also his eminent skill in the conduct of public business. Thrice President of Conference, on his first appointment, the youngest man ever elected to the office, he is universally acknowledged to have been second to none in the energy, ability, and discretion with which he guided the deliberations of our representative assembly. Who possessed greater knowledge of affairs, or a fuller mastery of details, or quicker readiness in discussion, or richer fertility of resource in meeting the various exigencies and difficulties which from time to time arose? How we shall all miss him! You, as his congregation; we, whose privilege it was to work with him, and recognize with appreciative affection and esteem his splendid capabilities, and the generous ardour with which they were at all times expended for the Church's good. Of a truth, his whole life shapes itself before our retrospect, as a faithful, practical prayer for "the peace of Jerusalem." Nor was it only in connection with our organizations that the activities of our friend found useful occupation. Centring, as was right, among his most intimate associates, and expending there their first and best energies, they yet sought a wider field, and found, beyond his own immediate circle, many opportunities for their beneficial influence. Thus he laboured for "the peace of Jerusalem" by striving to banish evil and error from the world at large, and thereby to bring secular and mundane matters into harmony with the Church, and into subordination to her principles and laws. His interest in politics was at all times keen, his views being those of the Liberal party, to which he gave a consistent though temperate support. In defence of the suggestion to substitute for the unreasoning decisions of the sword, the well-considered and highly-principled judgments of a tribunal of International Arbitration, he wrote a pamphlet which elicited from eminent authorities the warmest expressions of approval, and indicated a direction in which, had his active and useful life been continued longer upon earth, his abilities would probably have found distinguished exercise. His services in behalf of general philanthropy and local charities, moreover, were liberal and most efficient, as evidenced by the fact that the Secretary of the Manchester Hospital Sunday Fund, a clergyman of the Anglican Church, learning that the funeral would take place in a burial-ground of the Establishment, requested an opportunity to testify his respect by officiating on the occasion: a plea honourable alike to the gentleman who made it and to the memory of him whose worth it so eloquently betokens. Nor must we omit our tribute to the private and social qualities which won for Mr. Hyde a deserved and inevitable prominence in almost every company with which it was his lot to mingle, and secured him—what he valued far more highly-a place in the dearest affections of his associates and friends. His was no narrow mind or limited sympathy. On almost every subject he possessed a fund of information, rendering his conversation brilliant, witty, and wise; all his acquirements, moreover, being made serviceable to his duties as a preacher, enriched his discourses with a wealth of illustration drawn from the various departments of literature, art, and science, to which they doubtless owed much of their attractiveness and power. How genial he was; how kind! and-what would perhaps have surprised those who only knew him in public-how gently sensitive to the opinions and demeanour of those whose good-will he valued! How the little children and young people loved him! How, go where you will among those who knew him, you hear from all ages and classes expressions of tender affection and regret! He was a many-sided man, with a side for every diversity of temperament and culture with which he came in contact; thus with fellowship for all, and ability to reach and influence all. Not merely a theologian, or scholar, or orator, or man of business, or poet-he improved every faculty, and united the excellencies of many characters. From him the young especially may learn how to bring religion into the common concerns of life; thus, not how to make religion worldly, but how to render the world, with its multitudinous cares, and pleasures, and claims, and duties, religious, and, as intended by our Heavenly Father, a preparation for our better home above. Let us not mourn overmuch. To do so would dishonour our friend's own teaching, which was ever clearest, strongest, and most beautiful, when its theme was the reality and blessedness of the life. hereafter. His course on earth-short, perhaps, if measured by years -is surely long and full when gauged by its results; the work he accomplished, the benefits he dispensed, the legacy of noble example and of wise and pregnant thought which he bequeathed to the world and Church. And deem not his life extinguished. The change which severs us from time and matter slays no single good thing. "Nor blame I Death because he bare The use of virtue out of earth: Not as last we saw him is he now to be imagined-distressed, feeble, blind; but released from all trammels of disease and pain, free to pursue those great ends which here filled his love, and which will crown his immortality with increasing joy for ever. He has passed from this realm of appearances into the kingdom of realities. "Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass, Stains the white radiance of eternity, Until Death tramples it to fragments." His keen mind sees now with an intelligence more clear than that which we have been accustomed to admire-is growing daily into a more glorious perception of those great truths which it was his