NEW YEAR'S DAY.

MY DEAR CHILDREN,-It seems but a very short time since I wished you "a happy new year," at the commencement of 1849, and yet it is a whole year. Now, though a year seems a long period when we look forward into futurity, it is but a speck in our existence, when we look back upon it as among the things that are past.

My dear children, you are now a year older than when I last addressed you, and you are, therefore, better able to reflect on your conduct, and consider the vast importance of spending your time well, and wisely. The portion of time we call a year forms but a small part of a long, or it may be a very short lifetime, and I cannot help thinking it is no small privilege to have that time, which slips away so rapidly and imperceptibly, thus divided. And I will tell you why? Because the beginning of each new year seems to bring us, as it were, to a solemn pause in our existence, because it seems to compel us to look back upon the past and ask ourselves what we have been doing ?-because it seems to remind us of mercies received, difficulties overcome, dangers averted, or illnesses recovered from, and leads us to ask ourselves what return we have been making to the Giver of all good, for any or all of these mercies, what we have "rendered unto the Lord for all His benefits ?" And still more, it seems to mark out a certain time for breaking with bad habits, and dangerous associates, and forming good ones; as also for making new rules, and regulations, and resolutions: and therefore it is, my dear children, that the beginning of every new year may be made a time of much spiritual

improvement, and advancement in holiness. Besides visiting and eating, and drinkiug, and all sorts of mirth, and merriment, you have much to occupy both your time and your thoughts. But this new year's work cannot be done for you, you must do it each for yourselves; and you must begin it with fervent prayer to God to help you in the great work. What have you already done towards becoming wiser and holier this year than you were last?

He, "in whose hands are life and death," has dealt very graciously with you. How many, with whom you associated last new year's day, have been swept away by a frightful and desolating disease! They are dead, whilst you have been preserved alive; but, “being dead they yet speak;" and the dead, more than the living, seem ever to speak in the solemn voice of warning. Now you have not forgotten your companions, from whom you have so lately been separated by death; then forget not your feelings when the destroying angel passed you by—your feelings of gratitude to God, who "spared you when you deserved punishment," and "in His wrath remembered mercy."

If you then made any promises of amendment for the future, let the beginning of a new year remind you of the solemnity and sacredness of promises made in the time of trouble, and let it strengthen your desire to "pay unto the Lord your vows."

The patriarch Job thus speaks:-"Multitude of years should teach wisdom;" but the wisdom that is to be attained by a long life cannot be attained all at once. It must be learnt year by year. You must begin young, and then go on, "from strength to strength," until you feel yourselves to be

"strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might." Unto you, Christian children, "much is given." You have duly appointed ministers to instruct you in the House of God, and administer His holy ordinances. You have kind teachers to shew you" the way wherein you should go,” at school. Besides, it is to be hoped, Christian parents at home, who are desirous to stimulate you, both by precept and example, to walk in "the way that leadeth unto everlasting life." Then you have Bibles and Prayer-books, and other books, containing religious instruction, so that, as Saint Paul reminded the Corinthians, "ye come behind in no gift." But all these advantages being with them an adequate responsibility, and it is of this I would now remind you, "much will be required of you." Before this is brought to a close, you may be required to give up your stewardship of all these good gifts. Are you preparing for the time, the very uncertain time, when you will be "put out of the stewardship?" You must make preparations for that time now.

This cannot be a happy new year to you unless you are seeking its happiness where alone it can be found; or unless you can feel, that if it were your last of time, it would be to you the first of an eternity of blessedness.

NEW YEAR'S DAY.

Dearest mother! I could not fall asleep

When you gave me your good-night kiss,
For I felt I had reason to mourn and to weep
Over all I had done amiss;

And I said to myself, What if this New Year

Had come to the rest, and not found me here."

I thought, as I lay on my little bed,

Of the unkind deeds I had done,
And of many an angry word I had said,
Since the old year its course begun;

And I feared to turn to that Father above
Who has bid us to dwell in peace and love.

I mourn'd over every selfish deed;

The mite so grudgingly paid,

To save and to succour a brother in need
When I dared not refuse my aid;

Besides the unkindness, seemed like a sin
Against God, who had made me to differ from him.

I reckoned up every idle hour,

And the days I had lived in vain,

And felt how the mightiest here have no power

To summon one back again;

For time is a talent from God, and is lent
To man to be wisely and rightly spent.

I counted the Sabbaths God had given me,
And that I had so thrown away,

Instead of preparing to spend in Heaven
An eternal Sabbath-day;

And I wondered how He could so long forbear,

As to let me alone for another year.

The old year seem'd like an ill-used friend,

And I wept as I watched it die,

And knelt in my grief, and prayed God to send

A new heart to me from on high;

And it was all the while as if He were there,

Aud pitied my sorrow, and heard my prayer!

"Blessed are the Bead which die in the Lord."

REV. xiv. 13.

(Continued from page 4.)

WE left off in the history of our Royal Saint departed, with the account of her elevation to the Throne of these realms as Queen Consort, and of that bitter and cruel political hostility which poisoned so many of her purest joys, and embittered so many hours of her life. Amid much unfeeling slander, and baser insinuations, from those who knew better too, She went forwards on her gentle woman's mission, of peace and good-will, shewing to all around the striking grandeur of a good example. Throughout the life of her royal husband She contrived to be what she was in very truth,-the gentle companion, the true friend, the sweet adviser, the loving wife. She watched by his dying bed, and soothed his latest hours by a watchful affection and a tender care, most womanly and most sanctified.

With the accession of her present Majesty, She lived in comparative retirement, -but living indeed, to the glory of God, and the welfare of man, by many an act of faith, and many a deed of love. Whenever