THE DYING BROTHER'S GIFT.

"DEAR BROTHER," said a dying boy,
"This book to me was given,
And from it I have learned the way
To happiness and heaven.

This world I very soon must leave,
And shall no longer need
This holy book. I hope that you
Its precious truths will read.

A blessing it has proved to me;
The comfort I enjoy

Is from its promises derived-
Remember this, my boy."

He to his younger brother then

The holy bible gave,

And said that it would tell him how
Christ came his soul to save.

"Read it with prayer, ne'er with it part,
Although you may want bread;

Its blessed truths can cheer your heart

When on a dying bed."

Thus did this boy, though young in years,

The Bible recommend;

May every one who reads this tale,

To his advice attend.

Newport, I. W.

J. D.

THE MODE OF RAPTISM, ILLUSTRATED BY EXTRACTS FROM CELEBRATED BRITISH POETS.

MILTON.

Them who shall believe,

Baptizing in the profluent stream, the sign
Of washing them from guilt of sin, to life
Pure, and in mind prepared (if so befall)
For death, like that which the Redeemer died.

I saw

Paradise Lost.

The prophet do him reverence; On him rising
Out of the water, heaven above the clouds
Unfold her crystal doors.

YOUNG.

Paradise Regained.

Ye brainless wits! ye baptized infidels!

Ye worse for mending! washed to fouler stains!

Then when the sacred sisters for their own,
Baptized thee in the springs of Helicon.

Their robes were like the mountain snow, and bright,
As though they had been dipped in the fountain springs of light.
Carmen Nuptiale, on the Marriage of Her Royal

Highness the Princess Charlotte.

READING AND KNOWING.

WHEN little boys and girls first begin to look around them they ask many questions about what they see and hear, and their fathers and mothers are always ready to answer them. This is all right when they are very young; but when they grow bigger, and find many more things they want to know about, it would take all father's or mother's time almost to be telling them then, and so they must

learn to read, and the books will tell them all they want to know. When Sir William Jones was a little boy he was always teazing his mother with questions; he was so very inquisitive. His mother, finding that it would take nearly all her time to tell him all he wanted to know, gave him books to read, saying, "You must read, William; read, and then you will know." William did read all the books his mother could find for him, and soon wanted more, so anxious was he to know all he could. And he went on reading when he was a man, until he became one of the greatest scholars in the world.

And this is the way how to get to know. Young people should not only ask questions, but they should

read for themselves. And now-a-days there are plenty of good books for young people to read-more than ever there were by far; and those young people who do not make use of them are very much to blame, and deprive themselves of much real pleasure and profit.

But there are books in the world that are not worth reading, whatever may be their tempting titles, or however nice and smart they may look; and therefore it is a good thing when any young person can find a friend who will tell him which books are the best for him to read. It is like finding a guide who will tell you which way to go when you are walking where you have never been before. Not knowing the road, you might go a long way round about without a guide; and, not knowing which books are the best, you might waste much time in reading worthless ones, if you have not an experienced friend who will tell you which are the most likely to please and profit you.

So always take advice about reading books if you can get it; and go on reading more and more, for the more you read the more you will want to read; and in all your reading never omit to read, at least once every day, some portion of that wonderful book which God has given us. If you read and understand this it will not only tell you what no other book can, but it will make you wise unto salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ, the great Saviour of a world of sinners; and this knowledge of Him is worth more than all you could find if you were to read all the books in the world.

A CONVERSATION ON BAPTISM.

ANNE, ELIZA, AND PHOEBE.

ANNE and Eliza were cousins, Phoebe was the friend of both; they had all been taught in the same school, and were now active and diligent teachers of others. There were no secrets or reserves between them; whatever one knew the others were soon acquainted with. All their trials and difficulties, their joys and pleasures, were mutually shared; nor were they ever so happy as when by appointment they could spend an hour or two. together, with their work in hand, conversing about the sermons they had heard on the sabbath; the hymns they had committed to memory; and the interesting pieces recorded in the little magazine, which, with the utmost pleasure, they received every month. It happened on one of these occasions, as they were all sitting at work together, when talking on those subjects which always interested them most, (I mean the subjects of religion,) that one of them suggested a remark which gave rise to the following conversation :

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ANNE. I have been thinking a good deal lately about these words of the Saviour to his disciples, John xiv. 15, If ye love me, keep my commandments." Now, though I hope I can say I feel some love to the Saviour, yet I fear I do not love him as I ought, or I should before now have openly professed his name in the holy ordinance of christian baptism.

ELIZA. Glad am I to hear you make this remark, Anne, for though it may seem a little singular, yet I