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My Refuge and my Rest,

As child on mother's breast,
I lean on thee.

From faintness and from fear,
When foes and ill are near,

Deliver me!

Turn not away thy face,
Withhold not needed grace;
My Fortress be!

Perils are round and round,

Iniquities abound;

See, Saviour, see!

Come, God and Saviour, come!
I can no more be dumb;
Appeal I must

To thee the gracious One,
Else is my hope all gone,

I sink in dust!

Oh, answer me, my God!

Thy love is deep and broad,

Thy grace is true!

Thousands this grace have shared,

Oh, let me now be heard,

Oh, love me too.

Descend, thou mighty Love,
Descend from heaven above,

Fill thou this soul!

Heal every bruised part,

Bind up this broken heart,

And make me whole.

'Tis knowing thee that heals; 'Tis seeing thee that seals Comfort and peace.

Show me thy cross and blood, My Saviour and my God,

Then troubles cease.

BONAR.

CHAPTER VI.

ITS OBSERVANCE

FEELINGS OF DIFFERENT CLASSES OF CHRIS

TIANS-THE RIGHT SPIRIT-THANKSGIVING-POETRY.

"He brought me to the banqueting-honse, and his banner ober me was lobe."Song of Solomon 2:4.

T is related in Jewish story that as a certain Rabbi and his companions were walking past the site of the Temple, they saw a fox come from amid its ruins, out of the Holy of Holies. At this sight they wept, but the Rabbi laughed and

rejoiced. They wept, that in the place where, so holy was it, the stranger that drew near should die, now foxes walked upon it; he rejoiced, because as this prophecy was fulfilled, so would others be, which predicted brighter days to Zion. The ruin was prophetic of the rebuilding.

Here was the same scene, but how different the emotions which it awakened!

A company of Christians come to the Lord's Table, but their feelings are not all alike. It is the same Table for all, but not the same; for each one sheds over it the light or the shade of his own heart. Some regard it as a festival of love; their hearts overflow with gratitude and praise. Others are oppressed with a feeling of awful solemnity, as if a smile of gladness lighting up the face would be as unseemly as laughter at a funeral.

Is not the greater Temple-the very Holy of Holies-here represented as desecrated and destroyed by malicious hands? Is not this a deathscene, the most awful ever witnessed? Do we not gaze upon a broken body and streaming blood, all declaring the dreadful anguish of the sinless One, and ourselves his murderers?

How then can we do otherwise than bow with awful wonder and astonishment and shame, smiting our breasts in token of the bitterest self-accusation? Let others, if they can, rejoice; but we, wretched sinners, can only weep in sight of the cross on which we helped to nail the Prince of life. Is not human depravity here exhibited in its most repulsive aspect, in the commission of a crime unparalleled in all the dark annals of the

world? Did not the sun refuse to look

a spectacle ?

upon such

"Oh, 'twas I-'twas I that slew!

I transpierced him, mocked him, spurned;

I such love with hate returned!
Spirit, that canst bid them flow,
Touch the springs of holy woe!
Let mine eyes as fountains be,
Pouring tears incessantly,

Like a deluge, down my cheek!

Break this flinty heart, oh, break!"

How true, how far below the truth! and well may sinful man shudder at the thought of having participated in the guilt of crucifying the Lord of glory, or of being stained with sin which no blood less precious than that of Christ could wash away.

This is looking only at the ruins of the temple; this is forgetting that, in the Supper, we recognize the raising of the temple of Christ's body, and, in connection with that, the resurrection of dead souls from the ruins of the fall, and also the future resurrection of believers in the complete likeness of the great Restorer.

Christ is risen. Christ reigns. The veil of the temple was rent when Jesus died, and the sanctuary, even the Holy of Holies, once open only

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