SCOTLAND'S HEATHER. The gifted Ossian-minstrel famedThat bard of celtic sang the father; To warlike deeds of other years, Attuned his harp amang the heather; Scotland's hardy mountain heather, Scotland's glen, and muirland heather; While life shall make this breast a hame, I aye will love auld Scotland's heather. Our ancient patriotic sires, At the wild war-pipe's call did gather; Embattled on their native strand, They laid their foes amang the heather; Scotland's bonnie bloomin' heather, Scotland's purpled blossom'd heather; While life shall make this breast a hame, I aye shall love auld Scotland's heather. The Cov'nant heroes, injured, brave, In holy union pledged thegither; 'Gainst tyranny they stood and fought, And gained their rights amang the heather; Scotland's wild fowl-shelt'ring heather; Scotland's wild bee-haunted heather; While life shall make this breast a hame, I aye shall love auld Scotland's heather. Far frae the crowded city's din, Where noxious vapours taint the ether, Wi' rural Peace, and sweet Content, Gi'e me to dwell amang the heather; TO THE EVENING STAR. Gazing on thee, in wonder lost, My wayward thoughts bewilder'd run. No; lovers claim thee for their own; And Philomela tells to thee, Her tender tale of love and song, And thou'rt the poet's fav'rite beam, He weaves his pensive lay. The Hermit sage, in lonely bower Sovereign of eve! whose glorious train, All hail! thou queenly star! A REV. JAMES MURRAY, UTHOR of "Songs of the Covenant Times," and for more than thirty years minister of the parish of Old Cumnock, in Ayrshire, was born at Langcoat, in the parish of Eddleston, and county of Peebles, about the year 1812. He received his early education at the parish school of Peebles, where the future estimable poet and eloquent minister was a very apt scholar in arithmetic and mathematics. He afterwards studied at the University of Edinburgh, making the same rapid progress in the Roman and Greek classics. In these days he was much given to literary pursuits, and his early poems attracted the attention of the Ettrick Shepherd, with whom he became acquainted, and who was his warm friend, and predicted his future fame. He likewise secured the friendship of men who ranked high in the world of literature, among whom were Peter Macleod, David Vedder, and Robert Gilfillan. At this time Mr Murray was a valued contributor to "Whistle Binkie," that storehouse of the superior song literature of Scotland. During the greater part of his college career he had to struggle with great difficulties, being entirely dependant upon his own exertions; but being well employed as a teacher he surmounted these, and was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of Peebles a short time before the Disruption of 1843. When a probationer he became assistant to the late Rev. Mr Hope, of Roxburgh, labouring there for a little with much acceptance. Afterwards he was engaged to assist at Kirkconnel, in Dumfriesshire, and was recommended to the people of that place by its worthy minister, the Rev. Dr Hunter. Mr Murray, however, chose to adhere to the first simple terms of his engagement with Dr Hunter. When so many good and pious ministers withdrew from the Church of Scotland, in the summer of 1843, Mr Murray and his brother Robert (whom we notice next) clung to the Church of their baptism, and they were recommended by the late Mr Stewart, of Liberton (formerly of Sorn), to the Marquis of Bute, then the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly, and the result was that James was soon after ordained minister of Old Cumnock, and Robert to the adjoining parish of New Cumnock. From the day Mr Murray was settled in his parish he devoted the whole vigour of his life to the duties of his calling. His recreations were always in strict keeping with the sacredness of his vocation, and his writings in Macphail's Magazine, or other periodicals, were invariably of a religious kind. Mr Murray delighted in the friendship of his brethren, and this he entirely retained to the last, though his powers of sarcasm were great, both in writing and in debate. He was a most eloquent speaker; and almost the last of his public appearances was at a week-day gathering at the grave of Richard Cameron, of covenanting renown, in the lone and wild Airsmoss. It was a day of storm and rain, such as is seldom seen in summer, but his earnest, eloquent, and impassioned appeals of admonition and warning rose high above the hoarse and loud voice of the hurricane which swept careering over the moor. In the autumn of 1874, Mr Murray's health began to fail, and he sought its restoration in the south of France. He thought himself, however, that his days were numbered, and when he left he felt persuaded that he would see his native country no more. He lingered there for some weeks, when a voice, as it were, said unto him in the Apocalyptic language, "Come up hither," and on the 30th day of January, 1875, he expired at Mentone, in the 64th year of his age. With a pious regard for the dust of the good man and pathetic poet, they brought back his remains, and laid them down in the dust not far from where also rests the toil-worn frame of Alexander Peden, "the hill-preacher," of whom Mr Murray had sung so plaintively and well. Besides contributing to the periodicals, Mr Murray published "Elijah the Tishbite," and "The Prophet's Mantle: Being Scenes from the Life of Elisha." Though in these discourses he was treading the same ground with the great Prussian, Fred. W. Krummacher, yet he is thoroughly original, generally as eloquent, and fully as orthodox. In 1861 he published his "Songs of the Covenant Times," in which we have an interesting historical introduction, which is followed by a lengthy "The Hill-Preacher-Alexander Peden." poem, is written in well-constructed and ringing blank verse, interspersed with a few beautiful lyrics. Fourteen other poems, all on subjects connected with the covenating times, make up the volume. The whole of these poems have a peculiar sweetness and It charm about them, and they have a power and a pathos as well which often compel a tear. Mr Murray always promised to do great things in the walks of literature; but the busy anxious life of a country minister very much excludes the more worldly in that line; and his ambition was more to do good than to astonish. Many of his best poems and ballads are scattered through periodicals which we have not now at hand, but the following will show his style, and are fair samples of his powers. THE BLACK SATURDAY, 4TH AUGUST, 1621. "There's a mirk clud on the sun, gudeman, And the kye stand thowless on the croft, "And the sheep, a' gathered in knots, gudeman, At the mid-day hour it is gloamin' grown- "There's a red gaw in the north, gudeman, Like a furnace seven times het; In mirk aneth and mirk aboon, "I canna see where the lift begins, 'O, haud thy peace, mine auld gudewife, "And though our shielin' be dark and dowf, And there sall we gather the gowden fruit, "O, heard ye that fearsome crash, gudeman, As the lift had crack't, and the sun fa'en thro', |