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gentle, kind and loving. Nine dren." Often in sickness as well

as in health, would he feelingly repeat those beautiful lines

"Rock of ages cleft for me," &c. Soon after three o'clock, on the 30th of January, 1863, while sitting up in bed, was he suddenly taken worse, and in half an hour after his spirit had fled. While in the agonies of death he said to his father, "Oh! pray, do pray:" then looking upward he exclaimed, "I want to go to heaven, I want to go to heaven, I want to go to heaven, let me go, let me go; I cannot stay here." Once more he asked his father to pray, and while his father was so doing, the little sufferer breathed his last. Our loss is his gain. May we meet him in heaven.

weeks previously to his dissolution he was taken ill with heart disease; and during his affliction we frequently questioned him as to whether he thought he should get well again. The answer was invariably, "No." On one occasion when much better, as he was sitting by my side, I said to him, "My dear, what were your thoughts when you were so ill, and stood beside the coffins of your brothers, Albert and Hugh, who had just died?" "Oh," he said "Mother"-with tears in his eyes, "I thought if I was to die I should not go to heaven; for you told me that my brothers Albert and Hugh were gone to heaven, for they were so little and did not know the meaning of sin; but I am a bigger boy, and ought to have known better than to have been so wicked." On hearing this from his infant lips, we found he was the subject of some doubt. We therefore told him the possibility of his heart being washed in the blood of Jesus. A day or two after, when not so well, after lying thoughtfully for some time, he turned to me, and said, "Mo-She had a great dread of untruths. ther, I have been thinking about Jesus, and what a beautiful place heaven must be." I then said to him, "Do you think if you were to die now you should go there?" "Oh, yes," he replied, "for Jesus died for little chil-She was a patient sufferer three

A. HUCKLE.

RACHEL, the beloved daughter of Thomas and Sarah SMITH, was born at Sneadshill, Wrockwardine Wood Circuit, in the year 1852, and died Feb. 7th, 1863, aged eleven years. She was of a very delicate constitution from her infancy, but she was very thoughtful, especially about those things pertaining to her soul's salvation.

She was a New Testament scholar, and loved to be early at school. When there she was very obedient to her teacher. She never was absent from her class, except when illness detained her.

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THE PIGEON. the family of pigeons is, body THERE are more than oue hun- stout and plump; legs short, four dred species of the pigeon tribe, toes to each claw; tail mostly of some of which are also called twelve feathers; wings pointed, doves. The tame pigeon is the and well formed for flight; house-dove, and the wild wood-colour of plumage various. They pigeon is the same as the stock- are found in almost every part dove. The general character of of the world. Pigeons, when in

iv. 22.

a wild state, at a certain season, | not a house where there was not take their departure from one one dead." From other places country to another, in search of in Scripture, the same author is food. of opinion "first-born" means "chief, most excellent, best beloved, most distinguished." See Col. i. 15; Rom. viii. 29; Rev. i. 5; Jer. xxxi. 9; Exod. God would destroy the greatest and the meanest, the highest and the lowest amongst the Egyptians, Exod. xii. 29; Num. viii. 17. Some have asked, "If the plague happened at midnight, why does the other verse say, 'on the day that I He was rich, smote?"" A day of twenty-four

Pigeons were offered in sacrifice among the Jews. God told Abraham to present a young pigeon on the altar, Gen. xv. 9. By the law of Moses, any one who was too poor to offer a lamb might bring two young pigeons, Lev. v. 7; xii. 8. As this was the kind of offering brought by Joseph and Mary, Luke ii. 24, it was an evidence of the humble state of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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yet for our sakes he became hours is doubtless intended, compoor, that we through his po-mencing at dusk and ending the verty might be rich."

next evening. "By day I cried in the night," Ps. lxxxviii. 1; or we might read "time or season," &c. What a time was that! The people crying and howling most distressingly. Not a family in Egypt where there was not one dead. What a sad calamity!

