This simple sentence soothed with magic power
The little mourner in that midnight hour,
And, as the gentle infant sinks to rest,
Calmly she slept upon her sister's breast.
Months rolled away-and still she lingered here,
Opprest with languor-worn by pain severe,
Yet patient and submissive-full of love!
She seemed preparing, for the courts above.
Though often, with consuming fever prest,
Weary and faint she sought, but found no rest,
Oh! never did the holy influence fail,

Which first accompanied that touching tale.
In those dark hours, the whisper, "Peace, be still,"
Would in her ears like heavenly music thrill,
Bidding the sounds of grief and sorrow cease,
Till tranquil and composed, she slept in peace.
At length, the hour of sweet release drew nigh,
When she should join the white-robed hosts on high;
Too pure, for such a darkened world as this,
The Saviour called her to the realms of bliss.
The brilliant eye was dim and clouded now,
And death was written on that marble brow;
Yet, ere the gentle spirit took its flight
To the fair world of uncreated light,
She asked in trembling accents, once again,
For those sweet words to ease her dying pain;
"Oh sister! will you tell me yes, you will-
How Christ, said to the waters, Peace, be still !”

66

She listened faint and fainter grew each breath,
She smiled serenely, in the arms of death,
One gentle sigh escaped her heaving breast,
And all was pure, seraphic, endless rest!

Brighton.

CHILDREN'S LAUGHTER.

How soon and easily a little child

Acquainted grows with father, mother, sister,

H. M. W.

With day and night, with sunshine and with moonlight,
With spring and harvest, and with birth and death!

"Thus is it in my Father's house," thinks he,

And never wonders at the already done,

But only at the new that comes to pass

Easier to him seems life than A. B. C.

So willingly he sees funereal trains,
Admires the garland laid upon the coffin,
Beholds the narrow, still, last house of man,
Looks in the grave, and hears, without a fear,
The dust fall down upon the coffin-lid.
With joy he stands beside his new-born sister,
Admires the snowy dress, her first array,
And sees her placed upon the mother's breast.

It grieves him not when, in pale harvest time,
The meadows cease to put forth gentle flowers.
He gladdens when the flowers return again,
And learns the name of the all-beauteous season,
The name of Spring-he learns the name of day,
When the bright sun is up, and names the night,
When hosts of stars array themselves in heaven,
While softly at his mother's side he sleeps,
And early in the morn awakens her.

Thus lives the child unbounded and immortal,
Lives in the work and blessings of the power
From whom proceed home, father, mother, sister,
Flowers, fruits, and sun, and moon, and every hair
On his own head-the child believes in all.

Thus let the man this holy bond of union
Behold in constant gladsomness of heart,
In which the tenderest blossoms of the spring,
The earth with men full-crowded, and the sun
That sheds on all his glory, live together.
The least lives with the greatest in this bond:
The springing grass points to the highest heavens !
The tiniest sand-grain, to Eternity!

The dew drops tell us of serenest love;

The shade a flower casts, tells of holy light;

A child's glad laughter tells Heaven's happiness,

And a poor beggar with her tatter'd child
May point the mind to God for rest and quiet.

To learn of life, however humble, true,

The cheerful and divine interpretation,
Perform the little as you would the great,
The transitory as the ever-during,

And in the mind of God your life-day spend.

SCHEFER'S VIGILS.

THE SINNER'S REFUGE.

[The following fine argument, in which the interlocutors are, Jesus, Justice, and the Sinner, was written more than two centuries ago, and is so well known, that we should apologize for reprinting it, were not its subject one of those which is always grateful to the renewed mind. It is an epitome of the Way of Salvation, told with much truth, feeling, and power; and, as such, ought to find its way to the hearts of all our young charge.]

JESUS. BRING forth the pris'ner, Justice!

Justice. Thy commands

Are done, just Judge: See, here the pris'ner stands.

JESUS. What has the pris'ner done? Say; what's the cause

Of his commitment?

Justice. He hath broke the laws

Of his too gracious GOD; conspir'd the death

Of that great Majesty who gave him breath;
And heaps transgression, LORD, upon transgression.

JESUS. How know'st thou this?

Justice. E'en by his own confession:

His sins are crying; and they cry'd aloud;

They cry'd to heav'n, they cry'd to heav'n for blood.

JESUS. What say'st thou, sinner? Hast thou aught to plead

That sentence should not pass? Hold up thy head,

And show thy brazen, thy rebellious face!

Sinner. Ah me! I dare not: I'm too vile and base
To tread upon the earth, much more to lift
Mine eyes to heav'n; I need no other shrift
Than mine own conscience; LORD, I must confess,
I am no more than dust, and no whit less

Than my indictment styles me! Ah! if Thou
Search too severe, with too severe a brow,

What flesh can stand? I have transgressed thy laws;

My merits plead thy vengeance, not my cause.

Justice. LORD, shall I strike the blow?

JESUS. Hold! Justice, stay!

Sinner, speak on; what hast thou more to say?

Sinner. Vile as I am, and of myself abhorr'd,
I am thy handy-work, thy creature, LORD,-
Stampt with thy glorious image,-—and at first
Most like to Thee, though now a poor accurst,
Convicted caitiff, and degenerate creature,
Here trembling at thy bar.

Justice. Thy fault's the greater,

LORD, shall I strike the blow?

JESUS. Hold! Justice, stay!

Speak, sinner: hast thou nothing else to say?

Sinner. Nothing but mercy, mercy, LORD;-my state Is miserably poor and desperate;

I quite renounce myself, the world, and flee,

From LORD to JESUS, from Thyself to Thee!

Justice. Cease thy vain hopes! my angry GOD has vow'd, Abused mercy must have blood for blood:

Shall I yet strike the blow?

