the Messiah in the Old Testament, or linger over His perfect humanity, or look up to Him as the Advocate, or consider Him as the King, or have hope strengthened by reflecting on Him as "the resurrection and the life." But whatever aspect attracts us, we shall be gradually drawn towards another aspect of His character, and see how all its manifestations blend in harmony in His atoning sacrifice, by which alone we can rise to the full conception of Him in whom all fulness dwells. Further, the various revelations of the character of Christ meet all possible states of mind, all varieties of intellect, every desire of a human soul;-they meet all races with all their diversities of temperament, and in whatever state of civilization. His character overleaps every human barrier, triumphs over every human religion, and is fitted to find a home in every heart, whether that home be the snow hut of the Esquimaux, the wigwam of the Red Indian, the white tent of the emigrant, the cabin of the sailor, the barracks of the soldier, the inn of the traveller, the thatched cot of the peasant, or the mansion of the Queen.