The Thirty First of August.

RISE UP MY LOVE --- Song of Solomon 2:10-14.

"Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of the birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land, etc. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, etc." --- Song of Solomon 2:10-14.

O Lord, how often has it been winter with me, but thou hast always quickened me again. Grant that by these experiences that I may be so used to thy ways as always to expect the best from thee in everything, and to have only this one care, namely, how I may please thee as thy bride and dove, and be accepted through thee with thy Father. Let my faith be so strengthened by all thy various dealings with me, that at last I may have boldness, and find complete rest in thy wounds, my crucified Saviour, where there is room for the greatest of sinners, even for me.

The voice of my beloved sounds
Over the rocks and rising grounds;
O'er hills of guilt, and seas of grief,
He leaps, he flies to my relief.

Gently he draws my heart along,
Both with his beauties and his tongue;
"Rise," says my Lord, "make haste away;
No mortal joys are worth thy stay."

"The Jewish wintry state is gone,
The mists are fled, the spring comes on;
The sacred turtle-dove we hear
Proclaim the new, the joyful year."

And when we hear our Jesus say,
"Rise up, my love, make haste, away!"
Our hearts would feign outfly the wind,
And leave all earthly loves behind.