April 14

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. —Ps. xlvi, 1.

Earth is sweet, but Heaven is sweeter;

Faith complete, but Love completer.

Close beside our wandering ways,

Through dark nights and weary days,

Stand the angels with bright eyes.

And the shadow of the cross

Falls upon and sanctifies

All our pain and all our loss.

Though we stumble, though we fall,

God is helping, after all.

To believe that there is a God, to have a general recognition of His authority and power, to offer Him a certain heartless outward homage—this is not true religion, this will not profit a man in the day of his extremity. It is not sufficient to be able to say, “O Lord;” we must be able to add without presumption, “My God.” . . . It is God’s apprehending us that is our safety, it is our apprehending God that is our comfort. The child may be safe in its mother’s lap while its little tiny arms do not cling to the mother’s neck, but the child has a sweet apprehension of its safety when its little arms are twined round the neck of its parent. Even so is it with the Father in Heaven. . . . And, in order that we may know and use our privilege aright, there must be on our part a realizing of God as our God. We are taught to lay upon Him all our salvation, and to commit to Him all our care, to cast on Him every burden, to look to Him for every gift, to see His hand in every circumstance, and to love that hand no less when it smites than when it sustains. REV. HUGH STOWELL.