what their language purports to teach, and no more, and the New Testament will be a light to our feet and a lamp to our path, shining brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.

REMINISCENCE.

BY REV. JOHN MOORE.

SOME ten years since, I attended the funeral services of a child, which were performed by a Methodist minister. The child was an only son, beautiful and promising, at least so in the estimation of its parents and their two remaining daughters, who were about entering their teens, all of whom were highly delighted with the name and company of a son and brother. But alas! in an hour when they least expected it, sickness and death came, and the angel of God removed the spirit to its divine Author, and all that was left them was the beautiful and lovely form,-rendered more beautiful by the work of the destroyer, and the fact that they could gaze with melancholy pleasure on it but a few hours

more.

The parents were Methodists, and of course were not, by their creed, denied the full and blessed consolation of regarding their lovely boy as in the arms of the blessed Saviour of the world, whose words of love to children now came home to the hearts of those grief-stricken parents with a meaning, and a beauty, and a glory which they had never realized before, and of which the minister made a good use in his discourse. It was with no little satisfaction that I perceived that mourning group hanging upon the words of comfort as they fell from the lips of their spiritual teacher, while he led them to the fountain of "everlasting consolation and good hope through grace," in regard to the condition of the dear, dear departed one. For according to their faith, and the doctrine then declared by the preacher, who, so far as the condition of the departed child was concerned, was indeed a "minister of peace," no doubts were by them entertained of the happy destiny of the loved one, as it had died before it had passed "the line of accountability," and 47*

VOL. III.NO. XII.

would, therefore, be saved by the grace of God; or, in the language of the preacher, "by the atoning merit of the blood of Christ."

But while listening to those remarks which were so consoling to the bereaved spirit, in reference to the departed one, my mind would dwell on the creed of that minister and those parents, in regard to their living children. Would that same Father in heaven who had given them life, and that Saviour who had blessed children, continue to be merciful and gracious to those who are permitted to " pass the line of accountability?" Or does the grace of God abandon to their own ways such, while it secures the happy destiny of all who die this side of that line? There were two daughters, both of whom were accountable, neither of whom had "experienced a saving change of heart,"—both exposed to death; and if they should die as they were, would their destiny be a happy or a miserable one? These were questions which forced themselves upon my mind, and which in the light of the creed of those parents, must have startled them. But happily for them there, they did not remember the danger in which their creed placed their living children; they were happy in contemplating the safety and happiness of the departed. I had no desire to divert their minds from that holy trust they seemed to repose in God, under the melancholy providence which they were called to experience. And yet I was desirous of having those, and all parents, brought to enjoy the same hope and trust in God in regard to the destiny of all their children, as in respect to those who die in infancy.

The present view of the subject of the destiny of children is a vast improvement on the past, when it was held and taught that many who died, even in infancy, would be doomed to endless suffering. There may be a few who still hold on to that most horrid dogma; and a larger class, probably, who regard baptized infants only as safe from the pains of endless misery; but nearly all Christendom hope for the "salvation of all infants,"—while many fear in regard to the future welfare of those who, having "passed the line of accountability," die out of the pale of the visible church.

According to this view, where is the parent that can desire that children should survive that period? And is it so, that God has suspended the eternal weal or woe of his children on "life's feeble strings?" Does he take some to himself before that period, lest, if allowed to live longer, they might be lost? And does he spare others, that they MAY run the infinite risk? Does he know, when he spares the life of a child

beyond that point of time, that it will be lost? If so, is it a mercy to the child to be thus spared? These are a few of the many queries and thoughts which present themselves to the mind as it dwells on the destiny of our race. And those parents whose religious creed tells them that all who die in infancy are sure of a happy endless life, and that all who survive that period are in imminent danger of endless suffering, can hardly be expected to thank God for sparing the lives of their offspring till they grow to maturity. Do such parents ever realize at what a tremendous risk human life is prolonged? Do they enjoy the society of their children, when reflecting upon that endless hell, which their faith tells them those children are every moment in danger of being doomed to endure ? No, they cannot. And all that keeps such believers from constant anguish of spirit in view of such danger, is the fact that they do not believe that themselves, or any of their dear friends, will be thus doomed. This hope for their friends, saves them from despair. It is happy for the world that it is so, that all have enough of hope in the mercy of God for themselves and their friends, to save them from the legitimate influence of full faith in any of the creeds of Partialism. But that miserable selfishness and Phariseeism, which are evinced by many professors of the benevolent religion of Christ, and which deny to others the grace of God on which they must depend, are a disgrace to the Christian name and profession, and should be rebuked by all who can speak a word or wield a pen in favor of the truth as it is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let parents all learn that God is indeed the FATHER, the UNIVERSAL FATHER, and they will trust and obey him with their whole hearts,-which sentiment, thus taught, will favorably affect their whole household.

