man he had been drooping for the space of ten months at least, exciting by his appearance and cough the anxieties of his friends; and yet, in the course of the ebbing of the vital tide, there were occasional waves of healthy energy, which came up almost to the old familiar water-mark, and thus inspired with hopes of a full recovery not a few of those who enjoyed and loved his presence. There were numerous ebbings and flowings. But now all is stillness. There is not even a ripple to disturb the calm.

Mr. Strachan was born at Aberdour, Fifeshire, on July 21, 1835. His young eyes gleamed inquiringly and admiringly upon rural things. At the age of five, however, he was taken to Leith, his parents having removed thither. While they remained in Leith, they were led to Jesus through the ministry of the Rev. E. Kennedy, the first pastor of the Leith E. U. Church. Their son was led to Jesus by and by, in the midst of a revival effort, that was put forth in connection with the church. It was under the preaching of the Rev. Hugh Riddell, now of Glasgow, that he was awakened. When once awakened, the great obstacles were surmounted; and he speedily came to the Saviour and was saved. He was the first member who joined the church in Leith, after the induction to the pastorate of the Rev. Joseph Boyle, now of London. Mr. Boyle took to him at once, and loved him. He had seen, too, that there was some material in him, out of which a good student could be built. Hence he encouraged him to study, and became himself his tutor for the period of three years. The substructure being thus laid, the superstructure began to be added. He entered with his alter ego, Mr. Fairbairn,-now the Rev. A. M. Fairbairn of Bathgate,the E. U. Theological Academy in August 1857, and completed a four years' curriculum. At the close of his curriculum in 1860, he was ordained to the pastorate of the E. U. Church in Auchterarder. He did not suit the sphere, or the sphere did not suit him; or something untoward occurred. And he left for Tillicoultry in 1861, where he continued to the close of his earthly career; where, moreover, nothing untoward occurred to mar either the happiness and usefulness of the minister, or the happiness and prosperity of the church. The happiness of the minister in his ministry was great. His usefulness was, if possible, still greater. Thrice had the chapel to be enlarged, in order to contain the enlarged congregation. Thus the happiness and prosperity of the church was great. Mr. Strachan was married in January, 1864. His young widow mourns his loss; but has yet, we trust, a solemn gladness in the midst of her sadness.

Mr. Strachan has gone up before his day had reached its And thus there were some elements in him that had not reached the zenith of their maturity. But all who really

noon.

knew him, knew that he was a Power. There was unmistakable power, both in his character in general, and in his intellect in particular. It was power that might, in certain circumstances and combinations, miss its mark and fail in its aim. But it was indisputable power; and when he was at home, and felt at home, the power, we apprehend, would almost always vindicate its legitimate effect, and send thrill after thrill into all recipient souls. There was power in the man's heart as well as in his intellect; for the power of a preacher's intellect never can be great in the achievement of actual and beneficial ecclesiastical results, unless it be inspired by the more genial power that streams up, or rather that steams up, from the depths of the heart. We never heard Mr. Strachan preach; but if his sermons partook of the characteristics of his student essays and exercises, there must have been, at his command, not only a pervading ingenuity, but likewise a brilliancy that was at times wonderfully intense, and often marvellously sustained, and that could not fail to throw a charm around his well prepared discourses.

In a letter which we received from Mr. Strachan at an early period of the present year, and after one of his temporary rallyings, he says: "I am happy to be able to say that I am in the harness once more. And how sweet it is to proclaim Jesus, when one has been more and more into his blissful companionship by affliction! I never felt so weak, and yet I never felt so strong for preaching the blessed gospel. Men are often made new. Life is a thing of elements, graduating into the eternal glory; and happy is he who is lifted from peak to peak, by being taken from peak to valley. Israel's was a land of hills and valleys, drinking water of the rain of heaven.' So is the man's life, who is in the hands of Jesus by affliction, or by other and more genial means. It is one in which the productive possibilities are greater and nobler." Our brother has now been taken to the highest peak, by the way of the lowest valley.

He died in Edinburgh on the morning of July 27. His remains were buried on the 31st in Rosebank cemetery. Some of his last utterances were these:-"I have no doubt, none; I am safe in Jesus for evermore, evermore":"I mount, I search, I soar, and I shall take my loved ones with me-my dear wife-my dear mother "-"I am not here; my body is, but my soul has gone to its highest glory."-His heart was evidently in heaven, and now he is there altogether.

THE

EVANGELICAL REPOSITORY.

FOURTH SERIES.

No. II.-DEC. 1866.

PRACTICAL EXPOSITION OF HEBREWS IV. 16.

