Temple to show how much he knew and how learned he was; or if he had gone that he might ask puzzling questions. But no! he went up that he might be about his Father's business! God looketh on the heart, and them that honour Him He will honour. Those learned men thought that they were great men, and should be greatly missed when they died, and have rich and costly funerals and splendid tombs, and have their names go down to posterity. But who knows where they were buried, or even what their names were ?-while the child that stood before them, and who was about his Father's business, shall be known, honoured, loved, and obeyed,—not only while the sun and the moon endure, but even for ever and ever.

Oh, how many a mother has thought her child, so cherished and so dear, was lost, lost for ever, as it dropped from her arms, and an unseen messenger carried its soul away out of her sight! How she has mourned as she turned back from the graveyard to her desolate home, to meet his form, to hear his voice, no more! How she has felt that she has lost him, as she looked over his drawer, and saw all his playthings just as he left them,-the books that he read, the knife that he used, the slate on which he drew figures! How his form came back and lived in the chambers of her memory! and how she dreamed about him in the night, and felt

his warm breath upon her cheek, and then awoke and felt that he was lost! Lost! Oh, no! when she meets that child again, he may be-not in the Temple sitting among the doctors, and asking them questions-but he may be in the midst of the shining angels in heaven; and thus her sorrow may be turned into "joy unspeakable and full of glory."

"The child is found." Thus the tidings ran through all the circle of kindred and friends at Nazareth, and thus they all rejoiced with Joseph and Mary when they heard the story.

Thus, too, when a sinful child returns to his Heavenly Father, and repents of sin, and becomes a Christian, the tidings are known in heaven. "I say unto you there is joy in heaven in the presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth." Then the lost one is found! Then the dead one returns to life! Then the sick one recovers! Then, anxiety about him is all over! "The lost child is found" is the joy of heaven, when one soul comes to Christ for salvation. Do you think there has ever been any such joy over you, my dear children ? Do you think you shall ever be found, all safe and good in heaven, as the child Jesus was in the Temple at Jerusalem? May God grant it!

D

"My beloved is gone down into his garden, lilies."-SONG OF SOLOMON vi. 2.

to gather

IN our American gardens, in some shady, retired corner, you may find a modest lowly flower, with large deep-green leaves, and a profusion of blossoms of the purest white and of the sweetest perfume. It is the "Lily of the valley." Our daughters place the flower in the hair of the young bride; and many a little hand of an infant in his coffin have I seen clasped around this beautiful flower. The fair brow of the bride, and fairer brow of the little one sleeping in death,-like alabaster, brighter the nearer you bring it to the light,is adorned by the presence of this lily.

Christ sometimes calls His church a vineyard, in which He raises the choicest fruit of the vine. Sometimes a garden, in which are planted trees and shrubs, spices, trees of frankincense, myrrh, aloes, cinnamon, pomegranates, lilies, and many other flowers. And among all these there is none more beautiful than the lily. It is this that He gathers the most frequently. When I stand over the little coffin containing the babe so fair, so like marble, so unlike anything earthly, with a beauty which death could not efface,—the lily with the dew still fresh on it,-no more to bloom here, but with the dust shaken from it, and gently transplanted to the garden above in which to bloom for ever,-I always recall the words of our text, and feel that Christ has indeed come down into His garden to gather lilies!

We do not know what the little one would have been here. We do not know through what dangers or sorrows or pains it would have passed; but we know that it has gone to God to be educated, and will never remember any other home but heaven. It will not remember the few days of its wailing here, nor the sobs of its mother as she saw it dressed for the grave. The lily was gathered before, the cold storms beat on it, or the burning sun had taken away its beauty. Death lifted it up so gently, that he left no mark of his hands upon it, except his seal which closed

the ear and the eye, and stilled the beatings of the little heart.

But it is not about transplanted flowers that I am wishing at this time to speak; though if I were to try to describe something beautiful as a diamond and sublime enough for a picture which an angel might paint, I should select some little child who very early began to seek after Jesus, who lisped His praises here, and in the sublimity of simple faith went over the river of death, without a fear or a terror. We have seen such lilies gathered. I am thinking at this moment of a sweet child who stood at the grave of her mother and young sister, and with her little hand pointed out the spot between them where she begged her father to let her be buried. What an illness that child went through! And with what confidence in her Saviour, as she struggled on towards Him through suffering, and was finally gathered to Him with a faith that a Moses might admire! Such pictures never fade from the memory.

There is no part of His garden which Christ loves more to visit than the flowers,-the lilies. Let us see what the great Redeemer has done to gather in the lilies of His garden,-the children of His church.

1. He gathers them under the care and love of their parents.

God plants the seeds of love in the heart of all