hearts, down in the valley of our ordinary employments? And how much the saints of God have valued this early hour of prayer! It has been called the Dew which the later hours have irretrievably dried up; the Manna which has vanished when the sun has gained strength. And there is no doubt in my mind that the quality of the spiritual life greatly depends upon the jealous guarding of this priceless hour, which so easily and quickly escapes us. At that hour Jordan stands in a heap, and leaves us a clear passage heavenward, but the rapid stream of cares, businesses, anxieties, worries, returns to its strength as the morning appeareth, and if we would cross at all, it must be during a distracting and wearisome buffeting with those crowding waters. Let me say here how valuable appear to me to be the retreats that are being established in many parts of England. Who does not know how the routine of little cares, and small wearing anxieties, and petty, yet necessary employments, are apt to eat out the spirituality from even the clergyman’s life, especially if he be placed in a sphere which presents labour after which he is ever toiling, but which he can never overtake? They seem to me, at least, formed upon the very model of our Lord’s custom, and at once to commend themselves to any unprejudiced mind, or even any prejudiced mind that has preserved the power of calm and fair thought. I will let Cowper continue and conclude this train of musing for me: “Not that I mean to approve, or would enforce A superstitious and monastic course; Truth is not local, God alike pervades And fills the world of traffic and the shades, And may be feared amid the busiest scenes, Or scorned where business never intervenes. But ’tis not easy, with a mind like ours, Conscious of weakness in its noblest powers, And in a world, where, other ills apart, The roving eye misleads the careless heart, To limit thought, by nature prone to stray Wherever freakish fancy points the way; To bid the pleadings of self-love be still, Resign our own, and seek our Teacher’s will; To spread the page of Scripture, and compare Our conduct with the laws engraven there; To measure all that passes in the breast, Faithfully, fairly, by that sacred test; To dive into the secret deeps within, To spare no passion and no favourite sin, And search the themes, important above all, Ourselves, and our recovery from our fall, --But leisure, silence, and a mind released From anxious thoughts how wealth may be increased; How to secure, in some propitious hour, The point of interest, or the post of power; A soul serene, and equally retired From objects too much dreaded or desired, Safe from the clamours of perverse dispute,-- At least are friendly to the great pursuit.”