AND he shall judge among many people, and rebuke

strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it.

-MICAH 4:3, 4.

TH HE wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. -ISA. 11:6-9.

Living and loving God, our Father and our Friend, Thou hast in Thy wisdom created all things; for Thy pleasure they are and were created. To know Thee is life; to serve Thee is freedom; to praise Thee is our chiefest joy. As Thou hast created us in Thine own image, so, in the light of this new day of opportunity and duty, recreate us in the likeness of Him who is the unchanging Light of life, and the unfailing Source of strength and comfort. Help us in childlike faith anew to accept Him and faithfully to follow in His steps. In Him may our sins be forgiven, our affections purified, our wills controlled, our labors blessed. Sanctify, by the indwelling of Thy Spirit, our worship in the home and in the church, hallow our holy relationships, make useful and joyful our lives. For Thy great Name's sake. Amen.

-W. H. W. BOYLE, D. D.

AND being in Bethany in the house of Simon the leper,

as he sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head. And there were some that had indignation within themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured against her. And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? she hath wrought a good work on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. -MARK 14:3-9.

Gracious God, we thank Thee for the guardian care and the rich bounty of Thy love. We thank Thee for a new day, its path untrod, its record unwrit, its life untasted. Help us to set Thy Name in letters of gold across its life. Be Thou our Guide. Keep us to the path of Thy choosing, and clear from our vision the fogs of doubt and the dust of time. We pray that our home may be filled with the sunshine of Thy love; that our church may be on fire for a world's redemption; that our minister may be a flaming prophet of the Most High. Bless America; hold her true; make her strong. May this land of ours be an ambassador of God among the nations, pointing them toward justice and brotherhood and abiding peace, helping always toward the new order which shall be built upon the Cross of Christ. Give victory to the forces of righteousness. Succor the sick and the dying. Be Thou a refuge to every child of distress. In the Name of Christ. Amen.

-EDWIN F. HALLENBECK, D. D.

THE Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to

anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. The Lord preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever. -Ps. 145:8-21.

Lord, we remember that the evening and the morning were the first day, and we rejoice that every day we live in Thee moves from the evening to the morning, away from darkness into light. Help us to live this day in the grace of Him who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. May we look unto Him and be radiant, facing even our dull tasks and dark problems with morning faces and hearts. Disperse the mists of sin from our own lives, and give us the passion that will not rest while others sit in darkness. In Thine own good time and way, lift the awful shadows of war, bringing us peace, not of compromise with evil, but of victory over it. Steady and comfort those who sit in the deepest darkness of the world Gethsemane. Rouse us to keep vigil with them till the day break and shadows flee away. Amen.

-CHARLES F. WISHART, D. D.

:

COMFORT ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. -ISA. 40:1-8.

to us.

Our Father, our Saviour, our Comforter, we present ourselves individually and collectively before Thee this morning. We come not on our own merits or because of our deeds, for our lives are not worthy of being received. But we come to confess our sins of omission and of commission, and to ask Thee because of Thy love, the sacrifice of Thy Son, and the pleading of the Holy Spirit, to have mercy and compassion upon us. Make this home Thy dwelling place. Manifest Thyself Wilt Thou take and use every member of this household for Thy glory and the advancement of Thy cause? Give us divine strength to resist the temptations of life. Enable us to say: "Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Give us a greater passion for souls in order that we may go out as individuals to teach others the way of salvation. Bless our home. Give each member of our family health, strength, and divine power to do Thy will. And this we ask in Christ's Name. Amen. -MARK A. MATTHEWS, D. D.

FOR

'OR I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. -JOB 19:25, 26.

TH

HEN Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. -JOHN 11:20-26.

We praise Thee, O Lord, for the redemption of the world by the Cross of Jesus Christ, Thy beloved Son; that in Him we have the forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified; and that Christ dwells within us, the hope of glory. We praise Thee for the faith, hope, and love which Thou hast implanted in our hearts, for Thy consolation in time of distress, affliction, and physical death, and for the grace of Thy Holy Spirit by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption. We praise Thee for the faith we have in Jesus Christ our Lord-in His power to overcome for us as He did for Himself the sharpness of death and to open the everlasting Kingdom to all believers. Vouchsafe unto us, we beseech Thee, such an abiding sense of the reality and glory of those things which Thou hast prepared for them that love Thee, as may serve to raise us up above the vanity of this present world, so that under Thy guidance and help all things shall work together for our everlasting salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

-From "GUIDANCE IN PRAYER."