And what has been the inspiration of these holy hymns? It is well known that their author is, and has been for many years, a firm and fervent believer in this gospel of the kingdom of God at hand; and that the "blessed hope" has been the joy of his life and the inspiration of his writings and his songs. The evidences of this fact would fill volumes. As editor for many years of the Quarterly Journal of Prophecy, and author of numerous sermons, tracts, and Scripture expositions, he has ever, with sobriety of judgment and soundness of speech, made prominent this grand and glorious theme. And on almost every page of the various collections of his published poetry, shines the light of this bright and morning star; and this truth, pervading his entire faith, and linking the cross which the Saviour bore, to the crown that he is yet to wear, lends to his hymns a charm which touches the hearts of many who do not yet clearly see the fountain whence these songs have sprung. A few lines will serve to indicate the tenor of

many of these sacred hymns:

Again,

"Come, Lord, and tarry not;

Bring the long looked for day.

Oh, why these years of waiting, why
These ages of delay?

"Come, for thy saints still wait;

Daily ascends their sigh;

The Spirit and the Bride say, Come;
Dost thou not hear the cry?"

"The church has waited long,
Her absent Lord to see
And still in loneliness she waits,
A friendless stranger, she.
Age after age has gone,

Sun after sun has set;

And still in weeds of widowhood,

She weeps, a mourner yet.

Come, then, Lord Jesus, come."

Again he thus tells of the hope of the Church of God:

"Oh, long expected, absent long,

Star of creation's troubled gloom,

Let heaven and earth break forth in song,
Messiah Saviour! art thou come?
For thou hast bought us with thy blood,
And thou wast slain to set us free;
Thou madest us kings and priests to God,

And we shall reign on earth with thee!"

Once more he pours forth the warning cry of coming doom:

"Time's sun is fast setting, its twilight is nigh.

Its evening is falling in cloud o'er the sky:
Its shadows are stretching in ominous gloom,
Its midnight approaches, the midnight of doom.
Then haste, sinner, haste, there is mercy for thee;
And wrath is preparing, flee, lingerer, flee."

The songs of Watts and Wesley, breathing this longing for the coming of the King, and heralding and celebrating his visible and personal reign on earth, may be expurgated from the hymn books of those who hold their names in honor; but they cannot be erased from the memories of those who "love His appearing," and find in them the words that express their sorrows and their joys. A living and loving church will sing these hymns of faith and hope; and we rejoice that in the later and better collections of sacred song, this grand theme is resuming its appropriate place and prominence. As Mr. Spurgeon says in his preface to "Our Own Hymn Book," "Subjects frequently passed over or pushed into a corner, are here made conspicuously the themes of song, such, for instance, as the great doctrine of sovereign grace, the personal advent of our Lord, and especially the sweetness of present communion with him."

These hymns have made their way through the length and breadth of the church of Christ, because they expressed, not only the ancient faith embodied in the creeds of Christendom, but also the universal, scriptural hope and true Christian sentiment of the church which is redeemed by the blood of Christ.

However Christians may contend about creeds, differ about doctrines, and divide into denominations, they agree in sacred song; and the new song which God has put into the mouth of his redeemed children who sing with the spirit and the understanding also, more truly expounds the living faith of a living church than all the creeds which men frame, or the systems of divinity about which they divide and dispute.

In the early spring of 1863 two armies of brothers estranged, confronted each other on the opposite hills of Stafford and Spottsylvania, Va. The shadows of evening were falling, and two military bands chanced at the same hour to be discoursing sweet music on the opposite banks of the river. The soldiers

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of both armies gathered to listen to the pleasing strains, and soon the bands began to answer each other. First the band on the northern bank would play the various national airs,— the listening soldiers cheering the strain. The band on the southern bank would respond with some southern melody, and receive the applause of their comrades. Presently one of the bands struck up a sweet and plaintive strain which was wafted across the Rappahannock, caught up by the band upon the other shore, and like a grand anthem the strain, "Home, Home, Sweet Home," swelled forth upon the evening air, thrilling every heart, and causing the tear of sympathy to roll down many a weather-beaten cheek, while a simultaneous shout went up from either side the rolling stream, and the hills which had so recently resounded with the thunder of hostile artillery, echoed and reëchoed the glad acclaim. They sung their national and their sectional tunes by themselves, but here was a strain which struck a responsive chord in every heart, and awoke an answering shout from every voice.

