darkness which enshrouds birth, they come. out as stars. Taken out of earth's lowest parts, they shine forth as gems of the purest water, and the brightest colors. Bursting up, as it were, from the bowels of the world, they burst up as flowers of the sweetest fragrance and the most variegated hues. Purity, simplicity, instinct, and unconsciousness, compose at first the elements of a child's existence. There it lies, like a thing of heaven and eternity, amidst the bustle and care and evil of the world; nourished on smiles, turning, sweet satellite! round the orb of its mother's face; sending up aimless, but beautiful smiles of its own, both when awake and when asleep; and dreaming that "strangest of all things, an infant's dream." In what innocence it is wrapped, as if in swaddling-bands of snow! No envy wrinkles that smooth brow, no lust and no hatred lurk in that heart, no fury burns in that clear, mild eye: its only food is milk, and its only sin is tears. what blessed ignorance it dwells! It knows not of God; but neither does it know of His many foes and rebellious creatures. It knows not of good; but neither does it know of evil. The alarm of war it never heard, the bloodspotted and tear-stained records of the sad history of humanity it never read, of the

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folly, falsehood, cruelty, impiety, and madness which dwell in the heart and blacken the life of man, it is altogether unaware; and yonder spring rose-bud, first meeting the smile of the light, is not more unconscious of the rude realities of the world than that newly-budded babe. Beautiful all this; but there is a period a little farther on when the child becomes. more interesting far; that is when the soul awakes within it, and the coming forth of the evening star from a mass of clouds is not so beautiful as the first awaking of immortal mind in a child's eye; and when the heart awakes within it, and its smiles are no longer undistinguishing and no longer aimless, but become deeper in their significance, while equally sincere; and the understanding awakes within it, and proceeds to ask questions which no philosophy and no theology have yet been able to resolve; and the power of speech awakes within it, and its tongue overflows with that artless but piercing prattle which is more delightful than the murmur of streams, than the bleat of lambs, or than the stir of wind-swept flowers; because, while equally unconscious and equally musical, it is full of articulation, of meaning, and of love.

THE EARLY REMOVAL OF CHILDREN A

PROOF OF DIVINE GOODNESS.

REV. GEORGE C. HUTTON, PAISLEY.

THERE is a sinless grief. Jesus Himself could weep. The heart, no less than the flesh, must bleed when wounded, and some of its softest tendrils are torn when little ones are plucked away. Still, this most amiable sorrow, the sorrow of Rachel weeping for her children, may reach excess. It is possible to nurse it in morbid luxury or desperateness of spirit, to the stoppage of all duty. The moan may swell into the murmur, and the smarting soul, Jonah-like, think it well to be angry. Yet why should a living man complain? There is worse grief in Bochim. "I would rather," said a gray-haired sire, following his son of shame, "have carried him to the grave." To have buried Hophni and Phinehas when simple babes, would have cost less anguish to Eli, than to hear of their death at Aphek in the "blossom of their sins." Bitter as it was for David to lose the child of Bathsheba, it was bitterer far to part with evil Absalom. It is told of an artist that, once engaged on a painting of Innocence, he took for his model the face of a lovely child.

Long afterwards, being occupied on a companion picture of Guilt, he visited the dungeon of a noted felon in search of artistic hints, only to find his cherub-model of other years transformed into that dark-visaged convict. So it is the cradle hides many unknown developments. Herod once smiled on the breast; Cain once played at the knees of Eve. If it could be said of some, Better they had not been born; it might be thought of others, Better they had early died.

Yes, mourning parent, let God alone. His time and ways are ever best. Even were your offspring to be all Samuels and Timothys in riper life, would it lessen the pang to part with them then? Did it so with Jacob mourning Joseph, or the woman of Nain lamenting her manly son? Or if you shrink when the pruning-knife removes the buds and blossoms, would you prefer that it should be applied to your faithful spouse, the earthly stem which is better than "ten sons"? Say not, "All these things are against me." Only "wait patiently for the Lord." "They shall not be ashamed that wait for Him." Your soul shall yet revive as disconsolate Jacob's did, when he saw Joseph's glory in Egypt. This is the furnace ordeal, and when God hath "tried" you, you shall "come forth as gold." "All things work

together for good to them that love Him." The Lord hath but sent the young ones on before, that you may more sweetly follow. Against you! No. But deem not the question strange, Is there none to be thought of except yourself? Is the Great Father not entitled to recall His own, or has He only your feelings to consider? What of the interests of the child, -- His, still more than yours? Look that there be not some touch of self in your too eager love. When you stooped over the couch of the little sufferer, you felt you could give a world to purchase only an hour of ease for the fevered frame. In the time of health you watched the budding morals of your mirthful boy and your gentle girl; you kept far from their ears the echo of impiety, and from their eyes the spectacle of pollution; you toiled and prayed for their weal and happiness. And do you now weep that your warmest wishes have been far exceeded? Would you, if you could, bring back the young immortals from the land where the inhabitant shall never say, I am sick, to this scene of aches and pangs; from the purity of Paradise to the infections of the earth; from the clime of immortality and "God's holy mountain," where "nothing shall hurt or destroy," to the howling wilderness, the Van