to Ellen, who was very fond of music, it was a great treat to listen and try to join in the easy parts of the service. Mary tried very hard to look at her book, but now and then her eyes wandered to the opposite seat where the little Grants were, and then she thought that their bonnets were prettier than hers and Ellen's, and that their frocks were much smarter, and she wished that her mamma would let them have pink sashes like Lucy and Emma. Many children would have gone on thinking a long time about the little Grants, but Mary remembered what her papa had said in the morning about the thoughts she ought to have on Easter Sunday, so she determined not to look across the aisle any more, but to try and listen to the sermon which had just begun. After the sermon was finished, they went out of church as quietly as they came, and were pleased to find that as the servants were going to stay for the second service, they would have to walk home alone; Lucy and Emma with their little brother Willie walked part of the way with them, and began telling them about a funny old man, as they called him, who sat near them in church, and said the prayers very loud. “Oh, he was so ugly," said Lucy, "I could hardly help laughing at him." "I don't think that was kind," said Mary, "for he cannot help being ugly: do you know who he was, Ellen ?" 66 "Yes," said Ellen, “I think it must have been Abel Smith I heard papa talking about him one day, and he said he wished he was like Abel, for he was a holy, humble, self-denying man." "Fancy Mr. Vernon being like that old man, Emma," exclaimed Lucy laughing, “why, Ellen, surely your papa must be much better than Abel Smith, for he is a gentleman, and besides that a clergyman.” 66 Oh, papa is very good," said Ellen earnestly, "but I don't think it is because he is a gentleman, for he often tells us that the poorest person may be more like our SAVIOUR than the richest man that ever lived." Mary left Lucy and Ellen to talk in this way, while she walked by Emma, who wished to know how the little Vernons spent Sunday. "I think Sunday is rather a dull day," said Emma, “because I may not have my doll or any playthings, and we have so few nice Sunday books. Do you like Sunday, Mary?" Mary who had always been taught to look upon Sunday as a particularly happy day, looked shocked, and said, “Oh, Emma, you should not call Sunday dull, we have all such very happy Sundays, I never have time for my doll, so I am glad for her to have a long day's rest." "What do you do that is so nice?" asked Emma. "Why," answered Mary, “every other day we have only bread and butter and milk for breakfast, but on Sunday we have coffee and eggs; and then when papa and mamma go to the school, after we have learned our lessons, which take a very little while, we play in the garden till church time." 66 Well, we don't learn lessons,” replied Emma, "how I should dislike it." "But our lessons are so short," answered Mary, "you would not mind them, it is only the collect and a hymn, and Ellen always helps me to learn mine. But now I must tell you what we do after church; we dine with papa and mamma on a Sunday, and then till it is church time again we either read pretty Sunday stories to mamma, or I play with a dissected map about Joseph and his brethren, or Daniel in the lion's den, and mamma talks to me about it." Emma thought that must be very nice, and then asked Mary how they spent the evening. "Why we all stay in the garden till tea time in summer, and Ellen and I gather fruit for tea, or flowers out of our own gardens for mamma, and then we have a nice tea, and after that say our lessons to papa, and talk about them, and then if papa has not a class, which he often has, he reads such nice things to us, or tells us stories, or shows us pictures till prayer time." "But what do you do before tea in winter when you cannot stay out?" "Oh then," answered Mary, "sometimes I play with my Noah's ark, or nurse pussy while mamma and Ellen sing beautiful things together, and papa sings with them too sometimes, but I can't sing yet. Oh, I do like Sunday!" she exclaimed, running on a few steps, "and, Emma, I will ask mamma to let you come some Sunday and spend the day with us." Thus saying the children parted, and Ellen and Mary made haste home. As soon as Mr. Vernon came in from church they had dinner, and as Easter was very late that year, they had lamb for dinner. 66 Papa," said Mary as soon as they were seated, "why do we sometimes have lamb on Easter Sunday? it seems very cruel to kill lambs, they are such sweet little creatures. I would not have mine killed for all the world." "I think Ellen can tell us why lamb is eaten at Easter," said Mr. Vernon. Ellen's eyes glistened as she replied, "Yes, I think I can: when the destroying angel passed over the houses of the Israelites and only killed the Egyptians, the way he knew which were the Israelites' houses was that GOD had told them to kill a lamb and sprinkle its blood outside their houses, and then to eat the lamb, which was called the Feast of the Passover." 