cared for, and only prayed that his own soul and his class of boys might not suffer loss. The other event in his path that I remember, was the loss of a fair and favourite little girl. His heart was touched to the core, and his tears flowed with affecting freeness; but, with a smile of sweetness and almost rapture that cannot be described, he said, "I would not have her back. Oh, no! The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, and most blessed be the name of the Lord. 'Twas His will, and I am quite willing He should have her; but 'tis when I think of her pretty ways and talk, and the pretty hymns she used to say when she was a-dying, it most breaks my heart." His wife, too, with streams of tears, said she was quite willing to part with her, "because the Lord did all things well; but 'twas such a sweet babe." In conclusion, I will only say that when I last heard of him he was still vigilantly working in the service of his heavenly Master, and growing more and more into His holy likeness. Turned to MUST forbid your being in this room," said a phy- unhealthy." "It is most She looked at him with surprise. "But it is large and well ventilated," she said. It was, in fact, one of the most spacious and lofty rooms in a handsome London house. "That's not the question," he answered decisively; "it's a north room: I shouldn't care comparatively how small a room you lived in with another aspect. A room that never gets the sun can't possibly be healthy." And we said, when the doctor was gone, that he had spoken a parable to us: that even so the healthfulness of TURNED TO THE LORD. our moral life depends upon our aspect with regard to Him who is the Sun of our souls, the all-healing Sun of Righteousness, and not upon our outward surroundings; we thought of our Saviour's words: "A man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth," I but in his being "rich toward God." If the light of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ is shining in our hearts, "His love shed abroad therein by the Holy Ghost," it matters nothing by comparison that our earthly conditions are limited and lowly. And even when clouds of earthly sorrow hang over us we shall be in brightness if the light of His countenance is lifted up upon us. So do I remember how, when crossing a wild country common, I saw, above a wooded hill before me, a sky of dark murky grey, but the trees stood out in dazzling reddish gold, and turning I saw the light shine on the wood from the sun setting in glory behind me; and the lowering clouds could not shadow but rather brought into brighter relief their reflection of the sunlight. 66 In beautifully simple metaphor does God's Word describe a Christian heart as one turned to the Lord:" not only in the first essential act of repentance and reconciliation, but continually turned towards Him as sunflower to sun; living "in the light of the Lord," looking to Him in ever-growing faith and hope and love. And yet "We see but dimly through earth's mists and vapours" in comparison of the glory that shall be revealed to us and in us, in "the brightness of His coming;" when no longer as in a glass, but face to face beholding the glory of the Lord, His people shall be changed into the same image, and shall themselves "shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." A. J. T. Luke xii. 21. & Rom. v. 5. 1 Luke xii. 15. HE Saviour spoke, the sinner heard; THE No doubt was rais'd, no murmuring word; He rose up glad and joyfully That call to answer, "Follow Me!" He ask'd not with distrustful brow, Sinners, that call to you is given, He bids thee follow where He led, Through grief He leads thee-follow Him; Shame and reproach were on His name, That thou should'st as thy Master be! Christian, not yet the crown is won, The strife is bitter, but the last, And when both fear and death are past H. P. “They abode with Him that Day." BLESSED day when they abode with Thee, In answer to Thine own most gracious word; Sacredly cherished in the memory— A day of sweet communion with their Lord. O blessed hours of that short, passing day, Hours from all worldliness and care set free, When drinking in each word Thou hadst to say Their hearts o'erflowed with quiet joy in Thee. Why should our days be spent without our Lord? We have so much to hear, so much to tell; List'ning to Thee our busy thoughts would rest, Our lives would then Thy highest wish fulfil. Thy word is just the same now: "Come and see !" Looking to Jesus at the opening day, Looking to Jesus through the busy hours, Looking to Jesus as the evening ray Falls softly down upon the closing flowers. Then would each day be filled with quiet rest, S. M. |