CELESTIAL LAW OF PRIMOGENITURE.

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Poems, of which the first edition was exhausted in a few months after publication. But from the time of his early university life, his poetical and critical abilities had won respect and attention; so that when the General Assembly of his Church appointed a Committee for the revision of its psalmody, Logan was named as a member. In this capacity he was very active, not only revising and improving some of the old versions, but adding others of his own production. The collection of "Translations and Paraphrases" which was the result of the labours of the Committee, was put forth in 1781, by authority of the General Assembly; and the poem above quoted is one of the Paraphrases, which at that time tended to enrich a service of praise which is yet kept meagre out of set and jealous purpose.

From brotherhood to co-inheritance the progress is easy and natural. As Christ did not proceed to Heaven to glorify Himself merely, so He did not ascend thither merely to make more easy or more holy the earthly state of His followers. He went as the "First-born among many brethren" (Rom. viii., 29). The celestial law of primogeniture makes all for the advantage of the younger members of the family. On the Elder is laid the toil, the pain, the suffering, the conflict; and when He alone has won the victory, then its results are thrown open to the enjoyment of the later-born. "The Ascension of Christ is the great pledge and proof of our eternal state; our nature is for ever identified with His, so that as long as He is man, we must be happy, as one with Him. The great value of this transcendant fact is, not merely that it is an example of The Hymn is the last poem in Logan's volume alluded to in the text; but in spite of this direct claim, it has been lately asserted by a very exact and well-informed author, that "this exceedingly touching and much-prized hymn is erroneously attributed to Logan. It is by Michael Bruce."-Singers and Songs of the Church. By Josiah Miller, M.A., 1869.

our future ascension, but that it is our ascension begunwe in Him having risen to Heaven, we in Him being at this time present before God, we in Him being united with the eternal plans and procedures of Heaven, so that we are for ever blended with Christ-His property—His purchased possession-the very members of His body."

After such burning words, the last of Dr. Donne's series of seven "Holy Sonnets," which is devoted to the "Ascension," seems almost prosaic:

Salute the last and everlasting day,

Joy at the uprising of this Sun, and Son,
Ye, whose true tears of tribulation

Have purely washed or burnt your drossy clay;
Behold the Highest, parting hence away,
Lightens the dark clouds, which He treads upon,
Nor doth He by ascending show alone,

But first He, and He first, enters the way.

O strong ram, which has battered Heaven for me,
Mild Lamb, which with Thy blood hast marked the path,
Bright torch, which shinest, that I the way may see,
Oh! with Thy own blood quench Thy own just wrath :
And if Thy Holy Spirit my muse did raise,

Deign at my hands this crown of prayer and praise.

Other poetical illustrations of Ascension-day, which might be given if we could proceed without reference to the conditions of space, open up a vision of the time when anticipation shall have become changed into fruitiona vision of the white-robed and palm-waving "multitude which no man could number" (Rev. vii., 9).

But the enjoyment of Heaven, so far as the followers of Christ on earth are concerned, is for the present limited to faithful expectation; and for each one, fruition is postponed for an unknown and indefinite, if for a short, period. It is for each to fix his heart where his treasure

* Sermons Doctrinal and Practical. By the Rev. William Archer Butler, M.A.-The Ascension.

ASCENDING TO CHRIST IN HEAVEN."

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is laid up already, to set his affections on things above, and to cultivate those dispositions which are in conformity with his hopes. Love is here the sum of all duties; and love is the very atmosphere of the place where are prepared the "many mansions" and the crowns of gold. Heaven itself is reached on the wings of holy and affectionate longing. Dr. Watts, in a poem which occurs in his Hora Lyrice, and which is entitled "Ascending to Christ in Heaven," gives vent to a sacred impatience to join the Saviour in the realms of celestial beatitude.

"Tis pure delight, without alloy,
Jesus, to hear Thy name:
My spirit leaps with inward joy,

I feel the sacred flame.

My passions hold a pleasing reign,
While Love inspires my breast,
Love, the divinest of the train,
The sovereign of the rest.

This is the grace must live and sing,
When faith and fear shall cease,
Must sound from every joyful string
Through the sweet groves of bliss.

Let life immortal seize my clay;
Let Love refine my blood;
Her flames can bear my soul away,
Can bring me near my God.

Swift I ascend the heavenly place,
And hasten to my home;

I leap to meet Thy kind embrace,
I come, O Lord, I come.

Sink down, ye separating hills,

Let Guilt and Death remove :

'Tis Love that drives my chariot wheels,
And Death must yield to Love.

"Christ," says St. Augustine, "is in Heaven, we upon the earth. Is He, as it were, far from us? The answer

is, He is absent. If the question be asked with regard to space, He is remote: but let Charity be interrogated—He is with us."* If we know Him no longer after the flesh, if we know Him not of sensible perception or miraculous vision-still we apprehend Him by a deeper, a better, an inward and abiding sense. Though on the right hand of God, He is not the less with us, for God Himself is with us, and we are the temples of God," by the indwelling of the Spirit. It is to the guidance of the Comforter that we are to look for help and meetness during the interval that separates this world from the next. Even in the absence of Christ from us and in our exile from Him, we are not bereaved: He hath bequeathed us His peace, and hath promised us His Spirit. The expectation of this Gift makes the following Sonnet on "Ascension" a fitting conclusion to our present subject. It is taken from "The Altar” of the late Dr. Isaac Williams, where it has for a motto the parting words of Elijah to Elisha :-" If thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee: but if not, it shall not be so" (2 Kings ii., 10) :—

As from an Exile's sad and ruined coast;

They who would send one to prepare a home

In happier climes, where they themselves would come,
And watch him in departing; yet, when lost,
Miss his protecting hand, and feel then most

Bereaved; so we, where clouds the skies illume,
Watch Him ascend, and feel an evening gloom

Steal o'er us on our way by shadows crossed.
But if our hearts we wean from things of sense,
And cleanse our eyes by faith and abstinence
To see Him still in His departing hence,
The mantle of His peace shall on us rest;
His Spirit's double portion fill our breast;
And we even by His absence be more blest.

* Sermo, De Ascensione Domini.

HE feast of Pentecost is one of those seasons in which Christianity is discovered palpably placed en rapport with Judaism, by the coincidence of their anniversaries. The free maturity of the " man in Christ Jesus" is seen prepared and provided in the cradle of prohibitions, and the swaddling-bands of a minute ceremonial. The liberty of the Gospel is traced to the sometime fetters of the Law; the thunder-cloud and menace of Sinai become irradiate with the peaceful glory of Mount Sion.

As on the fiftieth day after the celebration of the Jewish Passover, was ordained that greater feast which, taking its name from the period of its occurrence, was instituted for the national expression of gratitude on account of the ingathering of the fruits of harvest, and for a perpetual memorial of the promulgation of the Law of Moses; so on the fiftieth day after Easter, the Christian Passover, is celebrated Whitsunday, the Christian Pentecost, in joyful commemoration of the sealing of the Gospel by the descent of the Spirit, of the promulgation of the new Law of Love, and of the endless harvest of the saved who then began to be incorporated into the Church.

The Fathers, with one accord, point out this coincidence, and some of them eloquently dilate upon it. "We cele