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2. The winter affords an illustration of human stored with knowledge, they have resources of life. happiness within themselves, and may retain their vivacity and cheerfulness to a green old age. A Christian lady was in the habit of committing to memory numerous sacred hymns, giving as the reason, that when sickness or old age came, she would not be able to read, and that these sweet hymns would be a source of comfort and enjoyment.

Not long since the earth was carpeted with grass. It covered the hills, and adorned the valley, and beautified the lawn. But now it is gone, and the trees stretch out their leafless branches, and all nature looks sad. So man has his spring-time of joyousness and his summer of prosperity; but the winter is coming, when snows will whiten his locks, his spirits lose their animation, and his limbs their activity.

3. The winter furnishes occasion for admonition.

(3.) Be admonished to make provision against the winter of death.

This is the spring-time with many of you; but, my young friend, it will not always be so. Winter is approaching; and if you would be happy in declining years, and enjoy a hope of eternal life, sow the seeds of piety, that you may reap a harvest of joy.

Oh! how great the folly of neglecting this preparation for the future, ye men of business!

(1.) It is our duty to make provision for the temporal wants we may experience in the winter of age, if God should spare us. Any teachings of our Saviour or the apostle, that would be regarded as opposed to this provident care for the future, is wrongly interpreted. No person is required to contribute of his substance to chari-Ye are wise and prudent in worldly interests; table objects so lavishly as to interfere with this obligation; nor is a man justifiable in giving to his children so liberally as to impoverish himself, or prevent his making provision for his comfort in old age, if God should permit him to live thus long. Parents in their kindness have done so, and lived to regret it.

(2.) Make intellectual provision for the winter of age.

I am induced to think that the fretfulness, discontent, and querulousness which often characterize old age, are owing to the want of mental culture. Young persons are naturally buoyant, and conversant with the companions and scenes of the outer world. They possess a joyousness of spirit which enables them to battle with the ills of life. But old people are to look within themselves for enjoyment; and if conversant with books, if familiar with the thoughts of the mighty dead, if their minds have been

ye provide abundantly for your families; ye surround yourselves with every comfort; but ah! will ye see death coming, will you follow the footsteps of those who have gone to the grave, and hasten to another world, never to return, and yet make no provision for the wants of your soul? This is the greatest folly of which a rational being can be guilty.

4. Let the winter awaken our sympathies and benevolence toward those who are in poverty and wretchedness. The streets may look gay; and the fleet vehicle and lively bells, speeding smoothly over the snow, may be highly invigorating and inspiriting; and cheerful faces and abounding comfort may greet us in our pleasant homes; but ah! many are pining in want, even these children in want, visit the hovel of penury, in this great and wealthy city. Go in person to and convey to the suffering poor these gifts of charity, that will alleviate their wants and shed gladness over their hearts.

Modern Poetry Tested by Scripture.

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ETURNING to this country after many years spent in far distant lands, I have been much struck with the influence which some writers seem to exercise upon the minds of the educated classes of my countrymen. One of these writers is the poet-laureate. I had lately, for the first time, read through his most reputed poem; and as the subject of it pre-eminently claims to be tested by the revealed word of God, I read it in that connection, and noted down the results of my study. Since then I have met a recently published volume, entitled A Study of Tennyson's Works, which is chiefly laudatory of the said poem. I would also venture to offer my study' of it to such as wish to try things by the light of the gospel.

Tennyson's In Memoriam, consisting of 130, or rather 132 cantos, is written in memory of a very dear friend, A. H. H. (Arthur Henry Hallam, son of the historian), who had been his college friend, had entered the profession of the law, had become engaged to his sister, and had died in Vienna in 1833, when his remains were brought home to lie in the family burial-place.

I like the poetry, and fully sympathize with the poet's feelings of deep sorrow, but miss altogether the manly Christian spirit of vital scriptural faith and hope in these pages.

