TO A CHRISTIAN FATHER. AGAIN in the furnace, my brother! Again lamenting under the chastenings of God! My heart bleeds with yours, I pour out my tears and supplications that this new and sore visiting may be blessed, and may afterwards yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness. It shall be so. It is so, in some measure, already. Whatever brings us to the feet of our Redeemer, does us good. He is the Physician, and he knows best how to make up the prescription, and how to administer it. He has taken away your boy, but not Himself, nor his loving kindnesses. He has shown you the rod, but not the evil it has avoided. He has made you to smart under the stroke, but it is, probably, a substitute for some blow unspeakably more awful, and perhaps nigh at hand when He smote you, but now turned aside forever. We must live by faith, my brother. Our comforts must not be our gods. Our souls have neither purity, nor peace, nor establishment, nor victory, but in proportion as our fellowship is with the Lord our life, and our life-giving head. O, for that habitual nearness to Him which shall keep us in constant and gracious de pendence upon His word of truth, which He has promised never to take utterly from us. The further the creature removes from us, the more desirable and consoling is our walking with Him who, when we are overwhelmed, knows our path. REV. J. M. MASON, D. D. TO A CHRISTIAN MOTHER. HAVE you lost two lovely children? Did If you did, God you make them your idols? has saved you from idolatry. you have your God still, and a creature cannot be miserable, who has a God. The little words "My God," have infinitely more sweetness than "my sons" or "my daughters." Were they very desirable blessings? Your God calls you to the nobler sacrifice. Can you give up these to Him at His call? So was Isaac, when Abraham was required to part with him at God's altar. Are you not a daughter of Abraham? Then imitate his faith, his self-denial, his obedience, and make your evidences of such a spiritual relation to him shine brighter on this solemn occasion. Has God taken them from your arms? And had you not given them to God before? Are you displeased that God calls for His own? Was not your heart sincere in the resignation of them? Show then, madam, the sincerity of your heart in leaving them in the hand of God. Do you say, the are lost? Not out of God's sight, and God's world, though they are gone out of your sight and our world. "All live to God." You may hope the spreading covenant of grace has sheltered them from the second death. They live, though not with you. Are you ready to complain, you have brought forth for the grave? It may be so, but not in vain. Is. 64: 25. "They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for trouble (i. e. for sorrow without hope); for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them." This has been a sweet text to many a mother, when their children are called away betimes. DR. WATTS. REMEMBRANCE OF THE DEAD. WE are forbidden to murmur, but we are not forbidden to regret; and whom we loved tenderly while living, we may still pursue with an affectionate remembrance, without having any occasion to charge ourselves with rebellion against the sovereignty that appointed a separation. THE DEAD CHILD. FEW things appear so beautiful as a young Ichild in its shroud. The little innocent face looks so sublimely simple and confiding among the cold terrors of death. Crimeless and fearless that little mortal has passed alone under the shadow. There is death in its sublimest and purest image; no hatred, no hypocrisy, no suspicion, no care for the morrow, ever darkened that little face; death has come lovingly upon it; there is nothing cruel or harsh in its victory. The yearnings of love indeed cannot be stifled; for the prattle and smile-all the little world of thoughts, that were so delightful—are gone forever. Awe, too, will overcast us in its presence, for the lonely voyager; for the child has gone, simple and trusting, into the presence of an allwise Father; and of such, we know, is the kingdom of heaven. NOT IN VAIN. Oн, not in vain thy life! Thou hast not sown, THE LOST LAMB. LOST lamb! there is a starry fold Far from this sphere of doubt and gloom Have angels crowned thee. Sweet, perished bud of promise rare! Safe from the troubles that molest Earth's pilgrim toward the sunset hieing, If earnest prayer could bring him back, Hope's star is burning |