June 3

Thy face, Lord, will E seek. — PSALM xxvii. 8.

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? — MATT. vii. 11.

HOW wonderful it seems. God plying men with considerations why they shall pray, arguing to make them bold! This is the nature of all his promises, pledges addressed to our faith. "Put me in remembrance; let us plead together." For himself he would not have us say, "for Christ's sake," as a ground for our acceptance before we can be heard, but because the repetition will assure us of our power in the all-prevailing Name. Our want of faith is the occasion for the argument. The persuasion is to be of ourselves. "If ye, being evil, etc.," The "being evil" is a shadow; but it can only modify, it cannot restrain the generous impulses of parental love. But divine love is the clear shining of a cloudless sky, the glad melody of an unimpeded stream. Two arguments are addressed to our faith: First, God shall give more abundantly, according to the incomparable fulness of his grace. Second, he shall give more appropriately, according to his infinitely wise comprehension of our want. Our human love is borne up to its loftiest round that it may perceive the love of God stretching illimitably beyond it.

Ethel R. D. T. Whane.

And dost thou say, "Ask what thou wilt"?

Lord, I would seize the golden hour;

I pray to be released from guilt

And freed from sin and Satan's power.

JOHN NEWTON