Canto 1.-If he means by 'strong Son of God, immortal Love,' the Lord Jesus Christ, it is well. But he says he does not know, 'why' man was made, and he only thinks he was not made to be annihilated. Why not, then, ask the Lord, and

hear Him speaking by his word, which is his voice, and so be sure, and be satisfied? There we find the why, the whence, and the whither of man very clearly revealed; that God made him to be perfect, to be useful, to obey and glorify Him, and to enjoy Him for ever. As to the present life, see such passages as Gen. i. 26 to end, ii. 15–17; Ps. cii. 18; Isa. xliii. 1, 7, 21; Mic. vi. 8; Eph. ii. 10, iii. 9, iv. 24; Col. i. 16, iii. 10; Rev. iv. 11; Ps. cxlvii. 11; Rom. i. 25; 1 Pet. iv. 19; John i. 10, 11; Isa. i. 3; Hos. viii. 14; Isa. xvii. 7, xliv. 21, 24, li. 13; Deut. xxxii. 18; Jer. xiii. 11; Rev. xiv. 7; Rom. iii. 23, xi. 36; 1 Cor. x. 31; Eccles. xii. 13; 2 Tim. iii. 15-17; Phil. iv. 4; Titus ii. 11 to end. As to the future life, see such as Job xiv. 14, 15, xix. 25-27; Eccles. xii. 7; Heb. ix. 27, 28; 1 Cor. xv. 42-58; John v. 28, 29; 1 Thess. 4, 13 to end; Rom. viii. 17; John iii. 16; Rev. vii. 15, xxi. 4.

When he adds' we have but faith, we cannot know' (see also canto 123), he surely is unreasonable; for how can there be faith or belief in any sense, without some knowledge of the person or truth believed in, and how any love for Him whom we know not? So again, as to knowing God, let us hearken to our Lord speaking in John xvii. and xiv. and xv.; Matt. xi. 27; 1 John v. 20; Heb. viii. 11, and many other passages which have been referred to elsewhere in reference to the opinions of another 'leader of public opinion.' No poet has a 'poetic licence' in such a subject: things revealed belong to us and to our children' (Deut. xxix. 29), and they are of no 'private interpretation' (2 Pet. i. 20). It seems the most daring presumption in us to say to God, We cannot know Thee, though He reveals himself to us, and tells us that the Son came for this very purpose-viz. to give us an understanding to know God (1 John v. 20), and when the knowledge of God is the blessed gift of God to sinners, and absolutely necessary to their salvation (John xvii. 3). At the end of the canto, the poet asks for forgiveness' of the 'strong Son of God; but he gives no revealed 'reason' why he should be forgiven; he pleads not the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin,' or 'for his name's sake' (1 John i. 7, ii. 12).

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Canto 14 is very beautiful, though he makes his friend a demi-god-' the man I held as half divine;' and the prevailing tone is too much the expression only of that sorrow of the world which worketh death' (2 Cor. vii. 10). See

canto 48.

Canto 27.-The following is very fine:

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
"Tis better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all.'

Canto 31. He says if Lazarus had told 'where' he was those four days of death, it would explain what it is to die,' and would have added praise to praise.' But our Lord said, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead' (Luke xvi. 31). Then, why Lazarus any more than the widow's son of Nain, Jairus' daughter, Dorcas, etc.? Or rather, why

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not the Lord himself, who both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living' (Rom. xiv. 9), and who has told us many things about what it is to die?' He said the repentant thief was that day with Him in paradise. There are those who are asleep in Christ;' the 'dead in Christ' 'sleep in Jesus;' and they'rest' and are blessed,' happy. Thus, 'to die is gain;' for it is to be with Christ, which is far better; they are as the angels;' and God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.' 'Whether therefore we live or die, we are the Lord's' (1 Cor. xv.; 1 Thess. iv.; Rev. xiv. 13; Phil. i. 21, 23; Mark xii. 25, 27; Rom. xiv. 7-9). Canto 33.- Whose faith has centre everywhere;' or, as the proverb says, everywhere is no where.' Not so Bible faith: We believe and are sure;' one thing is needful;' this one thing I do.' It is, I suppose, a poetic haziness of view, nothing tangible, nothing definite; so also in the verses which follow the above, about 'sacred flesh' and 'the law within,' and 'even for want of such a type.'

