Heart-Cries.

"When my spirit is overwhelmed within me, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I."

Psalm lxi. 2.

LORD, I confess before Thee my utter astonishment that, after all the many lessons which I have had set before me, and that for so very many years, I feel myself to be the same creature idolater as ever. Although I have been called to resign so many that were both near and dear to me, yet I know not that I ever had greater reason to say, "My soul cleaveth unto the dust; quicken Thou me, according to Thy word." O Lord I grieve that it should be so, but so it is. I dare not disguise the fact, much less deny it. It appears to me, Lord, that the removal upon Thy part of this and that idol, only causes me to cleave the closer to those who remain.

case.

I feel that this ought not to be the I know that it behoves me to hold everything of the creature with a loose hand.

It is little less than half-a-century ago that I used to adopt the language of the immortal WATTS:

"The fondness of a creature's love
How strong it strikes the sense;
Thither the warm affections move,
Nor can we draw them thence.

"Our dearest joys and nearest friends,
The partners of our blood,

How they divide our wandering hearts
And leave but half for God.'

Ah, Lord, notwithstanding the rebukes I have again and again had, and the many Thou hast taken away from me, I am bound to acknowledge that what I was that I am; yea, the self-same creature

as ever.

Oh, Lord, I sometimes compare my thoughts of Thee with my thoughts of the creature and the creature-ties, and I ask myself, "What comparison does the one bear to the other?" The charge brought against the worldly and the unrighteous is, that "God is not in all their thoughts." Personally I fall under the condemnation, for, notwithstanding all the Lord has been to me and for me, and that for so many, many years, I say to myself, "By comparison, how few of

thoughts are engrossed with God and the things of God."

Again I think how large a portion of even those thoughts are professional. I think about the Lord, because I have professionally to talk about Him. Now I feel that all these things call for rebuke and chastisement; and my coward heart constantly recoils at the means which the Lord may see fit to adopt to bring me to a right position.

Then, Lord, all I can say is, "Do Thou, in the midst of deserved judgment, remember mercy! Oh, do be pleased to be mindful of Thine own most encouraging word, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust."

"Speak to me, Lord; Thyself reveal
While here on earth I rove;
Speak to my heart, and let me feel
The kindlings of Thy love.

"With Thee conversing, I forget
All time, and toil, and care;
Labour is rest, and pain is sweet,
If Thou, my God, art near."

Acknowledgment.

WHILST I Confess before Thee, O Lord, my carnality, and worldiness, and sin, and whilst, at the same time, I freely confess before Thee that I have justly merited Thy chastisements; yet I cannot but acknowledge the wisdom, the tenderness, the Fatherly compassion, of Thy loving and gracious heart. In respect to the mode of Thy dealings, Lord, I have often been compelled to recognize and admit the very merciful and considerate manner in which Thou hast dealt with me: Thou hast so wisely regulated and timed Thy dispensations. Thou hast paved the way, and prepared beforehand, what was to come to pass. Thou hast seldom, if ever, taken me altogether by surprise; but a sense of ill-and-hell-deservings have, in some measure and degree at least, prepared the rebellious child, or the wanton wanderer, for the rod, which, notwithstanding all the demerit, has been laid on with gentlest hand and most Fatherly consideration.

Learning.

Он Lord, do give me, I pray Thee, to learn by the things which I suffer. I am, alas! so poor, so forgetful, and withal so stupid a learner. I need to have the self-same lessons set before me again and again and again; and yet even then I am so forgetful, and so exceedingly buoyant, that the moment the pressure ceases, or Thine afflictive or chastening hand is withdrawn, I, to my shame be it spoken, fall back into the coldness, the listlessness, the indifference again. Ah, Lord, when will it be otherwise with me? When shall I "cleave to Thee with purpose of heart?" When shall I without a wavering tongue exclaim:

"Descend, Thou mighty love,
Descend from heaven above;
Fill Thou the soul!

Heal every bruised part

Bind up this broken heart,
And make me whole."

"Here will I rest and build my hope,
Nor murmur at Thy rod;

Thou'rt more than all the world to me,
My health, my life, my God!"