Thus much with reference to our own souls while under any special visitation of the hand of God. The effect as to others is equally bad. How often may we have detected ourselves in the habit of cherishing a spirit of judgment in reference to a child of God whom we found in circumstances of trial, either of "mind, body, or estate." This should be carefully guarded against. We ought not to imagine that every visitation of the hand of God must necessarily be on account of some special sin in the person. This would be an entirely false principle. The dealings of God are preventive as well as corrective. Take a case in point. My child may be in the room with me, enjoying all the sweet intimacies which belong to our relationship. A person enters who I know will utter things which I do not wish my child to hear. I therefore, without assigning any reason, tell my child to go to his room. Now, if he has not the fullest confidence in my love, he may entertain all manner of false notions about my act; he may reason about the why and wherefore to such a degree as almost to question my affection. However, directly the visitor takes his leave, I call the child into my presence and explain the whole matter to him, and in the renewed experience of a father's love he gets rid of the unhappy suspicions of a few dark moments. Thus it is often with our poor hearts in the matter of the divine dealings both with ourselves and others. We reason when we ought to repose: we doubt when we ought to depend. Confidence in our Father's love is the true corrective in all things. We should ever hold fast the assurance of that changeless, infinite, and everlasting love which has taken us up in our low and lost estate, made us "sons of God," and will never fail us, never let us go, until we enter upon the unbroken and eternal communion of our Father's house above. May that love dwell more abundantly in our hearts, that so we may enter more fully into the meaning and power of regeneration--what it is, how it is produced, and what are its results. God grant, it for Christ's sake! Amen. C. H. M. IN THE FATHER'S HOUSE "The wanderer no more will roam, The lost one to the fold hath come, The prodigal is welcomed home, O Lamb of God, through Thee! "Though clothed in rags, by sin defiled, The Father did embrace His child; And I am pardoned, reconciled, O Lamb of God, through Thee! "It is the Father's joy to bless; His love has found for me a dress, A robe of spotless righteousness, O Lamb of God, in Thee! "And now my famished soul is fed, A feast of love for me is spread, I feed upon the children's bread, O Lamb of God, in Thee! "Yea, in the fulness of His grace, God put me in the children's place, Where I may gaze upon His face, O Lamb of God, in Thee!