Cease to do evil, learn to do well.
Isa. i. 16, 17.

HE liveth long who liveth well!

All other life is short and vain;
He liveth longest who can tell
Of living most for heavenly gain.
Fill up each hour with what will last,
Buy up the moments as they go;
The life above, when this is past,
Is the ripe fruit of life below.

Sow love, and taste its fruitage pure;
Sow peace, and reap its harvest bright;
Sow sunbeams on the rock and moor,
And find a harvest home of light.

February 22.

H. Bonar.

Chasten thy son, while there is hope.
Prov. xix. 18; xxix. 17.

LET not My children slight the stroke,

I for chastisemen' send,

Nor faint beneath My kind rebuke,
For still I am their Friend.

Shall earthly parents then expect

Their children to submit?

And will not you, when I correct,

Be humbled at My feet?

Break through the clouds, O Lord, and shine!

Let us perceive Thee nigh,

And to each erring child of Thine

These gracious words apply.

J. Newton.

Choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. Deut. xxx. 19.

HEN in the fulness of the time,

WHI

This outer world of sin

Shall burst and shrivel, and disclose

The glorious world within ;

Then shall the sons of God no more
Seem like the sons of clay,
Their hidden sacramental life
Made manifest that day.

And all the beauty that we see
Clothing this outer earth,

Is but the type, perchance the germ,
Of her immortal birth;

Then dream of weariness no more,
But rouse thee, toil, and pray;
So thou in thine own lot may stand
Safe on that awful day.

101

Come

February 24.

hearken unto Me, I will teach you

the fear of the Lord.-Ps. xxxiv. II.

WHATE'ER I have is Thine; my hour of death

And all the days of life are in Thy hand, My endless portion hangs upon Thy breath, My hairs by Thee are number'd, and the sand That forms beneath my feet the eternal strand : Whate'er I know, whate'er I have, is Thine, Save sins, which hold me in a living band, Which Thou alone canst make not to be mine;Number may count my sins, but not Thy love divine.

Come, and let us return unto the Lord.

SHO

Hosea vi. I.

HOW me the way that leadeth unto Thee. Though it be difficult, Thou art all might; Though low, Thou art of love a boundless sea; Though dark, Thou art Thyself a living light; Though toilsome, Thou are goodness infinite, And wilt refresh the heavy-laden soul

That comes to Thee;-guide me to Thee aright,
I cannot come, unless Thou dost control;
Lord, Thou enlighten, draw, and fill my being
whole.
Rev. J. Williams.

Come, My people, enter thou into thy chambers.

Isa. xxvi. 20.

COME, My people, to your chambers,

Lo! the day of wrath draws nigh;"

Thus the Lord His saints remembers,
Bidding them from danger fly:
Happy people thus protected!

Happy whom the Lord secures !
O ye saints, by man rejected,
Sing for joy, this lot is yours.

Oh may we be found among them,

Now, and when the Lord appears;

Though the world should slight and wrong them,
One there is who counts their tears:
Pilgrims now on earth, and strangers,
Yet the saints are truly blest;
God will save them here from dangers,
And in heaven will give them rest.

T. Kelly.