PRAYER. OUR Father, who art in heaven, teach me to feel that Thou art my Father, and that Thou carest for me as only Thou canst who never slumberest nor sleepest in the care of Thy people, and who art their shield and their exceeding great reward, in this world as well as the next. May I trust Thy love, and confide in Thy wisdom, and wait Thy pleasure, being kept in perfect peace by being stayed on Thee. For Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. LOVELY, shadowy, soft and still Ah! if but my heart and will GERHARD TERSTEEGEN, 1697-1769. O THOU, who driest the mourner's tear, But Thou wilt heal the broken heart, When joy no longer soothes or cheers, O, who would bear life's stormy doom, Come brightly wafting through the gloom, Our peace-branch from above? Then sorrow, touched by Thee, grows bright With more than rapture's ray, As darkness shows us worlds of light We never saw by day. MOORE. XV. HOPE THOU IN GOD. FEEBLE health seldom rests contented with the common assistances of sickness, however varied or commended, but has ever some favourite remedy, kept close at hand, to use at the moment, in preference to all others, when emergencies assail. In times of alarm, we all are wont to do much the same, trusting to some specific which we keep ever within reach, or bear about us, rather than to any general treatment, when attacked. It is very desirable to act in the same way with the promises; to fix on some one or two for each particular trouble, that we may have them always with us for instant remedy against temptations and trials. It is not enough for our comfort that we can always betake ourselves to the rich stores of the Scriptures; they are scattered over the whole surface of God's word, and the soul may have to suffer for a time before it light upon K |