Lead me, O Father, holding by Thy hand;
I ask not whither, for it must be on. . .

I'll think of Jesus, who hath led my soul
Thus far upon its journey home to God.
By poor attempts to do the things He said,
Faith has been born; free will become a fact;
And love grown strong to enter into His,
And know the Spirit that inhabits there.
One day His truth will spring to life in me,
And make me free, as God says 'I am free.'
When I am like Him, then my soul will dawn
With the full glory of the God revealed—
Full as to me, though but one beam from Him ;—
The light will shine, for I shall comprehend it:
In His light I shall see light. God can speak,
Yea, will speak to me then, and I shall hear.

His followers should have a hundred-fold

Of earth's most precious things, with suffering.— In all the labourings of a weary spirit,

I have been blessed with gleams of glorious things.
The sights and sounds of nature touch my soul,
No more look in from far. I never see

Such radiant filmy clouds, gathered about
A gently opening eye into the blue,

But swells my heart, and bends my sinking knee,
Bowing in prayer. The setting sun, before,

Signed only that the hour for prayer was come,
Where now it moves my inmost soul to pray.

On this same earth He walked; even thus He looked Upon its thousand glories; read them all;

In splendour let them pass on through his soul,
And triumph in their new beatitude,

Finding a heaven of truth to take them in ;
But walked on steadily through pain to death.
Better to have the poet's heart than brain,
Feeling than song; but better far than both,
To be a song, a music of God's making;
Or but a table, on which God's finger of flame,
In words harmonious, of triumphant verse
That mingles joy and sorrow, sets down clear,
That out of darkness He hath called the light.
It may be, voice to such is after given,
To tell the mighty tale to other worlds.

BISHOP WILBERFORCE.

'It shall come to pass that at evening time it shall be light.'

Zech. xiv. 7.

THE working of God, in time, is evermore, from

generation to generation, the fulfilment of this promise. It is when the hour is darkest, when sorrow is heaviest, when hope is dying, when the clouds are

thickest, and the hollow moaning of the voice of despair is beginning to awaken upon the chill night breeze-it is then that He interferes, to whom time is not, save as the setting wherein He has been pleased to place His work.

TWENTY-FIFTH DAY.

The Light of Hope.

BLESSED is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

Jer. xvii. 7, 8, 13, 14.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but

we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Rom. v. I-II.

For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope.