August 23

A tutto il regno piace Com'allo re ch'in suo voler ne invoglia.

TRULY "there remaineth a rest for the people of God"; a satisfying, soul-restoring fulness of rest of which some of us have begun to taste. Some of us know assuredly that nothing perishable is the habitation of our spirits. Some of us know what it is to be willingly brought into an order flowing perceptibly and perpetually from the one unchangeable will of God, in which alone can our own will be harmonised and made steadfast. Some of us are learning ever more and more fully to accept the Father's will because it is the will of the Father, entering more and more truly day by day into the spirit of sonship. To experience in our own hearts the harmonising, purifying, invigorating power of the Divine Will is to be at rest for ourselves and for others; not to be set free from suffering or to become indifferent to it, but to be undisturbed by it—to know that underneath all the agitations of the creatures are the everlasting arms; to receive strength to consent to whatever is ordained by that blessed will, and to resist whatever is opposed to it.

CAROLINE EMELIA STEPHEN

SECRET COMFORT

Then, face to face.

IF it were but some little thing Our Lord saw fit to take away,

A wound with but a slender sting,

A trouble lasting but a day,

A pang that could be cured ere long—

How could our human faith grow strong?

But when He takes our heart's desire

All in a moment's agony,

Our spirits pass within the fire,

And think that surely they must die;

Yet walking in that fierce despair

Find they can trust Him even there.

Nor few are they who thus have seen,

Although with bitter weeping blind,

That never that dear Lord hath been

Before so tender or so kind;

No sunny hours could ever prove,

As proves this night of storms, His love.

We know not how His comforts come,

We see no wondrous Form appear,

We feel no Hand—the world is dumb,

And yet we know He draweth near;

And as He toucheth us—that hour

The agony has lost its power.

Nor ever, though our life be long,

And new delights should bring their aid,

Can we forget Who made us strong,

And bid us never be afraid;

Who chose that dark and fearful place,

To let us see Him face to face.