MAY 18.

"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."—Heb. iv. 16.

Prayer is a creature's strength, his very health and being.

Prayer is the slender nerve that moveth the muscles of Omnipotence.

Wherefore pray, O creature, for many and great are thy wants;

Thy mind, thy conscience, and thy being, thy rights commend thee unto prayer,

The cure of all cares, the grand panacea for all pains,
Doubt's destroyer, ruin's remedy, the antidote to all
anxieties.
Proverbial Philosophy.

23.

MAY 19.

"Thy brother shall rise again."-St. John, xi.

The thrush proclaims, in accents sweet,
That winter's rain is o'er;

The blue-bells throng around my feet,

I think, I feel,-but when will he
Awake to thought again? . . .
A voice of comfort answers me

That God does nought in vain.

He wastes nor flower, nor bud, nor leaf,
Nor wind, nor cloud, nor wave;
And will he waste the hope that "faith
Has planted in the grave?

E. ELLIOTT.

MAY 20.

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him." -Ps. xxxvii. 7.

Oh, come that day, when in this restless heart,
Earth shall resign her part!

When in the grave with thee my limbs shall rest,
My soul with thee be blest!

But stay, presumptuous! Christ with thee abides, In the rock's dreary sides;

He from the stone will wring celestial dew,

If but the prisoner's heart be faithful found, and true.

Christian Year.

MAY 21.

“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." -Ps. lvi. 3.

Lord! what a change within us one short hour
Spent in Thy presence will avail to make!

We rise

What burdens lighten, what temptations slake ! What parched ground refresh as with a shower! We kneel and all around us seems to lower; and all the distant and the near Stand forth in sunny outline, brave and clear. We kneel-how weak! we rise-how full of power! Why, therefore, should we do ourselves this wrong, Or others, that we are not always strong? That we are ever overborne with care?

That we should ever weak, or heedless be? Anxious or troubled ?-when with us is prayer, And joy, and strength, and courage, are with Thee.

R. C. TRENCH.

66

MAY 22.

Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies, and thy loving-kindnesses, for they have been ever of old."-Ps. xxv. 6.

I can seldom say more to God for those I love, than: "Do as Thou hast ever done; be to them as Thou hast ever been to me; be Thou their portion in

time and in eternity!" I rarely can enter into particulars in prayer, but have more facility in returning thanks for special mercies. It has been well said that, "He who records God's mercies will never want mercies to record."

M.S.

MAY 23.

"The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever."Isa. xl. 8.

How fresh, O Lord, how sweet and clean,
Are thy returns! e'en as the flowers in spring;
To which, besides our own demean,
The late-past frosts tributes of pleasure bring.
Grief melts away

Like snow in May,

As if there were no such cold thing.

Who would have thought my shrivelled heart
Could have recover'd greenness? It was gone
Quite underground: as flowers depart
To see their mother-root, when they have blown ;
Where they together

All the hard weather,

Dead to the world-keep house unknown.

These are thy wonders, Lord of love!
To make us see we are but flowers that glide;
Which when we once can find, and prove,
Thou hast a garden for us where to bide.

GEORGE HERBERT.

MAY 24.

"I will not destroy it for ten's sake.' Gen. xviii. 32.

They little think,-the high and great,
Who lead the war, or sway the state,—
How much of safety and success,
To soft words breathed in gentleness
By simple lips, are due;

And pleadings of the faithful soul !
For God in heaven will save the whole,
For the sake of the holy few;

And the spell of poor men's quiet prayers
Is brooding o'er them unawares.