The day he was brought in, his father having died the day before, was carried out. He was put into the same room, and occupied the same bed, and in a short time followed his neglected and heart-broken father to the judgment-seat of Christ. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God! BOYS, MIND YOUR A boy, about fourteen years of age, whose mother was a widow, living at Wapping, became so hardened and wicked, by getting with bad companions, that he seemed to care for nothing. He went twice into the Thames to swim, and each time narrowly escaped drowning. On his return home, his mother talked seriously to him on the folly and danger of venturing into the river, but in vain. He abused her, and declared with an oath that he would immediately go again. He did so, but had not been in many minutes when he sunk to rise no more! What a dreadful thing it was to die breaking God's command! Then let children beware how they take the Lord's name in vain, or break the Sabbath, or do any other wicked thing, lest they should die in the act, and so be hurried into the presence of the great God, who is the Judge of all! Don't forget the story of the swearing boy that was drowned. "FORGET-ME-NOT." "GRANDMOTHER," said little Gretchen, "why do you call this beautiful flower, blue as the sky, growing by this brook, a Forget-me-not?"" My child," said the grandmother, "I accompanied once your father, who was going on a long journey, to this brook. He told me, when I saw this little flower, I must think of him; and so we have always called it the 'Forget-me-not."" Said happy little Gretchen, "I have neither parents, nor sisters, nor friends, from whom I am parted. I don't know whom I can think of when I see the 'Forget-me-not."" "I will tell you," said her grandmother, "some one of whom this flower may remind you,-Him who made it. Every flower in the meadow says, 'Remember God!' every flower in the garden and the field says to us of its Creator, Forget me not!'" THE DYING BOY TO HIS MOTHER. Pray let me soar above the sky, Look upward with believing eye, They dwell in ever-living bowers, I I see, I see an angel-band Come through the heavenly gate; Then weep not, mother; Christ the Lord "Let children come to me.' Weep not, but let me go to joy SPARE THE INSECT. OH, turn that little foot aside, Nor crush beneath its tread The smallest insect of the earth, Which looks to God for bread. If He, who made the universe, Looks down, in kindest love, To shape an humble thing like this, My child, begin in little things To act the gentle part, The Cabinet. TAKE HEED HOW YOU READ. IN the days of his sojourn on earth, our Lord and Saviour directed his disciples to take heed how they heard, implying that much importance was attached to their doing so. At that time and in the period which immediately followed, much truth was delivered orally to the people; and the sum and substance of the religious system which we call the Gospel was, in the first instance, thus promulgated. At present, truth comes to our minds, not orally, as spoken by messengers immediately commissioned from heaven, but as embodied in the words of a book,-that book being what we by way of eminence denominate the Bible, that is, THE BOOK. It follows, therefore, that the Saviour's command, "Take heed how ye hear," must, in our day, be interpreted, "Take heed how ye read." And all who have ever thought upon the matter at all will admit that there is very great reason for such a command, inasmuch as, while it is a very easy thing to read, in what we may term the physical sense of the word, that is, to run through pages of characters, and pronounce mentally, or aloud, certain sounds, which these characters are supposed to represent, it is really a work of no small difficulty so to read as to imbibe fully the sentiments of the book, and make them our own. Very few read a book of any kind as they ought; and perhaps no book is read, taking men generally, to so little practical purpose as the Bible, when we consider how many it numbers as its professed readers. Various reasons may be given for this fact, were we desirous to account for it; but instead of doing this, we shall endeavour to give two or three plain hints for the guidance of those who are really anxious to take heed how they read. The Bible should be read intelligently. It is notorious that many persons read the Bible as they would read no other book in the world. Having been accustomed to its phraseology from childhood, they see nothing to attract their notice, and hence their reading is entirely mechanical. If this were the proper place, it might be worth while to consider how far the unintelligent reading of the Scriptures, to which children are too often trained in their earliest years, may render them liable, in later life, to fall into the habit of reading without understanding, or trying to understand. It is certain that they who acquire the art of reading after they have come to years of discretion, or who meet with the Bible for the first time in mature life, never evince this indifference to its contents. Putting religious feeling entirely out of the question, the narratives of the Bible, its poetry, its life-like pictures of humanity, must, according to the very laws of our nature, excite interest, if their power were not diminished by long familiarity. We have, therefore, to struggle vehemently to overcome this hindrance in our scriptural studies. The Bible should be read just the same as any other book is read, with care and thought, and earnest endeavour to understand its meaning. It is necessary to reiterate continually in the ears of professing Christians, what no Protestant, at least, will in so many words deny, that the truths contained in the Bible can do us no good whatever, except as they are intelligently received and understood. They have no magical virtue; and unless their import be appreciated by the understanding, as much good would be gained by poring for the same length of time over the Scriptures in the original tongues, to one who knew no language but his own. The Bible must be read constantly.