That mystic word of thine, O Sovereign Lord,
Is all too pure, too deep, too high, for me;
Weary of striving, and with longing faint,
I breathe it back again in prayer to thee.

Abide in me, I pray, and I in thee;

From this good hour, O leave me never more! Then shall the discord cease, the wound be healed, The life-long bleeding of the soul be o'er.

Twenty-first Day.

"HUMBLE yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you."

We have need of all our crosses. When we suffer much, it is because we have strong ties, which it is necessary to loosen. We resist, and we thus retard the Divine appointment; we repulse the heavenly hand, and it must come again; it would be wiser to yield ourselves at once to God.

Can loving children e'er reprove
With murmurs whom they trust and love;
Creator! I would ever be

A trusting, loving child to thee;
As comes to me or cloud or sun,
Father! thy will, not mine, be done.

Twenty-second Day.

"THIS I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their minds.”

Nothing is stronger than humility that groweth out of itself; or weaker than pride that resteth upon its own bottom. "Without me ye can do nothing." He doth not say, can do a little, but nothing. We must carry this always in our minds, that that which is begun in self-confidence will end in shame. We should renounce ourselves for the spirit's sake, and think ourselves too good for any base sin to lodge in. What

should pride, envy, and passion do in a heart consecrated to the spirit of meekness and holiness?

Spring up, my soul, with ardent flight,
Nor let this earth delude thy sight
With glittering trifles, gay and vain :
Wisdom divine directs thy view
To objects ever grand and new,
And faith displays the shining train.

Twenty-third Bay.

"FOR it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

This spirit, the invisible energy by which God is drawing men to goodness, is around us as well as within us. It does not merely operate upon the mind in directly imparting light and strength; its power is to be felt in the works and providence of God, in our natural sentiments of right and

wrong, in whatever enlarges our conceptions of duty, raises our affections, or animates us in any good work.

Of all thy creatures, both in sea and land,
Only to man thou hast made known thy ways,
And put the pen alone into his hand,

And made him secretary of thy praise.

But who hath praise enough? Nay, who hath any? None can express thy works but he that knows them; And none can know thy works, which are so many And so complete, but only he that owns them.

Twenty-fourth Bay.

"WE shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."

If life be regarded as the commencement of immortality, it will be freed from trifling associations, and still more from those which are low and debasing. It will as

sume a permanence to our eyes from its first moment to its last. It will appear fastened to the Rock of Ages. It will be the opening of a boundless career. Death will no more be a violent extinction, a fathomless and frightful chasm, a blank oblivion; but it will be a change, a landingplace, an entrance into the everlasting abode of spirits and of God. It will be regarded by the contemplative as

Life's last shore,

Where vanities are vain no more,
Where all pursuits their goal obtain,
And life is all retouched again;

When in their bright results shall rise
Thoughts, virtues, friendships, griefs, and joys.

Twenty-fifth Day.

"THY will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

From seeking strength for outward work,