LORD! ROCK US IN THY CRADLE! 'Lord! rock us in Thy cradle !' The words were few and simple,- Their years of infant helplessness The mother's soothing song at eve The cradle's gentle motion, Is what the folded lambs will feel O lead us, holy Jesus! O guide us by Thy love, Through all life's pathway here below, Safe to Thy fold above! C. M. 'The sea, the sea, the open sea! The fresh, the blue, the ever free!' HO does not love it? I am sure many of my young readers do; and so I propose giving a short sketch of the life of one who loved it also. Perhaps some of the little boys who read the Children's Hour may be 'going to be sailors upon the deep blue sea;' and if so, I cannot hold up for their imitation a more beautiful example of a Christian sailor, than that afforded us by the life of Captain Thornton Bate. În the midst of the Atlantic Ocean lies the island of Ascension. There is a military fort on it, and other dwellings; still it must be a solitary spot to live long in, though it looks pleasant enough, with its blue surroundings, when the bright sunshine or the pale moonbeams fall on its silvery sands.' In our picture it is seen by night, a full moon revealing distinctly a little boat making for a ship at a short distance from the land. Looking at the occupants of the boat, our eyes rest on the face of one in particular, a bright, pleasant-looking, dark-eyed middy; and in so doing we get our first peep of William Thornton Bate. Willie is a midshipman in the Royal Navy, and a favourite with all who know him. His father is governor of the fort on the island, and Willie and some friends have been spending the day there; and now he is returning by moonlight to his ship, 'laden with good things'— preserved ginger, fruits, etc. etc. But Bate is a generous lad, so no fear of his keeping them to himself. No, no; all the other middies are glad when he goes to visit his father, for they know what he gets he shares with them liberally. His biographer (the Rev. J. Baillie) tells how one day he brought a very curious present for the benefit of his friends—a little pig! and when asked where he would keep it, he laughingly declared 'he would stow it away in his chest till needed for table!' Yes; all who knew young Bate bore witness to the generosity of his character. He was brave as well. The breakers often rise very high off the island of Ascension; and one day a party of men stood watching anxiously a small boat, which was seen making for the island, when the Atlantic rollers were most formidable. After a good deal of tossing on the stormy billows, the boat landed safely, and Willie Bate sprang to shore. He wanted to see his father,' he said; 'and what cared he for Atlantic rollers!' It was a rash deed; but the boy was young, and danger never daunted him. It was the same brave spirit which led him one day, when a man had fallen overboard (in a place where there were many sharks), to dash in after him, and hold him up till a boat came to his rescue. Yes; even then, young as he was, the boy displayed a marked feature in his after life -bravery.' He was truthful also; when he did wrong, he was not one to conceal his faults. Once, when he and some companions had been out fishing, their boat upset, and Bate lost his silver watch. It had been a present from his father, and he was a little afraid to tell of his loss; but he did so at once. He might have said nothing about it for a while at least. Some boys would have done so; but the young midshipman was too truthful for that. He had, even when young, a strong sense of duty. Whatever work he had to do he did it with his whole heart, and let nothing turn him aside from it; and was most anxious to learn all he could of the duties of his profession. One other trait of his character we must mention: he was affectionate,-dearly loving father, sisters, friends. Brave, generous, truthful, dutiful, and affectionate,—all these things could be said in truth of William Bate as a young mid; and, dear readers, we would hold them all up for your imitation. But yet lacked he one thing. Like the young man in Scripture, he could say, All ‘these things have I done from my youth up.' But not yet had he responded to the Saviour's call; nevertheless, at God's right hand in glory, that Saviour's eye was resting on him in love, and His voice was sounding in his ears the "Follow me.' His hand was drawing the affections of the lad upward till they centred in himself. That voice was first heard, and that hand first felt, by the young sailor as he stood in his island home at the grave of the father he so dearly loved. Tears, bitter tears he shed there; but new thoughts arose in his saddened heart. The real purpose of life opened before him; and, ere long, he had chosen for his Master, 'the One who had died for him.' Think you he will be a less zealous sailor now than before? Nay; listen to the words he wrote to a friend: Be assured that a knowledge of Jesus will in no wise unfit us, whatever be our calling, for the duties of this life; indeed, I am thankful to say, that the more I am permitted to know of Him, the better adapted I am for my professional duties.' In our next sketch we hope to tell you more about the Christian seaman, and allow you to judge for yourselves whether he was less brave, less generous, or a less loved companion after he took his bold stand on the Lord's side, than before he had done so. But in the meantime we must leave him. No more joyous visits to the loved island for him; for the one he loved has entered the home above, leaving his young son yet a little longer to fight the battle of life, and be tossed on the billows of its troubled sea, ere he too enter the desired haven. M. H. T LITTLE PEACEMAKERS. O make the Christmas holidays less lonely for our little friends and their schoolboy brothers, in the absence of their father and mother and Lizzie, several cousins were invited to join their party. They could not, of course, be spared from their own homes till after Christmas-day was over, but arrived shortly after. An addition of five boys and girls to the life and bustle of the house,-no small charge for Aunt Kate with her own five, she would have found quite an anxious care, but that the little girls helped so lovingly and cheerfully to make things pleasant for every |