little lower than the angels, because they inhabit earthly bodies; but they strive to do good, and the Lord strengthens their hands, and is in the constant act of creating within them a clean heart. The will and the understanding, the affections and the thoughts of the meek, are continually being beautified. They are obedient, humble, friendly, benevolent, and charitable. They do good to all. They ask not to which section of the Christian church men belong before they exercise their office of charity; but wherever good is to be done, and they have the ability to do it, they set about it, remembering that, as it is done unto one of the least of the brethren, it is done unto the Lord. These are the people in whom the Lord taketh pleasure, and who are beautified with His salvation.
October Twenty-fourth.
THE LORD A SUN AND SHIELD.
"For the Lond God is a sun and shield."—Psalm lxxxiv. 11.
IT is of the utmost importance to the soul that man should believe in the influence and operation of the sun of heaven. By this belief he is kept in perpetual remembrance that God is the life of all—that it is, indeed, an elevating truth that we live, and move, and have our being in Him alone. But, as where there is a sun, worlds and inhabitants may be inferred, and, indeed, must exist, upon which the heat and light of that sun may operate; so the existence of a heavenly sun establishes the existence of a heavenly world, and of blessed inhabitants who reside therein.
