PAST MERCIES. We often forget it. Our view is far too often engrossed with the next life, and has not enough of the present in it. How many there are whose religion only consists in a fear of hell and a hope of heavenwhose great object is to escape the one and secure the other! Whereas the true religion of Jesus Christ has first to do with the mercy and grace of God in our daily life. God in Christ is ever nigh unto us. "He is nigh unto all who call upon Him." We are prone to forget that God is love; that He giveth us all things richly to enjoy-in a word, that He is our Father. Think of Him as a tender, and loving Father, and you will become a little child over again-and that is true religion, to be simple, childlike, trustful. God is a giver, knowing our necessities before we ask, and giving us all things freely to enjoy. He gives us all spiritual blessings-pardon, life, heaven; but He does not leave us to scramble through life as best we can. The reason why to so many life is such a rough path is because they put God last instead of first in well-nigh everything. If you will make God your first and your last; if you do your daily work in his fear, and for his sake; if honour the Lord by trusting Him, "you shall not lack any good thing." you If you have strength to work, take care of it by sobriety and temperance-it is God's gift. If you have a mind to think, treasure it, and use it as God's gift. "Trust in the Lord, and be doing good, and verily thou shalt be fed." What a source of comfort is this! It has to do with all who know the burden of sin and the teaching of the Spirit. Cast your care on Him who cares for you; for if only you be His by prayer and faith, at the end you will say, "Lord, I have often felt the want, but when I have trusted Thee, I have lacked nothing." The saints are at best but needy helpless creatures. Sin, temptation, sorrow, sickness, poverty, and manifold trials of body as well as soul, all stand in their way, but as surely as God lives, as surely as Jesus has felt the pressure of every burden that presses upon us, so surely shall we have all things and abound. And when we reach the home and rest of heaven, if an angel in his white array, or a glorified one who has entered in before us, or if the Lord Himself should come and ask us, "When ye journeyed to this happy place, through all the years of varied fortune down upon the earth, did ye lack anything?" we shall all of us who have lived and walked by faith on earth answer, "Nothing." "The Lord was my portion and my cup. I lacked nothing." "Though dark be my way, Since He is my Guide, "Tis mine to obey, "Tis His to provide; Though cisterns be broken, And creatures all fail, The word He has spoken "His love in time past He'll leave me at last I have in review To help me quite through." The Hill of Calvary. From the German. HROUGH many lands I've wandered, THE And many mountains seen; I've viewed the plains between ; It towers not to the heavens Its peak so bald and naked Must greet with deepest reverence From it no glorious landscape No crystal brook is flowing Down from the mountain thrones; A stream of full salvation- Around its brow no sunshine Yet ne'er at Rome or Athens As 'neath the awful shadow Of solemn Calvary. There stands the haughty heathen And smites his guilty breast; The murderer goes from suffering To heaven's eternal rest; There hear I angel harpers The song of Calvary. Away, my fellow-sinner, Whose heart deep peace desires, Is over Calvary. 87 W. H. JOHNSTON. 88 REMINISCENCES OF VISITS PAID TO HER MAJESTY'S SHIPS. IRON WALLS AND HEARTS OF OAK. BY MISS WESTON. her black hull and rows of guns with a feeling of despair, expecting from some unknown cause to have to return as I came. But not so. On my friend presenting himself on board, he found that a telegram from the Admiralty, ordering the " Vanguard" immediately to sea, had caused the commotion; but with the chivalry of a British sailor, the commander HAVE you ever, my reader, been on board one of exclaimed, "Miss Weston alongside! Do ask her to Her Majesty's ships in commission? Not an old hulk lying in the harbour, but one of such ships as those which compose the Channel squadron. You have, I am sure, been astonished at two things: first, at the immense number of men on board-five hundred, six hundred, seven hundred, or eight hundred. You are in a village or small town. And then, again, you are struck with the exquisite cleanliness and brightness of everything-not a ring in the deck but is polished steel-bright. I may also mention a third thing, which I doubt not has struck you—the fine bronzed stalwart fellows in their picturesque dress, open shirt, loose trousers, cap on the back of their heads-every inch British sailors-whom you see swarming about the ship. If you want to see "Jack" in and on his element, you must pay him an afternoon visit on board one of those floating castles which we call men-of-war. I had long been working among our sailors, when I began to feel how it would further the cause if I could get permission to speak to the men on board their ships. The difficulties I knew