April 22

1 O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

2 For thou hast made of a city a heart; of a defenced city a ruin; a palace of strangers to be no city; it shall never be out.

3 Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.

4 For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.

5 Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a clump, the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.

6 And in this mountain shall, the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of far things, a feast of wines on the lees, of far things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

7 And he will destroy in this mountain the

face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.

8 He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces, and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the LORD hath spoken it.

9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

10 For in this mountain shall the hand of the LORD rest, and Noah shall be trodden down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.

11 And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim; and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.

12 And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall be hung down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.

In this chapter there occur almost the grandest words between the lids of the Bible. It is thus they run: "And God will swallow up death in victory. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces." Yes, one day the ministry of discipline will be ended. No longer will there be any John

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the Baptist crying in the wilderness, "Repent ye." No longer will the tears of sorrowful ones girdle the earth in never-ceasing witness of the shames, the griefs, the hopelessness, that have extorted them. The tears that have fallen in so many open graves; the tears that have dropped slowly from some young mother's cheek upon the babe asleep upon her knees; the tears that, all unbidden, blind us when we look upon the shattered remnants of our earlier hopes; our tears of mortification, of penitence, and of despair—all these shall be wiped away forever. The ministry of discipline will be ended—the baptism of tears will be done.

This passage is exquisitely beautiful. The poet Burns once said that he could never read it without being affected to tears. It may be added that nothing but the gospel will do this. No other religion can furnish such consolation, and no other religion is, therefore, adapted to man.

Closet Promise.—And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. —Rev. xxi. 4.

"We have no tears Thou wilt not dry; We have no wounds Thou wilt not heal; No sorrows pierce our human hearts That Thou, dear Saviour, dost not feel:

"Thy pity like the dew distils, And Thy compassion like the light Our every morning overfills, And crowns with stars our every night."