Yet, it is something difficult for us to realize in our hours of darkness and despondency, that toward us personally and individually, the great heart of Infinite Love yearns with tenderness and pity.  Even if we can say, “Though clouds and darkness are round about him, justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne,” and can acquiesce meekly in all his dispensations, and believe sincerely that they will work for our good, yet we often fail of the blessedness which might be ours, if we could be equally assured that, “As a father pitieth his children, so doth the Lord pity them that fear him.” This assurance only the faithful student of the Bible can feel, as the great truth gleams forth upon him from time to time, illuming “dark afflictions midnight gloom” with rays celestial, and furnishing balm for every wound, the balm of sympathy and love.

We often hear it said, by those who even profess themselves Christians, and devout lovers of the sacred oracles, “How can you read the book of Leviticus?  What can you find in the dry details of the ceremonial law to detain you months in its study and call forth such expressions of interest?” Such will probably pass by this article when they find themselves invited again to Horeb.  Turn back, friends.  You are not the only ones who have excused themselves from a feast.  And we—­we will extend our invitation to others.  On the by-ways and lanes they can be found; in every corner of this wide-spread earth are some for whom our table is prepared.  We leave the prosperous, the gay, the happy, and speak to the desolate—­the widowed.

Dearly beloved, you can look back to a day in your history over which no cloud lowered, when you wore the bridal wreath, and stood at the sacred altar, and laid your hand in a hand faithful and true, and pledged vows of love, and when hope smiled on all your future path; but who have lived to see all you then deemed most precious, laid beneath the clods of the valley, and have exchanged buds of orange for the most intensely sable of earthly weeds; you who once walked on your earthly journey in sweet companionship which brightened your days; who were wont to lay your weary head every night on the faithful “pillowing breast,” and there forget your woes and cares, but who are now alone; you who trusted in manly counsel and guidance for your little ones, but who now shed bitter, unavailing tears in every emergency which reminds you that they are fatherless; and, worse than all, you who had all your wants supplied by the loving, toiling husband and father, but have now to contend single-handed with poverty,—­come, sorrowing, widowed hearts, visit with us Horeb’s holy mound.  It is, indeed, a barren spot; nevertheless, it has blossoms of loveliness for you.  Come in faith, and perchance the prophet’s vision shall be yours—­peradventure, the “still, small voice” which bade to rest the turmoil of his soul, shall soothe your griefs also; the words which are heard from its summit as Jehovah gives to Moses his directions, have indeed to do with “meats and drinks and divers washings,” yet, if you listen intently, you will now and then hear those which, as the expression of your Heavenly Father’s heart, will amply repay the toil of the ascent.  Draw near and hearken: