ward circumstances and as to their spiritual aspects, we shall yet find a real likeness between them, a likeness which brings them within the scope of our own experience. The grace and tenderness of God in his dealings with his erring and disobedient children; the way in which he makes their self-will to bring its fitting punishment; the nature of the repentance he requires, and which his Spirit produces; the darkness through which he often leads the trembling penitent till he has destroyed all self-confidence, and brought him to trust on Christ and Christ alone; the joy which fills the soul when it rests in his ove, and the gratitude which finds its voice in song;—are not these matters of which all can speak who can look back on the way in which he has led them, and how he has "suffered their manners in the wilderness."† It was fabled of old of the statue of Memnon, that when the first rays of the rising sun smote upon it, it gave forth sounds of music. So the soul, bewildered and sad in the darkness of its own sinful night, responds to the life-giving rays of the Sun of Righteousness, " O Lord, I will praise thee, for though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me!”‡

*Deut. viii. 2. † Acts xiii. 18.

Isaiah xii. 1.

Night of Meditation and Worship.

Devout meditation the necessity of Christian life-Fitness of the evening as a time of meditation-The 4th Psalm, a song in the night-The Christian man of business-Cares of the world, and security against their overwhelming influenceExample of Christ-Jacob's song at Bethel-The Psalms of David, the 19th, 8th, 139th, 63rd, 92nd, 42nd, 77th-The story of Cadmon-Evening hymns-Ambrose-"Behold the bridegroom cometh"-Songs of the night in modern times -Evening hymns of Bishop Ken, Paul Gerhardt, Keble, and others-The Angels' song in the night.

"MEDITATION is one of our most difficult Christian duties, at the same time it is one of the most important. Our inward thoughts are the only tests by which we can know the real state of our minds. Religious meditations have been compared to the blossoms on a tree in spring: many of them fall off and come to nothing, but yet they are the first things in which spiritual-mindedness consists; and there can be no fruit, good or bad, but what proceeds from our thoughts."

NIGHT OF MEDITATION AND WORSHIP.

"Night is the time to muse:

When, from the eye, the soul

Takes flight, and with expanding views

Beyond the stary pole,

Discerns athwart the abyss of night

The dawn of uncreated light.

Night is the time to pray :

Our Saviour oft withdrew
To desert mountains far away;

So will his followers do;

Steal from the throng to haunts untrod,

And hold communion there with God."

Montgomery.

DEVOUT meditation is the necessity of every thoughtfully pious man. The higher life of the spirit cannot be sustained without it. There must be times when we simply lie open to divine influences in the silence and secresy of the

soul; when the soul thirsts for God, for the living God; * when, perhaps without any specific purpose, or any special subject to meditate upon, we feel we must get away from the distracting cares and broken lights of the world, to cultivate our higher sympathies in fellowship with the things that are unseen and eternal. And just as it is fitting that the morning devotion should prepare us for the business of the day, bringing us into contact with Almighty strength and wisdom to encounter its conflicts and fulfil its duties, so is it fitting that the calm hours of evening should be set apart for devout meditation. We have need to review the day; and the retrospect, if it sometimes sadden, will also instruct us. The spirit which has been ruffled by the day's perplexities, will return to its rest. The cares of the day, their burden still pressing upon us, will be cast upon Him who careth for us. The sins of the day will, in the recollection of them, humble us and teach us watchfulness.

Read the 4th Psalm in this light, as the Psalmist's evening meditation after the day's toil, the day's cares. Jealousy and envy had sought to depreciate his character, perhaps to undermine his authority, but he could now come back to the recollection that " the Lord had set apart him that was godly for himself:" he had watched, perhaps not *Ps. xlii. 2.