Yet birds and flowerets round us preach,
All, all, the present evil teach

Sufficient for the day.

Lord, make these faithless hearts of ours
Such lesson learn from birds and flowers,
Make them from self to cease;

Leave all things to a Father's will,
And taste, before him lying still,

E'en in affliction, peace.

BOWRING.

"HOPE THOU IN GOD."

Ps. xlii. 5.

WHY, when storms around you gather,
Should your trembling spirit sink?
Look to God, your Heavenly Father,
And of his sweet promise think.

Fancy will be often painting

Scenes in dark and fearful shade; Yet why should thy soul be fainting, Of prospective woes afraid?

Cease that dark anticipation!

Still let love and faith abound;

For the day of tribulation,

Strength sufficient will be found.

God is love, and will not leave you,
When you most his kindness need
God is true, nor can deceive you,
Though your faith be weak indeed.

WHITEHEAD.

ENDURING TRUST.

"For this God is our God, for ever and ever; he will be our guide even unto death."- Ps. xlviii. 14.

O LORD, my best desire fulfil,

And help me to resign

Life, health, and comfort to thy will,

And make thy pleasure mine.

Why should I shrink at thy command,
Whose love forbids my fears;

Or tremble at the gracious hand
That wipes away my tears?

No, let me rather freely yield
What most I prize to thee,
Who never hast a good withheld,
Or wilt withhold, from me.

Thy favor all my journey through,
Thou hast engaged to grant ;
What else I want, or think I do,
"T is better still to want.

Wisdom and mercy guide my way,
Shall I resist them both?

The poor, blind creature of a day,
And crushed before the moth!

But ah! my inward spirit cries,-
Still bind me to thy sway;

Else the next cloud that veils my skies
Drives all these thoughts away.

CowPER.

STRENGTH PERFECT IN WEAKNESS.

"For my strength is made perfect in weakness."-2 Cor. xii. 9.

SINCE 't is God's will, pain, take your course,; Exert on me your utmost force,

I well God's truth and promise know;

He never sends a woe,

But his supports divine

In due proportion with the affliction join.

Though I am frailest of mankind,
And apt to waver as the wind,

Though me no feeble bruised reed

In weakness can exceed,

My soul on God relies,

And I your fierce, redoubled shocks despise.

Patient, resigned, and humble wills
Impregnably resist all ills.

My God will guide me by his light,
Give me victorious might,

No pang can me invade,

Beneath his wings' propitious shade.

KEN.

"THOU HAST BEEN MY REFUGE."

Ps. lxix. 16.

O STRANGE infirmity! to think
That he will leave my soul to sink
In darkness and distress,

Who has appeared in times of old,
Who saved me while the billows rolled,
And cheered me with his grace.

What sweeter pledge could God bestow, Of help in future scenes of woe,

Than grace already given?

But unbelief, that hateful thing,

Oft makes me sigh, when I should sing
Of confidence in Heaven!

SEARLE.

9

RESTING ON GOD.

"My meditation of him shall be sweet; I will be glad in the Lord." Ps. civ. 34.

WHEN languor and disease invade
This trembling house of clay,
"T is sweet to look beyond my pain,
And long to fly away:

Sweet to look inward, and attend
The whispers of his love;
Sweet to look upward, to the place

Where Jesus pleads above:

Sweet to look back, and see my name
In life's fair book set down;
Sweet to look forward, and behold

Eternal joys my own:

Sweet to reflect how grace divine
My sins on Jesus laid;

Sweet to remember that his blood

My debt of suffering paid :

Sweet in his righteousness to stand,

Whose love can never end;

Sweet on his covenant of

grace

For all things to depend :