Forward, out of error, Leave behind the night : Forward through the darkness, Forward into light. Glories upon glories Hath our God prepared, By the souls that love Him One day to be shared ; Eye hath not beheld them, Ear hath never heard; Nor of these hath utter'd Thought or speech a word. Forward, marching eastward, Where the heaven is bright, Till the veil be lifted, Till our faith be sight! Far o'er yon horizon Rise the city towers, Where our God abideth, That fair home is ours; Flash the streets with jasper, Shine the gates with gold; Flows the gladdening river, Shedding joys untold. Thither, onward thither, In Jehovah's might; Into God's high Temple Arcli, and vault, and carving, Nought that City needeth In these courts have stood, To the Father's glory Dull the songs of night, Forward into light! BE JUST AND FEAR NOT. HENRY ALFORD. PEAK thou the truth. Let others fence, thou the words for pay In pleasant sunshine of pretence Let others bask their day. Guard thou the fact; though clouds of night Face thou the wind. Though safer seem In shelter to abide : We were not made to sit and dream: Where God hath set His thorns about, One fragment of His blessèd Word, Is better than the whole, half-heard Show thou thy light. If conscience gleam, The smallest spark may send his beam O'er hamlet, tower, and town. Woe, woe to him, on safety bent, Be true to every inmost thought, Hold on, hold on-thou hast the rock, The first world-tempest's ruthless shock While each wild gust the mist shall clear We now see darkly through, And justified at last appear The true, in Him that's True. Horatius Bonar. 1808-1889. BORN in Edinburgh on the 19th of December, 1808, Horatius Bonar came of a family which had taken a prominent part on the side of Presbyterianism during Covenanting days. Thomas Chalmers, the eminent Scottish theologian, was at the height of his power when Bonar entered the Edinburgh Divinity Hall. The influence of Chalmers, and of his fellow student Robert Murray McCheyne (whose biography has been written by his brother, Dr. Andrew Bonar), greatly strengthened his "hereditary evangelical sympathies." He became a minister of the Established Church of Scotland, but seceded in 1843, and was one of those who founded the Free Church. He was settled for many years at Kelso, and subsequently removed to a charge at the Grange, Edinburgh, where he remained until his death on July 31st, 1889. So great was his zeal, and so untiring his energy, that, when long past his seventieth year, he not unfrequently preached on summer Sunday evenings in the open air, after having previously preached twice in his own church. His monthly addresses to children were exceedingly popular, and were attended by children from all parts of Edinburgh. Dr. Bonar was a voluminous and most successful author, and his works, both in prose and in verse, |