Preparation for the Journey.

PSALM 1xxxiv. 11.

"The Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly."

ECCL. viii. 12.

"Surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him."

ISA. iii. 10.

"Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him."

PROV. xxi. 21.

"He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour."

PSALM Xxiii. 6.

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days

"My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

"O Lord! how happy should we be,
If we could cast our care on Thee;
If we from self could rest,
And feel at heart that One above,
In perfect wisdom, perfect love,—
Is working for the best.

"How far from this our daily life!
Ever disturbed by anxious strife,
By sudden, wild alarms;
Oh, could we but relinquish all
Our earthly props, and simply fall
On Thy almighty arms!

"Could we but kneel, and cast our load,
E'en while we pray, upon our God;

Then rise with lighten'd cheer
Sure that the Father, who is nigh
To still the famish'd raven's cry,
Will hear, in that we fear.

"We cannot trust Him as we should,
So chafes fallen nature's restless mood
To cast its peace away;

Yet birds and flow'rets round us preach,-
All, all the present evil teach,

Sufficient for the day.

"Lord, make these faithless hearts of ours Such lessons learn from birds and flowers, Make them from self to cease.

Leave all things to a Father's will,
And taste, before Him lying still,
E'en in affliction, peace."

-Child's Christian Year.

GEN. xxviii. 20, 21.

"And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God."

HEN he uttered these words, the patriarch was a solitary, friendless exile. He had left his father's home, his heart big with sorrow,

and his eyes suffused with tears. The path of life, all dark and uncertain, lay before him, and the close of his first day's journey found him weary and benighted, with no better accommodation than the cold earth for his bed, and a stone for his pillow. More than 400 miles of wild and inhospitable deserts were to be traversed, and he was quite uncertain what reception he might meet with at Haran. Most wisely, therefore, did he resolve to enter into covenant with God, and supplicate the Divine protection and blessing at the outset of his journey. His desires were moderate.

his wishes few,-"to be kept in the way,"—"to have bread to eat and raiment to put on," -these were the requests he humbly preferred when erecting the remembrance-stone at Bethel.

What a suitable preparation for his journey! Reader, have you thus besought the Divine blessing?-have you thus covenanted with God, and dedicated yourself to Him? You have entered on your pilgrimage,—an unknown path lies before you; are you still a traveller through the desert of the world without a Guide ?-journeying you know not whither, with no Friend to "keep you in the way" no covenant" blessings, which alone are worth possessing. Oh, think how it fared with Jacob. He trusted God. He entered on a long and painful course of discipline, dark clouds gathered round him,— the storm and tempest beat, he passed through years of mingled joy and sorrow,he could sing of "mercy and of judgment," -was he disappointed in the end? Listen to his language, when, once more returning, with joy and gladness, to his native plains, and pitching his tent in security and peace,— "O God of my father Abraham, and God of