And, O mother that reads this, has there never been in your house, a drawer or a closet, the opening of which has been to you like the opening again of a little grave? Ah! happy mother that you are, if it has not been so !

Mrs. Bird slowly opened the drawer. There were little coats of many a form and pattern, piles of aprons, and rows of small stockings; and even a pair of little shoes, worn and rubbed at the toes, were peeping from the folds of a paper. There was a toy horse and waggon, a top, a ball-memorials gathered with many a tear and many a heart-break! She sat down by the drawer, and leaning her head on her hands over it, wept till the tears fell through her fingers into the drawer; then, suddenly raising her head, she began, with nervous haste, selecting the plainest and most substantial articles, and gathering them into a bundle.

"Mamma," said one of the boys, gently touching her arm, "are you going to give away those things?"

"My dear boys," she said, softly and earnestly, "if our dear, loving little Henry looks down from heaven, he would be glad to have us do this. 1 could not find it in my heart to give them away to any common personto anybody that was happy; but I give them to a mother more heart-broken and sorrowful than I am; and I hope God will send His blessings with them?”

There are in this world blessed souls, whose sorrows all spring up into joys for others; whose earthly hopes, laid in the grave with many tears, are the seed from which spring healing flowers and balm for the desolate

and the distressed. Among such was the delicate woman who sits there by the lamp, dropping slow tears, while she prepares the memorials of her own lost one for the outcast wanderer.

"A SWEET SORROW."

REV. H. HARBAUCH, A.M., UNITED STATES.

WHAT can parents ask more than that their infants should be in heaven? The feelings which become them, when they for the last time draw near the coffin of the infant sleeper, and lay their warm hands once more, as an affectionate farewell, upon its brow, are beautifully expressed by one [Dr. Schaff] who himself experienced the "sweet sorrow." We will speak out of his heart, rather than out of our own:

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Now, farewell, my precious boy! Till I see thee again, farewell! With a saddened heart have I performed the last act of earthly love; and now I resign thee into the hands of higher and better parental care. Short was thy visit in this rough and tempestuous world! The heavenly gardener has early transplanted the fragrant lily of thy life into a milder and purer clime. Thy life was not yet darkened and embittered by the fearful curse of sin and death. As a tender lamb of Christ, thou didst bear thy cross in friendly innocence, like the infants of Bethlehem, who were slain by the tyrant-sword of Herod, as the first martyrfruits offered to the new-born Saviour, to whom the ancient church has devoted the third day after Christ

mas as an anniversary-day of special remembrance. Thou art now happy with them, and with the pleasant angels, far away from the sultry and sickly atmosphere of earth and sin, in serene celestial heights, in the green peaceful bowers of Paradise, led, and fed, and refreshed by the Great Shepherd of the sheep and of the lambs, who was Himself once a child, that He might sanctify the tender age of infancy, and who, in the days of His flesh, pressed infants to His bosom, speaking those words of comfort: Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.' His thou wert by birth; and, as He formed thy beautiful body, so did He also, by His Holy Spirit, silently, and unconsciously to thee, early prepare thy spirit for that holy world where now thou art at home. It was He that taught thee to lisp, as thou didst in the midst of thy suffering, with infant joy: 'Heaven is a beautiful place-God is there-Christ is there-the angels are there-all good people are there! Yes, my hopeful, pious boy! they are all there, old and young, great and small-all who have overcome in the blood of the Lamb! There also dost thou bloom for ever, in the unfading beauty of the loveliest age! Thither also do thy parents, by God's grace, hope to arrive, when their hour shall strike, to embrace thee, the beloved of their hearts, in glorified youth, and to lose thee no more for ever! O the joy of such a meeting!"*

* The Heavenly Home. By Rev. H. Harbauch, A.M. Philadelphia, U.S.: Lindsay and Blakiston. 1853.

BEREAVED PARENTS COMFORTED.

REV. DR. RUSSELL, DUNDEE.

WHEN a bereaved parent feels all the force and tenderness of parental love, and while his heart bleeds for the loss of his children, let him ponder this precious record, "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him;" and let the disconsolate mother dwell on these words, "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you;" and surely while they are charmed with their beauty, the soul will draw from these declarations the richest, the most endearing, and the most effectual consolations. Their own feelings will help them to understand the warmth and the tenderness of the love of heaven.

It is delightful to repose on Him, who can enter into our every feeling, can effectually succour us in the day of trial, and with power can say, "Weep not, the child is not dead but sleepeth." “I am the resurrection and the life." "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest; when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee."

Let the thought, then, of the blessedness of their departed infants, quicken the progress of Christians to the land of immortality, holiness, and joy. Let them rest on that word, which is able to fill with confidence and hope, even when descending the vale of the shadow of death, when, like a ship unmooring from its anchor, they are about to launch into a world of spirits, when eternity is bursting on their view, and when called to that solemn meeting, which every individual must one day

have with "Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire." Let them wait for that "happy, happy hour, when on bursting the vail of mortality," and entering into the celestial paradise, they shall find their infants in the bosom of Him, who hath graciously said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven."

"A few short years of evil past,

We reach the happy shore,

Where death-divided friends at last
Shall meet to part no more."*

"LITTLE EDWARD.”

REV. EDWARD IRVING, LONDON.

WHOSO studieth as I have done, and reflecteth as I have sought to reflect, upon the first twelve months of a child; whoso hath had such a child to look and reflect upon, as the Lord for fifteen months did bless me withal (whom I would not recall, if a wish could recall him, from the enjoyment and service of our dear Lord), will rather marvel how the growth of that wonderful creature, which put forth such a glorious bud of being, should come to be so cloaked by the flesh, cramped by the world, and cut short by Satan, as not to become a winged seraph; will rather wonder that such a puny, heartless, feeble thing as manhood should be the abortive fruit of the rich bud of childhood, than think that childhood is an imperfect promise and opening of the future man. And therefore it is that I

* Infant Salvation. By David Russell, D.D., Dundee. Glasgow: James Maclehose. Third Edition.