331.-The Firm Foundation. HEBREWS xiii. 5.

HIS old-fashioned, favourite, but unequal Hymn is remarkable for the aptitude with which it combines a great number of the choicest Scripture promises. The search for "references" to its successive lines would itself be a delightful and profitable Biblical study. The remarkable succession of five negatives in the original Greek of the motto-text (from Joshua i. 5) is reproduced very effectively in the last line of the Hymn. "I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee" (Revised Version).

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,

My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply;

The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design

Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

"E'en down to old age all My people shall prove

My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love: And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,

Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

"The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for

repose

I will not, I will not, desert to its foes! That soul, though all hell should endea

vour to shake,

I'll never, no never, no never forsake."

GEORGE KEITH.

332. The Battle of Life.

DEUTERONOMY XX. 3. HE rough draft of this Hymn was written by the author "on the back of one of his mathematical papers." Its present shape is due to Miss Fanny Fuller Maitland, in Hymns for Private Devotion, 1827; with the exception of the first verse, which begins, "Much in sorrow," and ends with the couplet

Fight the fight, and, worn with strife,
Steep with tears the bread of life."
7s.

FT in danger, oft in woe,

OFT

Onward, Christians, onward go,