He marks the beat. The swarming myriads
In boundless space each movement owe to Him,
From tiny insect fluttering in the breeze,

Up to the waving of the angel-wing

Before the throne!

Ye votaries who raise

Your altar to an "Unknown God!"-the God

Ye deify as Chance and Accident,

And call His will "inexorable fate,"

There is no chance-work in the oracle

Of righteous Heaven !-each high behest comes forth The ordination and supreme decree

Of wisdom, love, and mercy infinite!

The parent mourns his child's untimely end-
Snatched from him in the twinkling of an eye;
Was it the lightning-flash that struck him down?
Traced was the lightning's wingèd path by God.
Was it the waves engulfed him? Every billow
Rolled at His bidding :-Suffered not to go
Beyond His mandate. This the history
Of every death: "The suffering He ordained-
Prepared the sable shroud and early grave!"
Our times are in His hands; and at the hour
He thinks befitting, but no sooner, He
Our breath recalls.-'Tis His prerogative
To do with us and ours as pleaseth Him.
Left to ourselves, how oft might we incline
To choose the evil and refuse the good!
But He selects for each their earthly lot,
With an unerring faithfulness.

Full well

Does every broken-hearted mourner know

How difficult it is, at times, to raise

The languid, drooping wing, for upward flight
To such high argument!

It easy is,

When the sun shines resplendent, and the birds
Wake up the groves with melody, to rear
The eucharistic altar,—praising Him

On the loud cymbals, and His sovereign rule
Make theme of glad rejoicing. Not so, when
These groves are dumb and voiceless; when no bow
Arches the cloud; when home and heart are swept,
And nought remains except the smouldering patch
Of ashes, to recall the spot where once

The tent was pitched. 'Tis easy to repose
Beneath the Almighty's wings when they are seen,
Bright and refulgent, flashing in the light
Of His own goodness and transcendent love.
Not so, when deepening darkness only seems
To fall. A strength, not ours, then needed is,
That faith may take her slumbering harp and sing-
"How excellent Thy loving-kindness, Lord!

Therefore beneath the shadow of Thy wings

Thy children put their trust!"

Christian! rejoice

That though mysterious may at times appear

His sovereign dealings, finite wisdom has

No place in His procedure. Soon will come

The hour when He will vindicate to all

His faithfulness unswerving, and receive

The homage from ten thousand thousand tongues"Righteous art Thou, O Lord!"

Then join the crowd; Go let thy pitcher down to fetch a draught Up from this Fountain. And as Israel's tribes, The princes and the nobles, with their staves, Awoke the echoes of the wilderness

At Beer of old; when, at their leader's call,

They gathered round the pool and raised the song

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'Spring up, O well, and sing ye unto it!"1 So let God's pilgrim Israel of all time,

Amid their desert sands and vales of tears,
Attune their voices for that glorious strain
Of praise, in which the world is called to join-
"Jehovah reigneth! let the earth be glad!"

'Numb. xxi. 17, 18.

III.

ASLEEP IN JESUS.

'THEM ALSO WHICH SLEEP IN JESUS WILL GOD BRING WITH HIM."

I THESS. iv. 14.

ASLEEP IN JESUS.

EREAVED parents! here is another glimpse which Faith, while seated in the valley, takes of "the land that is very far off," but

which at times, too, is brought so very near! We may first state the special occasion of the words at the head of this meditation.

As the great Apostle was now at Corinth, living with Aquila and Priscilla, his beloved son Timothy had brought him from Thessalonica encouraging tidings of the Church he had there founded.

But in that good report there were mingled also tidings of death,-among these, doubtless, young as well as old. The bereaved were, moreover, undergoing needless sorrow because the deceased had been removed before the coming of Christ. The Thessalonians, in common with other of the infant Churches, entertained unfounded expectations regarding the imminence of the Second Advent. They imagined it so nigh at hand that they would live to behold it; and when they saw the loved members of their families or fellow-Christians taken away, they mourned specially at their being deprived of sharing in the joy of welcoming a returning

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