SPECIMEN PAGE OF BREVIER, SOLID. An Evening Prayer. BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR GEORGE H. ROSE, G.C.H. OH! LORD! Our souls and bodies keep From harm this night, and guard our sleep, From envy's pangs, and anger's fires, Thro' Him, who bore our guilt, and shame, In Jesus Christ's all-hallow'd name; Thro' Him, oh! Lord, thro' Thy dear Son, We offer up this orison Thro' Christ, oh! God, with feeble voice In gratitude for mercies past, And present, wonderful and vast, SPECIMEN PAGE OF BOURGEOIS, THICK LEADED. How this engagement of the Almighty Father was fulfilled to His ever blessed Son, in His first encounter with the great Enemy, the result of the conflict proves, as did every successive step in the Redeemer's work until "His glorious resurrection and ascension." But we are taught both in Eden and in the wilderness this invaluable lesson,-that Scripture alone supplies the arms for repelling temptation; that thus accoutred, the Christian soldier's triumph is certain; for that Satan has no power to force the will. "It must be won by self-betrayal, or not at all." If, unhappily, the will yields, as did Adam's, Satan achieves a triumph: but if the will resists, as did our Lord's, the Evil One has no direct power to overcome it. Failing to move it to commit sin by deceit, or taunt, or allurement, he may try the believer with the sharper weapons mysteriously given him,- of painful diseases, scorching trials, or suggested fears of tenfold worse calamities,—all designed, indirectly, to move the will and worry it to rebellion or despair. Yet this Satanic power over body and mind, terrible though it be, is limited. The devil cannot try God's saints beyond what they are able to bear. A superior power above and within them sustains the mighty conflict, and shows it to be even a light affliction compared with the exceeding weight of glory which shall reward endurance to the end. human being ever felt the dreadful power of Satan in any degree comparable to our Lord and Saviour, who yet witnessed, while the last crushing load of human sin and Satanic hate was impending over Him,—“ Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above."-The Temptations in Eden and in the Wilderness. By a Churchman. No SPECIMEN PAGE OF LONG PRIMER, THIN LEADED. Were not the Israelites directed of God utterly to destroy the wicked and idolatrous inhabitants of the promised land?" 66 Yes. It was an awful commission for Israel, and although it was the universal custom of war in those remote periods, yet it could not be justified on any other grounds but by the express command of God. The measure of their iniquity was full, and the Hebrews came upon them as a scourge sent from God, instead of earthquake, famine, or pestilence. It must also be remembered that to the Israelites “ were committed the oracles of God." They were His representatives on the earth; the light in the midst of gross darkness; and before Canaan could be made a land of rest to them, it must be purified from its abominations. We have only to be familiarized with sin, to commit it without remorse. God knew the stealthy steps of the arch-fiend, and foresaw that they would not long be blended with idolators, without being partners in their enormities; and so the result proved. Indolence, avarice, and a loose conception of the commands of God, induced them to spare the deadly enemies of Jehovah. They intermarried with the inhabitants; and at length, God was worshipped only along with their false deities. His honour was insulted, and the light of the world well nigh extinguished. 66 So, step by step, the Israelites fell; but the love of their heavenly father was only withdrawn from them, as a parent gives up a cherished, but irreclaimable child. "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent to thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings, and ye would not."-Mrs. Brackenbury's Pentateuch. |