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people look forward to this coming season; thousands by fasting and prayer trying to prepare themselves for its devout observance.

"O come and mourn with me awhile;
See, Mary calls us to her side;
O come and let us mourn with her,-
Jesus, our Love, is crucified.

Have we no tears to shed for Him,

While soldiers scoff and Jews deride?
Ah! look how patiently he hangs,-
Jesus, our Love, is crucified!

What was Thy crime, my dearest Lord?
By earth, by Heaven, Thou hast been tried,
And guilty found of too much love ;-
Jesus, our Love, is crucified.

Come take thy stand beneath the Cross,
And let the blood from out that side
Fall gently on thee drop by drop;-
Jesus, our Love, is crucified."

A CARAVAN SONG (Ps. 122d.)

BY I. D.

Most of the Psalms come down to us through three thousand years. When we now sing them, is it not a sweet thought, that they are hallowed by use among God's people through all this time?

Just as our hearts feel a sacred reverence for those hymns of merely human composition, which have come down to us through one, two or three hundred years, made holy, as it were, by the worship of Christian forefathers both in Europe and in this country; so, assuredly, with much deeper reverence should we sing the sacred songs which God's people have sung for thirty hundred years; songs of thanksgiving and confession; songs which they sang upon the Mount of rejoicing and in the valley of humiliation; songs which David and his people sang at Jerusalem in the days of their prosperity; songs which their captive children mournfully sang by the river-side in heathen Babylonia; songs which Ezra and Nehemiah taught the people to sing with new meaning after their seventy years captivity; songs which pious Jews sang during those four hundred solemn years before Christ, when the voice of prophecy had ceased, and while a few earnest souls patiently waited for the consolation of Israel. The Psalms are truly sacred songs, therefore, not only because divinely inspired, but also because hallowed by three thousand years use among God's people.

Then again, how much more meaning these ancient hymns have for us,

than they had for even the pious Jews who first sang them! They speak of a Messiah, a Messiah to come; but to us they speak of one already at hand. They speak of sacrifices, but of such as never took away sin; but to the Christian they speak of the true lamb of God and his great sacrifice on Calvary. In them the Jew sang of the beauty and glory of Mount Zion, the city of the great King David; the joy of the whole Jewish earth; but in them now the Christian sings of the greater beauty and brighter glory of the true Mount Zion, the Christian Church on earth and in Heaven, the city of Christ our Eternal King, the blest abode of the saints. How much more meaning the Psalms have for us, than they had for even the pious Jews who first sang them!

The one hundred and twenty-second Psalm is one of those caravan songs, which the Jews used to sing while travelling together on their way to the great feasts at Jerusalem. Every year they journeyed to the holy city. Thousands lived a great distance from Jerusalem. Many indeed lived in far eastern countries, placed there by the Babylonian captivity which took place six hundred years before Christ, and not having returned to Palestine when allowed by King Cyrus and urged by Ezra and Nehemiah. Faithful to their religion, and living so far away, the yearly journey to the great feasts would be tedious. Accordingly, it was customary for large numbers to unite in one company called a caravan, and so shorten the wearisome days with social intercourse. Who does not know the sweet pastime of singing, especially when journeying slowly by the way? Of course these Jewish caravans sang; and what could they more appropriately sing than this caravan song, which David had composed for this very purpose, and which their fathers had sung for many years?

A single glance at the Psalm will show how well it suited their purpose. It is a song of gladness. "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord." So they sang as they, after long absence, slowly travelled toward the holy city, in joyful strains pouring out their hearts before the Lord. Oh what an inspiration that song must have been, as day after day it rose from a dozen or hundred caravans travelling from different points but gradually moving closer together, till finally all meeting at the gates of Jerusalem, they would enter in swelling the joyful song higher than ever: "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord."

Ought not Christians to sing this caravan song during this holy Easter season? We also are travelling to a great festival of joy and blessing. Let us put a Christian meaning into the words of David, and heartily sing them as we journey. Do we rejoice over these festivals of the Church Year as we should? Do we appreciate them highly as they deserve? It is a good sign when Christians are glad for the return of these holy feasts of love. As the yearly festivals at Jerusalem brought the Jews together in both social and sacred intercourse; so even our Church festivals and communion seasons bring Christians together as at no other time.

"Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." They did not presume as many now do-to worship God and keep his ordinances as well at home as in God's appointed place; but they believed God's promise of special blessing in Jerusalem. Yet there was much to keep them away; a long journey, slow and painful; great loss of time (people now-adays have hardly time to be saved!); expensive sacrifices. But their

caravan song was: "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem,” and their hearts were comforted as they daily drew nearer to their journey's end.

