Part 30

I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry.--PS. xl. 1.

Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope,--ROM. v. 3, 4.

Lord, we have wandered forth through doubt and sorrow, And Thou hast made each step an onward one; And we will ever trust each unknown morrow,-- Thou wilt sustain us till its work is done.

S. JOHNSON.

It is possible, when the future is dim, when our depressed faculties can form no bright ideas of the perfection and happiness of a better world,--it is possible still to cling to the conviction of God's merciful purpose towards His creatures, of His parental goodness even in suffering; still to feel that the path of duty, though trodden with a heavy heart, leads to peace; still to be true to conscience; still to do our work, to resist temptation, to be useful, though with diminished energy, to give up our wills when we cannot rejoice under God's mysterious providence. In this patient, though uncheered obedience, we become prepared for light. The soul gathers force.

WM. E. CHANNING.

April 21

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.--MATT. v. 48.

As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.--PS. xvii. 15.

The righteousness he marks in Thee His will to right doth win; Delighting in Thy purity, He deeply drinks it in.

T. H. GILL.

To love God is to love His character. For instance, God is Purity. And to be pure in thought and look, to turn away from unhallowed books and conversation, to abhor the moments in which we have not been pure, is to love God. God is Love; and to love men till private attachments have expanded into a philanthropy which embraces all,--at last even the evil and enemies with compassion,--that is to love God. God is Truth. To be true, to hate every form of falsehood, to live a brave, true, real life,--that is to love God. God is Infinite; and to love the boundless, reaching on from grace to grace, adding charity to faith, and rising upwards ever to see the Ideal still above us, and to die with it unattained, aiming insatiably to be perfect even as the Father is perfect,--that is to love God.

F. W. ROBERTSON.

April 22

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.--I PETER i. 8.

If our love were but more simple, We should take Him at His word; And our lives would be all sunshine In the sweetness of our Lord.

F. W. FABER.

What would it be to love absolutely a Being absolutely lovely,--to be able to give our whole existence, every thought, every act, every desire, to that adored One,--to know that He accepts it all, and loves us in return as God alone can love? This happiness grows forever. The larger our natures become, the wider our scope of thought, the stronger our will, the more fervent our affections, the deeper must be the rapture of such God-granted prayer. Every sacrifice resolved on opens wide the gate; every sacrifice accomplished is a step towards the paradise within. Soon it will be no transitory glimpse, no rapture of a day, to be followed by clouds and coldness. Let us but labor, and pray, and wait, and the intervals of human frailty shall grow shorter and less dark, the days of our delight in God longer and brighter, till at last life shall be nought but His love, our eyes shall never grow dim, His smile never turn away.

F. B. COBBE.

April 23

These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work.--I CHRON. iv. 23.

A lowlier task on them is laid, With love to make the labor light; And there their beauty they must shed On quiet homes, and lost to sight. Changed are their visions high and fair, Yet, calm and still, they labor there.

HYMNS OF THE AGES.

Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell "with the King for His work." We may be in a very unlikely or unfavorable place for this; it may be in a literal country life, with little enough to be seen of the "goings" of the King around us; it may be among hedges of all sorts, hindrances in all directions; it may be, furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of pottery for our daily task. No matter! The King who placed us "there" will come and dwell there with us; the hedges are all right, or He would soon do away with them; and it does not follow that what seems to hinder our way may not be for its very protection; and as for the pottery, why, that is just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our hands, and therefore it is, for the present, "His work."

F. R. HAVERGAL.

April 24

Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.--GAL. vi. 2.

Is thy cruse of comfort wasting? Rise and share it with another, And through all the years of famine, It shall serve thee and thy brother. Is thy burden hard and heavy? Do thy steps drag heavily? Help to bear thy brother's burden; God will bear both it and thee.