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X.

If not Religion, What?

Whom have I in heaven but Thee, O God? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. Though my flesh and my heart faileth, yet God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.Psalm lxxiii. 25, 26.

HEN the thought of God fades from heart and mind, what other thought shall take its place? or shall it remain a blank; and shall we, so impoverished, face the problems and meet the challenges of life? When the purifying and consoling influence of worship ceases, what other shall come in its stead? When the inspiring memories of a heroic history are no longer awakened in the Jewish heart-what other impulse shall save the young nature from the bane of selfishness? Let parents ponder well these questions before they venture to send their children out into a world where the strength and courage of the bravest are often tried to the utmost, send them out unprovided with those resources, which, by the testimony of all ages and all nations, are only found in the religious ideals of the soul.

N God, the holy, wise and just,

JN

From childhood's tender years, Have I reposed with perfect trust My changing hopes and fears.

G. G.

And should my term of life exceed

Frail man's allotted days,

Until the last my prayer would plead
For strength my God to praise.

XI. The morning and Evening Stars of Life.

Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and

the evening to rejoice,-Psalm lxv. 8.

To declare Thy mercy in the morning and Thy faithfulness in the night-times.-Psalm xcii. 2.

RELIGION, whether natural or revealed, has always

In

the most beneficial influence on the mind. youth, in health, in prosperity, it awakens feelings of gratitude and sublime love, and purifies at the same time that which it exalts; but it is in misfortune, in sickness, in age, that its effects are most truly and beneficially felt. When submission in faith, and humble trust in the Divine will, from duties become pleasures, and unfailing sources of consolation, then it creates powers which were believed to be extinct, and gives a freshness to the mind which was supposed to have passed away for ever, but which is now renovated as an immortal hope. Its influence outlives all earthly enjoyments, and becomes stronger as the organs decay and the frame dissolves; it appears as the evening star of light, in the horizon of life, which we are sure is to become, in another season, a morning star, and it throws its radiance through the gloom and shadow of death. HUMPHREY DAVY.

N ardent adoration joined,

JN

Obedient to Thy holy will,

Let all our faculties combined

Thy just desires, O God, fulfill, From Thee derived, eternal King, To Thee our noblest powers bring;

O may Thy hand direct our wandering way!

O bid Thy light arise, and chase the clouds away!

XII. Devotion- Living Sense of the Ideal.

The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in Him. The Lord is good to them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the help of the Lord.—Lamentations iii. 24–26.

Would to God man remembered his prayers all day from morning to night.—The Pharisees.

E not afraid to pray-to pray is right.

Pray, if thou canst, with hope, but ever pray, Though hope be weak, or sick with long delay;

Pray in the darkness, if there be no light.

Far is the time, remote from human sight,

When war and discord on the earth shall cease;

Yet every prayer for universal peace

Avails the blessed time to expedite.

Whate'er is good to wish, ask that of Heaven,
Though it be what thou canst not hope to see;
Pray to be perfect, though material leaven

Forbid the spirit so on earth to be;

But if for any wish thou darest not pray,
Then pray to God to cast that wish away.

HARTLEY COLERIDGE.

XIII.

In God's Own Time.

At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents -Numbers ix. 18.

THERE is no time lost while we are waiting God's time. It is as acceptable a piece of submission to the will of God to sit still contentedly when our lot requires it, as to work for Him when we are called to it. When the cloud was taken up, they removed, how comfortably soever they were encamped. The people being thus kept at a constant uncertainty, and having no time fixed for their stays and their removes, were obliged to hold themselves in constant readiness to march at a moment's warning. For the same reason we are kept uncertain as to the time of "putting off our earthly tabernacle," that we may be always ready to remove. As long and as far as the cloud moved, so long and so far they marched; and where it abode, they pitched their tents about it, and God's tent under it. M. HENRY.

OT so in haste, my heart,

Have faith in God and wait;

Although He linger long,

He never comes too late.

He never comes too late;

He knoweth what is best;

Vex not thyself in vain

Until He cometh, rest,

Until He cometh, rest;

Nor grudge the hours that roll; The feet that wait for God

Are soonest at the goal.

Are soonest at the goal

That is not gained by speed; Then hold thee still, my heart,

For I shall wait His lead.

XIV.

E

Stillness to God.

And He said: my presence shall go with thee, and

I will give thee rest.-Exodus xxxiii. 14.

E still and calm in thy own mind and spirit from thy own thoughts, and then thou wilt feel the principle of God, to turn thy mind to the Lord God, from whom life comes, whereby thou mayest receive His strength and power to allay all blustering storms and tempests. That is it which works up into patience, into innocency, into soberness, into stillness, into stayedness, into quietness, up to God with His power. . . Therefore be still awhile from thy own thoughts, searching, seeking, desires, and imaginations and be stayed in the principle of God in thee, that it may raise thy mind up to God, and stay it upon God; and thou wilt find strength from Him, and find Him to be a God at hand, a present help in time of trouble and need. GEORGE FOx.

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