Part 20 (2/2)

If our love were but more simple, We should take Him at His word; And our lives would be all suns.h.i.+ne In the sweetness of our Lord.

F. W. FABER.

What would it be to love absolutely a Being absolutely lovely,--to be able to give our whole existence, every thought, every act, every desire, to that adored One,--to know that He accepts it all, and loves us in return as G.o.d alone can love? This happiness grows forever. The larger our natures become, the wider our scope of thought, the stronger our will, the more fervent our affections, the deeper must be the rapture of such G.o.d-granted prayer. Every sacrifice _resolved on_ opens wide the gate; every sacrifice _accomplished_ is a step towards the paradise within. Soon it will be no transitory glimpse, no rapture of a day, to be followed by clouds and coldness. Let us but labor, and pray, and wait, and the intervals of human frailty shall grow shorter and less dark, the days of our delight in G.o.d longer and brighter, till at last life shall be nought but His love, our eyes shall never grow dim, His smile never turn away.

F. B. COBBE.

April 23

_These were the potters, and those that dwelt among plants and hedges: there they dwelt with the king for his work_.--I CHRON. iv. 23.

A lowlier task on them is laid, With love to make the labor light; And there their beauty they must shed On quiet homes, and lost to sight.

Changed are their visions high and fair, Yet, calm and still, they labor there.

HYMNS OF THE AGES.

Anywhere and everywhere we may dwell ”with the King for His work.” We may be in a very unlikely or unfavorable place for this; it may be in a literal country life, with little enough to be seen of the ”goings” of the King around us; it may be among hedges of all sorts, hindrances in all directions; it may be, furthermore, with our hands full of all manner of pottery for our daily task. No matter! The King who placed us ”there” will come and dwell there with us; the hedges are all right, or He would soon do away with them; and it does not follow that what seems to hinder our way may not be for its very protection; and as for the pottery, why, that is just exactly what He has seen fit to put into our hands, and therefore it is, for the present, ”His work.”

F. R. HAVERGAL.

April 24

_Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ_.--GAL. vi.

2.

Is thy cruse of comfort wasting?

Rise and share it with another, And through all the years of famine, It shall serve thee and thy brother.

Is thy burden hard and heavy?

Do thy steps drag heavily?

Help to bear thy brother's burden; G.o.d will bear both it and thee.

ELIZABETH CHARLES.

However perplexed you may at any hour become about some question of truth, one refuge and resource is always at hand: you can do something for some one besides yourself. When your own burden is heaviest, you can always lighten a little some other burden. At the times when you cannot see G.o.d, there is still open to you this sacred possibility, to _show_ G.o.d; for it is the love and kindness of human hearts through which the divine reality comes home to men, whether they name it or not. Let this thought, then, stay with you: there may be times when you cannot find help, but there is no time when you cannot give help.

GEORGE S. MERRIAM.

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