If she continues very ill, she should pray to God, as her dear sister now in heaven did, to make her patient and humble.

And if God is pleased to make her well again, she must pray that she may more adorn the doctrine of God her Saviour in all things, by being meek and lowly in heart.

See, here is a coach. How the horses are gallopping! The coach will, I hope, bring brothers home next month. Ah! I think I see James peeping out at the window, and Charles is riding outside, because the inside sometimes makes him ill. Well, I hope we shall have a happy meeting; but unless God's blessing is with us, we shall not meet happily. Let us pray for his blessing. Thus we shall love God and each other here on earth, and at length meet to praise him, and be for ever happy with him in heaven.

What is the next picture? Oh there we see Mary and Jane walking out: for I have heard to-day that dear Jane is getting well again and Margaret is coming to meet them. How happy and good they look! f

Where sisters dwell and brothers meet,
Quarrels should never come.

I hope this is the case with you, my dears. It is a joyful and pleasant thing for brothers to dwell together in unity. There are no quarrels in heaven. All live in love and peace there. And if we cannot live in love in this world, how could we be happy in heaven, where all is love? We must pray to Jesus to keep down bad tempers, and make us meek and gentle, as he was, when on earth.

HARRIET DIXON.

At eight years of age, she began to shew the power of religion, by attentively reading the sacred Scriptures; and evinced the most ardent desire to have those parts explained, the meaning of which she did not understand. When one of her visitors observed, that she had been a good girl, she replied; "Ah! but were it not for the love of Jesus Christ I should be lost; for I have had many wicked thoughts, and God will bring every secret thought into judgment." Her attachment to the means of grace would put many older Christians to the blush. She would entreat her mother to take her with her to those meetings of social prayer and intercourse which she was in the habit of attending; conceiving herself most happy in the service of God; and thinking with the Psalmist, "a day in thy house is better than a thousand." She would often take home the substance of addresses delivered at the school, informing her parents of the happiness of those children who lived and died in the Lord, and the awful misery of those who despised his salvation. During her affliction, which was from October 1826 to April 1827, she shewed the greatest patience, clasping to her heart for support and consolaton, and uttering with her lips as her song of triumph, these beautiful lines : Here at thy feet I lie,

O my eternal God;
Content to live, content to die,

Or still to bear thy rod.

Being asked by one of the visitors how she felt, she said; I am happy ;" and on being asked, how it was she was happy in so afflicted à state, she said; "I feel Jesus is

with me." On the Sabbath before she died, knowing that the Tuesday following would be her birth-day, on which she would be ten years of age; and thinking she should be in heaven before it came, she said; "Tuesday will be a happy birth-day for me." She was calm during the whole of Sunday; and at night while we were at prayer seemed to have withdrawn her spirit, as if to converse with beings of another world. About five o'clock on Monday morning, she desired her father to call her mother and sisters; and on their being come round her, she said; Come let us pray altogether, for I am going to Jesus Christ. On seeing her mother weep, she said; "do not weep for me, for I am going to Jesus: they are come for me." And on her mother saying, she wished that she might go with her, she answered; you will soon come to me, and then we shall be happy." Then turning to her sisters; 66 dear sisters, be good; fear God, and love the Lord Jesus Christ; and then we shall all meet in heaven to be happy together." Having said this, she died.

CHILD'S PRAYER.

My heavenly FATHER, when to thee
I lift my hands and pray;

May I not only bow the knee,

But feel the words I say.

My every sin, O Lord, forgive,
My every want supply;

For JESUS died that I might live,
And pleads for me on high.

O send thy HOLY SPIRIT down,
To dwell within my heart;

There may he make thy glory known,
And never, Lord, depart.

66

W. S.

IOFA.

MATTHEW vii. 13.

"Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat."

There is a road so broad and fair
That many a traveller is there,
Of every age and every clime,
Treading the downward course of time:
And some are grave, and some are gay,
Some labour hard, while others play;
And much I wonder whence they come,
And where shall be their final home.

Busy and restless as they seem,
Their life is but a troubled dream;
Now like the summer heavens bright,
Now like the winter's dreariest night;
Each seeking with an anxious mind
A something which he cannot find,
While darkness all the future shrouds
In thick, impenetrable clouds.

With gems adorned, with roses crowned,
Some lightly o'er the velvet ground
(As thoughtlessly they trip along)
Dance to the viol and the song;

When sickness, want, or age appears,
Turning their laughter into tears,

With grief the downward road they tread,
Till numbered with the silent dead.

Humbly before my God 1 fall,
And cry-"my Father, is this all!
"Must man's uncertain, feeble breath
"Thus end in sorrow and in death?"
He speaks and lo! I hear him say,
"My child; there is a narrow way;
Turn from this road that looks so fair,
And seek thy better portion there."

IOTA.