I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for He will speak peace unto His people. - Ps. lxxxv. 8.

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Now, O my God,

My comfort, portion, rest!

Thou, none but Thou, shalt reign within my breast.
Call me to Thee! call me Thyself— oh, speak,
And bind my heart to Thee, whom most I seek!
GERHARD TERSTEEGEN.

UST as in prayer it is not we who momentarily catch His attention, but He ours, so

when we fail to hear His voice, it is not because He is not speaking so much as that we are not listening. We must recognize that all things are in God and that God is in all things, and we must learn to be very attentive, in order to hear God speaking in His ordinary tone without any special accent. A man must not stop listening any more than praying when he rises from his knees. No one questions the need of times of formal address to God, but few admit in any practical way the need of quiet waiting upon God, gazing into His face, feeling for His hand, listening for His voice. "I will hearken what the Lord God will say concerning me." God has special confidences for each soul. Indeed, it would seem as though the deepest truths came only in moments of profound devotional silence and contemplation.

CHARLES H. BRENT.

Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart; wait, I say, on the Lord. Ps. xxvii. 14.

WITH Smile of trust and folded hands,
The passive soul in waiting stands
To feel, as flowers the sun and dew,
The One true Life its own renew.

JOHN G. WHITTIER.

HE whole duty and blessedness of waiting on God has its root in this, that He is such a blessed Being, full, to overflowing, of goodness and power and life and joy, that we, however wretched, cannot for any time come into contact with Him, without that life and power secretly, silently, beginning to enter into us and blessing us. God is Love! God's love is just His delight to impart Himself and His blessedness to His children. Come, and however feeble you feel, just wait in His presence. As a feeble invalid is brought out into the sunshine to let its warmth go through him, come with all that is dark and cold in you into the sunshine of God's holy, omnipotent love, and sit and wait there, with the one thought: Here I am, in the sunshine of His love. As the sun does its work in the weak one who seeks its rays, God will do His work in you.

ANDREW MURRAY.

The very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matt. x. 30.

I will go in the strength of the Lord God.Ps. lxxi. 16.

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O trouble is too small wherein to see the will of God for thee. Great troubles come but seldom. Daily fretting trials, that is, what of thyself would fret thee, may often, in God's hands, conform thee more to His gracious will. They are the daily touches, whereby He traces on thee the likeness of His divine will. There is nothing too slight wherein to practise oneness with the will of God. By daily practice in slight crosses of our own will, do we learn the lesson our Lord taught, "Not as I will, but as Thou." All the things whereof men daily complain may perfect thee in the will of God. The changes of the seasons, bodily discomforts or ailments, rude words, petty slights, little jealousies, unevenness of temper in those with whom thou livest, misunderstandings, censures of thy faith or practice, severe judgments, thanklessness of those thou wouldest benefit, interruptions in what thou wouldest do, oppressiveness or distraction of thy labors, whatever thou canst think of, wherein others fret themselves, and, still more, thyself; therein thou seest how to be of one will with God. EDWARD B. PUSEY.

Ye shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done, saith the Lord God. EZEK. xiv. 23.

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Joy is the lesson set for some,

For others pain best teacher is
We know not which for us shall come,
But both are Heaven's high ministries.

SUSAN COOLIDGE.

HE outward features of our life may not be all that we should choose them to be; there may be things we wish for that never come to us; there may be much we wish away that we cannot part from. The persons with whom we live, the circumstances by which we are surrounded, the duties we have to perform, the burdens we have to bear, may not only be other than what we should have selected for ourselves, but may even seem inconsistent with that formation and discipline of characterwhich we honestly wish to promote. Know

ing us better than we know ourselves, fully understanding how greatly we are affected by the outward events and conditions of life, He has ordered them with a view to our entire and final, not only our immediate, happiness; and whenever we can be safely trusted with pastures that are green, and waters that are still, in the way of earthly blessing, the Good Shepherd leads us there. ANTHONY W. THOROLD.

I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my heart. — Ps. xl. 8.

CROWN us with love, and so with peace;
Transfigure duty to delight;

Our lips inspire, our faith increase,
Brighten with hope our darkest night.
Bring us from earthly bondage free
To find our heaven in serving Thee.

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HENRY WILDER FOOTE.

E often make our duties harder by thinking them hard. We dwell on the things we do not like till they grow before our eyes, and, at last, perhaps shut out heaven itself. But this is not following our Master, and He, we may be sure, will value little the obedience of a discontented heart. The moment we see that anything to be done is a plain duty, we must resolutely trample out every rising impulse of discontent. We must not merely prevent our discontent from interfering with the duty itself; we must not merely prevent it from breaking out into murmuring; we must get rid of the discontent itself. Cheerfulness in the service of Christ is one of the first requisites to make that service Christian. FREDERICK TEMPLE.