JULY. 



Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or 

 loose the bands of Orion ? 



Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abun- 

 dance of waters may cover thee ? — Job 38 : 31, 34. 



* 



I DO not know how any one can take 

 full comfort in his garden who does not 

 meet the Lord there. If all the Httle disap- 

 pointments are to be borne alone ; if all the 

 beauties that spring up under your hands 

 bring no thought of the hand that created 

 them, then the garden will be a very shorn 

 place indeed, and you will fail to get from 

 it half its richness. For the loss of a favour- 

 ite plant makes us rich — and not poor — if it 

 comes as a new, gentle lesson in learning 

 the Lord's will, in accepting his choice in- 

 stead of our ov/n. That acceptance (it is 

 more than mere submission) makes a thread 

 of perfect gold all through the duskiest life- 



("7) 



