We are all of us without exception hastening to the last scene of all things earthly. Ere long the closing shadows of our day of life will gather around us more and more darkly, and then the night of death will close. in upon us. But in that night may we behold the glorious light of the city, in which there is "no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof:"-then may we realize in our souls the blessed meaning of the words "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them."

THE FADED FLOWER.

REV. JAMES HUGHES.

TROWBRIDGE, WILTS., ENGLAND.

ON THE DEATH OF THE LATE MR. W. H. E.

"The flower fadeth; because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it."

THERE

66

ISAIAH xl: 7.

HERE is something very affecting in the death of young people. To see a young man like our beloved friend, in the morning of life, sicken, droop, and die, is a scene which, regarded in itself, apart from the hopes of the gospel is very saddening. But there is nothing new in this. The language of the Book of Job. is, They die in youth." If this were indeed the first death of a young man, it would affect us most deeply. It would be like seeing the sun about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, sinking down and burying itself beneath the horizon, instead of running his usual course from east to west. Or to keep to the figure of the text, as if the flower when brusting forth, gradually unfolding its

hidden beauties, and ere as yet it had reached its full proportions, checked in its expansion, were suddenly to droop and perish. But, alas! the premature fading of the flower is so often seen in the gardens of mortals, and men, "in fulfilling their course," are so frequently arrested by the hand of death, and plunged into the darkness of the grave before the noon of life, that we fail to feel the deep and sad impression which such events are fitted to produce. It is once more brought home to us in the removal of one whom many of us knew, and whom to know, was also to respect and love. The word of God has made everything around us vocal with instruction; stamped its lessons of inspired wisdom on thepage of nature, and rendered the whole world around and above us auxiliary to its purpose of sacred instruction. The flower of the field is oft the subject of beautiful and affecting allusion in the word of God, as well an example of God's care, as also a type of frail and perishable humanity. The passages in which man is compared to a flower are many and striking—“He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down." "As a' flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more." The same interesting figure is involved in the passage out of the midst of which we have selected our text, as well as in its parallel in 1 Peter i. 24, “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away." These are a sample of those affecting passages in which the Spirit of God has rendered the perishing grass and the frail flower the emblems of our perishable and mortal nature. How strongly must we be reminded of such descriptions of humanity when called to mourn the loss of a young man in the prime of life. To see the frame, when it is usual for it to acquire

additional strength and hardihood, shrinking away under the touch of disease, until the declining process results in death. At once the thought of the fading flower presents itself to our minds, and we seem to hear a voice which says to us, Cry-"The flower fadeth; because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it," we notice

I. That the flower is beautiful. Flowers are made as if to ornament the world. There is no man, however blunt his senses, who does not at once perceive the beauty of a flower. Some flowers are much more beautiful than others. But every kind, especially of cultivated flowers is beautiful. And is there not in man, regarded as the creature of God, something that is beautiful? The human face Divine." There is something in the bodily formation of man that renders him more attractive than any other creature in the world. His superiority among all other creatures of God below the skies, entitles him to be called "the flower" of this lower creation. Nor can we wonder at this, when we remember that man was made to be "the temple of the Holy Ghost." How great must have been the beauty of "man primeval" when God had just made him. His soul and body pure and spotless His external form corresponding to the inward excellence. The earthen vessel as yet unmarred, fit casket of a pure and holy spirit. "The earthly house of this tabernacle," stamped with such external beauty as befitted the spiritual opulence of its immortal resident. His face radiant with the image of God; the God of light and love, in whose likeness he was made. Truly, he could have been only "a little lower than the angels" when God set him over the works of his hands. What majesty and grace there must have been in the whole bearing and movements of the new creature. The last and best made of the whole of

this lower creation, God's chief workmanship, the perfection of his creatures here below. Surely the human flower beamed with beauty when its Great Creator had newly formed and planted it in Eden. But, alas, the blight of sin has brought a dimness over the splendor, and much of the original beauty is lost. Nevertheless, there is something still in man to remind us of the primeval dignity and loveliness. And it is evident that man alone of all other creatures in the world is intended to be the shrine of Deity," "the habitation of God through the Spirit." There is something in the structure of man which seems to say plainly, "You were intended to be the temple of God!" Alas! Satan has usurped the seat of God; sin rcgns in the dwelling place of holiness, and as the fruit of this, much of the beauty is gone. We see bad and vile passions oft depicted in the "form and fashion" of the countenance. Anger and hatred put in their lineaments, vile lust paints some of the features, a sour selfishness reflects itself, and sometimes a dark despondency overshadows the face of man. The dominion of unholy feeling, and the practice of sensual habits embrute and demonize the human face, so that "the show of their countenance doth witness against them." But when the soul comes fully under the dominion of God's sanctifying grace, much of the original beauty is retrieved, and an habitual course of devotion and piety is oft seen to give to "the outer man" a heavenly stamp, the mark of the Lamb in the forehead. Moses brought down with him from his long communion with God on Sinai a face that shone with glory. And the council as they looked stedfastly on Stephen "saw his face as it had been the face of an angel"-a face in which beamed forth angelic sweetness and dignity, the result perhaps of a special baptism of heavenly fire which at that moment came upon him.

Nor can we think of the change through which Saul of Tarsus passed during the three days of his spiritual birth, without supposing that it left its record on the face of the Cilician Israelite. It is not too much to think that the fiery gleam of his dark eye and the hauteur of the young persecutor's countenance were among the "old" things," all of which "passed away." And that when he became numbered with the "elect of God, holy and beloved, and put on bowels of mercies, kindness and long-suffering," there came up also over his noble countenance a softened expression.

None who will be able to recall the form of our beloved young friend, but will remember that there was in him much that was lovely to the eye. There was a "goodliness" in the flower, a "grace" in "the fashion of it." That the love of Christ had much to do with this I have no doubt. He was early converted to God, and being in possession of deep and sincere piety, the inward life of God gave beauty to the flower which has, alas, now faded away before our eyes. If he had contracted and pursued evil habits, like many other young men, the beauty of the flower would have been marred. We should not have seen that habitual cheerfulness which reigned around and lighted up the features of our young friend, for it sprang from the peace of God. We should have missed that well known openness and benevolence of expression; for it was produced by the truth and grace which were in him. We should have looked in vain for that purity which beamed forth in him, for that was the result of sanctifying love. The beauty of this faded flower was the "beauty of holiness." But if the flower was beautiful here, how much more so now? If our vision could follow him into that crowd of beauteous forms which encircle the throne of God, and distinguish him there, surely we should find, that his