So I ask Thee for the daily strength

To none that ask denied,

And a mind to blend with outward life
While keeping at thy side;
Content to fill a little space,
If thou be glorified.

And if some things I do not ask
In my cup of blessing be,

I would have my spirit filled the more
With grateful love to Thee;

More careful-not to serve Thee much-
But to please Thee perfectly.

There are briars besetting every path

That call for patient care, There is a cross in every lot,

And an earnest need for prayer; But a lowly heart that leans on Thee Is happy anywhere.

In a service which Thy love appoints,
There are no bonds for me;

For my inmost heart is taught the truth
That makes Thy children free ;
And a life of self-renouncing love

Is a life of liberty.

A. L. WARING.

TRIALS.

No wounds like those a wounded spirit feels;
No cure for such till God, who makes them, heals:
And thou, sad sufferer under nameless ill,

That yields not to the touch of human skill;
Improve the kind occasion, understand

A Father's frown, and kiss His chastening hand.

COWPER.

COMFORT.

'O wie manche, schöne Stunde."

"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."ROM. viii. 28.

O How many hours of beauty

Has the Master dealt around!
And how many broken spirits
Has He tenderly upbound!

O how often, to refresh us,

Warmly beams the sun of life,
Chasing from our brows the furrows
Gathered in its gloom and strife,

Thus it will go on for ever,

Till the end of all things here;
Till our Lord to glory call us,
In His presence to appear.

Then the Fatherland to enter,
And no more as pilgrims drest,
But adorned with all the shining,
Festal raiment of the blest.

D

Should not this thy spirit strengthen
To rejoice, be calm and still,
And to follow where He leadeth,

Let Him lead thee where He will?

All things work for thy salvation,
If indeed thou art His friend;
Tarry but a little season,
Only wait until the end.

So the bitterest, as the sweetest,
Serve alike to lead to heaven;
Nor thy voice alone shall praise Him
For the cross that once was given.

Doubtless rugged heights arising
Fill thy heart with deep alarms;
But where thou canst not surmount them,
Christ will bear thee in His arms.

Only journey ever onward,

Farther on the homeward way,

Ever with an eye uplifted

To the clearer realms of day.

Fearless thou mayest tread the valley,

All in shadow though it be,

When the open blue of heaven

Shines beyond the gloom for thee.

From "Hymns from the Land of Luther."

A PSALM OF LIFE.

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream;
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest !

And the grave is not its goal: "Dust thou art, to dust returnest," Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,

And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,

Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, act in the living Present,
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us, Footprints on the sands of time:

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labour and to wait.

LONGFELLOW.

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

WHEN marshalled on the nightly plain,
The glittering host bestud the sky,
One star alone, of all the train,

Can fix the sinner's wandering eye.

Hark! hark! to God the chorus breaks,
From every host, from every gem;
But one alone the Saviour speaks,-
It is the Star of Bethlehem.

Once on the raging seas I rode,

The storm was loud, the night was dark;

The ocean yawned, and rudely blowed

The wind that tossed my foundering bark.

Deep horror then my vitals froze ;
Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem;
When suddenly a star arose,-

It was the Star of Bethlehem.