pression of which on my mind it is impossible to communicate to mortal man. Immediately I reflected on my happy change, and thought, Well, blessed be God, I am safe at last, notwithstanding all my fears. I saw an innumerable host of happy beings surrounding the inexpressible glory, in acts of adoration and joyous worship; but I did not see any bodily shape or representation in the glorious appearance, but I heard songs and hallelujahs of thanksgiving and praise, with unspeakable rapture. I felt joy unutterable and full of glory, and requested leave of my conductor to join the happy throng; on which he said, You must return to the earth. This seemed like a sword through my heart. The three days during which I appeared lifeless, seemed to me not more than ten or twenty minutes. The idea of returning to this world of sorrow and trouble gave me such a shock, that I fainted repeatedly. Such was the effect on my mind of what I had seen and heard, that if it be possible for a human being to live entirely above the world, and the things of it, for sometime afterwards, I was that person. The ravishing sound of the songs and hallelujahs that I heard, and the very words that were uttered, were not out of my ears, when awake, for at least three years. All the kingdoms of the earth were in my sight as nothing and vanity; and so great were my ideas of heavenly glory, that nothing which did not in some measure relate to it, could command my serious attention."

Yes: God can speak to us when we are in deep sleep if he pleases, and such dreams, or visions, as these are not to be disregarded by us; for they are sent for our good.

THE HAPPIEST DEATH TO DIE!
BY JAMES MONTGOMERY.

WHICH is the happiest death to die?
"Oh!" said one, "if I might choose,
Long at the gates of bliss would I lie,
And feast my spirit ere it fly

With bright celestial views;

Mine were a lingering death without pain, A death that all night love to see,

And mark how bright and sweet would be,
The victory I should gain!

"Fain would I catch some hymn of love
From the angel-harps which ring above;
And sing it as my parting breath
Quivered and expired in death;
So that those on earth might hear
The harp-notes of another sphere,
And mark, when nature fades and dies,
What springs of heavenly life arise,
And gather from the death they view
A ray of hope to light them through,
When they should be departing too."

"No," said another, "so not I;

Sudden as thought is the death I would die;
I would suddenly lay my shackles by,
Nor bear a single pain at parting,
Nor see the tear of sorrow starting,
Nor hear the quivering lips that bless me,
Nor feel the hands of love that press me,
Nor the frame with mortal terror shaking,
When love's soft bands are breaking.

"So would I die!

All bliss without a pang to shroud it!
All joy without a pain to cloud it!
Not slain, but caught up, as it were,
To meet my Saviour in the air!

So would I die!

O how bright were the realms of light
Bursting at once upon my sight!

Even so

I long to go,

These parting hours, how sad and slow!"
His voice grew faint, and fixed was his eye,
As if gazing on visions of ecstasy;
The hue of his lips and cheeks decayed,
Around his mouth a sweet smile played.
They looked-he was gone-

His spirit had flown

Painless and swift as his own desire!

His soul, undrest

From her mortal vest,

Had stept in her car of heavenly fire!

And proved how bright

Were the realms of light,

Bursting at once upon the sight!

DESIRING TO BE WITH CHRIST.
WHILE on the verge of life I stand,
And view the scene on either hand,
My spirit struggles with its clay,
And longs to wing its flight away.
Come, ye angelic envoys, come,
And lead the willing pilgrim home:
Ye know the way to Jesus' throne,
Source of my joys and of your own.
That blessed interview, how sweet!
To fall transported at his feet;
Raised in his arms to view his face,
Through the full beamings of his grace!
Yet with these prospects full in sight,
I'll wait thy signal for my flight;
For, while thy service I pursue,
I find my heaven begun below.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT OWLS.

OWLS have all large round heads, and large eyes adapted for night vision, surrounded by a circle of slender feathers; the beak is crooked from the base; they can move the outer toe either backward or forward; their talons are strongly curved and sharp; their feathers are soft, and covered with down, and make no noise in flying. Owls, which the ancients chose as the emblems of wisdom, from their imperturbable gravity and life of retirement, have in later times, on account of their strange unearthly appearance, the loneliness of their

habitations, the silence of their motions, and the harshness of their cries, been regarded by vulgar prejudice as fowls of evil omen; though of all birds of prey the most useful to man, by destroying those swarms of mice and other petty but dangerous enemies of our corn-fields, barns, and barn yards, whose multiplication, where it not for them, would increase to a ruinous extent. It is mentioned by an old English writer, that "in the year 1580, at Hallowtide, an army of mice so overrun the marshes near Southminster, ¦ that they ate up the grass to the very roots. But at length a great number of strange owls came and devoured all the mice. The like happened again in Essex about sixty years after." For this service owls are admirably adapted by their conformation and instinct, seeking their food by night, and on the surface of the ground. Incapable of enduring the glare of the sun, their activity commences with twilight. During the day, they sit perched and motionless in their dark retreats, amid mouldering ruins and in solitary places; if disturbed, they do not attempt flight, but assume a variety of attitudes, and use the most ludicrous gestures. Then the smaller feathered tribes, who have a natural antipathy to them, assemble around, insult and attack them in their helpless state; but so soon as the light fades, these tormentors must either seek safety in flight, or pay the penalty of their impudence. Owls are aided by a sense of hearing so nice, that they perceive the least rustling among the leaves of the trees or the herbage on the ground, and thus are enabled to discern and seize the birds retiring to their nests, and the smaller animals seeking their holes.