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ABIDE WITH US, FOR IT IS TOWARDS EVENING."

The tender light is fading, where

We pause and linger still,

And through the dim and saddened air

We feel the evening chill.

Long hast thou journeyed with us, Lord,

Ere we thy face did know :

Oh, still thy fellowship afford,
While dark the shadows grow.

For passed is many a beauteous field,
Beside our morning road;
And many a fount to us is sealed,
That once so freshly flowed.

The splendor of the noontide lies
On other paths than ours;

The dews that lave yon fragrant skies

Will not revive our flowers.

It is not now as in the glow

Of life's impassioned heat,

When to the heart there seemed to flow
All that of earth was sweet.

Something has faded, something died,
Without us and within;

We more than ever need a guide,
Blinded and weak with sin.

The weight is heavy that we bear;
Our strength more feeble grows :
Weary with toil and pain and care,

We long for sweet repose.

Stay with us, gracious Saviour, stay,
While friends and hopes depart ;
Fainting, on thee we wish to lay
The burden of our heart.

Abide with us, dear Lord, remain
Our life, our truth, our way:

So shall our loss be turned to gain,—

Night dawn to endless day.

[Rev. H. N. Powers.]

Why should you carry troubles and sorrows unhealed? There is no bodily wound for which some herb doth not grow, and heavenly plants are more medicinal. Bind up your hearts in them, and they shall give you not only healing, but leave you with the perfume of the blessed gardens where they grow. Thus it may be that sorrows shall turn to riches; for heart troubles, in God's husbandry, are not wounds, but the putting in of the spade before the planting of seeds. [Beecher.]

Though lonely be thy lot, fear not, for He
Who marks the sparrow's fall is guarding thee;
And not a star shines o'er thy head by night,
But He hath known that it will reach thy sight.

And not a grief can darken or surprise,
Swell in thy heart or dim with tears thine eyes,
But it is sent in mercy and in love,

To bid thy helplessness seek strength above.

[Anonymous.]

PRAYER OF FAITH.

The most effectual faith in God is not that which takes the form of the intellectual proposition that He is a mighty personal being, ruling the universe from some invisible. throne at its centre, but it is faith in the goodness, the truth, the right, the love which He is. Then the soul connects by natural channels of communication with the very springs of divine life, and draws therefrom inexhaustible supplies. A soul thus conditioned is always in the attitude of prayer,—always receiving, always giving. It is the prayer, not of formal petition, but of spiritual aspiration; the prayer that in its fulfilment means the union of the heart's deepest desires with deeds of duty and disinterested affection; the prayer that becomes a passionate devotion to noble services in daily life. Nor need we fear lest human life would lose something of its graciousness and spirituality if the old prayer of personal petition were The prayer of aspiration may shape itself to all life's shifting spiritual moods,-to all climates and weathers of the soul,-to whatsoever stress of storm or serenity of clear skies, to moods of penitence, of self-consecration, of heroism, and sorrow, and hope. Of such prayer, springing in unadorned sincerity from the heart, whether it take form in words or in unuttered meditation, the old scripture is still true, that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." Nor shall we ask whether it is the power of man or the power of God that does it; for when man acts in his own best strength he acts also in the strength of God and becomes a sharer of his omnipotence.-[Rev. W. J. Potter.]

to cease.

LITTLE WHILE.

"Oh for the peace that floweth as a river, Making life's desert places bloom and smile! Oh for that faith to grasp the glad forever, Amid the shadows of earth's Little While! "A little while to wear the veil of sadness,

To toil with weary steps through miry ways; Then to pour forth the fragrant oil of gladness,

And clasp the girdle round the robe of praise. "And He who is himself the gift and giver, The future glory and the present smile, With the bright promise of the glad forever,

Will light the shadows of earth's Little While."

SELF-CONSECRATION AND PRAISE.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

We are doomed (oh, blessed doom!) to be conquered at last, and brought in remorse and shame, and yet with the infinite peace of restoration, to our Father's arms. We are destined to be noble, not base; pure, not unholy; loving, not selfish or malicious. Sooner or later, throughout the cycles of our immortality, all the vile sensuality, the yet more hideous hate and malice which we sometimes hug to our hearts, must fall off like loathsome, outworn rags, and be trampled under our feet with disgust and shame. We never sink our souls in gross and unholy pleasures now, but we are befouling them with mire which hereafter we shall wash away with rivers of tears. We never utter a cruel or slanderous word, or hurt a child or a brute, but we are making a wound in our hearts which will smart long, long after our victim has forgotten its pain. Nay, we never miss an opportunity of giving innocent pleasure, or of helping another soul on the path to God, but we are taking away from ourselves forever what might have been a happy memory, and leaving in its place -[Frances Power Cobbe.]

a remorse.