So tired my friends are gone
And I am left alone,

And days are sad.

Lord Jesus, Thou wilt bear my load
Along this steep and dreary road,
And make me glad.

So tired my heart is low,
Shadows of coming woe

Around me fall.

And memories of sins long wept,

And hopes denied that long have slept, Arise and call.

So tired yet I would work
For Thee !-Lord, hast Thou work
Even for me?

Small things-which others, hurrying on
In Thy blest service, swift and strong,
Might never see?

Thy little ones, whose steps are slow,
I should not weary them, I know,
Nor roughly chide.

So tired! Lord, Thou wilt come
To take me to my home,

So long desired :

Only Thy grace and mercy send,
That I may serve Thee to the end,
Though I am tired.

Home's sweet joys and cares,
All its hopes and fears,
All its dreams and tears
Best forgot.

Wake, wake, my heart!
Wake and slumber not.

Heavenly voices calling, calling low and sweet,

Bid thee watch.

Thy true home is near,

Through the starlight clear
Soon may Christ appear :—
Wait and watch.

Wake, wake, my heart!

Wake and slumber not.

Angel choirs are singing, singing glad and sweet,

Of thy home;

Where, with rapture filled,
All thy trembling stilled,
All thy dreams fulfilled,
Thou shalt come.

ALFRED TENNYSON.

IN that hour

From out my sullen heart a power
Broke, like the rainbow from the shower,

To feel, although no tongue can prove,
That every cloud, that spreads above,
And veileth love, itself is love.

TWENTY-EIGHTH DAY.

The Coming of Christ.

FEAR not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore

ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

St. Luke xii. 32-40.

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. . . . Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.

St. John xiv. 1-3, 27, 28.

And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

St. John xvi. 22,

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,