divided family above, there unitedly to sing Jehovah's praise, and eternally to rejoice in "Victory, victory through the blood of the Lamb."

Jesus! Jesus!

JESUS! JESUS! how I mourn the distance at which I seem to live from Thee! Oh, how is it that I can be contented to grovel here, as, alas! I do from day to day? Whence is it that I pant not after Thee as once I did? Time was when my very soul felt as though all-absorbed in Thee! In very deed Thou by comparison, wert "all my salvation and all my desire!" yea, I could, in all the fulness of my heart, exclaim: "Whom have I in heaven but Thee, and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison with Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth! but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.'

"Yea, Thou wert precious to my soul,
My transport and my trust;

Jewels to Thee were gaudy toys,
And gold but sordid dust."

66

Near Home!

METHOUGHT, fifty years ago, that should I ever live to the period to which I have now attained, my soul must, as it were of very necessity, be fraught with sweetest joy and heavenly exultation, as I contemplated the fact of being so very near my eternal home! The prospect then, in that long gone-bye day, of having well nigh "finished my course" and by grace divine, the hope of having kept the faith, was such as to possess me with feelings indescribable. What," thought I, "and can it be that I shall ever live to see the day, in which I shall be privileged to look back upon present sorrows, trials, temptations, as of the past; each and all such by the Lord my God's good hand upon me, having been overcome? By grace and power divine, to have been made 'more than conqueror' over all! Not a trial to have overwhelmed; not a temptation to have obtained effectual mastery; not a burden to have crushed; not a "sickness unto death," to have destroyed; not one even to have triumphed!"

Oh, the mere anticipation of such a state of things filled one's soul with adoring wonder, praise, and thanksgiving! "Should ever such be my rich and most distinguished mercy," mentally my heart exclaimed, "oh, then how shall I rejoice." Methought the little residue of my time-state, with all its minor details, would be as nothing, in comparison with the past! I felt as though such would not be worthy of a moment's anxious thought; that I would regard any trial, affliction, or care, as merely momentary-just the dregs of the cup presented by "a Father's hand.”

Realization.

My former passing thoughts and pleasing anticipation I realize. Those dreams so called have become matter of factplain, positive, undeniable realities! But, alas! alas! where is the holy confidence -where the gratitude-the childlike trust and calm reposing upon the bosom of one's Lord and God? Ah, where indeed? And this it is that constitutes

both my sorrow and my shame day by day, and hour by hour. A God 'so worthy to be trusted-and that, too, upon personal test and individual experience and yet, alas! alas! so little trust! Such a multitude of fears and dark and gloomy apprehensions.

"Is this thy kindness to thy Friend?”

Aн, Lord! that is a question which cuts me to the very core of my heart. It harrows up within me thoughts and feelings to which no words can give expression. I feel I act so base a part in that ever I should distrust Thee, after all I have tasted and handled and felt of Thy kind and gracious dealings. Had I been left to hearsay merely; apart from the revelation of Thy most precious Word; supposing I had been left to other's testimony concerning Thee, there might, in such case, have been the shadow of excuse. Some allowance might have been made for creature weakness and infirmity. But, in the face of facts so self-evident

and so numerous and manifold, ingratitude and unbelief become, even in my own estimation, the most heinous of sins and flagrant of transgressions.

And Why?

BECAUSE with respect to the few remaining days or weeks of one's earthly pilgrimage, the promises apply as full, as free, and as appropriate as to all the varied details and diversified minutiæ of the past!

Jehovah's promises are worthy of Himself! They embrace, in one grand and most comprehensive freeness, fulness, and suitability, all the multitudinous conditions and circumstances of His dear people, with all their attendant necessities and requirements. If the very "hairs of their heads are numbered," and, if "not a sparrow falleth to the ground without their Father's knowledge," how well, how wisely, how lovingly must the arrangements of that covenant be, which is "ordered in all things and sure."