would be great -almost insurmountable. The laws and customs of the service, as well as prejudice, were all against me; but I felt that my motive was but for the good of the men, and I looked to Him who can open gates of brass to open a way for me, if it were His will that I should do the work. The first applications to captains commanding Her Majesty's ships were anything but encouraging. In truth, it would have been strange if such an application had been listened to in any case without inquiry and due caution. But I had a most kind friend and counsellor at Devonport in the person of Admiral Sir W. King Hall, K.C.B., then AdmiralSuperintendent of the Dockyard. "What can we do about this lady?" he was asked. "If she comes on board she may say things that we cannot allow to pass. If she were a man we could order her out of the ship. Will you stand security for her?" "I will hear her first myself," was the reply, "and then tell you." True to his word, a meeting of dockyard-men was convened during the dinner-hour, and I gave them a short gospel address: the men were very attentive, and Admiral Hall's verdict was, "You need not be afraid to let Miss Weston come on board-her influence will be for good, not harm." I Let me describe a meeting on board ship. will take a vessel now lying many fathoms under water; but on board of which work was done for Christ which eternity will reveal. H.M.S. "Vanguard" was lying in Plymouth Sound, about three miles from land, when one fine sunny afternoon, having obtained the captain's permission, I stepped into a boat which was to take me on board. As we neared the ship, a friend who accompanied me exclaimed, "Why, she's getting up steam! What can have happened? Truly, she was getting up steam, and when we arrived alongside the accommodation ladder was shipped, and I looked up at وو forgive us! The accommodation ladder shall be out in a trice;" and so it was. In a few moments I had scaled the ship's side, and stood on her deck, receiving smiles of welcome from many a bronzed face. "Now for the meeting, where shall it be held? Somewhere among guns and shot and shell it must be;" and so it was settled that it should be in the upper deck battery." The boatswain had orders to pipe the notice, and soon the shrill whistle of the boatswain's mate was heard resounding through the ship, and his hoarse cry, "Miss Weston's come aboard to give a lecture in the upper deck battery." Would the sailors respond or not? The rush of feet up every companion-ladder, and the crowd of eager faces thickening every moment, soon showed what Jack intended to do. Over the gun-carriages, and even guns, they swarmed, a wall of faces-some sitting crosslegged, some kneeling, others standing behind, and little fellows perched on the shoulders of the standing ones. A few earnest manly words from the commander, and I began to speak to them. The words were not much, but they came straight from the heart: the evils of strong drink; the crime, wretchedness, and deaths which it led to; the blessing of forsaking it, for the sake of the Queen and country they were pledged to serve, the wives and little ones; and above all, for the immortal soul, that it might be saved for time and eternity-all this, illustrated by anecdote, formed the address given. Then by special permission the pledge book was placed on one of the enormous guns, and those willing to enrol themselves in a warfare against this giant evil were invited to sign their names, looking to God for strength. They came forward, those brave "blue-jackets," about forty signing the roll: then came the good-bye to the men and officers, and the descending into the boat. The ladder was immediately withdrawn and stowed, and as we rowed over the blue waters of the Sound the noble ship stood out to sea. Men have since said, "Thank God for the meeting on board the Vanguard !'" · Now for an amusing incident which I find in my note-book. H.M.S "Topaze" was refitting in Devonport Yard, preparatory to her departure for sea, when I found myself on board. The commander of the ship was present, the sea of eager faces was before me, and we were standing on the middle deck. Anxious not to lose an opportunity of taking names, as I paused I turned to him, and asked for a small table on which to take the pledges. He kindly sent to his cabin for one, but it was long in coming; the audience were dispersing, and I looked hopelessly round for something to serve as a table. Ah, there it was, a tub-I supposed a bread-tub-of wood, with bright polished bands. May I have that?" I asked. Certainly," was the answer, with a smile. "You are welcome to anything on board. Now, men, a couple of hands roll out the grog-tub." Amidst cheers and laughter, for I had actually asked for that time-honoured institution the " grog-tub," it was rolled out, and placed before me. The men came up; about sixty enrolled their names. One man carefully signed his name, and then, laying down the pen, he rapped the tub with his knuckles and said, "There goes a nail in your coffin, old fellow." Space fails me to tell all that I would- -a moonlight