The Fragment Basket. BENEFITS OF AFFLICTION. the mind's progress, it would perhaps It is a fact in vegetable life-at least as Duhamel represents it-that plants attain their greatest growth in cloudy weather. Something similar may be true in reference to the soul. Sorrow softens the heart, oftentimes fitting it for the reception of those truths which make all things new. The discipline of suffering is severe, but oftentimes it is grandly alterative. Every wise man is the better for that which he has endured; and in the important work of training him for present usefulness, and of fitting him for service in the high estate of the good, the rough hand, the loss and the sorrow, may tend to the best results-submission, resignation, and a hallowed devotion to truth. If it were possible to write be found that sorrows have an influence on the soul similar to that of storms in the physical world. The electricity which may kill, also purifies; the fire which melts, also removes imperfection; the grief which casts down, also chastens; and under the wise and perfect government of God, every evil may contain its germ of good. It is a fact, that every passion of which our nature is capable, was intended to minister to our happiness, and must be abused to lead us to harm; so also in our spiritual being, in accordance with psychological laws, many seeming evils contain positive blessings; and oftentimes man is all the wiser and the holier for the losses he has sustained and the griefs he has endured. Portry. TO A SISTER ON HER MARRIAGE. BELIEVED TO HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY AN ENGLISH NOBLEMAN. Let not my sister, though a wife, I do not wish to mar your mirth Though you have left a parent's wing, It is but seldom husbands bring They have their humours and their faults, So mutable is man; Excuse his failings in your thoughts, Your prospects and your hopes are great, No anger, no resentment keep, May God your hopes fulfil; But you will find in every state Some difficulties still. The rite which lately join'd your hands A friendship founded on esteem But yet God's blessings daily crave, Whatever is amiss; Be reconciled before you sleep, For if there's cause to reprehend, It's not the way to scold at large, Mutual attempts to serve and please Thus may you spend you life with ease, Thus give your tender passions scope, Since you must both resign your breath, So live, that you may part at death And may the Lord your ways approve, The Children's Gallery. LITTLE JOSEPH-TRIAL OF "What is the matter, my little boy? What are you in trouble about?" "Baby has knocked down my blocks, and spoiled my pretty house. Look, mamma; see how she has thrown them about." "Never mind, my boy. She does not understand that you like better to have them stand up. She did not mean to vex you; and I hope you will be kind to her, and let her play with them a little while. She will soon forget them, and then I will help you again to make a house, or whatever else you like." "But I wanted to show papa my house when he comes in." "I am sorry baby has knocked down your house, because you were so much pleased with it. But you know we can easily set it up again. Now, I should like to see you look kindly at baby, and give her leave to play with the blocks a little while. That will make you feel happy, and please papa and mamma more than your building the house ever so well. Now baby is gone to sleep, you can set up your blocks as you like. You may ask Sarah to give you a tray to put them on, and then, when you have built what you like, it can be put away safely for papa to see." "But another time, when baby is awake, I will let her play with me, and knock them down as she likes." "Do so, my dear little boy. It is best to be kind to everybody; and, most of all, children should be kind to a little sister or brother. I have told you about the holy child Jesus, how he was always kind and gentle. He loved to serve and please others, and was willing to give up what would have been pleasant to himself. I hope my dear little boy and girl will be like him." about Jesus; shall I say it to you? "Mamma, I know a little verse Jane taught it to me that evening that you were not well-a long time ago." "Yes, I should like to hear it." "His soul was gentle as a lamb, And as his stature grew, "I am glad you remember your pretty hymn, and I hope you do not forget how you can be made like Jesus." "I must pray for the Holy Spirit to help me." "Yes, that is right. When you feel as if you were going to be vexed and angry, think of Jesus, and beg him to take every naughty feeling out of your heart; ask him to forgive you that you are not more like him; and pray that you may become more and more like him every day.' CHARLES LAMB'S WISH. "What would I give to call my dear mother back to earth for a single day, to ask her pardon, upon my knees, for all those acts by which grieved her gentle spirit!" Remember this, children, and be kind to your mothers. The Cabinet. THE WORDS OF GOD IN THE HEART AND ON THE LIPS. "And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day; which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law."-DEUT. xxxii. 