sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Revelation xxi. 4.-And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

As the sweet flower which scents the morn,
But withers in a day,

Thus lovely seemed the infant's dawn,
So fled his life away.

Ere sin could blight, or sorrow fade,
Death came with friendly care;
The opening bud to heaven conveyed,
And bade it blossom there.

Perchance the hour that took the boy
Has spared a heavier doom,
Snatch'd him from scenes of guilty joy,
And pangs of ill to come.

He died before his infant soul

Had burned with wrong desire ;
Had ever spurned at heaven's controul,
Or quenched its sacred fire.

He died to sin, he died to care;
He scarce had felt the rod,

When, springing on the viewless air,
His pure soul soared to God.

LESSON VIII.

GOD OMNIPRESENT AND EVER-WORKING THROUGHOUT THE MATERIAL WORLD.

See "The Temple of Education," by Rev. T. E. Poynting. Part I., chapter v., lesson 1.

Mother." You remember, Walter, our agreeing that we would try to learn about God from the things that he has made,-and from what we see him doing?"

Walter.-"Yes, mother; and when I was out in the lane to-day, at the bottom of the hill where it is so warm and sheltered, I saw the hedges were beginning to be quite green and I wondered whether God had been there, making them green? The last time we went down the hill, there were no leaves at all upon the hedges."

Mother." Yes, Walter, God not only had been there, but he was there-then-while you were standing looking at the fresh green leaves. He is present everywhere. Not a bud can open nor a leaf fall unless God wills it; but when we

see these sudden changes and quick growths, His working seems more plain and striking to us. I have stood sometimes, Walter, underneath the beech trees and horse chestnuts on a spring day, when the sun shone warm after a shower, and I have listened-and heard the buds bursting to let out the young green leaves. Such a pleasant, gentle little sound they make! So sweet!"

and they smell

Walter." Oh mother! do take me to hear

them!"

Mother." Well, my boy, we will listen to them together;-but it is too early in the spring yet,-in April I dare say we may hear them. And now come with me into the parlour, and I will show you something that I think may teach us again about God."

They went into the parlour, and on the table stood a beautiful hyacinth in full flower. The whole room was sweet with the scent of it. It was in a tall glass, and the long clean white roots reached to the bottom of the glass, and curled round there in a thick mass. The broad green leaves shot upwards, and some of them were so long and heavy that they bent down, half broken, over the outside of the glass, and almost touched the table. But the flower was

the most beautiful part of it; it was of a bright pink colour,-a large spike of flowers, upon a thick, solid, fleshy stalk. Walter asked his mother where it had come from, and she told him his aunt had sent it that morning for them

to see.

Mother.-"Do you remember, Walter, some weeks ago, going to the seed-shop with me? and my buying what you called 'an ugly brown root' for your aunt?"

Walter." Yes, mother, it was like a dirty roundish stone or clod of earth, and I wondered you did not buy her a pretty bunch of flowers instead."

Mother. "Well, my boy, this root is the very same."

Walter." Oh, mother, how beautifully it has grown! all these long roots downwards, and all these thick leaves upwards, and this great grand flower!-and all in such a little time! From the bottom of the roots to the top of the flower, it is almost as long as I am. Did aunt Mary see it grow, mother? did not somebody fasten on the roots at the bottom? and the flowers and leaves at the top?"

Mother." No; your aunt saw them growing each day a little longer and a little longer but