Sin, indeed, the fair work marring,
Had well nigh his ruin wrought;
Guilty passions in him jarring
To deface that image sought.

Long in error's maze benighted,
Holy Spirit! thou didst strive
Still to save that knowledge blighted,
Which would save his soul alive.

By thy holy inspiration

Godly men were moved to speak;

By thine own, thy blest dictation,

Words were writ that all might seek

Wisdom in the sacred treasure,

Which should mock the hand of Time-

Make its reading our best pleasure,

Spread it, Lord, through ev'ry clime.

Ratify the promise given

"Knowledge shall the earth o'erspread;"

Knowledge of our Maker even

As the wide waves ocean's bed.

Not alone as once when rushing

With the sound of mighty wind;

Fiery tongues in splendour blushing,

Warmed each breast, inspired each mind;

But, O Lord! on every creature
Formed, redeemed and sanctified;
Owing thee both soul and feature,

Let thy Spirit still abide.

Purify our guilty nature,

Move our sluggish hearts and teach; Till in perfect height and stature

We the Christian standard reach.

God of comfort! light bestowing,
God our Saviour's promised guest;
From our God, the Father, flowing,
Bring us to thy heavenly rest.

Help us in ourselves, our dwelling; Help us, Lord, to serve aright; Teach the strain that now is swelling, Hearts that dwell in realms of light.

Guide and comfort! leave us never
Till to thee we yield our breath ;

Then conduct us where for ever

Ransomed souls have conquered death.

241

MONDAY IN WHITSUN WEEK.

Morning Lessons, Gen. xi. to v. 10. Evening Lessons, Num. xi.

GOD, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of Thy faithful people, by the sending to them the light of Thy Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus, our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Monday and Tuesday in this week are festivals only, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday being observed as fasts, and as days of humiliation and supplication for blessings on those who are about to be ordained into any holy office on the ensuing Sunday.

The Epistle for this day relates to the baptism of converts. The Gospel has also been selected with a view to the instruction of the newly baptized, but is nevertheless most important to ourselves. In it

M

our blessed Lord shews the love of God in sending His Son to save the world, and the necessity and blessing of that faith which enables us to acknowledge and receive Him who was so sent. At the same time he explains the cause why so many would reject the salvation offered them, namely, a love of their wicked deeds which would make men hate the light, and shun the reproof they deserved.

The first Morning Lesson contains the history of the confusion of tongues, in the selection of which the Church would intimate to us that as the knowledge of God and of true religion was lost to us by the spread of idolatry through the dispersion of mankind, so God by the gift of tongues restored that knowledge of Himself, and laid the foundation of a pure and holy religion which should last till the end of the world. The first Lesson for the Evening records the resting of God's Spirit on the seventy elders of Israel for the relief of Moses, on whom the entire care of the Jewish Church had grown too heavy a burthen,an exact prefigurement of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, and for the same end, as the learned Wheatley observes, that on many and not on one solely the care of all the Churches should devolve. The second Lesson instructs us that all spiritual gifts, without exception, are bestowed for the general benefit of God's Church, and must therefore be faithfully used for the true and proper end for which they were granted.

NUMBERS Xi. 27, 28, 29.

And there ran a young man and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.

"Why enviest thou for me?

Would God that I could see

Each one and all a prophet of the Lord;
Yea! would that it were mine,

(Though I the least should shine)

To know that He his Spirit would accord

To all the chosen people of his hand,

That so his knowledge might be spread through every land."

So spake the meekest man

Whom since the world began

It had beheld. True servant of his God;

'Twas not of self he thought,

Nor of the wonders wrought

In Egypt's land by his terrific rod :

His zeal was only for his Israel's good,

And His almighty praise in whose great name he stood.

How little like to most

Who greater talents boast,

Or higher rank than others of their race;