chasm, how gentle the activity, and look trustfully and hopefully for that availing guidance. Ah! if we could learn this lesson of filial trust at every step of our way along our earthly pilgrimage, no matter how steep or rough or obscure the path, it would guide us safely and surely home to our Father's house.

A. L. STONE.

1

PRAYER.

Be not afraid to pray to pray is right.
Pray, if thou canst, with hope; but ever pray,
Though hope be weak, or sick with long delay;
Pray in the darkness, if there be no light.
Far is the time, remote from human sight,
When war and discord on the earth shall cease;
Yet every prayer for universal peace
Avails the blessèd time to expedite.

Whate'er is good to wish, ask that of Heaven,
Though it be what thou canst not hope to see ;
Pray to be perfect, though material leaven
Forbid the spirit so on earth to be;

But if for any wish thou darest not pray,
Then pray to God to cast that wish away.

HARTLEY COLERIDGE.

July 16.

Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest. Ps. lv. 6.

Он

H that we could really feel that it is as vain a fancy to believe that future years will bring rest with them, as the Psalmist's, that once far away in the wilderness, he would be at rest! The days to come will do no more for us than the dove's wing and the desert would do for him. Coming days may and will do for us just what the wings would have done for the wearied monarch; they will no doubt bear us away from the trials and troubles that now surround us, but they will only bear us to other trials that are awaiting us then. Oh that we could lay it to heart, that the day will never come in

which there will not be something to vex and weary; the day will never come in this world that will make the soul happy and complete, — and all this just because God does not intend that such a day should ever come; all because this world was never meant for our rest, and whenever it is beginning to grow too like our rest, God will send us something to remind us that it is not; all this because these immortal souls within us are not to be put off with any worldly aim or enjoyment, but will ever reach and blindly long after something as immortal as themselves!

THE COUNTRY PARSON.

LEISURE.

SWEET is the leisure of the bird;
She craves no time for work deferred;
Her wings are not to aching stirred,
Providing for her helpless ones.
Fair is the leisure of the wheat;
All night the damps about it fleet,
All day it basketh in the heat,

And grows, and whispers orisons.

Grand is the leisure of the Earth;
She gives her happy myriads birth,
And after harvest fears not dearth,

But goes to sleep in snow-wreaths dim.
Dread is the leisure up above,
The while He sits whose name is Love,
And waits, as Noah did for the dove,
To wit if she would fly to him.

He waits for us while, houseless things,
We beat about with bruisèd wings
On the dark floods and water-springs,
The ruined world, the desolate sea;
With open windows from the prime,
All night, all day, He waits sublime,
Until the fulness of the time

Decreed from His eternity.

JEAN INGELOW.

July 17.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. MATT. vi. 6.

WE

E hold to earth and earthly things by so many more links of thought, if not affection, that it is far harder to keep our view to heaven clear and strong; when this life is so busy, and therefore so full of reality to us, another life seems by comparison unreal. This is our condition and its peculiar temptations, but we must endure it and strive to overcome them, for I think we may not try to flee from it.

THOMAS ARNOLD.

WHEN THOU HAST SHUT THY DOOR, PRAY.

LORD, I have shut my door, —

Shut out life's busy cares and fretting noise;
Here in this silence they intrude no more ;
Speak Thou, and heavenly joys

Shall fill my heart with music sweet and calm, -
A holy psalm.

Yes, I have shut my door

Even on all the beauty of thine earth,

To its blue ceiling from its emerald floor
Filled with spring's bloom and mirth.
From these Thy works I turn, Thyself I seek,
To Thee I speak.

And I have shut my door

On earthly passion, all its yearning love,

Its tender friendships, all the priceless store

Of human ties.

Above

All these my heart aspires. O Heart Divine,

Stoop Thou to mine!

Lord, I have shut my door!

Come Thou and visit me. I am alone!

Come, as when doors were shut Thou cam'st of yore

And visitedst Thine own.

My Lord! I kneel with reverent love and fear,

For Thou art here!

M. E. ATKINSON.

July 18.

He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? - ROм. viii. 32.

HE

E that loveth little, prayeth little; but he that loveth
much, prayeth much.
SAINT AUGUSTINE.

PRAYER is so mighty an instrument that no one ever thoroughly mastered all its keys. They sweep along the infinite scale of man's wants and God's goodness.

HUGH MILLER.

A PRAYER.

I ASK not wealth, but power to take
And use the things I have aright;
Not years, but wisdom that shall make
My life a profit and delight.

I ask not that for me the plan
Of good and ill be set aside,
But that the common lot of man
Be nobly borne and glorified.

I know I may not always keep
My steps in places green and sweet,
Nor find the pathway of the deep
A path of safety for my feet;

But pray that when the tempest's breath
Shall fiercely sweep my way about,
I make not shipwreck of my faith
In the unbottomed sea of doubt;

And that, though it be mine to know
How hard the stoniest pillow seems,
Good angels still may come and go

On the bright ladder of my dreams.

I do not ask for love below

That friends shall never be estranged;
But for the power of loving, so

My heart may keep its youth unchanged.

Youth, joy, wealth - Fate, I give thee these;
Leave faith and hope till life is past;
And leave my heart's best impulses
Fresh and unfailing to the last.

For this I count, of all sweet things,
The sweetest out of heaven above;
And loving others surely brings

The fullest recompense of love!

CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL.

July 19.

Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. I PETER V. 7.

LORD God, Thou art our refuge and our hope;

on Thee alone we rest, for we find all to be weak and insufficient but Thee. Many friends cannot profit, nor strong helpers assist, nor prudent counsellors advise, nor the books of the learned afford comfort, nor any precious substance, deliver, nor any place give shelter, unless Thou Thyself dost assist, strengthen, console, instruct, and guard us.

JAMES MARTINEAU.

EVEN-TIDE.

HOLD Thou my hand, my Father, I am weak;
Hush me to sleep, for I am sore afraid;

Yet as Thy child I should be undismayed,
For in the silence I should hear Thee speak.

I could not climb the mountains of Thy love,
But in the valleys do Thy rivers flow;
The bitter herbs beside those waters grow,
And lo! they teem with sweetness from above.

I will not trust my thoughts which trouble me,
I will not answer all that they would say,;
I cast my cares and my regrets away,
And leave my spirit all alone with Thee.