ordinary and common probation, which is what a man generally leads when he lives with his equals, is found, when examined, to contain a powerful supply of the most finished and subtle weapons of discipline. Equals are, more than inferiors, the natural correction of self-love.

And while pity has certainly effects of great beauty in its own field, still the palm of a stronger and sharper correction may belong to another sphere of training.-MOZLEY.

SEPTEMBER 10.

Give unto Thy servants, () God, that peace which the world

cannot give.-COLLECT. Thought and prayer both come from a hidden source; they go forth to fight with foes and gain victory in the external world; they return to rest in Him who inspired them. Oh, how fresh and original will each of our lives become, what flatness will pass from society, what barrenness from conversation, what excitement and restlessness from our religious acts, when we understand these secrets! When the morning prayer is really a prayer for grace, to One whose service is perfect freedom, in knowledge of whom is eternal life; when at evening we really ask One, from whom all good thoughts and holy desires and just works proceed, for the peace which the world cannot give!--MAURICE.

SEPTEMBER 11.

Teach me Thy way, O Lord.-PSALM xxvii. 13. It is the least that a man can do, to wish with all his heart to have some valuable thing, if he is to expect some day to have it. How simple a condition, could man only once resolve steadily to wish for the possession of that which he knows to be his chief good; could he but cast aside, once for all, all those vain, those fruitless longings for things that are out of his reach-for gifts and faculties which only glitter and attract the eye—and wish, in the sincerity of his heart, for what is really to be had for the wishing-for religious faith and temper! What happiness, what comfort, what serenity of spirit, what cheerful hope, is in men's they but bring themselves to wish heartily for that faith from which all these fruits spring! But “ they whose hearts desire nothing, pray for nothing;” and, not praying, they do not obtain. Desire is the first condition. We receive grace in the same degree we desire it." -MOZLEY.

power, could

SEPTEMBER 12.

O God, make clean our hearts within as. The short prayers following the Creed, which are given to the minister and the congregation alternately, are intended, I apprehend, as hints respecting what may be called our spontaneous thoughts. We are not at the mercy of our own thoughts, however

rudely they may claim dominion over us. We have the power to say to this, “Go,” and it goeth ; and to another,“ Come,” and it cometh. Every man knows that this prerogative belongs to him, and knows that he is guilty when he does not exercise it. But it is a gift which requires careful and incessant cultivation; it can be cultivated effectually only in

way. If each impulse from without be met with an impulse from within, if sudden impressions are sustained by prayers, as sudden, to the Lord of our spirits, we may acquire a mastery over the subjects of our own spiritual kingdom, which will be otherwise always turbulent and refractory --MAURICE.

one

But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze,
O’erflow Thy courts : the Light Himself shall shine
Reveal'd, and God's eternal day be thine!
The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fix'd His word, His saving power remains :
Thy realm for ever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns.

POPE.

SEPTEMBER 14.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of

the Lord.-MATTHEW iii. 3.
Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers;
Prepare the way! a God, a God appears !
A God, a God! the vocal hills reply;
The rocks proclaim th' approaching Deity.
Lo, earth receives Him from the bending skies !
Sink down, ye mountains, and, ye valleys, rise !
With heads declined, ye cedars, homage pay;
Be smooth, ye rocks ; ye rapid floods, give way!
The Saviour comes, by ancient bards foretold !
Hear Him, ye deaf! and, all ye blind, behold!
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,
And on the sightless eyeball pour the day :
'Tis He th' obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
And bid new music charm th' unfolding ear:
The dumb shall sing, the lame his cratch forego,
And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
No sigh, no murmur the wide world shall hear,
From every face he wipes off every .tear.
In adamantine chains shall death be bound,
And hell's grim tyrant feel the eternal wound.
As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture and the parest air,
Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs,
By day o'ersees them, and by night protects,

The tender lambs he raises in his arms,
Feeds from his hand, and in his posom warms;
Thus shall mankind His guardian care engage,
The promised Father of the future age.

РОРЕ. .

SEPTEMBER 15.

The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him.

LAMENTATIONS iii. 25.
The child leans on its parent's breast,
Leaves there its cares, and is at rest;
The bird sits singing by its nest,

And tells aloud
His trust in God, and so is blest

'Neath every cloud.
He has no store, he sows no seed ;
Yet sings aloud, and doth not heed ;
By flowing stream, or grassy mead

He sings to shame
Men, who forget, in fear of need,

A Father's name.
The heart that trusts for ever sings,
And feels as light as it had wings;
A well of peace within it springs :

Come good or ill,
Whate'er to-day, to-morrow brings,
It is His will!

T. WILLIAMS.

SEPTEMBER 16.

Where wert thou, brother, those four days ?

There lives no record of reply. When we think of the return of Lazarus to his house at Bethany, it is not with an unmixed delight we ask whether he could have welcomed the world's