Verse the 40th is, says Clarke, "extremely difficult." "That the descendants of Israel did not dwell 430 years in Egypt," says Dr. Kennicott, " 'may be easily proved, &c. Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, and of their fathers, which they so

HINTS FOR LITTLE FOLK. MY DEAR YOUNG FRIENDS,-Dr. Clarke thinks that Exod. xii. 12, should read "Princes," instead of "Gods," as in the margin of our Bibles, and Boothroyd renders it "Princes." "And on all the princes of Egypt I will execute judgment" (v. 29). If we take the term "first-born" in its literal sense only, we shall be led to conclude that in a vast number of the houses of the Egyptians there was no death, as it is not at all likely journed in the land of Canaan that every first-born child of every family was still alive, and that all the first-born of their cattle still remained. And yet it is said (ver. 30)," that there was

and in the land of Egypt, was 430 years. The same sum is given by St. Paul, Gal. iii. 17, who reckons from the promise made to Abraham, when God

commanded him to go to Canaan, | cepts. The Greeks call the law to the giving of the law, which nomos, from a word which signifies to divide, distribute, minister to, or serve, because the law divides to all their just rights, appoints or distributes to each his proper duty. Hence, where there are either no laws, or unequal and unjust ones, all is distraction, violence, rapine, oppression, anarchy, and ruin."

soon followed the departure from
Egypt. From Abraham's entry
into Canaan to the birth of
Isaac was
twenty-five years,
Gen. xii. 4; xvii. 1-21. Isaac
was sixty years old at the birth
of Jacob, Gen. xxv. 26; and
Jacob was 130 at his going down
into Egypt, Gen. xlvii. 9; which
three sums make 215 years. And
then Jacob and his children hav-
ing continued in Egypt 215
more, the whole sum of 430 is
regularly completed."

ALPHA.

SABBATH SCHOOL ANNI

VERSARY SERVICES,

Coling, Coles, and Belcher, delivered addresses, and six of the children recited pieces and sang hymns in an excellent manner. On Easter Sunday, April 5th, Mr. I. Humphreys, of Broad Town, Circuit, preach

AT Compton, Newbury Circuit. Verse 46. "Every family must On Good Friday, April 3rd, 1863, stay in the house," and not a we held our annual tea meeting, bone of the lamb was to be when upwards of eighty sat broken, and it was to be eaten down. A public meeting was in haste, verse 10, 11. This afterwards held when Mr. B. pointed to Jesus and what took | Middleton presided. Messrs. place in his death about 1,500 years after. See next verse, 49. The word law signifies to aim at, teach, point out, direct, lead, guide, make straight or even. The word lex law, among the Romans has been derived from Brinkworth lego, I read, because it was hunged three impressive sermons. up in the most public places, that The chapel was well attended. it might be seen, read, and known by all men, that those who were to obey the law might not break it through ignorance, and thus incur the penalty. This was called promulgatio legis, the promulgation of the law. Or the word may come from ligo, I bind, because the law binds men to the strict observance of its pre- gracious influence pervaded the

On Monday, the 6th, the children partook of a good tea, after which the teachers and a few friends sat down to a very comfortable repast. At 7 o'clock we held our closing service, when the writer addressed the meeting, and the children finished reciting their pieces. A very

anniversary, and doubtless good impressions were made. The collections and the proceeds of the tea were £2 13s. 11d., for which we are very thankful. HENRY EARLY, Sup.

DEARHAM, MARYPORT

CIRCUIT.

THE Sabbath school anniversary services at this place were held on Easter Sunday and Monday, April 5th and 6th. On the Sabbath two sermons were preached to crowded audiences by the writer, and pieces were recited

and sung by the children. On the
Monday, at half-past 1, the chil-
dren walked through the streets,
and Mrs. Walker kindly per-
mitted them to pass through her
gardens and pleasure grounds.
In her presence two hymns were
sung: 130 scholars afterwards
received tea, and 150 of their
friends. The chapel was crowded
at night, the singing was excel-
lent, and the pieces interesting.
The collections amounted
£1 17s. 7d. Two of the scholars
are members of society. May
they all be converted in early
life.
J. TAYLOR.

to

Miscellanies.

where it could be easily managed

A THRILLING INCIDENT, having invested his property OF THE AMERICAN WAR. NINE or ten years ago a citizen by his wife, he suddenly disapof one of the towns in the eastern peared, leaving her a comfortable part of Massachusetts was un-home and the care of two boys justly suspected of a crime which of ten or twelve years. The

first fear that he had sought a violent death was dispelled by the orderly arrangement of his affairs, and the discovery that a daguerreotype of the family group was missing from the parlour table. Not much effort was made to trace the fugitive.

the statute cannot easily reach, but which deservedly brings upon any one guilty of it the indignation of upright men. There were circumstances which gave colour to the suspicion, and the unfortunate gentleman suffered the misery of loss of friends, business, and reputation. His When, afterward, facts were desensitive nature could not face veloped which established his these trials, and he fell into a innocence of the crime charged, state of body and mind that it was found impossible to comAt length, municate with him; and as the

alarmed his family.

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