46. EVERYTHING in this world comes to an end. The time of the end, whenever it may arrive, is always a solemn time. To the thoughtful mind it is a time of sober reflection and serious consideration—a time for salutary remembrances, in which the present and the future interweave themselves with the past. Bygone days, with all their varied occurrences and experiences —bright days, cloudy days, dark days-start up once more to our view, and flit once more away from us. If there is a softening influence exerted over the rightly-constituted mind by the anticipation of the end, though it may in itself be distant, how much more subduing must the influence of the end itself be, when it really comes! It is to the end that our attention is here called. The end of the long and laborious life of Moses has come; the end of the toilsome and tiresome pilgrimage in the wilderness has come. He who for many years has been the wise and faithful leader of Israel, who has been with them amid the persecutions of Egypt and the perils of the Red Sea, who has warded off from them many menacing calamities, who has instructed them tenderly and judiciously in everything pertaining to the life that now is and to the higher life that is to come, is just about to leave them. They had the prospect of the land of promise, the land of Israel's hopes, the land for which Israel longed, the goodly land, the happy land, the land of peace and plenty, to which their eyes and their hearts had long been drawn; but Moses was not to go with them into it. He and they pause for a little on the confines of Canaan, Pisgah rising before them and Jordan rolling beneath them; and there Moses, with all the deeply solemn feelings which his own position and that of the people must have awakened, addressed to them the words now before us. Many a salutary lesson are they fitted to teach us. God has spoken to man. His word is true and sure-a heaven-authenticated word. It is for purposes wise and good, purposes every way worthy of himself, that God has sent his word to us. It was in the happy days of man's innocency and integrity, when no act of transgression or rebellion had yet separated man from God, that he first spoke to man. Intimate and hallowed, far beyond anything that we can now conceive, full of all that was heavenly and Divine, the converse of God with man then was. Often has he spoken to man since to tell him of forgiveness, to give him the assurance of his love and his grace, to make known to him his own all-sufficient remedy for the many ills and woes of mankind. Christ, the one Mediator between God and man, is now the essence and substance of God's word—Christ in his glorious person-Christ in his wondrous work-Christ in his life-Christ in his deathChrist on his cross-Christ on his throne-Christ mighty to save, ready to receive all who come to him. But with this one theme of God's word, how many themes, all of them of high importance, are intimately connected! What teachings there are in it in reference to the life that now is! What discoveries there are in it in reference to the life that is to come! Personal, domestic, social, public duties are all faithfully and fully inculcated. The great principle of all obedience-love to God, arising out of the experience of the love of God to us-love, quickened and maintained in our cold and evil hearts by the workings of God's Holy Spirit-is ever kept before us. In every way likely to reach and touch the heart, God's word comes to it. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much find gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward." The heart of man in its natural state has no sympathy with God's words. However plainly and pointedly they may appeal to it, it refuses and rejects their teachings; it disbelieves and disregards them. It is a hard, a stout, a perverse, a rebellious heart, and no evidence that it is so is more conclusive and undeniable than the way in which it is closed against the words of God. But it can be opened, opened so that God's words obtain an entrance into it. It is so when it is led to discern the infinite excellencies of Christ. It is so when the Holy Spirit melts it, subdues it, transforms it. Then the eyes of the understanding are opened to see the many wondrous things that are in God's law. Then the heart so appreciates the highest excellence, that to it the law of God's mouth is better than thousands of gold and silver. What a hallowed, blessed change does the man undergo who is thus led to welcome the words of God, to give them a place in his soul, to make them the guide of his conduct, to draw from them all his noblest hopes and most exalted prospects! The words of God are now treasured up in his mind, incorporated with his every thought and feeling, dwell in him richly in all wisdom, are the subject of his meditation all the day. It is thus that our hearts are set upon God's words, and that we set our hearts unto God's words, studying them, pondering them, walking in accordance with them. The words that we ourselves love we must, if we are consistent and obedient servants of God, teach our children to love too. In terms ever memorable and impressive this duty is inculcated upon us by Moses: "These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." Every principle distinguishing us as God's people-every obligation devolving upon us to God and to those who are connected with us-affection for our children, extending to the soul as well as to the body, to eternity as well as to time-must impel us to seek in every way that we can to lead them to observe and to do all the words of God's law. And it is when our own hearts are set upon those words that we shall be able most effectually to reach the hearts of our children, commending to them that Saviour who is so precious to ourselves, and leading them on in those paths of holiness in which we ourselves are walking. Let it ever be our aim to receive the word of God, not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God. Then will |