316 THE IVY. 



men. These are the storms and the tempests to 

 which my brethren stand exposed in the defence- 

 lessness of individual weakness. Their children 

 cry for food ; and that we may provide for them : 

 they shiver beneath the wintry blast, they shrink 

 from the piercing frost ; and we may clothe their 

 limbs and rekindle their fires, from our own com- 

 parative abundance — but the parents' heart, though 

 by grace it may be so humbled as not to reject a 

 gift, painful for the educated mind, will yet secret- 

 ly quake under the anticipated horror of that from 

 which we cannot interpose to rescue them. The 

 step 'of the midnight incendiary, of the sworn as- 

 sassin, blessed to the deed of butchery by her 

 who has so oft been drunk with the blood of the 

 saints, will be fancied in every breeze that rustles 

 among the branches : and the closer we examine 

 the picture, the darker do its shades become — the 

 more appalling those perils, in the midst of which 

 our brethren are set for the defence of the gospel. 

 The Gospel — precious word ! It is the power 

 of Him who says, " The Lord hath anointed me 

 to preach good tidings unto the meek ; he hath 

 sent me to bind up the broken-hearted ; to com- 

 fort all that mourn ; to appoint unto them that 

 mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for 

 ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of 

 praise for the spirit of heaviness ; that they might 

 be called trees of righteousness, the planting of 



