ren, is compelled to banish him from his home. Yet it is evident that a little child, of four or five years, cannot measure up to this degree of responsibility, nor be justly suffered to incur so heavy a penalty. At five years of age, obstinate rebellion would demand pity rather than indignation. At twenty-five it would provoke indignation rather than pity. The penalty of banishment would be cruel in the one case, and just in the other. And yet, at five years of age, the child has a degree of intelligence, and is capable of gaining some idea of its obligations, and of yielding to them. It may begin to love, honour, and obey, while the final penalty does not yet throw its dark shadow upon the path, so long as the possibility of a fatal forfeiture is still below the horizon.

And in regard to eternal things, a child may be capable of learning something of God and of duty, and be susceptible of Divine influences, while it is yet incapable of incurring the infinite penalty of eternal banishment; and the just and merciful Judge does not lay upon the soul the tremendous responsibility of deciding the question of life and

death.

Here shines the grace of God. The child may begin to serve God before a final forfeiture of His favour is possible. With a child's trust, and a child's purpose, it may choose eternal life, while no condemnation is registered against the soul. There is a golden hour when to the dying child the gates of heaven alone are open, and over the living there hangs no sentence of death, and to them come from God only smiles and holy benedictions. This is the golden hour for the pious parent and the devoted teacher. Seize the vantage ground. By faith, and hope, and love, by prayer, and admonition, and daily example, by ceaseless instruction, and warning, and encouragement, win the young souls for Christ while the evil day of infinite peril is yet afar off. The day will soon come, when the choice will not only be possible, but imperative and final, and endless destinies be shaped by it. Seize the precious moments. Soon they will be gone, and the hour come for a conflict in which defeat may be fatal. Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."

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detractors at Corinth because "his bodily See how he meets the That is true; but he

COMFORT FOR DESPONDENT TEACHERS.-Paul's had sought to cast discredit on his teaching, presence was weak, and his speech contemptible." scornful accusation. He is an "earthen vessel." bears a treasure nevertheless. Nay, the "treasure" was confided to an "earthen vessel" with an express purpose,-that attention might not be distracted by the splendour of the casket,-that the jewel within might be everything, that "the excellency of the power might be of God, and not of" Paul the preacher. Do we sometimes feel sad, as teachers of the young, that we are indeed only "earthen vesels?" Well, it is too true. How much we lack of learning, of skill, of fluent speech, of the "art of putting things;" of patience, of firmness, of gentleness, of all that makes a first-rate teacher! Yet remember we bear a treasure-the treasure, the "pearl of great price." And this treasure is God's, and He will use it. Let us, then, depend wholly on Him for the success granted to us; let us render to Him all the glory.

REST.

(By the late Sir J. Y. Simpson, Bart., M.D.)
OFT 'mid this world's ceaseless strife,
When flesh and spirit fail me,
I stop and think of another life,
Where ills can ne'er assail me;

Where my wearied arm shall cease its fight,
My heart shall cease its sorrow,

And this dark night change for the light
Of an everlasting morrow.

On earth below there's nought but woe,

E'en mirth is gilded sadness;

But in heaven above there's nought but love,
With all its raptured gladness.

There, till I come, waits me a home,

All human dreams excelling,

In which at last, when life is past,
I'll find a regal dwelling.

Then shall be mine, through grace divine,
A rest that knows no ending,
Which my soul's eye would fain descry,
Though still with clay 'tis blending.
And, Saviour dear, while I tarry here,
Where a Father's love has found me,
Oh let me feel, through woe and weal,
Thy guardian arm around me.

PREACHING TO CHILDREN.-Spurgeon says: I believe I have as much as most of my brethren sought out simple words. Still we who occupy the pulpit do not feed the lambs as we ought. We should give them not a word now and then, but, if possible, the whole discourse should be such as they can understand. Lads and lasses should hear intelligently under a good shepherd, and the least lamb should be able to find food.

AGATES.-Isaiah liv. 12: “ I will make thy windows of agates."-The varieties of silica (flint) in which crystallization is not distinctly visible, form a large class of stones employed in the manufacture of the chief articles of personal decoration, and many of which are extremely pretty. These are generally classed under the term chalcedony, which is translu cent, and frequently found associated with more or less admixture of crystalline quartz. The reddish yellow, brown, milky, and mottled varieties of chalcedony are usually known as cornelian, and are found in several parts of Great Britain, where they are employed in the making of inexpensive ornaments, brooches, crosses, seals, &c. The colour of cornelian is also rendered more intense by exposure to the sun, or the application of heat. Other more common varieties, possessing a striped and sometimes brecciated structure, are known as agate, and are called coralline, moss, ribbon, and fortification agate, according to the peculiarities of their internal structures. Such stones are often called Scotch pebbles, from being of very frequent occurrence in that country.-Prof. Morris, in "Popular Science Review."

"STRAINING AT A GNAT."

"Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith."-MATTHEW XXIII. 23.

Two noted Greek pirates were once captured and condemned to death at Malta. It was observed, that the beef and anchovies among the stores of a captured English ship had alone remained untouched. They were asked the cause of this singular procedure, and replied, that it was the time of the great fast of their Church. They would not commit such a sin as tasting fish or flesh. They were plundering and murdering men, women, and helpless children, but they would not transgress the canons of their Church by eating meat upon fast day. They looked to their strict observance of these things as a merit for which God would grant them success in their infamous work.

A man came down from the hills to a Neapolitan priest to confess a sin which lay heavy upon his conscience. In the busy season of Lent, while engaged in making cheese, some of the whey had fallen upon his lips, and, miserable man that he was, he had swallowed it.

