of Scripture, applicable for the purpose, may with propriety be used. The portion selected from Isaiah for this day's Epistle, is so singularly sublime and striking, that it can scarcely fail to arrest attention. Our blessed Lord is represented as a great warrior returning from the conquest of His enemies,-His own unassisted arm having wrought the victory. We contemplate him as God, and stand impressed with holy wonder, awe, admiration, and gratitude, at the hardships, as well as at the success of that contest; the object of which was our own salvation. That our Lord was alone in this mighty conflict; that He looked, and there was none to help, is explained in the simple but awful truth,—that He bore our sins, and, that as such, all the powers of Heaven and Hell were directed against Him; the former to punish in His sacred person, the whole body of sin; the latter to defeat, if possible, the gracious work He had undertaken. This truth we may gather from the Gospel; upon which it behoves us deeply to reflect, and to weigh carefully every circumstance related in it, bearing constantly in our mind for whom, and by whom, the sufferings there narrated were endured.

ST. MARK Xiv. 72.

And Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said unto him, "Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice."

"AND when he thought thereon he wept;" wept sore! And he had braved the wave, been blessed for faith, He, he could curse and swear—

He who had vowed to die!

Then loved he not his lord? Yea, with a warmth
That shames the breast which entertains such doubt.
Nor meant he less than he,

Warmed by his zeal, had said.

Sincerity was his, and he was prompt

To feel, and bold and noble too in heart;
But he was prone to sin,

And he relied on self.

He deemed himself secure-so we believe.

He had been taught before that he was weak;
But hearts must oft be bruised

To be convinced that truth!

But how must he have quailed to sink thus low
At terrors heightened by the tempter's art;
For now the Evil One

Had found the hour he sought.

H

And that foul spirit too prevailed in sight, (Fear'd also by himself) of his dear lord. His double malice thus

Was fully gratified.

Not 'gainst the servant was his hate: for hate
Is born of fear, nor with contempt may dwell;
Malignity more deep

Was mingled with his scorn.

He envied God's meek Son the lowly love
E'en of one poor disciple-none loved him,
And it were joy to pierce,

He felt, a tender part.

He had been foiled before in his attempt,

Knew too his lord had prayed for him; and hence "Twas worth his utmost skill

To compass his disgrace.

But malice ofttimes overleaps its bounds,

And works its own defeat: 'twas not enough
He should deny his Lord,

That Lord must see his fall.

And he perhaps had been for ever lost

Had the arch-fiend approached on other spot-
One look, one gentle look

He met, and he was saved.

Flow, flow ye bitter tears, ye wash away,

In your descent, despair, and guilt, and shame; Nor blessed to him alone,

To others ye bring peace.

Touched with remorse the sinner shall recall

The weak disciple's guilt-accepted woe;
And cheered with thought thereof,

Shall raise his eye and hope.

But heed we well the lesson thus conveyed:

The glance of that mild eye divine, near which In love he lingered still,

Repentance, safety wrought.

Beware we then how from the Church we stray,
In which Christ's holy presence is assured;
For prone we are to ill,

And mortal needs must err.

While he, our fatal enemy, well knows
How best to time the artful snare he lays;
And he himself has learnt

He fails where Jesus is.

If then beyond its precincts we presume;
If from our Master's holy side we roam,
Like Peter we may fall,

But not, like him, may rise.

TUESDAY BEFORE EASTER.

Epistle, Isaiah i. 5.

Gospel, St. Mark xv. 1.

VERY different is the scene presented in this day's Epistle to that of yesterday's. We behold no more the mighty conqueror returning from the victory; but we are shown the conflict itself, and instructed in its nature. In the first we recognized the Divinity, in the present we are made to look on the humanity of Christ, and to confess, with shame, the hatefulness of sin which could cause the Lord of Life to submit to such indignities and cruel treatment for the sake of guilty man.

Nor ought we to suffer the wonderful testimony to escape us which this portion of Scripture contains, to the truth that the blessed Jesus was the true Messiah. A bystander could not have described the scene more accurately than the Prophet has done whose inspired pen depicted it three hundred years before its fulfilment. The interior of the High Priest's palace seems indeed laid open to our view; and the barbarous treatment, the affronts and insults offered to our blessed Lord, the meek demeanour of the holy sufferer, and the relentless persecution of his oppressors presented to us,