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Canto 38.-He thinks if his friend can care now for him, his songs about him are somewhat grateful to the dead. Now, if his friend be one of those asleep in Christ,' we know his mind will be like his Lord's; and the mind of the Master we know distinctly from the word, the holy Scriptures.' When, then, these 132 cantos seem scarcely to reflect, to echo anything of the Lord's mind and voice, so far from being pleased with them (if he knew), he would deplore them; he might even think that they show a waste of talent, of time, of thought, and, above all, of feeling. And since for every idle word we shall give account' (Matt. xii. 36), how great the responsibility of publishing such words as lead others to cherish unprofitable sorrow for the dead! how if the loved queen of these realms has been thus influenced by her poet-laureate, till her people have had to sorrow for the sorrow so sadly cherished!. . . In the poet's case, even the dead would tell him (if the dead 'know anything' of our affairs, Eccles. ix. 5), that his absorption of soul in A. H. H., and his high exaltation of him, is such as should only have been directed to Christ his Lord. But I think we have no warraut in Scripture for believing that the dead know what is taking place here while they await the coming of the Lord.' Even in the parable of the rich man in hell, he seems to have referred to his unbelieving brethren, whom he had just left on earth, not as if he was then in view of them (Luke xvi. 28).

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Canto 40.-The poet doubts that I shall be thy mate no more: then why not ask the Lord for that mateship, fellowship, oneness, which

He speaks of in John xvii. 21 to end, and in 1 John i. 3, also in Heb. xii. 23?

Canto 42.-He hankers after earthly love in heaven; but so far as this love has nothing to do with Christ, does not centre in Him, flow in and through his Spirit, it is not spiritual or eternal, but purely of time, and will cease with the timeous life, will perish with the using.' God is Spirit; heaven is spiritual; we shall be 'as the angels;' spiritual love is such as God's to us (John iii. 16), as Christ's in Mark iii. 33-35, as ours to believers in Christ (1 John iii. 14, v. 1). When we read-'In that very day his thoughts perish' (Ps. cxlvi. 4); The wisdom of this world comes to nought' (1 Cor. ii. 6); 'Knowledge shall vanish away' (1 Cor. xiii. 8); The dead know not anything; also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in anything that is done under the sun' (Eccles. ix. 5, 6, 10; Job xiv. 19-21; Isa. lxiii. 16)—we need not build on or expect the continuance of earthly love, or wisdom, or knowledge in that future life. N.B.-Heb. xii. 1, 23 teaches us that the earthly life of departed believers surrounds us with a cloud of witnessings, and that we are in company with them in Zion, in Christ, in spirit, spiritually.

Canto 43.-He seems to think the dead 'forgets the day before,' for which there seems as little Scripture warrant; most certainly, so far as the spiritual of the former life is concerned (and the spiritual interpenetrates all), there is no forgetfulness. But the poet thinks his guardian angel' will tell his friend all about him. True, angels are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation' (IIeb. i. 14; Matt. xviii. 10; Luke xv. 10, xvi. 22; 1 Cor. iv. 9; 1 Tim. v. 21; Heb. xii. 22; 1 Pet. i. 12; Eph. iii. 10).

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Canto 44-I don't quite follow his metaphysics here; but he seems to say that as a baby learns gradually to know 'me' from other things, so our present life prepares for the future (surely the analogy ought to be between life in | the womb and after birth, as compared to life in time and life in eternity), otherwise he thinks it were 'fruitless' if'man had to learn himself anew, beyond the second birth of death' ('Blessed is he that hath part in the first resurrection,' Rev. xx. 6). I don't see why fruitless.' Even if man lived not again any more than the beasts, his existence, even temporally, would be to the glory of God; but as man does live beyond this life, that life would not be 'fruitless,' even if he had to learn himself anew' in the future life, for that would not be worse than the angels when first created in a spiritual sphere; but again, man's use of the present life is to be disciplined, educated, prepared, by a quickening and sanctifying process in his spiritual nature for the spiritual world.

Canto 46.-He can't bear the vague and unsweet faith' of man's soul 'remerging in the general soul,' but is sure an 'eternal form' shall belong to the eternal soul' of his friend, and I shall know him when we meet.' Did the poet think of the 'spiritual body' which shall bear

the image of the heavenly' (1 Cor. xv. 44, 49); 'A building of God eternal in the heavensearnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven-that being clothed we shall not be found naked-that mortality might be swallowed up of life' (2 Cor. iv. and v. 16, to viii.); and as to knowing: Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I am known' (1 Cor. xiii. 12); 'We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is' (1 John iii. 2)? The poet anticipates in heaven an endless feast' of enjoying each the other's good.' Now this may or may not be true; but we don't find that Paul, or Peter, or John, or Stephen thought or spoke of such a feast with and over one another; they did look and long for the feast of being present with their Lord: In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore' (Ps. xvi. 11); 'Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb' (Rev. xix. 7, 9, xxi. 1-7, xxii. 1-5).

