"Hear my prayer, O Lord; give ear to my supplications."

cxliii. 1.

FROM the recesses of a lowly spirit,

Our humble prayer ascends; O Father! hear it, Upsoaring on the wings of awe and meekness; Forgive its weakness!

We see thy hand; it leads us, it supports us: We hear thy voice; it counsels us and it courts

us:

And then we turn away; and still thy kind

ness

Forgives our blindness.

O, how long-suffering, Lord! but thou delightest

To win with love the wandering; thou in

vitest,

By smiles of mercy, not by frowns or terrors, Man from his errors.

Father Almighty! plant within each bosom The seeds of holiness; and bid them blossom In fragrance and in beauty bright and vernal, And spring eternal.

Then place them in thine everlasting gardens, Where angels walk, and seraphs are the war

dens;

Where every flower escaped through death's

dark portal

Becomes immortal.

28. L. M. ADDISON.

"The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want." — - Psalm xxiii. 1.

THE Lord my pasture shall prepare,
And feed me with a shepherd's care;
His presence shall my wants supply,
And guard me with a watchful eye:
My noonday walks he shall attend,
And all my midnight hours defend.

When in the sultry glebe I faint,
Or on the thirsty mountain pant,
To fertile vales and dewy meads
My weary, wandering steps he leads;
Where peaceful rivers, soft and slow,
Amid the verdant landscape flow.

Though in a bare and rugged way,
Through devious, lonely wilds I stray,
Thy bounty shall my pains beguile;
The barren wilderness shall smile,
With sudden greens and herbage crowned,
And streams shall murmur all around.

Though in the paths of death I tread,
With gloomy horrors overspread,
My steadfast heart shall fear no ill,
For thou, O Lord! art with me still;
Thy friendly crook shall give me aid,
And guide me through the dreadful shade.

"I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me."- Psalm xxiii. 4.

THE Lord my Shepherd is;

I shall be well supplied; Since he is mine, and I am his, What can I want beside?

He leads me to the place

Where heavenly pasture grows, Where living waters gently pass, And full salvation flows.

If e'er I go astray,

He doth my soul reclaim,

And guides me in his own right way,

For his most holy name.

While he affords his aid,

I cannot yield to fear;

Though I should walk through death's dark shade,

My Shepherd's with me there.

3

THE WORKS OF GOD.

30.

C. M. KEBLE.

"Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things." Isaiah xl. 26.

"He hath made every thing beautiful in its time."- Ecclesiastes iii. 11.

THERE is a book, who runs may read,

Which heavenly truth imparts;

And all the lore its scholars need,
Pure eyes and loving hearts.

The works of God, above, below,
Within us, and around,

Are pages

in that book, to show

How God himself is found.