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EARLY PIETY.

ONE inestimable advantage attending the blessings which early religion would give you is, that these shall never be taken away from their possessors. Mary," said the Lord, "hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." As for the lovers of this world, their all is here, and shortly their all will be for ever lost to them. Soon it may be said of the young, the vigorous, and the gay, who know not God, Where are they? Gone from the world they loved so well. Where their health and youthful bloom? Gone, for ever gone. Where their gaiety and delights, their hours of thoughtless merriment, their frivolous amusements, their vain companions? All gone.

But the possessor of early religion may say, "Not thus fleeting are my treasures. Thou art my portion, Oh Lord; others have parks, palaces, and crowns; or wealth, gaiety, and pleasure; this is their portion; but thou, the God of heaven and earth, art mine, and mine for ever. When the miser shall have lost his wealth, and crowns have fallen from the heads that wear them; when the man of this world shall have left the world he idolized, and all their delights shall have forsaken the young, the pleasure-taking, and the gay, thou wilt still be mine; thou wilt be my support when rocks crumble into dust, and mountains tremble to their base, and when the sun shall shine no more; and when the earth itself shall have vanished like a falling star, that blazes and expires, thou wilt be mine still; my God; and my portion for ever."

"Let heav'nly love prepare my soul,

And call her to the skies,

Where years of long salvation roll,
And glory never dies."

"FATHER, come here: dear father, pray make haste, And stop the man from making all this waste; Is not he foolish, father? do but see

What sprouts and leaves he's cutting from the treeOh, stop his cutting, or no grapes there'll be."

"My foolish child, who think'st thyself so wise-
"Tis well the gardener sees not with thy eyes-
The very process that thus grieves thee sore
Is meant to make the grape-tree bear the more.
But, ah! I may not blame thee when I see
A picture of what God oft sees in me;
Midst shining suns or fertilizing rain
"Tis easy from repining to refrain;
But he who loves us sees me oft require
The pruning knife, the sharp refiner's fire,
The discipline of providential pain;-
And when we suffer, then we doubt the reign

Of heavenly mercy, as though nought were right
But what is all reveal'd to human sight;

And what is not according to our mind
Furnishes proof, we think, that God's unkind.
As I correct my child, so God reproves,

And tells me that he chastens whom he loves;
He cuts the branches, digs about the root,
And prunes the tree that it may bear more fruit-
Even in pain his goodness still I see,

What makes me fruitful must be best for me;

Hence then complainings, all distrust be gone,
Here will I ever rest,- -" Thy will, Oh God, be done."

A LAMB OF THE SAVIOUR'S FLOCK.

I attended last week the funeral of a little girl only seven years old. You would scarcely expect that such a young child would die; the death of old people, who are worn out by time and toil, is not wonderful, because age and care eat away our strength, as the worm gnaws the heart of the stoutest oak; but the death of a child is an untimely death-it is like the fall of a leaf in spring, when it is green and fresh and full of sap. It is like cutting off a bud that would become a flower, or a blossom, which, if left on the tree, would turn to fruit. The question occurs, then, why did she die? Because it was the will of God, my young friends. We live just as long as he pleases, and no longer. He bestows our lifeHe sustains our life, and He takes away our life. It may seem to you, perhaps, that she died of sickness; but who sent her sickness? Sickness could never come unless God permitted it. God sent sickness upon King Hezekiah, and when he prayed, God took it away again. But he sometimes does not think it well to take away our diseases, and then no medicine can cure us, no physician can do us any good, for God says in the Bible, "I kill, and I make alive:

A LAMB OF THE SAVIOUR'S FLOCK.

I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand." You see, then, how dangerous it is to offend God. Our life is in his hands. If your life were in my hands, if a thought, a wish, a breath of mine could deprive you of life, how dangerous you would think it to give me offence. Take care, then, how you make God angry. Make it your chief business to please God, for if he say to Death, "Go to that disobedient child-that child who does not speak the truth-that artful, passionate, thoughtless child," nothing can hinder death from obeying God. No friends-no prayers-no tears-no promises-no skill, will make him change his purpose, or drive him away. But God sometimes takes children out of this world, not because he is angry with them, but because he loves them. You remember how he took away Elijah. He sent a chariot to carry him to heaven, and he sometimes sends death upon the same errand. I believe he did this in the case of the child, the young disciple I speak of, for she loved God. She never told me that she loved him, but actions speak louder than words, and her actions proved that she loved God. Whoever loves Him, loves his word, and there was no book which this child loved so much as her Bible. She read it-she listened to it, she asked questions about it. And she was very much afraid of offending God. And she loved the Lord Jesus Christ. One day she said to her mother, "You know, mother, Jesus carried the lambs in his bosom." Dear child! She was thinking of him who took little children in his arms and blessed them-who said, "Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not." She was thinking of the "Good Shepherd," who gave his life for the sheep. And this was not all, for although this little girl had many kind friends and indulgent relatives, and the prospect of much earthly happiness, she thought that "to depart and be with Christ would be far

better." She spoke of heaven as her home, and often expressed her desire to go there. I ask you, then, if her early death was not a mark of God's love-for instead of of leaving her in this world to bear many years of disappointment and trial, he took her at once to himself. He saw that she was a beautiful flower -too beautiful to grow in this wilderness—and transplanted her to heaven, where she will bloom for ever in grace and sweetness. You see, then, why God takes children out of this world-it is either because he is angry with them, or because he loves them. Tell me then, if he were to send death to take you away, which of these would be his reason for doing so? You know whether you are like this little girl, who loved God, loved her bible, loved the Saviour, and longed for heaven. If so, your death would be only a happy exchange, and a proof of the love of God to your soul. But if you are of those who care nothing about such things as these, I should have no hope in your death. I should be afraid that God had taken you away in his wrath, and instead of carrying you up to heaven, where angels dwell, death had hurried you to that place where evil spirits and souls of the wicked are shut up and punished. Oh! then, live as this child lived, and your last end will be like hers. Christ will be your Shepherd-God will be your friend-and heaven will be your inheritance.

"Her spirit has fled to the regions of glory,

Where all the redeemed are gathered in one, Where angels themselves are recording the story, Of God's everlasting and glorified Son.

Already she dwells in the bosom of Jesus,

Who bade little children be brought to him here, And were we to choose only that which would please us, We had sullied her pleasures to save us a tear."