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Canto 48.- Poor fellow! sorrow deepens down,' and 'drowns the bases of my life in tears.' See note on canto 14.

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Cantos 49, 50, 51.-This sorrow makes him say hard things of 'men;' but he asks his dead friend, Be near me' in times of sickness, trouble, and death (pity, when he might have the Mighty and Holy One as his friend who sticketh closer than a brother'). But he suddenly bethinks himself that he would not like a human friend to know all his secret thoughts, and spy out all his ways; however, he comforts himself that the dead are like God, with larger eyes than ours;' they 'make allowance for us all.' Then his dead friend answers that he will not move from his side; and as to sins, they are mere flecks, spots, streaks in the shell of the pearl.

'So fret not, like an idle girl,

That life is dash'd with flecks of sin:
Abide; thy wealth is gather'd in,

When time hath sundered shell from pearl.' This dead one's eyes don't look upon sin as God does. Hear what the holy God says of sin: 'The soul that sinneth, it shall die' (Ezek. xviii. 4); In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die' (Gen. ii. 17); 'For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one, he is guilty of all' (Jas. ii. 10); 'For if God spared not the angels that sinned' (2 Pet. ii. 4); "Stand in awe and sin not' (Ps. iv. 4); 'For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification' (Rom. v. 12, 16); 'Sin reigned unto death' (Rom. v. 21); The wages of sin is death' (Rom. vi. 23); The sting of death is sin' (1 Cor. xv. 56); He that committeth sin is of the devil' (1 John iii. 8); 'Your iniquities have separated between you and your God' (Isa. lix. 2); All have sinned and come short of the glory of God' (Rom. iii. 23); 'That_sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful' (Rom. vii. 13); Christ hath suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God' (1 Pet. iii. 18); 'He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only,

but also for the sins of the whole world' (1 John ii. 2). And so on with numberless passages, to show us the terrible nature and guilt of sin, of one or of many; and that only the death, the bloodshed, the life given of the Son of God, could atone for and cleanse us from it.-Prov. xiv. 9, 34, xxiv. 9; Heb. i. 9, iii. 17; Ps. xcvii. 10, li. 4; Matt. v. 19; Jas. i. 15; Eph. i. 2 ; Isa. liii. ; 1 Cor. xv. 3; Gal. i. 4; Heb. i. 3, ii. 9; 1 Pet. ii. 24; 1 John i. 7, 9, iii. 5.

Now, Tennyson, man to man, face to face, let us reason together over it. Does not the word of God pierce through and expose as vain imaginations the ideas herein quoted from your poem; and can you think they will not shrivel up and burn as wood, hay, stubble,' at the fiery trial of the last day? (1 Cor. iii. 10-15.)

(To be continued.)

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Early Years of the late Rev. John Milne.*

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yoke-follows.' Their after-work drew them into different fields; their later life was spent in different lands; and their graves are far asunder. London holds the first, Newchwang the second, Edinburgh the last.

Along with the above, I would name other four who left us many years ago, but who were at one time associated with these three in heart and work; I mean Robert M'Cheyne of Dundee, Daniel Cormick of Kirriemuir, William Hewitson of Dirleton, and Patrick Miller of Newcastle. As St. Augustine said of his early friends, so I

may say of these seven: Me multum diligebant et ego illos, propter magnam virtutis indolem, quæ in non magno ætate satis eminebat.' 'These all died in faith,' resting from their labours. The work of each was a true one and a great, though not very long. Their lives were not failures, bringing forth nothing; nor contradictions, one part neutralizing the other. They were debtors to the age while in it (Rom. i. 14); and now the age is their debtor. The period which, by their holy bearing and bold testimony, they helped to mould, is a very notable one in the history of the church of God. The work they did was real, and their footprints are still visible. They so lived and spoke as to tell upon the world; giving a deeper tone both to the religion and the theology of their time. They were men of 'large views,' in the sense in which the Lord and his apostles were such; seeking to be neither narrower nor broader than they. They were men of progress; adding to their faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness' (2 Pet. i. 6). They knew what they believed, and they believed it nobly; nor did they find any necessity to unsay or undo, in their later years, what they said and did in their earlier. They died as they lived, tenacious of the old gospel, suspicious of 'advanced theologies,' and jealous for the divine accuracy of the Scriptures.

