THE DROUGHT AT GAZA. I will not describe their service, nor how they came back chanting in procession. "Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof lan- guish they are black unto the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. "And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. "Because the ground is chapped, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they cover their heads." "Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. "And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons;" their eyes did fail, because there was no grass.
"O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy Name's sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee. . . . . O the hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldst Thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night ? Why shouldst Thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save ? yet Thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us and we are called by Thy Name; leave us not."
"Reverend Father!" whispered an acolythe, running up to the Bishop, "the city gates are closed, and they refuse to let us in till the rain
comes."
