VOICES OF THE NIGHT. BY THE REV. JOHN CUMMING, D. D. MINISTER OF THE SCOTTISH NATIONAL CHURCH, CROWN COURT, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON. "The Night is far spent- the Day is at hand.”— Rom. xiii. 12 "All forms of sorrow and delight, All solemn voices of the night BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY. CLEVELAND, OHIO: JEWETT, PROCTOR, AND WORTHINGTON 1854. PREFACE. THIS Volume is meant to be a sort of whisperinggallery, in which may be heard the manifold and mingled voices of "the night now far spent." Amid that darkness which thickens as the dawn draws near, and in the wilderness whose intricacies grow more perplexing as the land of promise is approached, the traveller watching for sunrise, and sometimes at a loss which way to turn, may be directed and perhaps encouraged by these echoes of celestial voices borne earthward, sounding at times a promise, at times an encouragement, and always a direction-"This is way, walk ye in it." the The writer believes that every voice he has sought to make audible has its origin in the Word of God. Its key-note is there. The harmonies he has arranged are combinations, not creations of his own. It is this that encourages him to hope that, beyond the reach of his own voice, these will be heard; and by the pillows of the dying, in the chambers of DUP. EXCH. 23 JAN 1903 DREW THEOL SEM LIB the sick, and amid the vigils of the dead, the truths that subdue, sustain, and sanctify that, like delicate aromatic perfumes, penetrate where coarser consolations are inaccessible may find hospitality, and, "received as angels unawares," leave deep and abiding impressions behind them. Most of these "Voices," in somewhat different forms, were uttered from the pulpit. One, from the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, was preached in St. George's Church, Glasgow, before the Society of the Sons of the Clergy; and to those who expressed their desire to see it in a permanent form, it is hoped it may prove acceptable in its present. To some these voices have sounded very musical. To those whose heartstrings have been retuned, they will still prove soft chimes borne from above, suggestive, and even sanctifying. |