angels I take to be only agencies through which God Himself operates-and such influences may play no small part in bringing about the great purpose of our abode on earth, the fitting ourselves to be worthy of the Resurrection to Eternal Life. What if some should, through such agency, exerted in their childhood, be rendered worthy to consort with those very angels, who 'do always behold the Father's face'?

I

REV. H. LATHAM.

CANNOT mount to heaven beneath this ban;
Can Christian hope survive so far below

The level of the happiness of man?

Can angels' wings in these dark waters grow?

A spirit voice replied, 'From bearing right

Our sorest burthens, comes fresh strength to bear!
And so we rise again towards the light,
And quit the sunless depths for upper air.
Meek patience is as diver's breath to all
Who sink in sorrow's sea, and many a ray

Comes gleaming downwards from the source of day.
To guide us reascending from our fall;

The rocks have bruised thee sore, but angels' wings Grow fast from bruises, hope from anguish springs.'

REV. C. TENNYSON TURNER.

February II

Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our faith.-HEB. xii. I.

THO

HOUGH a member of this world, thou hast but to kneel in prayer and thou art at once in the society of saints and angels. Wherever thou art, thou canst, through God's mercy, in a moment bring thyself into the midst of His holy Church invisible,

D

and receive secretly that aid, the very thought of which is a present sensible blessing. Art thou lonely? does the day run heavily? fall on thy knees and thou art at once relieved by the reality of thy unseen companions. Art thou tempted to sin? think steadily of those who perchance witness thy doings from God's secret dwelling-place. Hast thou lost friends? realise them by faith.

DR. J. H. NEWMAN.

IT is sweet to feel we are encircled here,

By breath of angels as the stars by heaven;
And the soul's own relations, all divine,

As kind as even those of blood; and thus,
While friends and kin, like Saturn's double rings,
Cheer us along our orbit, we may feel

We are not lone in life, but that earth's part
Of heaven and all things.

TH

P. J. BAILEY.

HERE is an angel bright who loveth me And who from love, whene'er I wake or sleep, Is ready o'er my body watch to keep.

'CANTERBURY TALES.'

February 12

And now I exhort you to be of good cheer. . . . For there stood by me this night an angel of the God whose I am, whom also I serve, saying, Fear not.— ACTS xxvii. 22, 23.

TEN years ago, when I was alone, God comforted me, through His dear angels, with my own striving and writing.

Therefore fear not, you are not alone.

ND ye come on ready wing

ΑΝ

LUTHER.

When we drift toward sheer despair,

Seeing nought where we might cling,
Suddenly, lo, ye are there!

And the wearied heart grows strong,
As an angel strengthen'd Him,
Fainting in the garden dim,

'Neath the world's vast woe and wrong.
Lord, who then can worthily
For such mercy honour Thee!

Right and seemly is it then

We should glory that our God
Hath such honour put on men,
That He sends o'er earth abroad
Princes of the realm above,

Champions, who by day and night,
Shield us with His holy might;
Come, behold how great His love!
Lord, who then can worthily
For such favour honour Thee!

RIST, 1655.

I

February 13

And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words.-ZECH. i. 13.

MISS much comfort if I neglect what God tells me of the holy ones whom He sends to care for me. My Father gives me help and cheer through human friends. So He uses those strong pure beings who love to serve me for His sake. He did not scorn their aid in His sore trial. I ought to be thankful for it. Though I seem like Lazarus, cast out and forgotten, I am in the thoughts of God's good angels, who never tire of caring for me.

SOME

THE DAILY ROUND.'

OMETIMES I woke with lashes wet and bright,
With a strange glory of delicious light,

As though an angel had shone my shut eyes through
And filled my soul with heaven, as Dawn the dew:
A fragrance from afar with me would stay,

And at my work my heart sang all next day.

GERALD MASSEY.

February 14

Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.— S. LUKE XV. IO.

Are they not all ministering spirits?—HEB. i. 14.

FIND too a moving responsibility in the thought that we men, walking this earth of ours, bear part in brightening or bedimming the angels' joy. This thought may quicken into energetic life some who were growing languid, and were laying the blame of their languor on the lack of an object of veritable worth.

REV. H. LATHAM.

TEARS, though they're here below the sinner's

brine,

Above, they are the angels' spiced wine.

If little labour, little are our gains,

Man's fortunes are according to his pains.

HERRICK.

TH
HEY bade him bear a stout and manful heart,
For he had sympathy where they were shining;
Thousands were watching how he play'd his part-
Smiled at his smiles, and wept when he was pining.
And thoughtfully he turn'd him to his home;
Yet gleams of cheerfulness with thought were
blended;

For he had learnt beneath the star-lit dome

That toiling men by angels' hands are tended.

February 15

'HOUSEHOLD WORDS.'

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. EPHES. v. 25.

He that loveth his brother abideth in the light.I JOHN ii. 10.

IF

we are to live in the company of the holy angels hereafter, we must prepare for it by living in it here. How many of us give anything

like adequate thought to our guardian angels, or any of those glorious beings who always behold the face of God, and yet cease not for all our coldness, ingratitude, to minister tenderly to us! It would greatly ennoble and elevate us to strive, in the more conscious company of angels, to live the angel life.

WOW oft my guardian angel gently cried,

'Soul, from thy casement look, and thou shalt

see

How He persists to knock and wait for thee!'
And oh ! how often to that voice of sorrow,
'To-morrow we will open,' I replied.

And when the morrow came, I answered still,
'To-morrow.'

'LOPE DE VEGA,' LONGFELLOW.

TENDER and careful as a guardian angel.

INCE I am coming to that holy room

SING

CENTLIVRE.

Where, with Thy choir of angels, for evermore

I shall be made Thy music, as I come

I tune my instrument here at the door,

And what I must do then, think here before.

DR. DONNE, 1630.

ED as message from an angel's tongue.

SACRED

THOMAS TROTTER.

February 16.

I took them on my arms, but they knew not that I healed them.-HOSEA xi. 3.

He shall give his angels charge over thee.-Ps. xci. II.

SINCE God is all-powerful, you find it hard to

understand how He can allow Himself to be grieved; but angels you can easily picture as sorrowing over men. All this shows there is a moral