When the tide has been coming in, I have often seen how it chafed and fretted, running into some narrowmouthed bay, filling it, swirling round, and lapping up on the shores, till by and by, still flowing, and flowing, and flowing, it filled the bay full. The tide had spent itself, and the whole bay at last was at rest. And so the soul, while yet it is being filled, is disturbed by ripples and eddies; but by and by when it shall have been filled with the power and presence of God it will be satisfied, and will be perfectly at peace, and will be full of God.

HENRY WARd Beecher.

Our God and Father, grant us, as the day closes, the sense of Thine inflowing presence. We have been fretted with many cares, and the tide of Thy divine love has sometimes seemed to us to ebb rather than rise in our hearts. Help us to realize that, notwithstanding all obstructions, Thou art seeking to fill us with Thyself, and that if we will but hold ourselves open to Thy love, Thou wilt sweep over all that stands in the way, and give us constantly Thine own perfect peace. May the very God of peace sanctify us wholly, and our whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

A. J. ROWLAND.

Never mind a change of scene
Try a change of thinking.
What if things seem sordid, mean,
What's the use of blinking?
Life's not always storm and cloud,
Somewhere stars are shining.
Try to think your joys out loud,
Silence all repining.

By degrees, by thinking light,
Thinking glad and sweetly,
You'll escape the stress of night,
Worry gone completely.
Get the habit looking for
Sunbeams pirouetting,
Tapping gayly at your door-
Surest cure for fretting.

JOHN KENDRICK BANGS.

Our Father, forgive us that the sense of Thy loving care is not always with us. Forgive the doubt and the distrust. Forgive the discontent and the peevishness. Give us a calm heart, not too wildly moved by passing pleasures, not too much downcast by disappointment and weariness. Give us the firm assurance that Thou hast a plan in our lives, a work for us to do, a place for us to fill, and as we think of Thy providence and our glad duty, may the little worries become small to our opened eyes. Help us bravely to bear our part in the coming of Thy kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy, and find the deepest satisfactions of life in the knowledge of something done for Thee through Thy children. Amen.

HERBERT WELCH.

Our birthright is in the boundless resources of His self-existent life. Oh, to be able to believe it, and to live it! To have faith in God; to know that there is One ever enwrapping us wholly, absolutely, divinely responsible, and who knows all. BASIL WILBERforce.

God is continually giving. He will not withhold from you or me. I hold up my little cup. He fills it full. If yours is greater, rejoice in that, and bring it faithfully to the same urn. He, who fills the violet with beauty and the sun with light, will not fail to inspire you and me. Were your little cup to become as large as the Pacific Sea, He still would fill it.

THEODORE PARKER.

O Thou, who art the giver of all good gifts. Thou hast not withheld from Thy children the Supremne Gift of Thyself. When the morning called it was with the vision of Thy promise and the evening holds the sweet memory of Thy bountiful accomplishmerit. We are glad to know that the multitude of our possessions and our activities is not able to separate us from Thee, but may, if we will, bring Thee closer to us. And our prayer is, dear Father, that in the morrow that lies beyond the curtain of this night, Thou mayest help us to accept Thy gifts gratefully, to live our lives fully, to search for Thee with all our hearts, and to serve humanity with all the force that comes to us, filled with peace and strength because we know we serve with Thee. Amen.

PLINY A. ALLEN.

Do not look for wrong and evil
You will find them if you do;
As you measure for your neighbor
He will measure back to you.

Look for goodness, look for gladness,
You will meet them all the while;

If you bring a smiling visage

To the glass, you meet a smile.

Good comes to pass

ALICE CARY.

We know not when nor how, for, looking to
What seemed a barren waste, there starts to view
Some bunch of grass,

Or snarl of violets, shining with the dew.

ALICE CARY.

Our Father, as the day ends we rejoice that Thy goodness has been about us so abundantly. Beyond our deserving we have received the joys of life and labor of love. We humbly confess that our doing has been outrun by our dream and our desire, but we pray that new days may bring us a little nearer to the goal of our hopes. Help us to forget the day's fret and pain and to remember only their lessons of patience and courage and hope. We thank Thee for the gift of ease after toil, and may we go to rest like children who take life's gifts joyously but find the shelter of parental arms the dearest joy of all. Hear us in Thy great love. Amen.

EFFIE MCCOLLUM JONES.

It is not in prayer only that the soul approaches God, for it is drawn nigher Him by all the higher objects it turns to. If a poet will sing his noblest strain, it is into the ear of God he does it, if an architect will build in his sublimest manner, it is a house for God he makes. And every earnest movement of the mind is upwards, and to God, making us sure of the

Divine Presence.

MOUNTFORD.

As some rare perfume in a vase of clay
Pervades it with a fragrance not its own,
So, when Thou dwellest in a mortal soul,
All heaven's own sweetness seems around it thrown.

Abide in me! There have been moments blest, When I have heard Thy voice and felt Thy power; Then evil lost its grasp; and passion, hushed, Owned the divine enchantment of the hour.

These were but seasons, beautiful and rare:
Abide in me, and they shall ever be!
Fulfill at once Thy precept and my prayer:

Come, and abide in me, and I in Thee!

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.