March 21

Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the hawli of Orion?” — Job xxxviii. 31.

OF inclined to boast of our abilities, the grandeur of nature may soon show us how puny we are. We cannot move the least of all the twinkling stars, or quench so much as one of the beams of the morning. Wc speak of power, but the heavens laugh us to scorn. the Pleiades shine forth in spring with vernal joy we clnnot restrain their influences; and when Orion reigns aloft, and the year is bound in winter’s fetters, we cannot relax the icy bands. The seasons revolve according to the divine appointment, neither can the whole race of men eflfect a change therein. Lord, what is man?

In the spiritual, as in the natural world, man’s power is limited on all hands. When the Holy Spirit sheds abroad His delights in the soul, none can disturb; all the cunning and malice of men are ineffectual to stay the genial quickening power of the Comforter. When He deigns to visit a church and revive it, the most inveterate enemies cannot resist the good work; they may ridicule it, but they can no more restrain it than they can push back the spring when the Pleiades rule the hour. God wills it, and so it must be. On the other hand, if the Lord in sovereignty, or in justice, oind up a man so that he is in soul bondage, who can give him liberty? He alone can remove the winter of spiritual death from an individual or a people. He looses the bands of Orion, and none but He. What a blessing it is that He can doit! O that He would perform the wonder to-night! Lord, end my winter, and let my spring begin. I cannot, with all ray longings, raise my soul out of her death and dulness, but all things are possible with Thee. I need celestial iuflucnccs, the clear shinings of Thy love, the beams of Thy grace, the light of Thy countenance; these are the Pleiades to me. I suffof much from sin and temptation; these are my wintry signs, n terrible Orion. Lord, work wonders in me. and for me. Amcb