the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. And having been chastened they shall be greatly rewarded: for GOD proved them and found them worthy for Himself. As gold in the furnace hath He tried them, and received them as a burntoffering. And in the time of their visitation they shall shine and run to and fro like sparks among the stubble."

Most beautifully again is it written of these righteous ones: "They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the people, and their LORD shall reign for ever; they that put their trust in Him shall understand His truth; and such as be faithful in love shall abide with Him: for grace and mercy is to His saints, and He hath care for His elect."

O kindly medicine of Death! O inner Peace of them that love GOD! Who would not exchange the restlessness, the weariness, the continual warfare, the perpetual struggle against temptation of life, for the deathless death of the righteous, and the unending end of those who love GOD, and persevere in that love even to their last hour!

ON THE DEATH OF A CHILD.

"A little child shall lead them."-Isa. xi. 6.

A

ND who so fit as a little child to lead? It was a Little Child Who led the world to love the only true GOD, and the “became a thousand," and a a strong nation."

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It was a little Child, a young Child, Who led the Magi to come and worship, where hitherto they had worshipped they knew not what. They rested not, but came with haste over the trackless desert, through the "waste, howling wilderness," drawn by the love of the Little Child.

Strange that a little Child should lead! strange that a little Child should lead through such rough ways!

It was over the sweet infant form of the little Child that Jews and Gentile kings became one, and their differences are bridged over beside the Body of that little Child.

Nay, heaven and earth are reconciled, and peace is proclaimed instead of war! Over the Little Child the angels sing"Glory to GOD in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards men."

But whither did that "Little Child" lead? To His own crib. What! after all that rough, toilsome journey? What!

after all that expenditure of faith? What! after all those privations endured? What! after all those perils incurred? And after all the long weary nights of watching? All to end in a little crib, wherein lay a "Little Child!"

Ah yes! but that "Little Child" was Life Eternal. How wonderful are GOD'S ways! how past finding out His works! Every bright, and hopeful thought, every hope of future happiness, centres in and radiates from the manger crib of that "Little Child." Death is overcome by the Birth of that "Little Child:" for that "Little Child's" Birth is a pledge of His Resurrection, and therefore of the resurrection of all little children.

How peacefully He lies! He sleeps, but the loving Sacred Heart is awake. He seems to say, "I sleep, but my Heart waketh." Yes, His is the loving Heart awake to every sorrow sent! He saw it, He felt it, not only on the Cross, but in the manger crib. The cold He felt there was the feeling of the cold, desolate feeling, which we at first feel in our sorrows!

The tears He shed there were the foretasting of the tears we shed in our losses ! The Blessed Mother, guarding her Treasure, little knew that she was, as it were, saving it, not for herself, but for the Death of the Cross, for the day when the sword should pierce through her heart. But Mother of mothers though she was, the "Little Child" led her to say under the Cross, as in the bright joyful day of the Annunciation, "Behold the handmaid of the LORD, be it unto me according to Thy word." Through rough ways had that "Little Child" led, but the "rough ways" were "made smooth," and the crooked paths straight, and "all the earth" saw "the salvation of the LORD!"

Lead me, O Thou "Little Child,” in child-like faith and trust, whither Thou wilt. Draw me! I will run after Thee! Fountain of Life, draw me nearer and nearer to Thee, even though it be by a cross, even though it be by death! Draw me even by this little one, Thine own little one, Thine by the virtue of the precious Blood by which he was washed and cleansed, purified, regenerated in Baptism. I have nursed it for Thee, and Thou hast given my "wages," even to take back for

Thyself and to Thyself that which was and is Thine own, Blessed be Thy Holy Name! Thou hast given my little one a crown without a cross; Thou Thyself hadst borne the Cross, and saved him from the evil to come, by bearing him, Thou Good Shepherd, in Thine arms, and placing Thy Lamb in safety within Thy fold! Blessed be Thy Holy Name!

ON THE CHANGE WHICH DEATH CAUSES IN A HOUSE.

"When JESUS came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels, and the people making a noise, and the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly, He suffered no man to go in, and to follow Him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James, and the father and the mother of the maiden. And all wept and bewailed her."S. Matth. ix. 23, 24; S. Mark v. 35-40; S. Luke viii. 51-53.

HAT did the Blessed LORD find

WHAT

when He went into the house of death, that is, into the house of Jairus? He found what is often and at ordinary times to be found in the houses of the great much noise, much pomp, much confusion.

But how different now, and of how dif