VERY frequently in Scripture do we find allusions made to outward objects, to the sun, moon, and stars, to the mountains, the seas, the rivers, and valleys, to

the animated creatures great and small, to the trees of the forest, and the flowers of the field, which all combine in testifying to the wisdom, power, and goodness of the Creator. At this season, nature puts on its most beautiful and inviting colours, and young and old are to be seen rejoicing in its displays. See these children. How happy they seem to be, and yet God may be forgotten even in the midst of scenes so fitted to call him to remembrance, and stir up our hearts to praise him.

"Grandmother," said little Philip, "why do you call this beautiful flower, growing by the brook, a 'Forgetme-not?'

"My child," said his grandmother, "I once went with 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 I have always called it the 'Forget-me-not.'"

Said happy little Philip, "I have neither parents, nor sisters, nor brothers, from whom I am parted: I do not know whom I can think of when I see the Forgetme-not."

"I will tell you," said his 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 BACKSLIDER.

SOME years ago there lived, in the village of A-y in Berks, a young woman of very interesting manners and appearance, who was afflicted with hip disease, and confined to her bed. She had been long affiicted, and her afflictions were much blessed to her, so that her pastor and his wife, and other persons of piety in the neighbourhood, loved to visit her, not only to impart, but to receive. She never expected to rise again from her sick bed; but she was resigned and happy in looking forward to eternity; while, at the same time, she was very diligent in working with her needle, reading, writing, &c. At length a physician came to reside in a neighbouring village, who became greatly interested in her case, and whose prescriptions were so blessed to her that, instead of her death, which we all expected, we heard at length of her recovery-and I was one day surprised to see her walk into our house with some work which had been sent her to do.

I observed then that she looked very pretty and delicate, and her cap, which was trimmed with pink ribbons, heightened the effect of her delicate colour. I could not help observing this, as there was evidently a desire to look pretty, which surprised me in one who had been so long on the brink of the grave and who had been so happy in the prospect of eternity.

The next time I heard of her was at a country wake, in company with her unconverted relatives, and soon after she came one day to the Rectory for a marriage licence. The young man to whom she was married bore but an indifferent character for sobriety, &c.; but she was obliged to marry him to save herself from greater disgrace. Not long after

we were told she had given birth to an infant, and was very ill.

Her former Christian friends turned their backs on heras Christians are too apt to act towards backsliders-and made no effort, that I ever heard, to find out whether she was penitent; so she went on for a few short years. Her husband drank, and was unkind to her; her children were probably sickly, like herself; and doubtless she had a sad life. It was said that she also took to drinking, probably to drown care; at all events, one night she sat up late to finish some work, and when at length it was finished, she lay down exhausted and weary on her bed, without taking off her clothes. A spark had fallen on her dress, and when her husband woke she was enveloped in flames. He made an effort to tear her dress off, but unsuccessfully, and she was burned to death.

Thus died poor Jane D—, who had once been thought an eminent Christian, but who fell by little and little into worldliness and sin, and ended a course, which had at one time shined so brightly, under an obscure and impenetrable cloud. If she had the root of the matter in her-if she had ever touched the hem of Jesus' garment by a real faith, she was "saved yet so as through the fire"-(1 Cor. iii. 15)—if she was self-deceived, the fair show of her profession, and her fruits, so like those of the Spirit, were but as the apples of Sodom, and avail her nothing now. Whatever her ultimate destiny, she reads a solemn lesson to professors of godliness -that the wages of sin is death. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall" (1 Cor. x. 12). E. G.

EVERY MAN MUST SPREAD THE “GLAD TIDINGS."

In a sermon of Dr. Wayland, entitled, "The Apostolic Ministry," he illustrates the duty of every man to take part in preaching the Gospel, spreading the glad tidings, evan gelising the world :

"At the close of the last war with Great Britain, I was in the city of New York. The prospects of the nation were shrouded in gloom. We had been for two or three years at war with the mightiest nation on earth, and as she had now concluded a peace with the continent of Europe, we were obliged to cope with her single-handed. Our harbours were blockaded. Communication coastwise between our ports was cut off. Our ships were rotting in every creek and cove where they could find a place of security. Our immense annual products were moulding in our warehouses. sources of profitable labour were dried up. Our currency was reduced to irredeemable paper. The extreme portions of our country were becoming hostile to each other, and differences of political opinion were embittering the peace of every household. The credit of the government was exhausted. No one could predict when the contest would terminate, or discover the means by which it could much longer be protected.

The

"It happened that on a Saturday afternoon in February, a ship was discovered in the offing, which was supposed to be a cartel, bringing home our commissioners at Ghent from their unsuccessful mission. The sun had set gloomily before any intelligence from the vessel had reached the city. pectation became painfully intense as the hours of darkness drew on. At length a boat reached the wharf, announcing

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