And down within the silent grave
He laid his weary head;

And soon the early violets

Grew o'er his grassy bed.

The mother went her household ways—
Again she knelt in prayer,

And only asked of Heaven its aid,

Her heavy lot to bear.-Miss Landon.

HE HAS PASSED AWAY LIKE A BEAUTIFUL
DREAM.

He has pass'd away like a beautiful dream
Which comes in the morning hour;

So

sunny and bright did his short life seem
Oh! he was our pride and our flower.

Our lost one was all that is lovely and bright So gentle, so good, and so brave;

But now he is snatched away from our sight

And lies in an Indian grave.

We know for a truth, that his body lies there, But his spirit we trust is above,—

As beautiful still, as bright and as fair,

But beaming with holier love.

We will think of him there with the joyful and blest,

And not in an Indian grave;

We will think of him where he's at peace and

at rest,

With the beautiful and the brave.

The trumpet of war will ne'er sound again

In our departed one's ears;

He's deaf evermore to the moanings of pain, And blind to the orphan's tears.

Right happy is he in a bright world above,
Singing to God hymns of joy;

In the midst of his saints, all radiant with love,
Is our brave and beautiful boy!

G

ON THE LOSS OF BELOVED ONES.

Voice after voice hath died away,

Once in my dwelling heard;

Sweet household name by name hath changed
To grief's forbidden word.

From dreams of night on each I call,

Each of the far removed;

And waken to my own wild cry

Where are you my beloved?

Ye left me, and earth's flowers
With records of the past;

grew filled

And stars poured down another light
Than o'er my youth they cast.

The skylark sings not as he sang
When ye were by my side;

And mournful tones are in the wind

Unheard before ye

died.

Peter Keir Falkirk.

Prose.

Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word.-Psalm cxix. 67.

AFFLICTIONS are God's most effectual means to keep us from losing our way to our heavenly rest. Without this hedge of thorns on the right hand and on the left, we should scarcely keep on the way to heaven. If there be but one gap open, how ready are we to find it, and turn out at it? When we grow wanton, or worldly, or proud, how doth sickness, or other affliction reduce us? Every Christian as well as Luther, may call affliction one of his best school-masters; and with David, may say, "Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I kept thy word." Many thousand recovered sinners may cry, "O healthful sickness! O comfortable sorrows! O gainful losses! O enriching poverty! O blessed day that ever I was afflicted!" Not only the given pastures and still waters, but the rod and

staff they comfort us. Though the word and spirit do the main work, yet suffering so unbolts the door of the heart, that the word hath easier entrance.-Baxter.

And she answered "It is well."-2 Kings iv. 26.

Ir is all well-all the best that could be. "If Aaron held his peace in deep submission to the stroke that cut off in a fiery visitation of wrath his two sons in the act of disobedience to Jehovah, how much more will you, my dear friends, lay your hands upon your mouths under this gentle summons, this sweet compelling call received by your eldest born, first to gracethen to glory. Your child become a babe in Christ, and like a babe lying in the bosom of his reconciled father, he was borne from this world of struggles, never to feel the fiery trial through which the Christian passes when left to linger out his pilgrimage of years, years, never to wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. They held him in bondage during the days of his unrenewed nature; and no sooner was the snare