Christianity has no weak points. Other systems have. It has none. In the inconsistencies of Christians some have professed to see the weak side of Christianity. But the lives of Christians are not Christianity. Yet, in the cases above noted, Christianity was not put to shame by its friends. Their light shone steadily to the last. It did not wax dim with years, nor hide itself in mist. Living in an age that is oscillating between universal belief and universal unbelief, they were not ashamed of having a fixed creed, and a Bible that never grows old.

John Milne was born at Peterhead, in Aberdeenshire, on the 26th of April 1807. He died at Spring Valley, Morningside, near Edinburgh, on Sabbath the 31st of May 1868.

His father held office in the Custom-house at Peterhead. He was sent, when a boy of five years old, to school in his native town. On his first school-day he met with a serious accident, which told upon his whole after-life, and which for a time threatened to prove fatal. The school was held in a room above the Tolbooth, and there was a long outside stone-stair leading up to it. At the close of school-hours the children poured out in a mass, to get to play, or to get home as quickly as possible. In the rush John was thrown down, and fell the whole length of the stair, striking his head severely. He was taken up and carried home insensible. After some little time he recovered, and returned to school; still, for many years the pain in his head was so violent, that he was obliged, by medical advice, to keep it shaved.

His physicians, in after years, traced to this fall those fits of depression into which he sometimes sank. The brain had been injured, and

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the effects of the concussion never entirely disappeared; or rather, they reappeared at certain intervals, sometimes producing lowness of spirits, and a feeling of unfitness for work, and sometimes leading him to act fitfully and wilfully; yet never betraying him into inconsistency, nor into timidity; for he was throughout, not only one of the most consistent, but one of the boldest of men,-a man utterly devoid of fear, and insensible of danger in any shape; a man who would have led a forlorn hope up the breach as calmly as he would have ascended his own pulpit steps, or climbed Kinnoul Hill. In this perfect fearlessness he had only one equal that I knew, and that was William Burns. 'Had I been a worldly man' (I remember Mr. Milne saying one day as we were wandering over Dunsinnane Hill), 'I would have certainly been a soldier; and nothing would have given me such delight as charging at the head of my regiment the very thickest of the enemy.' He suited the action to the utterance, and showed how he would have done.

The school to which he went at Peterhead was taught by a Mr. Donald, who afterwards became minister of the parish. It was his church that John attended, till he left his native town for Aberdeen; and he does not seem to have found interest or profit in what he heard. I never heard him speak specially of his minister; but I remember him referring more than once to the religious dreariness of these times. Not many days before his death, he came along from Morningside to call for me at the Grange. After some pleasant conversation in the house, we went out together for a walk; and as we sauntered along Strathearn Road, he alluded to his boyhood. He asked me about Edinburgh days some forty or fifty years ago, congratulating me that I had enjoyed such a ministry as that of Dr. Jones. He referred sorrowfully to his own religious training in Aberdeenshire, and spoke as one who throughout life had been feeling the evil influence of these bleak and barren years.

Mr. Donald was succeeded in the school by Mr. Imrie, and under his teaching John made great progress. His health continued to improve, and he was able to study more than he had done. He was generally first in every class; and often, when his companions were at play, he was found busy at his books. He was always a thoughtful, good boy; and from his childhood he expressed a wish to be a 'minister.'

When about thirteen, he was asked by Mr. Imrie to give some assistance in the school. This he did for some little time; and when he left for college, Mr. Imrie made him a present of a small sum, the first money he had earned. At this time he does not appear to have had any deep religious feelings, though morally correct and pure.

In 1821 he left Peterhead for Aberdeen; entering Marischal College, and continuing in the undergraduate classes for the usual four sessions. He used sometimes to mention an impression made on him the first night of his arrival in Aberdeen. Having gone to stay in the house of Mr. Edmond, he remembered that, when in

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