Apart from these two masterpieces of Handel, the prettiest and most beautiful Easter anthem is that of Dr. Stainer, composed for the cantata The Raising of Jairus' Daughter. In a wide experience of cathedral music and anthem-singing by our best choirs, I doubt if there is any much finer musical treat than to listen to the choir of St. Paul's, or that of York Minster, as there rolls forth that most beautiful of anthems, words and music—"Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and God shall give thee light." This is, indeed, a noble song for "Easter's bright morning," and well may its words be taken as our special Easter thought; for to all of us, in some way or other, they must have a special meaning.
SELF-HEALING.
By The Rev. Hugh Macmillan, D.D., L.L.D.
"Physician, heal thyself."—St. Luke iv. 23.
]We are accustomed to think that the healing virtue there is in herbs and trees was meant only for man; that herbs and trees were created with these virtues in them for the special purpose of curing our human diseases and ministering to our human wants, and for nothing else; that God had man in view in the beginning when He gave these medicinal qualities to plants, and apart from man's use of them they serve no other purpose.
Now this, which is a common, widespread idea, is an altogether erroneous one. For if God meant these vegetable qualities and products exclusively for man's use, the questions may be pertinently asked, Why were they so long undiscovered; and why do they occur in places often remote from human habitation, and waste themselves upon the desert air?