THIS

ONE NOTE IN A BURIAL HYMN.

REV. CHARLES JERDAN.

We spend our years as a tale that is told.-Ps. 90: 9.

HIS is one of the oldest, noblest, richest of the Psalms. Its grand theme is to contrast God and man. Its tone is pensive, sad, like a funeral dirge. It is in fact the burial hymn of the whole generation of unbelievers, who left their bones in the wilderness. Yet it lays hold of the power and mercy of the God of Jerusalem and represents Jehovah as the everlasting home of men. It has a variety of similes expressive of the frailty and brevity of human life, one of which is our Consider then

text.

I. OUR LIVES AS A TALE:

1. Because of their romantic interest. This interest attaches to our life, because of the greatness of our nature. A human life is a divine thing, because man was made in the image of God. The meanest person has wonderful faculties and "the power of an endless life." The history of the humblest human life is a story of wonders. What a tragedy is the career of every unconverted man, as his noble humanity sinks down, down, ever down into the blackness of darkness. It is Vanity Fair" in real life. What a story of light and love and glory unutterable is the biography of the believer, the tale of the "Pilgrim's Progress," "The path of the just, &c."

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2. Because of its brevity. Every story, however thrilling, soon comes to an end. So with human biography. Moses in this Psalm, Jacob. The hours sometimes in a life may seem to pass slowly, but when all gone, they only seem as the told tale; delusive, disap

pointing, despicable. But Faith looks upon every man's life story with far other eyes. It sees the thread of the narrative which seems cut by the shears of death taken up on the other side and projected through eternity. It is a serial tale-"To be continued in our next," running on in the eternal world upon the same lines and evolving the same plot and plan as those which we have already composed during the present life.

3. Because of the oblivion in store for them. However captivating the story, it is soon forgotten. So we shall not only die, but die out, fade from the memory of others. What does the big busy world care about the life story of those who lie under the coverlet of green? "The living know that they must die, &c." We write our names on water, but the Christian man rejoices that his record is on high, and his name engraven on the breast-plate of the Redeemer.

II. The tellers of the tale. Every romance has au author. God our maker may be truly said to be the author and publisher of the story of our life. We draw our being out of His. God has a definite life plan for every human being, and we ought to co-operate with Him in the unfolding of it from day to day. But we must not forget that each one of us is in a special sense the teller of his own life story. Every one of us knows engaged in determining

that he is freely and responsibly his own destiny. If we are not co-operating with God, we have a prospectus of our own. God's would lead "to glory, honor, immortality," ours is "earthly, sensual, devilish." What are the contents of the pages we have been writing? Is this their epitome? "To me to live is Christ."

III. The listeners to the tale. A tale "told" is for the benefit of some attentive auditory. Who are listening to the story of our lives?

1. We ourselves are listening to it. Our memory is listening and "pigeon-holing," treasuring. This book may be opened at the judgment.

2. Our relatives and neighbors are listening to it. They are reading and carefully pondering. "None of us liveth to himself." Wondrously influential is every chapter and verse of this tale as it is told. "Do not sin against the child." You are your "brother's keeper."

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3. God is listening to it. He has an open eye and an attentive ear. He shall bring every work into judgment," shall read out our life tale before the universe. It may run thus, "I was an hungered, &c., came unto me," or it may run thus, "I was an hungered, &c., visited me not." Oh that we were wise, &c.

Let us so live that our tale, when it is "told," shall be written in heaven and not in hell.

LIFE FOR THE DEAD.

JAMES HAMILTON, D.D.

Young man, I say unto thee, arise.-LUKE 7: 14.

IT was a summer day in a lovely region. The Saviour

and his disciples were entering a little hamlet, when cries fell on their ears, and a funeral possession met their gaze. On the bier lay a young man, the only son of a widow. It was a distressing scene, touched the heart of Jesus, who touched the bier, and said, "young man, etc."

I. Death is the great destroyer of earthly happiness. It throws a pall over every landscape, darkens every window, dims every eye. It had done all this and more for this widow. Her husband was gone, all her plans frustrated, etc., and now her only son is on the bier. There was no one to protect, support, comfort her

Death is the great damper to all. The desire of the eyes taken away, and a pensiveness brooding over everything left, a fearful foreboding in the heart continually solicitous about some darling object and all a lifetime. "subject to bondage."

II. Jesus is the destroyer of death. The bier-bearers stand still at his touch, the disembodied spirit heard the voice, and the re-animated widow's son arose. He who is theresurrection and the life" had spoken; at his omnipotent behest, the spirit came again, and a transported mother and an awe-struck multitude announced the miracle complete.

No spirit that has passed away is extinct. It will in due time hear this same voice, and recognize its old companion and re-enter its mortal shrine.

Jesus is effecting the resurrection of dead souls every day. Souls blind to all beauty-deaf to all holy sounds, wrapped in the grave-clothes of sins. He arrests these sometimes by a startling providence on their way to the gulf of souls. Or by word He does it: "arise." The soul is quickened, etc. He who believes in Jesus will never die. Faith in Him lightens the gloom of the funeral day, and inspires with a hope of meeting in the same Father's house.

III. Jesus by a graceful generosity consummated the deed of mercy. He might have said, "Follow me." "He delivered, etc." Pity first prompted and now generosity consummates. The young man's gratitude was to be exhibited by dutiful obedience to his mother. Show piety at home. Be a paragon of filial piety. "How can I show my love to my Saviour ?" Love your parents. Give them your confidence, society, your sympathy, and God your heart.

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THE AMUSIVE WASTE OF LIFE.

WM. M. PAXTON, D.D.

We spend our years as a tale that is told-Ps. 90: 9.

HE times and incidents of each year as it closes, fast

THE

recede from view, as if borne upon an ebbing tide never to return. And these years are ours.

It is a sad and solemn thing to part with anything that is ours. In what sense are they "ours ?" We have no proprietorship in them, nor authority over them. Yet they are linked to us by a personal responsibility and indissoluble relation.

1. They are ours to enjoy. Enjoyment is the appropriation by which a thing becomes truly our own. Without this there can be no real possession, and God made the years to be the measure of our joy. Each day and year Better lose a jewel

is a new gift of heaven to enjoy. than a joy.

2. They are ours to employ. Ours for the best and most valuable uses. They are our seed time to be employed. They are a mine in which there is a mass of precious treasure. They are our working day, in which God says, "Go work, my son, etc."

3. They are ours to account for. Time is a precious treasure given us in trust, as stewards, and a year gone, is a year gone to the judgment seat. So is every day, hour, moment. How do we spend these years? The text tells The words imply a censure.

us.

II. The comparison. Dwell for a few moments on it. 1. "As a tale," as a false, unreal, fictitious thing, and not a sober history. The allusion is to the tales, etc., told by traveling minstrels from house to house.