April 13

Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness. —Psalms 107:15.

WHEN I think of the infinite power and glory of God, should not his goodness to sinful men fill me with wonder and adoring love? Does not every earthly blessing he bestows declare his goodness? And is not that wondrous goodness still more manifest in sending his Son to die for us when we were sinners? By sincere penitence for sin, and a life of holy obedience, should I not seek to show my gratitude for such won- derful goodness?

We write our mercies in the dust; but our afflic- tions we engrave in marble. Our memories serve us but too well to remember the latter; but we are strangely forgetful of the former.—BISHOP HALL.

If one should give me a dish of sand, and tell me there were particles of iron in it, I might feel for them with the finger in vain. But let a magnet sweep through it, and how would that draw to itself the most invisible particles by the mere power of attrac- tion. The unthankful heart, like my finger in that sand, discovers no mercies. But let the thankful heart sweep through the day, and as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings:—only the iron in God's sand, is gold.—O. W. HOLMES.

All nature round us hath an earnest voice,

And ever in God's blessing doth rejoice;

While every lesson heard,

Echoes the written word,

And speaks on every side, beneath, above,

Loudly proclaiming, God indeed is love!