It is by no mere accident that those hymns which speak of Christ's glorious appearing have gone around the earth, stiring the heart of the universal church, and winning their way to every land; but it is because they go beneath the sectional and sectarian solos and quartets which speak of narrow ideas and personal interests, and strike those deeper, grander chords the church so longs and loves to hear, giving expression to the glad anticipations of those who, having the first fruits of the Spirit, wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body, in the immortal glory of the resurrection of the just.

The great question at issue is not so much concerning "the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power;" it is not a question of dates and periods, and visions and symbols; but it has respect to the habitual attitude of the church of Christ toward her absent Lord.

The Christians of Thessalonica, under the teaching of Paul the apostle, turned "from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven." The early Christians were to "come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." They were taught by divine grace to live, "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;" and

they were also taught that a crown of righteousness was laid up for "all them also that love his appearing." Hence this grand event was their inspiring motive, their watchword, their guiding star.

Now is it not impossible for any church to be looking for and waiting for an event which they are taught may never come at all, or which they are certain never can come during the period of their natural lives? Yet it has come to pass that teachers have recently arisen who, forgetting that no man knoweth the day nor the hour when the Son of man cometh, have substituted for that wisely ordained uncertainty which enforces the exhortation, "Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh," definite statements that that day can not come for hundreds, or thousands, or millions of years, and perhaps will never come at all. Of course persons accepting such teaching do not and cannot live, "looking for that blessed hope," nor can they live, waiting for the Son of God from heaven; and if they do not become evil servants, smiting their fellows and eating and drinking with the drunken, they can hardly avoid saying in their hearts, "My Lord delayeth his coming." But such a position is as unscriptural as it is unsafe. If it was right to wait for the Son of God from heaven, in the days of the apostles, it is much more needful now; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed; and if our Lord has left the time of his return unrevealed, that Christians may be ever ready and watching, surely he has sent no man to tell them that that day cannot come for ages, and hence that watching for it is utterly in vain. It is true that the apostle declared that that day could not come until an apostasy should occur, but it is also true that he had no assurance, and gave no assurance, that the events to which he referred would occupy a long period of time. This was one of those times and seasons which the Father had put in his own power.

Nor must we lose sight of the fact that the great truths concerning the coming and kingdom of the Lord, are no matters of idle and indifferent speculation. The "resurrection of the dead" and "eternal judgment," are among the very "principles of the doctrine of Christ," ranking with "repentance from dead works" and "faith toward God." Heb. vi. 1, 2. They are the things which were to be taught first, and which even

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babes in Christ were expected to receive. And further, the expectant attitude of the church of Christ is an indication and proof of her love for the person and presence of her Master.

They do greatly err who suppose that the children of God derive this hope only from dim prophetic symbols or mysterious apocalyptic visions. These, no doubt, have their meaning, their place, and their use; but if these are all that men have on which to build their faith, they come very far short of the apostolic church. A universal faith must have a broader foundation; a universal hope must have a surer anchorage. And so this question is not more a question of prophecy than of piety, for the church's expectation does not so much depend upon wisdom in the head, as upon grace in the heart. "The grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us” to “live . . . looking for that blessed hope." It is not, then, the book of Daniel, nor the symbols of Revelation, but it is "the grace of God that bringeth salvation," which teaches us to live, looking for that blessed hope of our Lord's return. It is that grace by which we are saved, through faith; that grace without which we cannot be saved: that grace which "bringeth salvation" to a lost world, that teaches us how to live, and for what to look; and the same grace that teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly, teaches us to look for "that blessed hope.”

This matter is too plain for argument. The man who knows the grace of God in truth, does not need long arguments to teach him to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. and live a sober, righteous, and godly life. These principles are taught him by the grace that saves him, and are inwrought in his heart by the Holy Spirit. But the same grace which teaches men to live the Christian life, also teaches them to look for "that blessed hope." No one admits that a difference of opinion among Christians is a sufficient ground for ceasing to live soberly, righteously, and godly; and the man who claimed that his "views" led him in a different direction, would be regarded as one ignorant of the gospel, and unacquainted with Christ and his grace. But the same grace of God also teaches men to look for that blessed hope, and if they fail to do this, they must be either deficient in the experience of the grace that bringeth salvation or slow to learn the lesson which it conveys.