66 'Very well, Ellen," said Mr. Vernon, "this feast of the passover was ever after that kept regularly at this time of the year, and our Blessed LORD Himself kept the feast just before He suffered. Can you tell me of whom the paschal lamb was a type ?" "I can tell that," said Mary, "it was JESUS CHrist.” "You are right, Mary," replied her papa, 66 so after JESUS CHRIST Himself had been crucified, and shed His blood to save us from punishment, there was no more need to keep the feast of the passover as the Jews used to do, but we can keep our Easter feast with joy and thanksgiving, because CHRIST has not only died for us but risen again, and He is our true Paschal Lamb. Can you tell me, Ellen, what I said in my sermon about the reasons for rejoicing at Easter?" 66 You said that JESUS CHRIST's rising from the dead was a sure proof that GOD had accepted His atonement for the sins of the world, and also that we should not have felt so sure that JESUS was really gone into Heaven, unless He had risen from the grave and then ascended up into heaven after He had been seen by the disciples after the resurrection. And I remember too you said that this world would not be a happy place if Christian people did not believe that their bodies would be raised again, and that they could not have believed this if CHRIST had not risen." "Very well," said Mr. Vernon, " and now, Mary, can you tell me what I said about little children ?" 66 "Yes," said Mary, "you told us that if we wished to have our bodies raised up beautiful and holy, we must try now to do all that God's Holy Spirit tells us, and to keep the promise made for us when we were baptized." The afternoon passed away as Mary had told Emma it would, and when they came home from church they amused themselves in the garden, Ellen gathered flowers to take up to her mamma at tea time, and Mary having tied a pretty piece of blue ribbon round her lamb's neck, got her papa to help her to bring it on to the lawn that her mamma might see it from the window up stairs: she was very much delighted when not only her mamma came to the window, when she called out that the lamb was there, but when nurse brought the baby too, for Mary was quite sure that her little brother must like to see her lamb. The children had always some treat on Easter Sunday, and to-day they found when they went in, that their mamma had had their little tea things laid out in her sitting room up stairs, and very happy they were when their papa and mamma drank tea out of their little cups, and let them pour out one tea and the other coffee. Soon after tea Mr. Vernon went to his study and brought back a parcel covered with white paper. “What have you got there, papa," cried Mary, "I saw that parcel when I came in from church, and I have been wanting to know so much what it was." "Well, you little inquisitive girl, you shall know now," said Mr. Vernon, uncovering the parcel and bringing out a beautiful little bible and prayer-book with a clasp for Ellen, and a beautiful book of scripture prints for Mary. "How do you like your Easter presents ?" "Oh!" said both the little girls, jumping upon their papa's knees and kissing him, "they are so beautiful, we never saw anything so nice." And then looking at their names which were written in their books, and seeing that it was their mamma's gift too they ran off to her and nearly smothered her with kisses. Mr. Vernon told them many interesting stories that evening, and when they went to bed Mary said, "Oh, papa, how happy I am, I am happier than I was this morning, and it is not my bonnet now." "Have we not had a nice Easter day !" asked Mary when they got into their own room. "We have indeed," said Ellen, "papa and mamma are so kind." And both the little girls, after offering up to their Almighty FATHER their private prayers, thanksgiving and praise for all the blessings they had received, fell asleep, thinking that Sunday was anything but a dull day, and Easter Sunday the happiest day in the year. The Cabinet. AN hour of solitude passed in sincere and earnest prayer, or the conflict with, and conquest over, a single passion or subtle bosom sin, will teach us more of thought, will more effectually awaken the faculty, and form the habit of reflection, than a year's study in the schools without them.Coleridge's Aid to Reflection. Glory be to Thee, O JESU, Who from our "death to sin" in our baptism dost raise us to a new life, and dost breathe into us the breath of love," it is in this laver of regeneration "* we are "born again by water and the Spirit,"+ by a "new birth into righteousness," that as the natural birth propagated sin, our spiritual birth should propagate grace, for which all love, all glory be to Thee.