ELOQUENT SILENCE.-In the dreadful earthquake which destroyed the city of Caraccas in 1812, with forty thousand inhabitants, the clock of the cathedral was stopped, it is supposed, by the first shock. The tower in which the dials are placed, one fronting each quarter of the heavens, remained standing. Although the clock has been repaired and set going again, one of these dials has never been disturbed. The hands still point to the hour and minute of the earthquake.

YEARNINGS.

BY E. CASE, JR.

I CANNOT keep within, these yearnings strong, For that strange world that in the night's still dreams, Come to the soul in visions more than mortal!

I cast my eyes upon the world around,

Stored with all fair things by the hand of Heaven;
The seasons crowned with blessing in their turn,
With varied aspect bless the circling year.
The Spring with velvet footsteps steals o'er earth,
And brings with her ten thousand beauties rare ;
The soft air trembles with the voice of song,

Her breath seems faint with sweet perfumes of flowers,
Whose gorgeous hues and matchless tints outvie
The rich and varied colors of the morn,

Or mingling purples of the sunset-sky.

The Summer spreads afar her darkling robes
Of dense green foliage, waving to the breeze;
And where the murmuring streamlet ripples on,
Spangles its banks with the young violet's hue ;
And mid its cool refreshing bowers and shades,
The music of her thousand voices charms
And steals the soul insensibly away.
Her green and wavy fields in beauty bend
Their ripening harvests to the spicy gales,
Crowned with the rich munificence of Heaven.

The Autumn comes, and with her garnering hand
Gathers the bounties of the passing year,
And with profuse and liberal care she leaves
Her blessings at the rich and poor man's door :
The life-giving kernel and the clustering fruits,
The purple berry and the nectarine juice,
The ripened blade, the sickle and the sheaf:
These bid the heart of man rejoice and know,

That He who clothes the flowers, and feeds the fowls
Of heaven, will much more clothe and feed his children.
The Winter comes with white and snowy locks,

And with his glassy eyes he looks a look

That makes the fair things of the earth to wither;
And with his breath he breathes an icy gale

That freezes up earth's watery veins and fountains.
Thus, for awhile, in death, wrapt nature sleeps,
Ere it springs forth again to life anew.

I look at all these things, and the full soul
Swells big with thoughts unutterable; and I feel,
Yea, know that life is but a shadowy dream,—
A path that leads to something better, higher.
It cannot be that we are wakened forth,

And all the bright and beautiful of life,

The heart's warm glow and the impassioned soul,
And those strong thoughts that lead us up to God,—
Were given to mock us and deceive us here
With thoughts, and hopes, and aspirations high.
O no, not so! I cast my eyes above

In the still night, and hold communion with

Yon glittering orbs that watch the gates of heaven;
There comes a strength of feeling and of thought,-
A something words in vain would here express,-
And with an angel-voice within my soul,
Breathes sweet assurance of a world beyond,
Wrapt in the deep embrace of yon blue ether.
Oh! then the eye of faith serenely beams,
And burns the spirit with a holy fire!
I feel, I know this world is not my home,
And the wrapt spirit longs to soar away
And cleave the skies to its own blessed lair.
Clinton Liberal Institute, April 29, 1846.

THE PROGRESSIVE KINGDOM OF TRUTH.

BY REV. U. CLARK.

"The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard-seed."-MATT. xviii, 31, 32.

DISCOURSING upon the Galilean shore, the divine Teacher has before him the wide range of nature from which may be drawn the most impressive metaphors. Within the compass of his vision, moves the whole animate and inanimate creation, from the finny tribes that gambol in the sea at his feet, to the broad cedars that waved upon the Lebanon of Northern India. He speaks in parables. He draws wisdom from the smallest and simplest object in the vegetable world. Instead of the magnificent cedars of Lebanon, he prefers a single grain of mustard-seed ;-first, too puny to be seen by the naked eye,-next, is cast into the ground, germinates, spreads forth in time, and at length becomes a broad-spreading plant, beneath which, the fowls of heaven seek for shelter.

Nothing more forcible than this, to illustrate the nature, the beginning, the progress and the final extension of that heavenly kingdom which Jesus himself came to establish. The enormous growth of the plant used in the parable was peculiar to the land of Judea. The seed itself was small,