The song then describes the holy city. It is not a village, unworthy the dignity of royality, but a city, whose numbers and strength give it importance. Nor is it loosely scattered over all the surrounding hills, but built "compact together." Up to this "joy of the whole earth" the twelve tribes of the Lord yearly went, unto "the testimony of Israel," that is, to the place where especially the law was explained, and where God made special revelation of his will. "To give thanks unto the Lord." It was also their place of special worship. These were the "thrones of Judg ment," the place of authority, the capital of the nation, the centre of law and justice. Glad, therefore, where these holy tribes, to meet together in the beautiful city of the Most High God. Well might they sing their

caravan song.

Do you not know, that this earthly Jerusalem in which these Israelites worshiped, is the type and figure of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the Christian Church on earth and in Heaven? The Church is a Kingdom. Christ is the King. It has beauty, glory and honor. It has no local centre, such as the earthly Jerusalem, but yet order and harmony reign in her borders. It has priests and people, festivals and songs of rejoicing. The Christian Church is the place whither the tribes to day go up to worship God and to hear his will. We are now journeying to a great festival. Oh let us on our way take up the song of gladness and sing:

"I love her gates; I love the road;
The Church adorned with grace
Stands like a palace built for God,
To show his milder face."

"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem." When David wrote this Psalm he had just captured the city from the Jebusites (2 Sam. v. 6), and as a man of war, was in much danger from enemies round about. Therefore he taught his people to pray for the safety, peace and prosperity of Jerusalem, as they joyfully travelled to the holy feasts. As an encouragement, he added: "They shall prosper that love thee;" God loves and blesses those who love and pray for his Kingdom.

How much need for such prayer to day! in behalf of the Kingdom of Christ! How divided, distracted and troubled! It needs both prosperity and peace. "Peace be within thy walls;" upon all Jews of every class and condition. "Prosperity within thy palaces;" that is, in the places of authority and power upon the King and his advisers.

"My soul shall pray for Zion still

While life or breath remains;

There my best friends, my kindred dwell,

There God my Saviour reigns."

Now after reading this beautiful Psalm, and recollecting that it was sung for at least a thousaud years by the Jews on their way to Jerusalem to the feast of the passover, and that we are about to celebrate the glorious Easter Passover, may not we also appropriately take up the voice

of gladness while on our way? We are glad to go up once more to this feast of joy, and our feet shall stand within the gates of Jerusalem. If we thus worthily worship in the earthly temple, the time of blessedness is coming when our feet shall stand within the gates of the "Jerusalem which is above," the

"Beautiful Zion built above,
Beautiful city that I love,
Beautiful gates of pearly white
Beautiful temple; God is light.”

Lift up your hearts in faith, hope and joy, ye Christian pilgrims. For, from that "city of the living God" there shall be no return as there was to the Jew who journeyed to Jerusalem and after the feast went back to the common things of life. Ye shall go no more out. To this holy place "the Spirit and the Bride say, come." Let us arise and journey forward, singing our caravan song as we go: "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem."

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And the beautiful lake oft touched by the swallows
In their veerable eddying flight,

At the margin the tall reeds gracefully waving
In passing winds light

And the picture the setting sun mirrored
Its waters so bright;

Dos't remember, my life's sweet companion-
Dear Helen with innocent art

In the wild-wood gathering the prettiest flowers
The green wold athwart

While affection was silently linking
Us heart unto heart.

Oh! who will return me my Helen
And the oaks and mountains so grand;
Fond memory still returns to thee, longing
My own native strand,

My country shall claim my love alway
That beautiful land!

THE CROSS.

BY I. D.

"God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Paul.

"'Tis the Cross when comforts languish,

In the heaviest hour of anguish,

Makes the broken spirit whole.
When the pains are most tormenting,
Sweetly here the heart relenting,

Finds the refuge of the soul."

Some men glory in wealth, and their hearts are full of houses, land and gold. Some men glory in fame, and are never so happy as when their name is on the tongue of the multitude. Others find their highest pleasure in the latest fashion, in style, show and parade. Certain grovelling souls crave sensual gratification, and find their joy in gluttony, drunkenness and lust. A few have their hearts taken up with the idea of education, as though knowledge were the highest good. But Paul's glory was in none of these. He gloried in the precious Cross of the blessed Saviour. What wisdom there was in his choice! The Cross could give him heavenly joy through life and holy comfort in death.

What does he mean by the Cross? Not the gold or silver ornament known in our day by that name; but that which the ornament represents, namely Christianity, the religion of Calvary, the doctrine of "Christ. crucified."

By glorying in the Cross he in it, regarding it as valuable. of praise, or that we must not

means, taking pride in it, feeling an interest He does not say that nothing else is worthy take delight in any earthly object; since

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