-BP. KEN. It is the duty of every man to avoid sin, and it is the duty of the Clergy especially to dissuade others from it. But cheerfulness is not a sin, but a duty. We should dress religion in her real garb, the garb of loveliness, we should show that all her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." REV. C. Pow LETT. Henry the Third of England used to say, that he would rather converse one hour with GOD in prayer, than hear others speak of Him for ten.ECHARD. The homeliest service that we do in an honest calling, though it be but to plough or dig, if done in obedience, and conscious of God's commandment, is crowned with an ample reward, whereas the best works of their kind, if without respect of God's injunction and glory, are loaded with curses.-BP. HALL. A PEASANT brought five peaches with him from the town, as fine as one could wish to see. It was the first time his children had seen this kind of fruit; they were therefore delighted and surprised with the splendid red-cheeked apples covered with soft down. The father gave one to each of his four boys, and bestowed the last on his wife. In the evening, when the children were about to retire to rest, the father said, "Well, how did you like the beautiful apples ?" "They were lovely, dear papa," said the eldest. "It is a splendid fruit of an acid but pleasant taste: I have kept the stone, and will raise a tree from it." "That is right, it is providing for the future," said the father; "that is what a farmer ought to do." "I ate mine immediately," cried the youngest, "and I threw the stone away, and my mother gave me half of her's. It did taste so nice, and quite melts in the mouth." "Well," said the father, "you have not acted wisely, but as a child might be expected to act; you have still plenty of time to learn wisdom." The second son then said, "I picked up the stone my little brother threw away, and cracked it; there was a kernel inside, which tasted so nice and sweet; but I sold my peach, and got enough money to buy a dozen more in the town." The father shook his head and said, "You have acted wisely, but not naturally, or as becomes a child: I truly hope you will never be a merchant. And you, Edmund ?" asked he of his other son. Edmund answered openly and unaffectedly: "I took my peach to the son of our neighbour George, who is ill of the fever. He would not take it, so I laid it on the bed, and ran away." "Now," said the father, "who has made best use of his peach ?" All cried out, "Our brother Edmund has," and his mother embraced him with tears in her eyes. -Translated from the German. CARDINAL WOLSEY.-"In my boyhood and youth," he says, "when I used to see the glory of our Bishop Robert-his knights so gallant, his pages of noblest birth, his stud of the greatest value, his gold and gilt plate, the profusion of his table, the state of his attendants, his wardrobe of purple and fine linen, I could conceive no greater happiness. How could I feel otherwise when every one, even those who used to lecture in the schools on despising the world, paid their court to him, and he himself, regarded as the father and lord of all, most dearly loved and embraced the world. But when I grew up, I heard tell of foulest reproaches cast in his teeth, which would have half killed me, beggar as I was, to have endured before so great an audience; and so I began to hold that inestimable blessing at a cheaper rate. And finally I will tell what happened to him before his death, he, the justiciary of all England, the terror of every one, was in the last year of his life twice sued by the king through some petty justice, and twice cast with every circumstance of indignity. His distress was such, that while with him as his archdeacon at dinner, I have seen him burst into tears; and when asked the reason, 'My attendants,' he said, 'once used to be dressed in costly stuffs; now fines to the king, whose favour I have ever studied, have reduced them to lamb skins.' And so completely did he despair of the king's friendship, that when told of the high terms in which the king had spoken of him, he said with a sigh, 'The king never praises any of his servants whom he does not mean to ruin utterly.' For King Henry, if I may say so, bore a grudge bitterly, and was very inscrutable (nimis inscrutabilis). A few days after, he fell down in a fit of apoplexy at Woodstock, and died."-Henry of Huntingdon, de Contemptu Mundi, in Wharton, ii. 694. |