VERSE 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

"Therefore," wherefore?—The inspired writer indicates that there is a reason, and a good reason, why we should come boldly unto the throne of grace. It is intimated, moreover, that there is a statement, in the remarks that go immediately before, of what this good reason is. It is this, We have an high-priest, Jesus the Son of God, who has passed through the visible heavens into the invisible Holy of holies where God sits enthroned. We "have" this great high-priest, and he "can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, in as much as he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." It is, assuredly, an exceeding great and precious privilege to have such an highpriest, who is fitted to have power with God, on the one hand, and to have sympathy with man, on the other. And seeing it is the case that we enjoy such a privilege, we may well stir each other up, and mutually say,-" Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

It is worthy of note that the inspired writer says,—“Let us come unto the throne of grace," or, as the expression, when very literally interpreted, means, "let us approach unto (#goσegXweda) the throne of grace." And yet this "throne of grace" is where Jesus is, as our Advocate and Great High-Priest. It is within the heavenly "Holy of holies." Jesus, in approaching it, with his own atonement for our sins, had to pass through the veil of the visible heavens. God, who sits upon it, dispensing his favour, granting mercy, and giving grace to help in time of need, is our Father "who is in heaven." Earth is his footstool: No. 2.]

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-in heaven is his throne. And yet, even while we are down here, even while we are in the body,-" present with the body," and, in a high and important sense, "absent from the Lord," we are lovingly exhorted "to come unto"-" to approach unto" -the throne of grace.

What means the inspired writer? Does he mean that, as soon as possible, we should leave the body and pass up, until, with face unveiled, we stand before the throne? Are we to use means to get quit of our bodies, that our souls, like spiritual skylarks, may soar away into the glory of heaven? Should we, in short, hie away with ourselves, make off with ourselves,-make away with ourselves, utterly forsaking our bodies, and passing at once into the eternal invisibilities? Is this the inspired writer's meaning, when he says "Let us come unto the throne of grace."

By no means;-for, if that were his meaning, his exhortation would amount to an encouragement, not only to martyr, but even to murder, ourselves. His meaning is a far sublimer thing. It has reference to one of the sublimest powers of the human soul,-its power of almost limitless travelling, even while it is in connection with the body. The soul can travel, far and wide, while the body is at rest in some one little locality. It is an amazing power, but real. While our bodies are detained within exceedingly narrow limits, and chained, in a sense, to a few inches of space, our spirits are free, and can hie away, hither and thither, as they please, throughout our neighbourhood, or all over the country, or to the ends of the world, and beyond it to moon and sun and stars;-and beyond all these,-away into the immensities. How easy is it for a traveller, for instance, if a domestic man, to go in thought to his home. Has he left at home a sick child? How quickly his mind can go to it! Has he left a delicate wife? How quickly he can be, in thought, by her side, looking lovingly and inquiringly into her face! Or, is our supposed traveller a wife, and has she left at home a manly husband, laid low by some stroke, that threatens to leave her little ones fatherless and herself a widow? Then the lightning goes slowly and laggingly compared with the speed with which she visits him in thought, and does a thousand little loving things round about him and to him in the course of a moment. any one perplexities in business? Then assuredly he will have experience, more than he will want, of the power of the mind to go, many times in the course of one twinkle of the eye, to the shop, or the workshop, or the warehouse, or the countinghouse. Even when in his closet, and when engaged in the quiet solemnities of the hour of adoration, he will have incontrovertible evidence of his mind's power to flit backward and forward between things that are without and things that are within;

Has

between things material and things spiritual; between things terrestrial and things celestial. The mind's power of travel is really amazing, when we try to realize it. We can in a moment go away in our thought to Jerusalem. We do not need to creep, taking painfully step after step, passing over one inch of space, and then another, until we advance a foot'slength, and then, adding foot's-length to foot's-length go on until we accomplish a yard of distance; and then adding yard to yard until by and by we extend our excursion to a mile; and then adding mile to mile, till hundreds of them and thousands are left behind. We do not need to measure our progress in that gradual manner. We can annihilate space. In an instant we can go in thought to Jerusalem. And we can pass through centuries of time just as easily and as rapidly as through leagues of space. In an instant, for example, we can betake ourselves, not only to Jerusalem, and to Calvary outside the gates of the city, but back through eighteen hundred centuries, to the foot of the cross where Jesus hung.

In an instant we can stretch forth our hand and touch the cross. There is a crowd around us; but we do not jostle. Each one can get near the central object, and can kneel at its base, and enclose and clasp it in his arms. How precious it is to be there!—to be there in mind, in heart, in thought-with faith, with love, with bright-eyed hope, with admiration, with adoration, with gratitude! It would not be of much moment that we should be there with our feet, and with our shoes on our feet, or with our staff in our hand, or with any part of the dust of our bodies. It is not dust that can love. It is not dust that can admire and adore. It is not dust that can know any thing. It is not dust that can feel anything. It is something that is behind the dust that feels. It is not dust that can see anything. It is not the eye that sees. It is the soul that sees, and the eye is but its optical instrument, or its window. It is not the hand that feels sensitively, any more than it is the stick we carry in our hand. The hand is but the implement of the sensitive being that wields it. It is therefore of far greater moment that we should be at Calvary, and at the foot of the cross, in our mind, and with our thought and faith and love, than that we should be there with our body and all its fingers and its toes, and all the hairs that are upon its head.

And, as we may thus go to Calvary in mind, even while our bodies are at home, so we may go farther. We may follow Christ, in his transit from his cross to his crown. We e may follow him as he passed with his finished atonement,-passed, as our great High-priest, through the veil of the visible heavens, into the Holy of holies. We may follow him, but we must not rush. Let us follow reverently and solemnly, though with a