JESUS. Stay! Justice, hold!

My bowels yearn, my fainting blood grows cold,
To view the trembling wretch; methinks I spy
My Father's image in the pris'ner's eye.

Justice. I cannot hold !

JESUS. Then turn thy thirsty blade

Into my sides: let there the wound be made.

Cheer up, dear soul! redeem thy life with mine :
My soul shall smart, my heart shall bleed for thine.

Sinner. O groundless deeps! O love beyond degree!
Th' offended dies to set th' offender free.

A PRAYER.

LORD JESUS, take my spirit!

I trust thy love and merit;

Take home this wandering sheep,

For thou hast sought it:

This soul in safety keep,

QUARLES.

For thou has bought it!

BAXTER.

"LORD, WHAT IS MAN?"

[In the following verses, scripture proofs are adduced for every line. Those on the left-hand of the page contain the doctrine; those on the right, the illustration of that doctrine by actual example. Our young friends will find it a profitable exercise to refer to the several texts.]

Is. ii. 22. Matt.
XXV. 13.

MAN is a finite creature of an hour,

Ps. xc. 2. Rev. But God, the great I AM,-the Infinite.

iv. 9.

Gen. iii. 19.

1 Cor. xv. 47. We, form'd from dust, to dust shall soon return;

Ps.xlv.6. Heb. i. 12.

Is.xl. 29. Heb.
i. 3.

Ps.civ.29.John
XV. 5.

Job viii.9. Heb.
x. 32.

Prov. iii. 15.

But His unnumber'd years are ever new.

By our Creator's power we still exist:

2 Kings iv. 20. Acts xii. 23. Exod. iii. 14. John viii. 58. Job.x.9, Luke xvi. 22. Ps.xc. 4. 2 Pet. iii. 8.

2 Kings,xx.5,6. John xiv. 19. Is. xxxvii. 36.

As He that power withdraws,-so sure we fall. Acts. v. 10.
Could our frail minds remember ages past,

1 Cor. iii. 18. And write down all the wisdom of the world,
In God's omniscient eye, it would appear

2 Chron. xvi.9. Heb. iv. 13. Is. xl. 17.

1 Cor. iii. 19. A single atom,-vanity itself.

Ps.civ.4. Rev. vii. 11. Job.iv.18. Rev. vii. 11.

Angels, those holy spirits round the throne,

'Veil their resplendent faces with their wings; Ps. ciii. 20. While they bow down to worship at His feet.

Matt. iv. 11.

Jer. x.7. Rev. And shall not man adore his Maker too?

XV. 7.

Is.vii.14. Rom. v. 8.

1 Chro. xvi. 31.

For whom he sent his Son to bleed and die?

Ps. xxxix. 4. 5.
Acts viii.30,31.

1 Kings, iv. 29.
34. Matt. ii. 1.
Gen. xvi. 13.
John i. 48.

Gen. xi. 1-9.
Luke xiii.17.

Dan. vii. 10.
Matt.xviii.10.

Is. vi. 2. Rev.
iv. 8.

Is. vi. 3. Rev.
V. 11. 12.
Job xxxvi. 3.
Mark xi.9,10.
Is. lii. 7. Mark
XV. 15.
Ps. xciii. 1.

Phil. 11.9, 10 Yes; could all heav'n and earth conspire to form Rev. v. 13.

Ps. cxlv. 21.

1 Peter,iv. 11. One chorus of eternal praise,-their songs

Ps. cvi. 2.

2 Cor. ix. 15. Would be too feeble to express his love.

Is. xi. 4. Rev. Altho' the highest heaven is his throne,

iii. 20.

Nah. i. 5. 2 Pet.

iii. 10.

Isa. lvii. 15.

And the wide universe at his control,

Matt.xviii.20. A meaner throne he loves to form below;

Is. lxvi. 2.
Luke v. 32.

Mic. vi. 8.

It is within the contrite sinner's heart,

1 Pet. v. 5, 6. Who humbly feels his own unworthiness,

Prov. xiv. 26.

Acts iv. 12. And flies for refuge to the Lord alone.
Job xxxvii.3-6 Then, should the lightnings dart, and thunders
The tempest beat in fury from the skies, [roar,
Joel ii. 1--11 While sinners stand, and tremble at the sound,

2 Pet. iii. 10.

Rev. vi.15--17.

Is. xlvi. 1--5.

1Chron.xvi.36. Rev. iv. 8. Neh. ix. 5.

2 Cor. xii, 4.

Is. vi. 1. Rev. XX. 11. Exo.vii. xii.&c. Mat.xxvi.50-54. Gen. v. 24. John xx.19-232 Chr.xxxiii.12, 13.Lu.xviii.13,14 Ex. iv. 10-12. Matt.viii.5-13.

2 Sam. xxii. 7. Lu.xxiii.42,43.

Ex. xx. 18-21.
Mark iv. 27.

Ex. xv. 14-16.
Acts ix. 3-9.

Gen. vii.16.Lu.
viii. 23, 24.

Heb. xiii. 6. Those who confide in God, need nothing fear. 'Tis but their Father speaks; they know his voice, Act. xxvii.21-25

Ps.cxli.6. Heb. xii. 7.

1 Kgs.xix.9-14.

Deut.i.36.Acts

Ps. xxix. And following him, they soon shall reach that land vii. 54–60.

John xiv.1-3.

Job xix. 26, 27.

1 John iii. 2. Where they will see their Jesus face to face,

Ps.xvi.11.Rev. And live, and reign, with him for evermore!

xxii. 5.

Walworth.

Gen.xxxii. 30. Lu. xvi. 23. Gen.v.24. Rev. v. 13.

R. S.