To heaven I lift my waiting eyes; There all my hopes are laid; The Lord that built the earth and skies Is my perpetual aid. I. WATTS. Grovel not in things below, among earthly cares, pleasures, anxieties, toils, if thou wouldst have a good strong hope on high. Lift up thy cares with thy heart to God, if thou wouldst hope in Him. Then see what in thee is most displeasing to God. This it is which holdeth thy hope down. Strike firmly, repeatedly, in the might of God, until it give way. Thy hope will soar at once with thy thanks to God who delivered thee. E. B. PUSEY. The snares of the enemy will be so known to thee and discerned, the way of help so manifest and easy, that their strength will be broken, and the poor entangled bird will fly away singing, from the nets and entanglements of the fowler; and praises will spring up, and great love in thy heart to the Forgiver and Redeemer. I. PENINGTON. December 4 _Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called_.--I TIM. vi. 12. Oh, dream no more of quiet life; Care finds the careless out; more wise to vow Thy heart entire to faith's pure strife; So peace will come, thou knowest not when or how. LYRA APOSTOLICA. Who art thou that complainest of thy life of toil? Complain not. Look up, my wearied brother; see thy fellow-workmen there, in God's Eternity; surviving there, they alone surviving; sacred band of the Immortals, celestial body-guard of the empire of mankind. To thee Heaven, though severe, is _not_ unkind; Heaven is kind,--as a noble mother; as that Spartan mother, saying while she gave her son his shield, "With it, my son, or upon it." Thou too shall return _home_ in honor; to thy far-distant Home, in honor; doubt it not,--if in the battle thou keep thy shield! Thou, in the Eternities and deepest death-kingdoms art not an alien; thou everywhere art a denizen. Complain not. T. CARLYLE. December 5 _The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you_.--I PET. v. 10. _Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be faint-hearted_.--ISA. vii. 4. How shall thou bear the cross that now So dread a weight appears? Keep quietly to God, and think Upon the Eternal Years. F. W. FABER. God forgive them that raise an ill report upon the sweet cross of Christ; it is but our weak and dim eyes, that look but to the black side, that makes us mistake; those that can take that crabbed tree handsomely upon their backs, and fasten it on cannily, shall find it such a burden as wings unto a bird, or sails to a ship. S. RUTHERFORD. Blessed is any weight, however overwhelming, which God has been so good as to fasten with His own hand upon our shoulders. F. W. FABER.