They teach us mysteries of life and death

In the soul's silence breathing hallowed things With heaven's hushed music in their fragrant breath,

God's glory on their wings.

March 2

E. BRINE.

I am not worthy to be called thy son.-S. LUKE

XV. 21.

And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it.-GEN. xxviii. 12.

HE E had seen in vision a ladder reared against the sky, and angels ascending and descending on it. Exceedingly remarkable. Immediately after his transgression, when leaving his father's home, a banished man, to be a wanderer for many years, this first meeting took place. Fresh from his sin, God met him in tenderness and forgiveness. He saw the token which told him that all communication between heaven and earth was not severed. The way was clear and unimpeded still. Messages of reciprocated love might pass between the Father and His sinful child, as the angels in the dream ascended and descended on the visionary ladder.

REV. F. W. ROBERTSON,

I read upon that book

How, when the Shepherd Prince did flee
(Red Esau's twin), he desolate took

The stone for a pillow: then he fell on sleep.
And lo! there was a ladder. Lo! there hung
A ladder from the star-place, and it clung
To the earth; it tied her so to heaven; and oh!
There fluttered wings;

Then were ascending and descending things
That stepped to him where he lay low;

Then up the ladder would a-drifting go
(This feathered brood of heaven), and show
Small as white flakes in winter that are blown
Together, underneath the great white throne.
When I had shut the book, I said:
'Now, as for me, my dreams upon my bed
Are not like Jacob's dream;
Yet I have got it in my life; yes, I,
And many more; it doth not us beseem,
Therefore to sigh,

Is there not hung a ladder in our sky?'

March 3

JEAN INGELOW.

Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.-S. MATT.

XXV. 23.

It was meet to make merry and be glad for this thy brother was dead and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.-S. LUKE XV. 32.

HEY seemed to stand before me and say: 'Yes,

THE

we are they whom you read of in the text that has caught your eye; we exult over a repentant sinner as men do over treasure-trove, but those who need no repentance bring us a steady and abiding joy. We scan the universe to gather good, as bees with you carry the honey home, the happiness of all things in the world we make our own; this is the bright side of our being. We, angels of God, rejoice in your good and your joy, and grieve over your faults and your pains; not always loving those least who, like that repentant sinner, have caused us much grief before. Some grief you always cause, but the interest of having you to love outweighs the woe, and we spy a gleam beyond the cloud.'

THE

REV. H. LATHAM.

HEN far along the mournful way
Paternal Love speeds out, to say
The words of welcome; angels bear
The robe, sweet pledge of pardoning care;

And as he daily seeks aright

His lowly station in their sight,
They watch th' all-ruling Eye, for leave
Some flower of Paradise to give,
Bid amaranth odours round him float,
Or breathe into his ear one note

Of that high loving strain,

Which rings from all the harps of heaven,
When from the Shrine the word is given,
'The dead soul lives again.'

March 4

KEBLE.

Pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.-1 PETER V. 16.

And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.-REV. viii. 4.

THE HE foot of the great bright ladder, whose top reaches to heaven, is in our very midst, stretching upwards with its shining stair to the Throne of God; and around it, and upon it, are the blessed angels, waiting, to carry up our prayers to God, and to fetch down to us the Divine Benediction. sinner, yet unrenewed in the spirit of thy mind, shall they wait in vain, as far as you are concerned? Will you charge them with no message in behalf of yourself? Shall they not have the joy of seeing you throw yourself at the feet of the present Saviour, and abandon yourself to the treatment of the good Physician?

FIRST ANGEL.

ΑΝ

DEAN GOULBURN.

ND she so young, that I who bring
Good dreams for saintly children, might
Mistake that small soft face to-night,

And fetch her such a blessed thing

That at her waking she would weep
For childhood lost anew in sleep.
How hath she sinned?

SECOND ANGEL.

In bartering love;

God's love for man's.

FIRST ANGEL.

We may reprove

The world for this, not only her :
Let me approach to breathe away
This dust o' the heart with holy air.

SECOND ANGEL.

Stand off! She sleeps and did not pray.

FIRST ANGEL.

Did none pray for her?

SECOND ANGEL.

Ay, a child,

Who never, praying, wept before :
While, in a mother undefiled,
Prayer goeth on in sleep, as true
And pauseless as the pulses do.

E. B. BROWNING.

March 5

I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.-S. JOHN xvii. 15.

They shall bear thee up in their hands.-Ps. xci. 12.

You have, doubtless, seen a beloved child, or

some dear friend, pursuing a course which you knew would result in grievous harm. You see that he is led away by some evil love, or some false idea, and you know how earnestly you have sought to remove the evil, how you have pondered upon it,

have presented motive after motive, have persuaded and reasoned, and sought by all the means in your power to change his purpose. You can understand then, in an imperfect and remote manner, the office of the angels. With what ardour of affection they engage in their heavenly mission, how unselfishly, how wisely, how tenderly, how skilfully and unremittingly they labour to save man from the perdition of his evil loves and false principles; to breathe a new life into his desolate heart; to develop and strengthen every germ of goodness; to add new light to every true principle; and in all ways to bear him up in their hands.

REV. CHAUNCEY GILES.

IN my heart

He put a better mind, and showed me how,
While we discern it not, and least believe,
On stairs invisible betwixt His heaven
And our unholy, sinful, toilsome earth
Celestial messengers of loftiest good
Upward and downward pass continually.

A. H. CLOUGH.

KIND allurers, wisely sent,
Beguiling with benign intent,

Still move us, through divine unrest,
To seek the loveliest and the best!

J. G. WHITTIER.

March 6

And Jesus saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.-S. JOHN i. 51.

THEY

HEY saw 'the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man'; that is, they saw constant communications passing between