me from a death of sin to a life of righteousness; elevating my soul by the contemplation of things above; conforming my will to Thine; creating a clean heart, and renewing a right spirit within me. Lord! I am Thine, though unworthy. As clay in the hands of the potter, so am I in Thine, O God. Make me a vessel meet for my Master's use. I lay myself in the dust before Thee. Subdue my proud and rebellious will. Let sin have no more dominion over me; and songs of rejoicing shall for ever ascend to Thee from my redeemed and glorified spirit; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, our Saviour. Amen.

MONDAY EVENING.

Philippians iv., 7.-The peace of God which passeth all understanding.

HERE is a twofold peace. The first is negative. It is relief from disquiet and corroding care. It is repose after conflict and storms. But there is another and a higher peace to which this is but a prelude, a "peace of God which passeth all

understanding," and properly called "the kingdom of heaven within us." This state is anything but negative! It is the highest and most strenuous action of the soul; but an entirely harmonious action, in which all our powers and affections are blended in a beautiful proportion, and sustain and perfect one another. It is more than silence after storms. It is a concord of all melodious sounds. Have we never known a season, when, in the fullest flow of thought and feeling, in the universal action of the soul, an inward calm, profound as midnight silence, yet bright as the still summer noon, full of joy, but unbroken by one throb of tumultuous passion, has been breathed through our spirit, and gives us a glimpse and presage of the serenity of a happier world? Of this

character is the peace of religion. It is a conscious harmony with God and the creation; an alliance of love with all beings; a sympathy with all that is pure and happy; a surrender of every separate will and interest ; a participation of the spirit and life of the universe; an entire concord of purpose with its Infinite Original. This is peace, and the true happiness of man.

WITH pains, and anxious cares, and griefs opprest,
When shall the worn and weary spirit rest?
Where shall the soul find peace, with sorrow riven?
O tell me, tell me, what and where is heaven?

I send my thoughts above, around, below,
Nor earth, nor air, nor men, the secret know;
On earth no stable resting place I find,
No spring of life to satisfy the mind.

The mind! how manifold, how deep its wants!
It asks, obtains, and yet for more it pants;
It pants, receives, and asks, and restless still
At earthly fountains hopes its springs to fill.

Father divine! this fatal power controul,
Which to the senses binds the immortal soul:
O break this bondage! Lord, I would be free,
And in my soul would find my heaven in Thee.

My heaven in Thee! O God! no other heaven
To the immortal mind can e'er be given:
O let Thy kingdom then within me come,
And as above, so here, Thy will be done!

My heaven in Thee! O Father! let me find
My heaven in Thee, my heaven within my mind:
No more of heaven and bliss my soul despair,
For where my God is found, my heaven is there!

PRAYER.

O BLESSED Father! Do Thou, I humbly pray Thee, give me Thy peace,-that peace which the world knoweth not of, and which it can neither give nor take away. My Father! when my soul is separated from Thee, it has no peace; it seeks it hither and thither, but finds it not; it dives into hidden places to discover what it sighs for, but peace flies from it; it strives to content itself with its own treasures, but all, my Father, is less than nothing and vanity until it turns again to Thee, who alone hast that peace which passes the understanding of man. It passes mine, O my Father! for when Thou givest it me, if but for a few precious moments, my soul is enlarged, all its insatiable wants are satisfied, a bright glory breaks upon it, it desires nothing beside, it beholds nothing beside,for it is with Thee. O Father, do Thou subdue me unto Thyself, and give me such foretastes of this Heavenly Peace that here below I may travel on rejoicing through the darkest wilderness. Hear me, I pray Thee, O Father, and may I so ask that I may receive, so seek that I may find, so knock that the door of mercy may be opened unto Hear me through him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, our blessed Lord and Saviour. Amen.

me.

TUESDAY MORNING.

1 John v., 5.—Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.

HAT stronger testimony can be given to the power of this principle of faith in Christ? If it be sufficient to overcome the world, to give life through his name, to effect the Christian regeneration, and a spiritual union with God, to what purpose can it be insufficient; to what work unequal? If this faith be weak, what faith can be called strong?

And that faith in Christ does do this; that it strengthens the soul with such principles, and fills it with such resources that it does not need the world for its happiness, and is capable of resisting its allurements and its terrors, of rising superior to its sin and its misery, there are "clouds of witnesses." The apostles and martyrs who endured all things, and, in the midst of all, "sang praises unto God;" and humbler Christians, in the depths of poverty and distress, yet cheerful, content, and rejoicing; men injured, threatened, and persecuted, yet patient, serene, and uncomplaining, while they can appeal to Him who judges righteously; men lingering in painful sick