in our little sorrows and trials; time was when we confessed our wrong, and begging for forgiveness rose from our knees at one with GOD. Ah, but a something has arisen between us and GOD which was not there before,-is it we who are changed, or is it GOD?

And yet again, let us pray not only for ourselves but for others. In the old legend when King Arthur lay dying, and his knight, Sir Bedivere, the last of the band who once sat at the Round Table, had cast his king's noble sword, Excalibur, into the Mere, there came ladies three and bare the dying king hence in a barge, leaving the bold Sir Bedivere alone, the last of the band of knights on the shore. And what comfort can Arthur leave him? Seems it to you but small, or of all comforts one of the best?

Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
For what are men better than sheep or goats
That nourish a blind life within the brain,

If, knowing GOD, they lift not hands of prayer,
Both for themselves, and those that call them friend?
For so the whole round world is every way

Bound by gold chains about the feet of GOD."

O most unspeakable is this blessing, this high privilege, that though no man may redeem his brother, we can send up strong intercession for

him. "O GOD, guide him to see the right way; make him more and more to walk in the way that leads to Thee; make him stronger, better, holier; and this I beg for JESUS CHRIST's sake." Does the father or the mother never so pray for the prodigal son who is now a great way off? Does not such prayer plead for those who are leading lives away from GOD, as also for all whom we love, and who have not set their affections on heavenly things? Therefore, while we ever pray, "GOD be merciful to me a sinner," let us not forget the larger prayer of our great Master CHRIST to His and our FATHER, "FATHER, I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am."

Prayer is the key of heaven-prayer alike public and private. With it we can open the door that leadeth to the perfect Communion of Saints. Do you fear to enter? Fear not. For if we fear to go to our FATHER, to whom else shall we go? He knoweth His own sheep, and He will recognise each one of you. Thus it will be only exchanging a far-off cry from our knees, be it in church or at our bedside, for speaking face to face with Him; and though here earthly friends may forget, and earthly love grow cold, His perfect love will encompass you about, and know you for His

own.

"Can a woman's tender care

Cease towards the child she bare?

Yes, she may forgetful be,

Yet will I remember thee."

O believe me, prayer is stronger than death, stronger than life, your best resource, your most perfect time. Therefore if you would pray, as we all once learned to pray, in simple trust at a father's or a mother's knee, if you would live, and we can so live, (if we could only see it,) the life of peace, which without prayer can never be, ask GOD to-night to give you this gift of prayer, this spirit of prayer, and be sure, quite sure, you will be better boys this week, better boys this term, better men in after years, better fitted for that heaven where prayer is lost in praise. Do you think that prodigal son could see before him how his return should be? Could he scarce hope, he so long away from his father's home, so long reckless of the only true happiness? Come with him to your FATHER; come, and your cup shall overflow with blessing; come, ere yet you wander from your FATHER's home, and your prayers now so faint and fearful, shall be answered if only you cry, "Not my will, but Thine be done."

"I said, "The darkness shall content my soul.'

GOD said, 'Let there be light.'

I said, 'The night shall see me reach my goal.'
Instead came dawning bright.

I bared my head to meet the smiter's stroke,
There came sweet dropping oil;

I waited trembling, but the voice that spoke
Said gently, 'Cease thy toil.'

I looked for evil, stern of face and pale,
Came good, too fair to tell;

I leaned on GOD when other joys did fail,
He gave me these as well."

Yes truly, for "so He giveth His beloved peace."

XVII.

HEAVEN ON EARTH.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."Gen. i. I.

EVERYTHING new, everything perfect; such was the condition of heaven and earth in their infancy, fashioned by the hand of the great Maker. Not one blemish, not one defect, not one excess were there; no, "GOD saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good."

We in our finite mind cannot grasp the infinite. There is nothing infinite save GOD and GOD'S handiwork; therefore, every work of man, however grand, sublime, and towering near to Heaven, cannot be perfect and entire. For one moment let us endeavour feebly to conceive of this creation of heaven and earth. Out of a bleared and indistinct mass of objects, hopelessly carried hither and thither without object, energy, or system; out of a chaos of dark mist brooding over a world

restlessly tossing to and fro in space, out of nothing, came forth the very perfect and only beauty which

never tires, the order which never changes, the heaven and the earth. We, in this life even, if we will look around us, can see yet glimpses more or less perfect of this creation of GOD; and the more fully, and the more with enjoyment of things lovely and ennobling, the more we know of the mind of GOD, so much the more we shake off the impurities of taste, sense, and feeling, which withstand the power of exactly appreciating GOD in His works, nay, even in the works without GOD.

Yes, thus arose the world from the hands of its Maker; and how has man changed God's world? Man began by murder, "Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." And yet in the Bible history it seemed not so very long before we read, "So GOD created man in His own image, in the image of GOD created He him." Then a little further on in the Bible page, " And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

With the deluge, and the saving of Noah and his family, a new season began in the world's history. It might have been thought, that a warning so awful as a world drowned, all save eight souls, might have served to keep the new world of man good and holy, but experience teaches that often no warning of the past, no future heaven and hell, are powerful