Oh! rapt communion, which can raise the soul
To the clear heights of sin forgiven
Scatter the spirit-clouds that roll,

And feed us with the food of heaven,-
Thine is the hour, when dead and living meet
In blended homage at one Mercy-Seat!

Who comes with cold or criticising heart
The outward elements to scan,

In this high feast can have no part

Where God comes down to sup with man;

Seeds of eternity within it lie,

Which bud on earth to blossom in the sky.

Though bread look bread, and water water seems
To carnal vision dull and cold,

Yet, Sacraments outsoar the dreams

Of them who nought but sense behold; Faith is the eye by which believers view Christ in the tokens of His Presence true.

Thou Nourishment for all baptismal souls!
A food high angels cannot share,

The vastness of Thy charm controls
The hearts which palpitate with prayer,

Into an awe profound,-but full of grace

From God incarnate, bleeding for our race!"

We will take another and very early opportunity of concluding this beautiful extract, which is too long unfortunately, for our pages, this month.

S.

The confession of evil works is the first beginning of good works. St. Augustine.

PASSING THOUGHTS,-No. II.

THE life of the Church is in the faith and love of her children. Her strength lies in their purity; her hope rests upon their obedience. Do not, then, let us always be hankering after great things! Do not let us talk too much of the evils of the Church, forgetting the good-the great good, the surpassing graces we have still with us.

But let us remember that as by Holy Baptism, we have been made the Sons of God, we must ever live as beseems our high nobility. In discipline and denials, in meekness and gentleness, doing our plain, quiet, humble duty, as it comes before us-in works of love at home and missions of grace abroad,-in prayer and watching-above all, by frequent Sacraments-let us endeavour to build up the waste places of our Zion. Let us so live and work then, through God's grace, steadily and quietly, just as if nothing was wrong, as if all was, as it ought or we wish it to be, for in this is the only hope that, humanly speaking, it ever will become so. One day all our trials shall cease; till then-let us work and not be weary, let us strive and not faint.

PARVUS.

Ir the spring put forth no blossoms, in summer their will be no beauty and in autumn no fruit. So if youth be trifled away without improvement, riper years will be contemptible, and old age miserable.

MEN cannot expect that God will mind those prayers, which they do not mind themselves; or that He will open His ears to those who are not serious before Him, and with Him.-Pelling.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING FOR THE JUBILEE?

YES! kind readers all, such is the question we put to you, in this our September Number, and we want an answer from you. What are you doing to help forward that great work, the fourth halfcentury of which has not long dawned upon us? How are you helping on "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" in her glorious and her laborious career? One hundred and fifty eventful years have rolled away since a few earnest men and faithful Churchmen set on foot her blessed labours in the cause of the Gospel. "Now, through God's grace and blessing," (may she say in triumphant tones,) "on the zeal of Churchmen, the English Bible and Prayer Book are being used to the glory of God, and the salvation of souls in every quarter of the globe." And yet much remains to be done. Take for instance, that vast Indian Archipelago, of which Borneo forms the principal island, where there are (as the Bishop of London so truly said, in his speech at the Jubilee Meeting in St. Martin's Hall, June last of this year) millions upon millions of people predisposed to the reception of Christianity, and where that good man, and that great man, the Rajah Brooke, is paving the way by his self-devotion and energy, for the progress of Christian civilization and Gospel truth. Or whether we look at New Zealand, or the Cape of Good Hope, or China, or Prince Rupert's Land, or Labrador, or Ceylon,

or the West Indies, or the East Indies, how much yet is needed to strengthen the hands of our bishops and people in those portions of our Holy Church.

What then do we mean to do? Anything or nothing? Do we mean to allow this blessed opportunity vouchsafed us by the Head of the Church to quicken our energies and deepen our love, to pass by unheeded in heartless indolence or heedless unconcern? I trow not! I hope not! Let not our offerings be scanty, or our missionary boxes empty then! But let us, every one of us, old and young, resolve, week by week, to put by something for this blessed labour of faith and love. Be it much, or be it little, it matters not, only let us give what we rightly and fairly can, and God will accept the gift. No one single member of our Church ought to allow this year to pass away without making some special offering (great or little) through the Society to this holy cause.

Let us all pray, 'That," in the touching words of the Bishop of London, "it may please God to open our hearts, and the heart of every member of the Church, to a duty, which if it be the Church's duty, must be the duty of every individual member of the Church. That so, we may give to distant lands and other climes, that which is our choicest gift, that which alone can make all other gifts worth the having, the knowledge of themselves and of their God, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures, with the powers of renewal and life which are stored for all in Christ's Holy "hurch."

We ought to raise a jubilee fund at home, for those working, toiling, harassed Churches abroad, (under the administration of that venerable Society to which our Church owes so much) of not less, at the very least, than twenty-five thousand pounds! Let us try, to do so in prayer and faith and love! PARVUS.

FAITH.

When the dark cloud lowers o'er thee,

Be not thou dismayed!

E'en tho' all be gloom before thee.

Fear not thou the shade;

But pass on-He will assure thee

Who alone can aid.

Seek not now to know his meaning,

But thy part fulfil;

On His arm for guidance leaning,

Strive to do His will,

Thy frail heart from vain dreams weaning,

Which enthral thee still.

Let not doubt or dimness move thee,

But believe! be sure,

He still keepeth watch above thee,

Therefore rest secure :

He is faithful; though to prove thee,

Heaviness endure,

For a night; upon the morrow,

Joy and light shall be:

And His love, if Faith thou borrow

Thou shalt surely see,

In the trial-hour of sorrow

That seemed dark to thee.

H. D. L.