You may not be able to see how this can be, but His eyes are clearer than yours. He sees the end from the beginning. If, therefore, you cannot praise Him for this "fiery trial,” don't murmur-be "dumb, and open not your mouth," because He has done it. He will understand your silence. "He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust." His purposes will soon be accomplished, and then amidst the glories of heaven you will meet again; so shall you "obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

THE SAVIOUR'S CARE FOR LITTLE CHILDREN. REV. PETER MEARNS, COLDSTREAM.

Jesus admits children into His kingdom. He says, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." Permit, and do not prohibit-this is surely a complete permission. Our Saviour's words imply that He approved of the conduct of the parents, and would not allow them to be discouraged in their wellmeant act. He does not say, Suffer them to be brought, but, "Suffer them to come," as if to include an encouragement to them to come themselves so soon as they are able. The loving heart of a Christian parent would prompt him to bring his child to the Lord by prayer; and if not permitted expressly, he would be disposed to ask permission. But he has here all the encouragement he needs.

The children are admitted

into His church-His kingdom on earth; and in due time they will be admitted into heaven-His kingdom

above. Those who have brought their children to Christ, and afterwards lost them by an early death, will find in this passage a sweet source of consolation. Their dear little ones have left earth, but they are with Christ and the angels above. In answer to the parent's prayer, He blessed the children on earth, but He has now blessed them much more in heaven.

UNCONVERTED PARENTS ADMONISHED.

REV. PROFESSOR M'MICHAEL, D.D., DUNFERMLINE. PERHAPS there is a danger, in themes of this description, of overlooking the case of mourning parents, who are themselves in an unsanctified state, and who are destitute of a saving faith in the Lord Jesus. This book may fall into their hands, and to them I would now address a word of kind and faithful expostulation. May it be abundantly blessed, through the Holy Spirit, to promote their eternal interests!

My supposition is,-Death has entered your dwelling, and has snatched a loved one from your embrace. That child, I believe, is safe-safe in heaven; but you yourselves are still living in sin and unbelief. What a monstrous contradiction is here! Your child in heaven, while you are on the broad road to hell! That child was dear, inexpressibly dear to you; but the Lord took him. Perhaps it was done for your spiritual benefit. Had it not been for this gracious purpose, he

might have been still with you, cheering your heart. More frequently than is imagined, children become martyrs for the sake of their ungodly parents. For them they wither, and for them they die. But has this divine visitation produced the effect which it ought to have done? Did you actually look upon your own child in the convulsions of death? did you place it in its little coffin, and lay its head in the grave, without a piercing consciousness of the evil of sin? There would have been nothing surprising, though God had smitten you dead, and friends had been summoned to your funeral. Laden with sin, as all of us are who have arrived at mature years, that was just what might have been expected, and what would assuredly happen did not infinite mercy prevent. But did it never occur to you, how dreadful sin must appear in the sight of God, when even that young child of yours paid the awful penalty? The wages of sin is death. Did it never occur to you, that if there were nothing inconsistent in divine goodness and justice sending disease and death upon that little one, what must be your own condition, should you die impenitent and be summoned into the presence of the Judge with all your guilt upon your head? Did it never occur to you, what additional misery shall be yours in the place of perdition, when you remember there, that you have a darling child in heaven, and that had you profited by the lesson which its premature death was intended to teach, you might yourselves have been with it, and with the other glorified inhabitants, singing the high praises of our

God? By the memory of that child so dear to you; by the value of your own immortal souls which are in danger of perishing; by the terrors of the day of judgment, when each one of us must give an account of himself unto God; and by the precious blood of Christ which cleanseth from all sin, I beseech you now to repent and to accept the overtures of divine compassion. Mercy there is for you still, much as you have hitherto hardened your hearts and despised the chastisements of Jehovah. Flee, without delay, to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls, and surrender yourselves freely unto Him. Then it will be in your power to say, with the bereaved Shunammite, "It is well;" and also to adopt the language of David, with reference to his dead son-"I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."

A

WORD IN

SEASON.

REV. HENRY BATCHELOR, GLASGOW.

You need not ask the Prophet's question, "Is it well with the child?" The "Good Shepherd" always carries the drooping lamb in His bosom, and the last breath is the token that it has reached the sacred and guarded fold, and that its spirit has found rest. Death to a little one is like liberating a bird to seek its native clime. Its unsoiled pinion and virgin song are for a sunnier realm. The light in which it is lost to thee is the radiance of the better land.

"For of such is

the kingdom of God. But oh! parent, what of thine own soul? Hast thou one so near to thee, one that thou thoughtest inseparable from thy life and love, in heaven? Are the little feet touching the blissful shore that thou shalt never tread? Is its ear filled with sounds that shall never come to thine? Is its young and tender form lustrous with a glory which shall never shine on thee? Is it now looking on the face which thine eye, through all the eternal ages, shall never see?

Is thy little one so much to thee, and art thou less to God? "We are His offspring." The Great Teacher enjoined, "When ye pray, say, our Father." Ye have a place in the paternal love of God. Thy burdens are His care. An imperilled soul is more to Him than all his vast dominions. He has taken to Himself the little life so precious to thee, to draw thee after. This is God's most loving act to thee. Many a time thou hast heard His voice, and didst not heed it. He gave His only-begotten Son to agony and death for thee, and it touched thee not; now, He has taken thine own loved one from thee. It is not the first time that a little golden head has attracted hoary hairs to heaven. Tiny pattering feet trace for strong men the way to God, and lead, by silken chords of love, to His blest abode. "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise." May it be thy comfort that every step in life is guiding thee to embrace thy little one again, where flowers never wither, and immortality beams in every countenance.