THE CHURCH SUNDAY SCHOOL

MAGAZINE.

"REDEEMING THE TIME."
(EPH. v. 16.)

MY DEAR Young FRIENDS,-Most, if not all of you know full well the meaning of the word "redeem." It means to save any thing from being utterly lost, or recklessly squandered away. And "redeeming the time," means improving and embracing every opportunity of doing good. I have chosen the New Year as an appropriate season for calling your attention to these words of the Apostle, because we are now more especially impressed with the rapid flight of time.

I lately read a book in which the beginning of every year was compared to the milestones on an ordinary journey, and I must say it struck me as being a fit comparison. In travelling, every milestone on the road reminds us, that we have commenced another measured space in our allotted distance, be it long or short; and 80, every New Year's Day warns us that we have begun another portion of our earthly pilgrimage.

But notwithstanding this analogy, there exists in one respect a vast, and marked difference. When we take a journey we have the means of computing the precise

length of it, whereas, in our pilgrimage through life, no calculation of ours, no foresight of others, can help us to any conclusion as to even the probable duration of it. We are beset with uncertainty, so that when by God's mercy we are brought, as we now are, to the beginning of a New Year, we know not so much as whether we shall live to see the close of it.

Surely then, this is matter for very serious reflection. With all the diligence we can use, and all the watchfulness we can bestow, many a precious hour is lost :-lost in idleness, indolence, and inactivity in our different callings :lost in the emptiness, vanity, and frivolity of our pursuits.

My dear children, the beginning of every New Year we are spared to see should be marked by more than kindly greetings, and family gatherings, and freer and fuller intercourse with our friends and neighbours; it should be observed by strict investigation, by most searching enquiry whether we are, or are not "redeeming the time." The Apostolic injunction may come to one and all of us now, with unimpared force, and should be observed with unabated zeal, "because the days, (now as then) are evil."

A LAY OF THE NEW YEAR.
ANOTHER year from human ken,

Hath sped on pinions fast;

Another leaf is added now

To the records of the past:

Another page hath been turned o'er
In Time's still open book;

A page from which we well may turn,
And shuddering fear to look.

***

For there our follies, sins, and faults,

Rise up in sad array;

Temptations unresisted; gifts

And talents thrown away.

Well may we pause in dread before

The shadow it hath cast,

And ask ourselves of the New Year,
"Will it be like the last?"

And a voice answers from within,
Of deep and solemn tone,

"Peace, murmurer!" ask me not of that

Known but to God alone!

Seek not to learn! enough for thee

Thy duties to fulfil:

And thus by meek well-doing, strive

To check the tide of ill.

Hush every barsh and bitter word,

Quell each unkindly thought;

Add nothing to the misery

With which the world is fraught:

But rather strive by gentleness,
By patience and by love,
Some portion of the heavy load,

Small though it be, to move.

Know'st thou of none whose lot the weight

Of poverty doth bear;

For whom, e'en from a scanty store,

A trifle thou can'st spare?

It may be that thou hast not gold,

But is there naught beside

That thou can'st freely give, if this

Be unto thee denied?

Is there not one whose weary bed

Of sickness thou can'st tend:

And with the offices of love,

A holier mission blend?

Are there no mourners, sad and lone,
To whom thou may'st impart
Strong comfort, from the only Source

That heals the broken heart?

Are there no erring spirits, who
In sin and darkness roam;

Whom thou in meekness may'st win back
To their eternal home?

Are there not these? aye! more than these
Scattered throughout the land,

For thee to aid. Go! seek them out!

No longer idle stand.

Pause not for grateful thanks repaid,
For blessings by the way;

Speed thou along life's rugged paths;
For these thou must not stay!
Slack not because no fruit appear
Where thou the seed hast sown:

But do thy Master's work, and leave
The rest to Him alone:

That when awaken'd from the sleep,

Which lasts through death's dark night,

The dawning of an endless year

Shall burst upon thy sight;

Thine high reward denied on earth,

These blessed words may be,

"In that ye did it unto these,

Ye did it unto Me!"

H. D. L.

THE FLOWER BETWEEN THE LEAVES.

(Continued from the December No.)

There was a large old family Bible, neatly covered with cloth, lying on the top of the chest of drawers; "What a nice ́Bible,” Lucy observed, “I dare say you have had it a long time." "Yes," said Miss Ashton, "it is an old friend indeed, it belonged to Mrs. Smith's husband, and had been in the family long before his time; many a time when I was a little girl, younger than either of you, I have sat upon his knee, and he has turned over the pages to show me, the curious old engravings; Noah coming out of the ark, with all the animals, two and two behind him; and Sampson carrying away the gates of Gaza on his shoulders."

"Yes, Miss Ashton, dear," said the old woman sighing, "those were happy days when I had my good old man with me and you and your little sisters used to be so fond of running in to hear our old fashioned talk; but if you take it up now it will not open at any of the prints that used to take your fancy so much in those days. See," she said, and Ellen and Lucy thought they had never seen anything so pleasant as the smile that shone out all over her face, as she took up the book very reverently, and spread it open before them, "it always opens at one place now."

"Yes," said Lucy, "and it is very easy to see the reason why it does so, because there has been a flower laid between the leaves to dry."

The chapter was one in Genesis, and the little girl's observation following the direction of Mrs, Smith's eyes, soon fell upon a text, under the words of which the stroke of a black