A HEBREW MELODY. Harp of David, wake! O wake! Israel! now thy wandering's o'er, From the yoke thy neck is free ; For a voice is heard on high, "Sons of Jacob, gather, come; "For my wrath is past, and I Soon shall lead my children home. "See the leopard and the lamb Peaceful on the mountain's brow : Lions wild and oxen tame Resting in the vales below. "There, by Judah's darkling streams, "Zion yet more glorious far, And, Jerus'lem thou shalt see Harp of David, wake! O wake! Son of Judah, strike the chord ! REV. JOHN ANDREW. EVERAL sons of the subject of the previous sketch have felt the spray of the Castalian fount which Scottish hills and homes can furnish as well as Parnassus. John Andrew was born in the village of Ochiltree, Ayrshire, in 1826, and from his boyhood had a passionate love of flowers. Cooper Greig, a village worthy of the time, used to say that "if ever Johnnie Andrew's ghost is seen it will be sure to hae a bunch o' flo'ers in its hand." He early made himself master of the botanical system of Linnaeus, and this while he was passing through two apprenticeships-for he first learned muslin weaving and then the tailor trade, at which he continued working till, his spirit being stirred to preach the gospel, he placed himself under the theological training of the Rev. James Morison, D.D., and the Rev. John Guthrie, D.D. (referred to at page 92 of our second series), the then professors in the Evangelical Union Theological Academy. In addition to these studies, and the preaching appointments that accompanied them, he studied at the Andersonian University, and also Latin, Greek, and Hebrew at the University of Glasgow. After the ordinary curriculum, he was ordained to the pastorate of the Independent Church, Tradeston, Glasgow; and subsequently he was pastor of the Evangelical Union Churches in Tillicoultry, Barrhead, and Dundee. When in Barrhead he published a prophetic work, entitled "The Ages and the Purpose of God;" and, when in Dundee, he published, as a sequel, "The Parables of the Kingdom," both of which were highly spoken of and prized. Some twelve years ago, sympathy with the teaching and government of the Catholic Apostolic Church led to his severance from the Evangelical Union. When this change took place he was pastor of the E.U. Church, Dundee. He then became The Angel's Help in the Catholic Apostolic Church, Dundee, and he is now The Angel of the Church in Belfast. In 1881 Mr Andrew published "The Pendulograph," a work at once artistic, scientific, and musical; and in 1882, 'Thoughts on the Evolution Theory of Creation," the first work showing great constructive genius, and also, like the second, profound philosophical knowledge. Although Mr Andrew has been cast in a tuneful poetical mould, and although his friends have long known that he possessed the gift divine," it is but rarely he appears in that way. As far back, however, as 1868-69, when elected President of the Dundee Microscopical Society, his inaugural address, though dealing with stubborn scientific facts, found easy and graceful flow in polished verse: Fain would my willing pen have spoken That life's great chain is nowhere broken; Adown the silence all unwoken These green Desmidiaceae And Diatoms of pearly grey, The small dust of Life's balance they, So gently that we scarce can say And where this other life gives way Fain had I shown that farther still There is a life whose pulses fill All nature's veins, And cause a quickening sense to thrill Than Diatoms minuter yet Are Atoms in each substance set; Of man's keen eye, Which microscopes even fail to whet When atoms still are living free, And feeling their affinity, To come together two or three In combination; And with minute Atomic glee Do seek each other out to the Then as with Chemic forces driven, But when this wooing strife is striven, They are dynamically dead," Once and again hath Tyndall said, "Their force hath ceased, their part is played, And they at rest" This doctrine should be fully weighed, "Tis true the motive-force hath ceased But does the force now go to waste, Does it not need the force to hold They sought each other in the wold What is it makes a beam, or bar, In wooden less, in iron more, All for the best! All for the best? for Nature measures And bear utilitarian pressures; While that for beauty. Some things, as beams, in strains are strong; Some things a twist will not put wrong; Some pillars, you may crush as long As generations; To some strength in a pull belong Strength for all stations! Fain had I proved that life is there You find cohesion everywhere, And fain would I from that beginning Till we had reached its pulses running Mr Andrew is engaged on "A Fasciculus of Mystical Song," and also on a translation into English verse of "The Phenomena " of Aratus, from which St Paul quotes (Acts xvii., 28) in his address to the Athenians. Aratus being, like Paul himself, a native of a city of Cilicia (Soli), and his works having had for interpreters many of the most learned men of Greece, would be quite familiar to Paul and the audience whom he addressed; indeed, the wonder is that he should have had so long to wait for translation into our English tongue. We give the opening lines of Mr Andrew's graceful rendering, containing the quotation referred to, and trust that he may be spared to finish what he has so well begun : From God we must originate, |