to be brought out, and put on a stand, perhaps for a quarter of an hour, while her poor pensioners crowded round, with cries and lamentations, some holding up their little children to catch a glimpse, that they might be told, in after-years, that they had seen at least the coffin of Miss M.; and well indeed it might be said, borrowing to some extent the language of Scripture, “See how they loved her !”

Which of us would not wish to die like Miss M.! Let us imitate her, then, as far as we can, in her kindness to the poor, in her loving spirit, in her detestation of evil-speaking; and, above all, in her devotion to her God. For the last nine years of her life, to use the words of one of our beautiful hymns,

“Not a cloud did arise

To darken the skies,
Or hide for one moment her Lord from her eyes.”

S. E. A.

A GOOD HINT TO LATE ATTENDERS AT

THE HOUSE OF GOD. A RESPECTABLE female, who always attended the house of God with great punctuality, and always in time, was asked how it was she could always be there so early. Her reply was, “It is a part of my religion never to disturb the devotion of others."

FEBRUARY, 1848.

JACK FROST. What a very strange fellow Jack Frost must be !

What a creature of mischief and fun!
Just come to the window a moment, and see

What odd things the urchin has done.
The meadows were emerald green last night,

And the ruffled pond was blue ;
But the mischievous elf has clothed in white

The pond and the meadows too.
He's always on some strange frolic bent

When the sun is out of the way,
And prowls about, with felon intent,

In winter by night and by day.
Sometimes with glass he paves the flood,

Or whitens the emerald dale ;
Or he scatters his wool o'er the naked wood,

Or pelts the roof with hail.
I should like to know where his home may be,-

Perhaps on Ben Nevis' crest,
Or perhaps in the dreary Polar Bea

He makes his icy nest.
With silent tread, when we're in bed,

He'll be at his pranks again ;
With wind and snow, and I don't know who,

And the rest of his madcap men.

We are much too prone to confine idolatry to the millions of India, and to those nations upon whom the light of the Gospel has never shone, and to pity others, instead of examining ourselves, to see whether there is not some dear object which we love more than the God who created us, and who still preserves us from dangers seen and unseen. o, let this duty not be neglected any longer; for although God is a merciful God, yet he has to declared himself to be a jealous God, and as such will not have any rival: “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” Commune with your own heart, and inquire whether, when you put that pretty frock on first, you did not allow it to occupy more of your thoughts than the God who gave it to you; or whether, when your papa presented these nice to rabbits to you, when you were bounding over hill and dale in order to get the best food for them which you could procure, you did not love them more than their Creator. Now if you did, it was idolatry. It would be quite right to procurement proper food for them; but on God must be placed in the supreme affections. Think how wicked it must be to prefer a new frock or a pretty rabbit before the Lord of heaven; and pray that he will forgive you, and help you to do better for the future.

D. E. L.

THE LOST CHILD. On a calm, pleasant day in autumn, a steamboat left one of the watering villages on the Clyde,