LORD keep us safe this night, secure from all our

fears;

May angels guard us while we sleep, till morning light appears.

ΤΗ

HOUSAND thousand warrior princes
In Thine angel army stand;
Flames the victor cross before them,
Grasped in Michael's dauntless hand.

Lord of angels, Christ, we pray Thee,
Bid them aid us in our strife,
Chase afar the hosts of evil,
Till we reach the land of life.

FROM THE LATIN.

October

'Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation ?'

Dctober I

That through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.-HEB. ii. 14, 15. Are they not all ministering spirits?—HEB. i. 14.

HOLY and most gracious Saviour Jesus, we humbly recommend the soul of Thy servant into Thy hands, Thy most merciful hands; let Thy blessed angels stand in ministry about Thy servant, and defend her from the violence and malice of all her ghostly enemies and drive far from hence all the spirits of darkness. Amen.

JEREMY TAYLOR.

HE room was full of angels,

THE

And she wondered we could not see,
That we could not see their shining wings
As they floated noiselessly

Around her bed.

The room was full of music,

Beautiful music-she said,

And she wondered we could not hear
How the holy strains were stealing,
How the happy songs were pealing,
All through the hush and gloom
Of the silent room-

And just before the dawning,

When the darkness of night was o'er,
And the night of her suffering life
Was ended for evermore,

In the grey of Ascension morn
The angels came again,

And tenderly they bore her

For whom they had waited long,—
Watched and waited in heaven,
Knowing that even here

She was learning their blessed song.
So in the grey of morning
They bore her soul away
Beyond the prison bars,
Beyond the fading stars,

To the brightness of the day.

M. E. TOWNSEND.

Dctober 2

We are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.-2 COR. v. 8.

Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.-REV. ii. 10.

WE go to the grave of a friend, saying, ‘A man is

dead'; but angels throng about him saying,

'A man is born.'

WHO

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

HO knows if that which is called death be not life, and life mere dying?

INTO our world a baby-soul there crept,

EURIPIDES.

And pitying angels bowed their heads and wept

Wept, for they knew the sorrow and the pain
That soul must suffer ere it slept again,

While we of earth-so blind poor mortals are-
Rejoicing spread the wondrous news afar;
Hailing, with sounds of joy, the happy morn
When on the earth a little child was born.

One day, Heaven's gates were opened--opened wide,
And mortals wept because a child had died.
No tongue can tell the anguish in each breast
Because the little soul had gone to rest!