Oh! precious, precious moments!
Pale flowers! ye are types of those;
The saddest! sweetest! dearest !

Because, like those, the nearest

To an eternal close.

Pale flowers! pale perishing flowers!
I woo your gentle breath-

I leave the summer rose

For younger, blither brows;

You tell of change and death!

QUESTION AND ANSWER.

IF all who sin must die,
And I a sinner be,

Where shall my soul for refuge fly?
What will become of me?

Oh, who will be my friend?
What reason can I give,

Why God should in his mercy bend,
And bid the sinner live?

ANSWER.

Behold where Jesus stands !
He listens to thy cry,

And spreading wide his pierced hands,

He bids thee thither fly.

He left his throne on high,
And shed his precious blood,

To save the soul condemned to die,

And bring it back to God.

THE BETTER WORLD.

THERE is a world beyond the grave,-
A world where peace immortal reigns,
And ever-blooming flowers wave

Along the bright ethereal plains.

There is a world where Jesus reigns
O'er all in heaven, and earth, and hell;
Where seraphs, in enraptured strains,
One everlasting concert swell.

There is a world where not a sigh

Shall heave the breast, or rend the heart; Nor starting tear shall fill the eye;

For friends meet here, no more to part.

There is a world more glorious, far,

Than heart can think, or tongue can tell: It lies beyond yon radiant star,

That nightly trembles o'er the dell.

This world of permanent delight
Our dear Redeemer left behind;
He laid aside his robes of light,

And came to earth to save mankind.

"Then hail, blest world," my spirit cries, "My care and grief will soon be o'er; Soon my enraptured soul will rise,

Where cares and griefs are known no more.

There, with the ransom'd blood-bought throng, My hallelujahs shall ascend,

In that eternal joyful song

That flows ecstatic without end."

S. S.

THE POWER OF PARENTAL LOVE.

A SON of pious parents was dedicated, from his infancy, to the service of God; early and faithfully taught the great truths of the Bible; and, by all the means that God gives to parents to prepare their children for usefulness here, and glory hereafter, he was trained up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. His early years gave bright promise that his future life would yield the fruit of parental watchfulness, and that a father's counsels and a mother's prayers would not be lost on him.

And when he left his father's house to complete his education abroad, there was scarce a

fear that the tender-hearted boy (who could not hear of a Saviour and his love without a tear), would ever become a prodigal. Parental confidence was strong that early instruction would exert its appropriate and restraining power. Christian confidence in God, assured those anxious parents that their child would be saved from destruction, though he was going into danger. He went abroad. New scenes opened upon him. He was young and ardent, and the gay companions that surrounded him welcomed him to their circle, as they spread before him the allurements of pleasure and of sin. He struggled for a while against the tempter. But one barrier of virtue yielded to the assault, and another, till he fell. The conquest was not easy, but it was at last achieved; and he plunged headlong into the vortex that has swallowed thousands, and from which few have ever been drawn.

There were those who saw his danger, and who desired to deliver him as a bird out of the hand of the fowler. They called him to their company. They set before him the joys of religion, but it had no attractions for his corrupted heart. They spoke of heaven, but his heaven had been already gained. They spoke of hell, but he feared it not; of Jesus and his dying love, but his eye was tearless and his heart unmoved. Argument, motives, entreaties were equally vain. The tender-hearted boy was hardened in sin. A coat of mail was on his soul.

“How would your parents feel, should they hear that you had become a Christian ?" said a pious friend to him, one day, as they were for a moment together. It was an arrow that found its way through the joints of the harness, and reached his heart. The rock was smitten, and the waters gushed. The fountains of the great deep were broken up. He fell on his knees, and besought his friend to pray. He thought of home; of a parent's prayers and tears; and, as early recollections thronged on his mind, he resolved to return. He did turn to God. He renounced the ways of sin, and consecrated himself to the Saviour; and often have those parents' hearts been filled with joy, as they have heard the gospel preached by him whom they had in infancy dedicated to the ministry. Every tie but their love was sundered, and that tie drew him back. Parental faithfulness saved him in the hour of his danger.

This is not language too strong. God employs means to accomplish his purposes. In this case, he caused the early instructions of those pious parents to spring up like long-buried seed in the heart of that wayward youth. And such impressions are the most powerful that human instrumentality can make on the soul. The ties that entwine around the heart, and bind it to the scenes of early life, are the strongest that man can throw around his fellow-man. And when the sinner leaves the path of virtue, and wanders