meeting on board H.M.S. "St. Vincent," in Portsmouth Harbour; a meeting on board H.M.S. Valiant," reached with much difficulty in the teeth of a gale of wind-but these "yarns" must stand This work, as all other work done for our over. sailors, has but for its object the motto carved over the door of the Sailors' Rest: "For the glory of God, and for the good of the service." Although the permission to come on board is to speak to the men on temperance, it is hardly necessary to say my object is a far higher one. Many a hard drinker has come to me at the Sailors' Rest, and with tears in his eyes has told me, that the words he heard at one of these ship meetings had induced him "to give up the drink and give his heart to God." The work is indeed only half done if it stops short of that. FROM HYMNS OF THE EARLY CHURCH. II. ROM the Preface to the Hymn-book of the Mo- back to the primitive style; and the hymns of the ravian Church,* written about 1754, we take sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are cast unthe following sentences: "We find that the Christian mistakeably in the early mould, with less of sentiChurch, in her very earliest days, had such compo- ment and more of truth than we find in the subsesures; for much as they then esteemed the Psalms quent age, or even in our own. Luther's famous of the Old Testament, yet we cannot think that their hymn, for instance-" A strong tower is our God”— public worship admitted no singing besides. St. is wholly founded on the forty-sixth Psalm, as will Paul distinguishes hymns and spiritual songs from be seen from the following version of that Psalm Psalms, and in 1 Cor. xiv 26, he leads us to under- given by Coverdale in his collection, which appeared stand some odes of fresher composure, since none about 1535.* We give merely the first verses: but such could be similar to the other things mentioned in the same verse, and none but such needed to be submitted and tried by the college of prophets. But what puts the matter out of all doubt is Pliny's testimony that the primitive Christians did use to assemble before day to sing hymns to Christ as to God, for this manifestly implies canticles made since and particularly suited to the Christian era. Indeed it is generally allowed that the Gloria Patri, the Gloria in Excelsis, and probably several more were in use, even at that time." The historical fact stated above we have already noticed; and a specimen of the early hymns we have given. But we would not have it understood that these were few or meagre. True, there are not many of these now extant; the greater part have perished. And just as of the prose-writers of the first three centuries few have survived, so of the poets or hymnists. Yet there are historical indications or hints that the number of sacred songs in the primitive ages was much greater than the scanty relics that have come down to us would indicate. One longs to make discoveries in that early hymnology; and would greatly rejoice to light upon a canticle of the first or second century, in some ancient manuscript, even more than to obtain some lost treatise of Clemens or Irenæus. Judging by the specimens extant, these ancient Judging by the specimens extant, these ancient hymns were very thoroughly impregnated with Scripture, the expansion of some verse or word, the paraphrase of some New Testament canticle. And, no doubt, hymnology has suflared much in modern times by being made the vehicle either of effeminate emotion or elaborate theology. Our Reformers, both of Germany and Britain, seem to have gone *This hymnal is in two volumes or parts, and contains a very large collection of hymns. It is entitled, "A Collection of Hymns of the Children of God in all ages, from the beginning till now." Our God is a defence and tower, For any wondrous dede, In hills or the sea sande, Our God hath them all in His hande. Though we be alway greatly vexed With many a great tenptacion, He dwelleth here by grace, Among us is He Both nyght and daye truly, He helpeth us all, and that swiftly. The The primitive hymns seem thus to have been based very much on Scripture, and to have had in them They were more objective than subjective. more of direct praise than of Christian experience. same may be said of the Reformation hymnology. It was not till theology had, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, begun to deal more with metaphysics and experience that we find the case reversed, and the objective giving place to the subdecided, as we see in Hart, Cennick, Kent, Mason; jective. In the following century this became more and then after that in Wesley, Newton and Cowper. But the primitive hymns were not introspective Holy Scripture, for the comfort and consolation of such as love *"Goostly Psalmes and Spirituall Songes, drawen out of the to rejoice in God and His Word." This is the volume which was by royal injunction prohibited, as Foxe tells us, in the reign of Henry the Eighth. Several of the pieces are the same as in the Scotch volume, "Gude and Godly Ballads," by Wedderburn, who was a friend and companion of Coverdale. |