and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

But what is the voice to us? Has this been sent as the stroke of
wrath, or the rebuke of love? "His way is in the sea, and his path in
the great waters, and his footsteps are not known." Only this much we
can clearly see, that nothing was more fitted to leave his character
and example impressed on our remembrance forever than his early death.
There might be envy while he lived; there is none now. There might
have been some of the youthful attractiveness of his graces lost had
he lived many years; this cannot be impaired now. It seems as if the
Lord had struck the flower from its stem, ere any of the colors had
lost their bright hue, or any leaf of fragrance.

Well may the flock of St. Peter's lay it to heart. They have had days
of visitation. "Ye have seen the right hand of the Lord plucked out of
his bosom? What shall the unsaved among you do in the day of the
Lord's anger?" "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy
day, the things which belong to thy peace!"

It has been more than once the lot of Scotland (as was said in the
days of Durham) to enjoy so much of the Lord's kindness, as to have
men to lose whose loss has been felt to the very heart--witnesses for
Christ, who saw the King's face and testified of his beauty. We cannot
weep them back; but shall we not call upon Him with whom is the
residue of the Spirit, that ere the Lord come. He would raise up men,
like Enoch, or like Paul, who shall reach nearer the stature of the
perfect man, and bear witness with more power to all nations? Are
there not (as he who has left us used to hope) "better ministers in
store for Scotland than any that have yet arisen?"

Ministers of Christ, does not the Lord call upon us especially? Many
of us are like the angel of the church of Ephesus: we have "works, and
labor, and patience, and cannot bear them that are evil, and we have
borne, and for his name's sake we labor, and have not fainted;" but we
want the fervor of "first love." Oh how seldom now do we hear of fresh
supplies of holiness arriving from the heavenly places (Eph. 1:3)--new
grace appearing among the saints, and in living ministers! We get
contented with our old measure and kind, as if the windows of heaven
were never to be opened. Few among us see the lower depths of the
horrible pit; few ever enter the inner chambers of the house of David.

But there has been one among us who, ere he had re