Beloved come into His garden, and eat His pleasant fruits. -Song of Solomon iv. 12, 16.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.—Revelation xxii. 20.

HAREBELLS.

"Silence that speaks."

HE Bluebell or Harebell is a lovely small summer flower, mounted on a slim stalk and often hanging poised as if ready to tinkle. So slender is its growth, that one might fancy "harebell" no more than "hairbell" misspelt. A clapperless bell it is, of a fine heavenly azure, trembling in each breeze which overtakes it on down, or heath, or hedgebank.

Those radical leaves, from which alone this plant derives its distinctive title of Round-leaved Campanula, grow near the ground and are notched as well as rounded. They mostly wither away at the blossoming: while along the slim flower-stalk emerge at varying distances, singly or in groups, short grass-shaped leaves. The blue corolla is cloven at the edge into five peaks, and is inserted in a five-pointed calyx.

This small bell, invested with celestial tint and perfected by minute terrene beauties, this veritable bell which despite all its trembling neither buffet of wind-puffs nor spurning of feet can move from its serenity of silence, teaches us as by a painted parable the holiness of silence under frets and provocations; a humbly-bowing silence, joined to a face recalling the aspect of heaven. And when, as from their

period and places of flowering is oftentimes the case, we mark these sky-coloured bells in company with deeper sky-coloured butterflies of a yet nobler organization and more exquisite beauty, we may well thank God and take

courage; remembering how any, even the lowliest person, whose conversation is in heaven, hath for intimates congenial flights of heavenly-minded angels.

There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.-Revelation viii. 1.

St. Matthew,

APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST.

21 SEPTEMBER.

The Sacred Text.

S Jesus passed forth from thence, He saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He saith unto him, Follow Me. And he arose, and followed Him.-St. Matthew ix. 9.

In the parallel passages St. Luke and St. Mark tell us :—

He went forth, and saw a Publican, named Levi, sitting at the receipt of custom: and He said unto him, Follow Me. And he left all, rose up, and followed Him. And Levi made Him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of Publicans and of others that sat down with them.-St. Luke v. 27, &c.

Levi the son of Alphæus.-St. Mark ii. 14.

When He had called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. Now the names of the twelve apostles are

these

Thomas, and Matthew the Publican.-St. Matthew x. I, &c.

When they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter,. . . . . Bartholomew, and Matthew. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication.—Acts i. 13, 14.

BIOGRAPHICAL ADDITIONS.

RADITIONS clash and contradict each other in relating to us the career of St. Matthew subsequent to the point at which Holy Writ leaves him and even those details by which conjecture has enlarged the brief inspired record of his call, and of his course previous to the great day of Pentecost, vary in the telling. • Setting altogether aside one surmise which distinguishes "Matthew the Publican" from the "Levi" mentioned by St. Mark and St. Luke, opinions diverge at his birth; and constitute his father Alphæus the same, or not the same, as the father of St. James the Less: under the former supposition St. Matthew acquires dignity as a member of our Lord's own family. He is further conjectured, though equally not by universal consent, to have been twin brother to St. "Thomas called Didymus." Neither are commentators agreed as to the field of his labours as a Publican: one thinks he levied toll on persons and goods crossing the Lake of Gennesaret; another, that he may have collected customs either at Capernaum, or on the high road to Damascus where a site has been proposed for ancient Capernaum.

Passing on to the two names of Levi and Matthew, the first signifying "joined," the second (by a contraction) "God given; we meet with a suggestion that his native Jewish name is used as the more honourable by his fellow Evangelists, while he himself adheres to that appellation bearing which as an underling of Rome he endured his countrymen's odium and contempt. On the other hand, the invariable use of "Matthew" at each mention of him in the Gospels and Book of Acts subsequent to his enrolment as an Apostle, paves the way to a countersuggestion that at his call he adopted, or at the least permanently retained, that name which between the two conveys the more obviously devout allusion.

St. Matthew's Gospel is widely accepted as earliest in date among the four inspired narratives of our Lord's life and death. It has come down to us in the Greek language only; but in this form is believed by many to be no more than the translation of a text originally composed in that very tongue wherein the Word made Flesh discoursed. If so, it would seem however that the original document, now irrecoverably lost, was very early superseded by the more generally intelligible Greek version. The year 38 is proposed as that in which St. Matthew wrote his Gospel: and a reason alleged in favour of its having been written neither earlier nor later is that the date in question is held to tally with that of the Apostolic Evangelist's departure from Jerusalem to a wider field of missionary enterprise thus, on quitting his Jewish flock, he bequeathed to them in lieu of his actual presence the written Word of God.

His daily habits are celebrated as contemplative and