delight to understand and teach. And still he prays for "the peace of Jerusalem," still labours for her welfare, still and to eternity enjoys the prosperity assured to those that love her. The Church he served so faithfully, the friends in whose affections he will always hold so high a place, those nearest and dearest ones whose grief is too sacred for more than a passing word of reverent sympathy, have not lost him. He has but gone before, whither we too must shortly follow. Remember his own touching verses, the interest of which has now become so tender : "One by one they fall around us, Loving friends whose race is run; Beck'ning homewards, one by one. Earth must lose the dear departed · And we follow, follow surely, As He called them, one by one." Hear, once again, his final message. This is what dear John Hyde, from his bed of weakness and pain and blindness, sent to you and me : "Peace, love, prosperity, be with us, and abide, growing to the perfect day. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee."" SCRIPTURE BOTANY. (LEO GRINDON.) THE VINE (Vitis vinifera, Nat. Ord. Vitacea). QUITE at the head of the list of Scripture plants, in regard to frequency and variety of mention, stands the illustrious climber to which mankind is indebted for grapes, thus for the wine "which maketh glad." The vine itself, vineyards, and the vintage, taken together, are spoken of about 150 times. The allusions to grapes are about 40 in number. Raisins are spoken of upon four occasions; and wine and the winepress are mentioned more than 100 times. Adding the figures together, the total is little short of 300. For this immense preponderance there must of course be some good reason, since nothing, we may be sure, has been deposited in Scripture without a purpose. At first sight, the incessant mention would appear to arise from the utility of grapes and wine as articles of aliment with the ancient Hebrews; and regarding the Bible simply as an historical and poetical work, this may suffice. But the primary and essential design of Scripture is to communicate spiritual lessons. To this end it employs natural objects as illustrations, and very often finds its language in their names. Nothing more than reasonable is it to expect, accordingly, that those objects will be mentioned most frequently which possess the highest value as representatives. This is just what we find to be the case with water, light, the breath, and various other natural elements; and that the principle should apply also to the vine can hardly be questioned. The vine cannot be introduced, that is to say, these nearly 300 times, except on account of its adaptedness to convey to the mind of man a spiritual idea-an idea of maximum value and interest, an idea that no part of Scripture can dispense with. Now the very life-blood of Revelation, the secret of all its vitality, beauty, and power, is TRUTH, -the department of truth, that is to say, which men emphatically call Religious Truth. Taking this as the watchword, then examining and comparing the miracles, the parables, the allegories, and the allusions in general, which refer us to the vine or its produce, whatever they may signify in the literal sense, they acquire a meaning at once delightful, practical, and consistent, and which is supplied to the Divine lessons by no other view of what the vine may stand for. Curious enough it may appear to some who have never yet regarded the matter from the point of view we seek to indicate. The fact remains, nevertheless, that when we read of the vine, of grapes, of the vineyard, of wine, and of the wine-press, there is always some grand allusion to revealed Truth, the basis of all things good and worthy, and of all that to mankind is indispensable. Truth, such as conduces to man's salvation, is the leading theme, the nucleus and the circumference of all that our Lord has to say to us, and is no less imminent in every verse in Hebrew prophecy where the vine and the vineyard have mention. Truth holds this place because it is the foundation and the corner-stone, simply and sufficiently, of everything else. It is impossible for people to do what is right till they know what is right; a life of negative innocence, unconscious and uninformed as to the truth, is conceivable, but certainly is not enviable, nor does it enter into the scheme of the Divine Providence, which makes happiness and purity consist in obedience to declared laws. Sometimes the association is more directly with Truth as it exists in our individual minds; sometimes it is more particularly the Church in general that is spoken of. In the latter class of references it has pleased Divine Wisdom simply to put before us, in a broader and larger way, the old familiar fact, that individual men and women embody within themselves every principle and circumstance that pertains to the church in the aggregate. If a man does not see that the promises, the blessings, the penalties for wrong-doing, which are announced for the church in general, are announced every bit as much for his own particular use and guidance, he reads his Bible to very little purpose. That Scripture is at all times, and in every portion, personal, constitutes one of the best proofs of its Divine origin. The prophecies, the allegories that talk of the church, and of the vine as its representative, may refer, it is quite likely, in certain subordinate ways that the Divine mind alone is cognizant of, to the history of nations, their fate and their final destiny. The paramount and most excellent fact is that, whether of public and national application or no, they certainly and at all events refer directly to you and to me. To discover this to be their |
