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When God reveals His march thro' Nature's

night,

His steps are beauty, and His presence light.

Montgomery.

MRS. BARBAULD'S 4TH HYMN.

Come, and I will show you what is beautiful. It is a rose fully blown. See how she sits upon her mossy stem, like the queen of all the flowers! her leaves glow like fire; the air is filled with her sweet odour! she is the delight of every eye.

She is beautiful, but there is a fairer than she. He that made the rose is more beautiful than the rose; He is all lovely; He is the delight of every heart.

I will show you what is strong. The lion is strong; when he raiseth up himself from his lair, when he shaketh his mane, when the voice of his roaring is heard, the cattle of the field fly, and the wild beasts of the desert hide themselves, for he is very terrible.

The lion is strong, but He that made the lion is stronger than he: His anger is terrible; He could make us die in a moment, and no one could save us out of his hand.

I will show you what is glorious. The sun is glorious. When he shineth in the clear sky, when he sitteth on the bright throne in the heavens, and looketh abroad over all the earth, he is the most excellent and glorious creature the eye can behold.

The sun is glorious, but He that made the sun is more glorious than he. The eye beholdeth him not, for his brightness is more dazzling than we could bear. He seeth in all dark places, by night as well as by day; and the light of his countenance is over all his works.

Who is this great name, and what is he called, that my lips may praise him?

This great name is God. He made all things, but He is himself more excellent than all which He hath made; they are beautiful, but He is beauty; they are strong, but He is strength; they are perfect, but He is perfection.

Above, below, where'er I gaze,

Thy guiding finger, Lord, I view,
Traced in the midnight planet's blaze,

Or glistening in the morning dew;
Whate'er is beautiful or fair

Is but thine own reflection there.

I hear Thee in the stormy wind

That foams, the ocean wave like snow;
Nor less Thy wondrous power I find
When summer airs around me blow;
The tempest and the calm declare
Thyself, for Thou art everywhere.

I find Thee in the depth of night,
I read Thy name in every star;
And when the radiant orb of light

With gold hath tipp'd the hills afar,
That ray of glory, bright and fair,
Is but Thy living shadow there.

Thine is the silent noon of night,
The twilight eve, the dewy morn;
Whate'er is beautiful and bright,

Thine hands have fashion'd to adorn.
Thy glory walks in every sphere,

And all things whisper,

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[See Hymn 100, Martineau's Hymn Book.]

Psalm cxv.

16.

The heavens, even the

heavens, are the Lord's; but the earth hath

He given to the children of men.

Psalm cxxxv.-Praise ye the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praises unto His name, for it is pleasant. For I know that the Lord is great, and that our God is above all gods.

Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.

LESSON XII.

GOD IS OUR GUARDIAN.

Ware's excellent Sermon on the "Doctrine of Proba tion : a Key to the Mysteries of God's Dealings

with Man."

Walter did not

THE next day was Sunday. forget the beautiful things he had seen and heard in the night. He began even before breakfast to learn the hymn that his mother had said to him. While he was at church, he thought more lovingly about God than he had ever done at church before. After tea he ran to fetch the little brown book with gilt letters on it, in which his mother had told him she would read to him.* She read to him of a gentleman who was telling some little children about the sun and the moon and the stars; and Walter liked it very much. By and by she came to these words:"Now that I am speaking of the stars, I will tell you what has sometimes happened to me, when I have been in grief or trouble, and my heart has felt

"Greenwood's Sermons to Children."

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