were too strong for the delicacy of its sweetness.

In

such haste is it to be gone, that in the self-same hour in which it opens and spreads its loveliness, it sheds it, and its leaf falls off. The gardener alone, curious and deeply interested, who has sat up and watched to see, has catched and felt the pleasure of the passing sight. Your little Maggie was such a flower. Why should we think it strange when the flower is faded?" the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it." The flower has lived its own, its appointed time; and could tarry no longer, by no means. A child may cry when its lovely flower is gone; far otherwise the gardener himself,— he is satisfied, nay, is quite delighted, that ever such a flower was his.*

THE MOTHER'S "MUTE DOVE."

REV. DR. JOHN KITTO, LONDON.

WHEN [referring to the death of the widow of Zarephath's only son] we behold that a child so dear—

"Like a flower crusht with a blast is dead,

And ere full time hangs down his smiling head,"

how many sweet interests in life, how many hopes for the time to come, go down to the dust with him! The purest and most heart-felt enjoyment which life offers to a mother in the society of her little child, is cut off for ever. The hope the mother's hope, of great and good things to come from this her son, is lost for her.

* Letters by the Rev. John Jameson, Methven. Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot. 5th Edition.

"The live coal that was left," and which she had reckoned that time would raise to a cheerful flame, to warm her home, and to preserve and illustrate the name and memory of his dead father, is gone out-is quenched in darkness. The arms which so often clung caressingly around her, and whose future strength promised to be as a staff to her old age, are stiff in death. The eyes which glistened so lovingly when she came near, now know her not. The little tongue, whose guileless prattle had made the long days of her bereavement short, is now silent as that of the "mute dove." Alas! alas !

that it should ever be a mother's lot to close in death the eyes of one whose pious duty, if spared, should be in future years to press down her own eyelids. This is one of the great mysteries of life, to be solved only thoroughly, only fully to our satisfaction, in that day, when passing ourselves the gates of light, we behold all our lost ones gather around our feet.*

A HEBREW STORY.

REV. ALEX. B. GROSART, BLACKBURN.

I GATHER up what I have submitted thus far, by telling an old Hebrew story.--Rabbi Meir-so it runs -sat during the whole of one Sabbath-day in the public school, and instructed the people. During his absence from home, his two boys, both of them of uncommon beauty, died. His wife, their mother, bore

* Daily Bible Illustrations. Edinburgh: Wm. Oliphant & Co.

By John Kitto, D.D., F.S.A.

them to her chamber, laid them upon the marriagebed, and spread a white covering over their bodies. Towards evening, Rabbi Meir came home. "Where

66

She

are my beloved sons," he asked, "that I may give them my blessing?" They are gone to the school," was the answer. "I repeatedly looked round the school," he replied, "and I did not see them there." reached him a goblet; he praised the Lord at the going out of the Sabbath, drank, and again asked, "Where are my boys, that they may drink of the cup of blessing?" "They will not be far off," she said, and placed food before him, that he might eat. He was in a gladsome and genial mood; and when he had said grace after the meal, she thus addressed him: "Rabbi, with thy permission I would fain propose to thee one question." "Ask it then, my love!" he replied. "A few days ago, a person entrusted some jewels to my custody, and now he demands them again: should I give them back again?" "This is a question," said Rabbi Meir, which my wife should not have thought it necessary to ask. What! wouldst thou hesitate or be reluctant to restore to every one his own?" "No," she replied, "but yet I thought it best not to restore them without acquainting thee therewith." She then led him to their chamber, and, stepping to the bed, took the white covering from their bodies. "Ah! my boys, my boys!" thus loudly lamented the father; "my boys! the light of mine eyes!" The mother turned away and wept. At length she took her husband by the hand, and said, "Rabbi, didst thou not

teach me that we must not be reluctant to restore that which was entrusted to our keeping? See, the Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord!" "Blessed be the name of the Lord!" answered Rabbi Meir. It is well for bereaved parents to say, with Rabbi Meir, under their loss, "Blessed be the name of the Lord."*

THE LILIES GATHERED.

REV. EBENEZER ERSKINE, STIRLING.

UPON the 7th day of December, my dear, sweet, and pleasant child, Isabel Erskine, died. I got freedom during her sickness, particularly the same forenoon, before she died, to present her before the Lord, and to plead His covenant on her behalf. The Lord enabled me to quit her freely to Him, on this account, that He had a far better title to her than I. She was mine, only as her earthly father, she is His by creation, preservation, by dedication to Him in baptism, and His also, I hope, by covenant and redemption, and therefore, I am persuaded, she is now His by glorification; and that she is with the Lord Jesus, and with her dear mother, triumphing with God in glory. I had a particular affection for the child, and doted but too much upon her, because she was the likest her mother of any of the children, both as to her countenance and humour. But I see that the Lord will not allow me to have any

The Lambs All Safe; or, The Salvation of Children. By the Rev. A. B. Grosart, Blackburn. Edinburgh W. Oliphant & Co.

She died

idols, but will have the whole of my heart to Himself. And, Lord, let it be so! Amen, and amen. pleasantly, without any visible pang or throe; her soul, I hope, being carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, and her body buried by her mother's side in her brother's grave. I take it kindly that the Lord comes to my family to gather lilies wherewith to garnish the upper sanctuary! "for of such is the kingdom of heaven." And oh, it sometimes affords me a pleasing prospect, to think I have so much plenishing in heaven before me; and that, when I enter the gates of glory, I shall not only be welcomed by the whole general assembly of saints and angels, but that my wife and four pleasant babes will, in a particular manner, welcome me to those regions of glory, and that I shall join in the hallelujahs of the Higher House, which shall never have an end.

CHILDREN BEFORE THE THRONE.

REV. THOMAS BOSTON, ETTRICK.

I HAD your letter of May, 1726, with the affecting account of your loss of a dear child. I travelled that gloomy road six times, and learned that God has other use for children than our comfort, an use far more honourable and happy for them; and the parents come to see afterwards, that it is a peculiar kindness to the poor babes they were so early carried off. It likewise serves to let into that Word in particular, in its sweetness, "I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed," while parents are taken up for the salvation of their