Henry Kirk White and his Hymns.

ENRY KIRK WHITE was born in 1785, at Nottingham. His father was a butcher, and wished Heury to follow the same occupation, but he, being a "book-worm," soon lost all relish for carrying around the butcher's basket. At fourteen he was placed at a stocking-loom; but his thirst for knowledge rendered him so unhappy that the mother induced the father to give his consent to the study of law.

With such great avidity he pursued this, as well as the study of Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish and Portugese, that at the age of fifteen he became so distinguished for his studies that he received from his preceptor a silver medal and other prizes.

At seventeen he was already prominent as a writer for the periodicals of the day, and issued a volume of poems.

Although he had made such rapid advances in the field of literature, he was a stranger to grace, and even pretended to disbelieve the Bible and its Author. During this period, an intimate companion, Almond, was led by Providence to witness a death-bed scene that opened his eyes to his danger, and caused him to flee to Christ for refuge.

As Almond now seemed to shrink from his former friend because of his infidel scoffings, White wished to ascertain the cause, and when it was stated, he felt much mortified, became penitent, and was assisted in finding the way to the cross by reading "Scott's Force of Truth," which his friend had introduced to him.

After realizing the blessing of pardon and peace, he felt anxious to make his Saviour known to others. To this end he discontinued the study of law and prepared for the gospel ministry. About this time he also wrote the well-known hymn commencing,

"When marshaled on the nightly train,
The glittering host bestud the sky,

One star alone of all the train

Can fix the sinner's wandering eye.”

This hymn vividly describes the author's conversion. His experience on the sea of skepticism he portrays in the third verse:—

"Once on the raging seas I rode,

The storm was loud, the night was dark."

In the hymn commencing

"The Lord our God is clothed with might,

is found a much admired verse.

"Howl, winds of night! your force combine:
Without His high behest,

Ye shall not, in the mountain-pine,

Disturb the sparrow's nest.

His hymn for evening family worship is oft repeated in England and America:-

"O Lord! another day has flown;

And we, a lowly band,

Are met once more before Thy throne

To bless Thy fostering hand.

Through his intense application to study, without rest or intermission by day or night, his bodily strength gave way, and he sank into an untimely grave in 1806, when but twenty-one years of age.

"Pale o'er his lamp, and in his cell retired

The martyr-student faded and expired. In one of his poems he seems to lament his own early departure in the line:

"Fifty years hence, and who shall hear of Henry?" The fifty years have gone, and yet Henry is not forgotten, and will not be as long as the church loves to repeat the ten precious hymns he bequeathed her as his legacy.

"Oh, what a noble heart was here undone,

When science self-destroyed her favorite son!"

"Let the fiery, cloudy pillar,
Lead me all my journey through."

EPENDENT upon heavenly guidance for every step taken in life's journey, how natural to God's Israel is the prayer, that heads these lines, taken from the grand old hymn:

"Guide me, O thou Great Jehovah."

As this hymn is so often repeated, our readers will gladly welcome some acquaintance with its author, the Rev. William Williams, a celebrated Welsh poet.

He was born at Cefncyoed, Carmarthenshire, Wales, in 1717. He commenced the study of medicine, after securing a good education. But after hearing the gospel from the lips of Howell Harris in Talgarth churchyard,