-Every one must have noticed how entirely we lose all interest in any book unless we read it regularly. Let a man take up Milton, Locke, or any other author, and only read a portion once or twice in a week, he will find no interest in the perusal. The principle is of universal application. Persons who but very seldom see each other can easily dispense with each other's company; while, on the contrary, those who are most frequently together have the greatest delight in each other's society. Pre-eminently does the principle apply to the reading of the Scriptures. If you only read the Bible on a Sunday, or at long and especially at irregular intervals, you will find no enjoyment in reading, and as little profit. Physicians tell us, and experience tells us, too, that food must be taken regularly, if our bodies are really to be nourished and strengthened. Man cannot, like the boa constrictor, eat an enormous quantity of food, and then abstain altogether for six months, and yet preserve either his health or life. And in this respect the soul is like the body. The word of God is the appropriate food of the soul; and that food, in order that it may nourish and strengthen the soul, must be taken frequently. We do not say how frequently; each must determine for himself: but we would venture to suggest that twice a day is not too often, and we think no one who has any spiritual taste and appetite will feel it so. The Bible should be read systematically.—We have before said it should be perused like any other book, and in that our present direction is partly implied; for no book is read profitably which is not read systematically. But how few read the Bible in this way! How few think of even making the attempt to become thoroughly acquainted with the whole of God's revealed word! A general acquaintance with the New Testament, and some of the more devotional parts of the Old, is all they aspire to. But if we believe that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God," it surely must all deserve to be known and understood. Suppose a youth to emigrate to a foreign land, many thousand miles from his father and his home; he receives a very long letter from his father, containing many expressions of affection, much information respecting loved ones at home, intermingled with precepts and cautions, adapted to his own peculiar circumstances. It is easy to conceive that some portions of his father's epistle would be particularly precious to him; he would linger with delight over those passages in which his parent declared his intense attachment to his child, and spoke of the chasm his removal had created in the family circle, or mentioned the delights he cherished in the anticipation of again welcoming the wanderer home. But would it be acting the part of a dutiful child to dwell upon these exclusively, and entirely to neglect the other portions of the letter? Yet such is the course many take with the letter they have received from their Father in heaven. They know all about what Christ has said respecting the many "mansions" in his Father's house; they are quite at home among Paul's Epistles, and often ponder over the Apocalyptic descriptions of the New Jerusalem, with its pearly gates, and tree of life, and unfading sunshine, till they almost forget that they are still wanderers upon the earth. But they are at sea altogether if you touch the historic portions of the Bible. The Pentateuch, the histories of Samuel and the Kings, and the Minor Prophets, are a misty, unknown region. Here and there a form stands out more prominently than the surrounding objects, and they recognize a Noah, a Job, or a Daniel; but for the most part, it is untrodden ground, and its inhabitants characters with whom they have yet to make acquaintance. But to gain this thorough knowledge of the Bible, time is necessary; and as time is not too abundant with most of us, system is necessary to make the most of what we have. Here it is not easy to advise We can only say, it is indispensable to Christian maturity and progress to possess a comprehensive acquaintance with the whole of revealed truth, and such acquaintance is only to be gained by a course of systematic study. The Bible should be read in the spirit of devotion.—One object of the Scriptures is, to communicate instruction; but this is not their only object. The body needs more than food, if it is to be healthy; and in like manner, knowledge alone is not sufficient to maintain the life of the soul. And, therefore, over and above the mere communication of knowledge, provision is made in the Bible to meet these other and equally pressing wants of our spiritual life. The soul has affections: it must love,—and the Bible presents to it an object infinitely worthy of its love. It shows it the Maker of the universe in likeness of man, cherishing human sympathies, bearing human woes, treading this earth as a pilgrim and stranger, to bring human beings who had wandered astray home to himself. It shows the Redeemer of the world on the cross of Calvary, in Joseph's sepulchre, and finally on the throne of heaven, continuing there the work he began on earth, of reconciling man to God. But such a vision does not necessarily excite love. No; let the spirit be in a cold, worldly frame, far from God, and the story of redeeming love will awaken in that spirit no love in return. Therefore must the Scriptures, to be read with profit, be read in a devotional frame of mind. The spirit hopes as well as loves, and in the length and breadth of this world it finds nothing to satisfy its desires and expectations. But it finds something in the Bible. There it sees unfolded, as on a map, a land that is far away, where the skies are never clouded, where the flowers never fade, where the heart of friendship never grows cold, where disease and pain may never wound the body, nor grief ever tear the spirit, where the bonds of love are never sundered by distance or by death, and where God himself, the light and glory of the place, shall wipe away every tear. But are the spirit's hopes necessarily attracted towards the land thus brought before it? No; let that spirit be in love with its present habitation, content with its present lot, and all the glories of the prospect will fail to charm. Whenever, then, we sit down to the study of the Scriptures, |