"Free my distressed conscience," he besought, "from its agonies, by absolving me from my guilt."

"Have you no other sins to confess?" asked the priest.

"No, I do not know that I have committed any other."

"We often hear of robberies and murders committed in your mountains. Have you never been concerned in these?"

"Yes, but all of us do these things. We never account them as crimes needing confession and absolution."

We may smile at such a type of conscientiousness; but if we search strictly our own hearts, may we not find there some similar "straining at a gnat," which, with our greater light, is far more inexcusable? Are we not all tempted to think more of a strict outward observance of our religious duties, than of deep, inward, hourly communion with Jesus?

"PRELEEMINARIES."-It has long been my deep conviction, that there is a very prevalent tendency in congregations to underrate the importance of the devotional parts of public service. Dr. Robert Lee complains of the subordinate place which worship too commonly occupies in the minds of Presbyterians, in comparison with the sermon, which, he says, "is the first, second, and third thing, and, indeed, nearly everything, in our public worship." He tells of an Edinburgh church, much frequented by strangers, in the lobby of which a gentleman was standing till the devotional services were terminated, when he was promised a seat. To encourage his perseverance, the old woman who kept the door assured him thus: "Dinna weary, sir; ye'll no hae lang to wait; the doctor's no lang in gettin' through the preleeminaries." We may never have heard the exercises of praise and prayer described as "preleeminaries," but have we never heard them spoken of as the "introductory" parts of the service? The sermon is instruction, the other engagements of the house of God are worship. In preaching, man addresses his fellows; in praise and prayer, we speak to God. "Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes."—Rev. J. T. Feaston.

"THROUGH A GLASS, DARKLY."

(By Josephine Pollard.)

How swift we are to measure out our woes,

To catalogue our ills,

Until the heart the bitter flavour knows

Of that which it distils.

We let the clouds hang heavy in our sky,
And drive away the sun,

And sit within our gloomy tents, and sigh
At what ourselves have done.

The falling leaves, in sorrowful amount,
Serve to augment our pain,

And in our sadness we forget to count
The blossoms that remain.

The soul in all its misery delights,
And walks through gloomy ways,
'Mid polar desolation, where the nights
Are longer than the days.

It is not God who niggardly bestows,
But we our penury make;

When in our laps His richest fruits He throws,

We doubt, and dare not take.

While we are careful to record each sigh,

And every tear we shed,

Full many a blessing slips unheeded by,

And many a joy has sped.

E'en as the ship that battles with the storm,
And bravely rides the gale,

May bear the marks of conflict on her form,
Or in the tattered sail,

But has no token by which men might tell
The restfulness she knew

In calm blue seas, ere yet the tempest fell,
And swept her through and through,-

So we upon our foreheads bear the trace
Of sorrow and of pain;

The marks of joy and sunshine we efface,
And only clouds remain.

Ah! vainly would the finite mind essay
God's purpose to impair,

By soiling with these vestiges of clay

The livery we wear.

We cannot choose the way our feet should go,

We know not which is best,

And 'tis His presence only makes us know

What moments have been blest.

The Sunday School Times.

There is no future for a Church that does not reach the young.

THE LAW OF LOVE.

"THAT boy disturbs the peace of the whole class," exclaimed Mr. Kemp, as he pointed to a restless little fellow at the end of the seat. "Sit still, sir," he added sternly, as the boy, who really seemed to be all hands and feet, began to drum with the one, and beat a tattoo on the bottom of the seat with the other.

"I am about forming a new class for Miss C-," replied the superintendent, looking somewhat sadly at the perplexed teacher. "Shall I take Frank Turner and give him to her?"

"I don't think a lady can manage him;" said Mr. Kemp, "but I confess I should like to have him away from these good boys."

So Frank was duly placed in Miss C's class. The superintendent detained Mr. Kemp a moment after school to make a suggestion.

"Say nothing to Miss C

about her scholar; I want him to have a

fair chance with her, and begin with a white record."

Miss C- —, a fair, sweet young lady, very calm and gentle in her mien, took her seat on the next Sunday, in the middle of her class, six restless little people, with eager eyes looking at her, ready to drink in her teachings'; six immortal souls that should live forever. Putting up a silent prayer for help to Him who is able to give it, she began her work. Frank, his black eyes dancing with fun and mischief, attracted her attention first. He had a pocketful of little paper balls, which he was slyly throwing here and there. He was just aiming one at Mr. Kemp's head, when Miss C's little gloved hand was laid gently on his own.

"That is very good fun, Frank," she said, "but it is not right to-day; I want you for my chief staff in this class, so put those away, and find my place for me while I am writing down your names.'

Feeling a new sense of responsibility, the little "chief of staff," found the place in his teacher's Bible. The lesson for the day was on the "new commandment," and the little fellows listened with close attention, as Miss C called it the eleventh, and bade them think often of the Saviour's law of love.

"Frank Turner has turned over a new leaf since he left my class," observed Mr. Kemp to the superintendent a few weeks after. "I wish I knew Miss C -'s secret for managing unruly boys."

"I think it is a very simple one," said the superintendent.

"Miss

C has learned that love is the fulfilling of the law. Her loving persuasion has done more for Frank than our stern authority. Let us hope that she will be able to lead him to Jesus, the ever-loving."-S. S. Times.

AN ATHEIST REBUKED.—A noted and out-spoken infidel had caused his creed to be briefly written over the mantle in his study, "God is Nowhere." His little child coming in, in artless faith, slowly spelled out the motto thus: G, O, D, God,—i, s, is,—n, o, w, now,—h, e, r, e, here! "God is now here!" It is said that this simple incident was the means of that infidel's conversion.