We Need Sorrow.

There is something in man which needs sorrow-a humbling and purifying work as regards his spiritual recreation, which can not go on without its ministry. How many deeds would never spring to life but for its loosening and detaching agency, breaking up the hard, stony soil of nature. And to the believer, what is affliction but God's hand upon his head to bless him—his Father's hand, recognized through that heavy pressure? Think how Christianity exalts, almost enthrones sorrow! -DORA GREENWELL.

Our Burden God's Gift,

Thy burden is God's gift,

And it will make thee calm and strong.
Yet, lest it press too heavily and long,
· Cast it on me,

He says:

And it shall easy be."

And those who heed this voice

And seek to give it back in trustful prayer,
Have quiet hearts that never can despair,
And hope lights up the way
Upon the darkest day.

Take thou thy burden thus

Into thy hands and lay it at His feet,

And whether it be sorrow or defeat

Or pain or sin or care,
Leave it calmly there.

It is the lonely load

That crushes out the light of Heaven;
But borne with Him, the soul, forgiven,
Sings out through all the days
Her joy and God's high praise.

FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.

God With Us.

Suffering is a very solitary thing. Great suffering brings upon the heart a sense of intense loneliness, and it needs all that God Himself can be to the stricken one. It might seem almost impossible that anything more than the peace of God could be promised, but there is a fuller promise yet. "The God of Peace shall be with you.' Here language is exhausted. The portion of every praying one is the peace of God," and when even that is not enough, "the God of Peace," Himself Emmanuel, stands beside you. -PENNYFATHER.

A Strange Beatitude.

"Blessed are they that mourn." This seems indeed a strange beatitude. But to those who have learned its meaning it is no longer strange. There are blessings, rich, deep and satisfying, which we never can know until we mourn. You would never see the stars if the sun continued to shine through all the twenty-four hours. It would be a loss, too, to any one if he were to pass through all the years of his human life and never once behold night's sky with its brilliant orbs. We can then

say: Blessed is the hour when the sun goes down and it grows dark; for then we see the glory of Heaven's stars." Mary G. Slocum writes:

"Across my day the shadows creeping

Brought the unwelcome night.

The distant hills, the last gleams keeping

Of dear, familiar light,

Slowly became a darkened wall around and soon

The world, with all its loved and wonted sights, was gone.

Ah, light that made such sweet revealing,

That showed this world so bright,

You gave no hint you were concealing

The greater wealth of night!

For

now, above and far beyond the hills, appear

Ten thousand worlds I did not dream before were here."

-J. R. MILler.

God Knows How to Comfort.

When Christ brings His Cross He brings His presence; and where He is none is desolate, and there is no room for despair. As He knows His own, so He knows how to comfort them, using sometimes the very grief itself, and straining it to a sweetness of peace unattainable by those ignorant of sorrow.-ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWN

ING.

Condensed Comments.

The Cross of Christ is the pledge to us that the deepest suffering may be the condition of the highest blessing; the sign, not of God's displeasure, but of His widest and most compassionate love.-DEAN STANLEY.