disciples rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God: and he took them up in his arms, put his hands on them, and blessed them." I will not dogmatize as to the precise meaning of a passage, which admits of more than one interpretation, but I will say, in the cautious language of John Newton, "I think it at least highly probable that in these words our Lord does not only, if at all, here intimate the necessity of our becoming as little children in simplicity, as a qualification without which (as He expressly declares in other places) we cannot enter into His kingdom, but informs us of a fact, that the number of infants who are effectually redeemed to God by His blood, so greatly exceeds the aggregate of adult believers, that, comparatively, His kingdom may be said to consist of little children."

THE LITTLE ONES.

REV. DR. GEORGE LAWSON, SELKIRK.

WHAT God does must be well done.

"All his works

But

are judgment." Lord, I bow to Thy holy will. Thou encouragest me to plead for mercy to the soul of my Charlotte, when her body is drawing near to the gates of the grave. I bring my little child to the gracious Redeemer, that He may bless her with the blessings of the kingdom of God.

He laid His hands on the little children, and blessed

them. How happy would the parents of these little children be, if they knew who Jesus was! I ought to know better who Jesus is, and I know, "whatsoever was written aforetime, was written for our learning, that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope." This story concerning the little children, was written for the learning especially of parents, that they might have comfort and hope in the life or in the death of these little ones, whom God has enabled them to commit into the hands of the gracious Redeemer.

Jesus is still near enough to me, if I can but believe in His name. He came to the earth to bless. He went into heaven to bless men-to bless babes as well

as grown persons. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings he perfected praise, when he went to Jerusalem to die for us; out of the mouths of them that died babes, praise shall be still better perfected in the world of praise.

DEATH OF WILLIE.

THE following is an extract from a letter addressed to Rev. Dr. John Macfarlane, on the death of his fine boy, by the Rev. Dr. William Symington, Glasgow:

You know the sources of comfort, and I trust that the Spirit of promise will open them fully to your bleeding hearts, and enable you both to drink abundantly. When Christ draws, it is not for us to hold. When the Beloved comes down to His garden to

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'gather lilies," it is not for us to find fault with Him when He fixes on those which are not fully blown. There is another clime in which they will unfold all their beauties, and exhale all their sweetness. With the words, full of consolation to the bereaved parent, before us,"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God," we ought to be able to say,-"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

A MOTHER COMFORTED.

REV. DR. JOHN MORRISON, LONDON.

How good and merciful are God's concealments! He will not disclose to us the painful future, because we could not bear it, and because He means, in all our hidden trials, with a Father's love to sustain and cheer us. And so it will be, my dear Madam with you. He bestowed on you that precious gift, which you so much valued; and now that He has seen fit, in inscrutable wisdom, to resume His own gift, He will prove to you that, in His own unchangeable and everlasting love, He will make up the sad loss by filling your heart with the sweet sense of His loving-kindness and tender mercy. It is all well-supremely well-with the dear child. Your sympathising Redeemer has taken him into His own bosom, and he is safe for ever from the ills to which he would have been exposed in this sinful and sorrowing world. Hereafter he will welcome

his loving, though now afflicted parents, into everlasting habitations; and though he hath a father on earth, and a Father in Heaven, you will be his only recognised mother to all eternity. May God be with you, to pour His own balm into your wounded heart! and enable you to say, "It is well.”

A BUD OF BEAUTY.

REV. ROBERT HALL.

THIS eloquent divine, in speaking of the death of his little boy, says, "God dries up the channels, that you may be haply compelled to plunge into an infinite ocean of happiness. Blissful thought! Father, mother, you who mourn over the grave of your little one, look up! know that the chastening rod is in your heavenly Father's hand, and that if He hath taken away, He first did give, and He doeth all things well. He gave you the bud of beauty, and you centred your happiness in its being. He saw that this was not for your good, so He took away the child, whose presence had been as a leaping, sparkling streamlet to your heart's love, that that heart, which had before tasted of earthly, might be lost in the immensity of heavenly love.

It is a very solemn consideration, that a part of myself is in eternity, in the presence, I trust, of the Saviour. How awful will it be, should the branch be saved and the stock perish.

L

BETTER TO BE WITH CHRIST.

REV. DR. Doddridge.

COULD I wish that this young inhabitant of heaven should be degraded to earth again? Or would it thank me for that wish? Would it say that it was the part of a wise parent to call it down from a sphere of such exalted services and pleasures to our low life here upon earth? Let me rather be thankful for the pleasing hope, that though God loves my child too well to permit it to return to me, He will ere long bring me to it. And then, that endeared parental affection, which would have been a cord to tie me to earth, and have added new pangs to my removal from it, will be as a golden chain to draw me upwards, and add one farther charm and joy even to Paradise itself. And oh, how great a joy to view the change, and to compare that dear idea, so fondly laid up, so often reviewed, with the now glorious original, in the improvement of the upper world! Was this my desolation, this my sorrow, to part with thee for a few days, that I might receive thee for ever, and find thee what thou art? It is for no language but that of heaven to describe the sacred joy which such a meeting must occasion!

"Lord!" should each of us say in such a case, “I would take what Thou art doing to my child as done to myself; and as a specimen and earnest of what shall shortly be done." It is therefore well.