martyrs, there! the general assembly and church of the first-born there! Multitudes whom we personally knew and loved in the flesh there! and there without sin or sorrow or suffering, and that for ever.

"Jesus! the vision of Thy face
Hath overwhelming charms;

Scarce shall I feel death's cold embrace,
If Christ be in my arms."

"There shall I see his face,

And never, never sin;

There from the rivers of His grace,
Drink endless pleasures in."

"OH, think of the home over there,
By the side of the river of light,
Where the saints all immortal and fair,
Are robed in their garments of white.

"Oh, think of the friends over there,

Who before us the journey have trod,
Of the songs that they breathe on the air,
In their home in the palace of God.

"My Saviour is now over there,

There my kindred and friends are at rest
Then away from my sorrow and care,
Let me fly to the land of the blest.

"I'll soon be at home over there,

For the end of my journey I see;
Many dear to my heart over there
Are watching and waiting for me."

;

Clinging and Craving.

O LORD, it is Thyself, Thyself, I want. Thy gifts are very great and most acceptable. Nay, Lord, what could we do without them, poor and helpless creatures as we are, standing in absolute need of Thy wisdom, Thy grace, Thy strength each and every hour of the every one day of our lives? But, Lord, it is, after all, Thyself-Thyself we want.

Were some kind friend or near relative to arrive from a distance, and to send some gift or present in advance, would that suffice? Should we not be on the look out, earnestly waiting and anxiously watching for that friend or relative's own personal appearance? Would anything short of this satisfy?

O Lord, Thy gifts the occasional whispers of Thy love-the so oft and so merciful interposition of Thy hand, do but prompt to the more intense longing and looking for Thyself! Yea, it is Thyself alone can satisfy. Then, when wilt Thou come, Lord? When shall we see Thee without a veil between? 'No

more as through a glass darkly, but face to face?"

Trouble.

LORD, whilst I would never overlook the fact that trouble is indispensable, in order that we should be perpetually reminded that "this is not our rest," that it is polluted, "Here we have no continuing city;" I would entreat Thee, Lord, at the same time, to grant me another mercy. I want to feel, Lord, how much greater how much more intense -how much more acute trial might be than it is, but for Thy forbearing goodness and Thy distinguishing mercy.

In proof of this, Lord, we have only to compare our trials with the trials of others; and that comparison, if justly and fairly made, will speedily prove how much lighter are our trials of the two.

"When trouble, like a gloomy cloud,
Has gather'd thick, and thunder'd loud,
He near my soul has always stood,
His loving-kindness O how good."

Trials in their Lightness, and in the Brevity of their Duration.

I WANT to feel, O Holy Ghost, the force of Thy words by Thy servant the apostle Paul, "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Here is the light affliction set in contrast with the weight of glory, and the little moment against the eternity of duration.

Help me, Lord, I pray Thee, to follow the notable example of the apostle, where he says, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

Comparison.

To the same effect the apostle writes when he says: "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not

worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.' Again he says, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."

Oh, then, for grace from on high, that, amid all the changing and passing circumstances of daily life, one may be looking above and beyond them all to "the glory that is to be revealed."

The Glory.

Some

Он, what must that glory be? of us, in the course of a long and somewhat eventful course, have been indulged very occasionally with momentary glimpses of the unseen world. Once or twice, in a whole life-time, we have, in our little measure and degree, been favoured as the apostle was, to be "caught up into paradise," and for the time "whether in the body or out of the body we could not tell." But, transient as was the sight, and only momentary as it were, have we ever forgotten what we felt? Have not