√.

"It is Well with the Child."

"Room, gentle flowers! my child would pass to heaven! You looked not for her yet, with your soft eyes.

But lo, while you delay to let her forth,

Angels beyond stay for her!

When spring

Wakens its buds above thee, we will come,
And standing by thy little grave will say,
A child that we have loved is gone to heaven,
And by this gate of flowers she has passed away."

WHEN I had reached the conclusions detailed in the last chapter, I found I could not base my hope of the eternal happiness of my babes upon either their innocency, or their works. Not upon the former; for, though free from actual sin, they were guilty, or they would not have died; and they were depraved, or they were different from those spared to adult age-a supposition wholly impossible. Nor upon good works, for they had wrought

none such.

Even if their salvation were possible upon either condition, I saw it was not the heaven prepared for the redeemed. For there but one feeling animates every heart, and one song bursts from all lips, "Unto Him. that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His blood-be glory and dominion forever."

If then my babes are safe, it can be only through grace. With increased interest I studied every page of the Bible, to see what therein is revealed to give a well-founded hope that my darlings were breathing a more salubrious atmosphere than earth's.

I am a believer. Trying and painful as were the spiritual conflicts through which I had passed, outrageous as were the rebellion of the will and affections-both unexpected, because I was ignorant of my heart-yet I could do nothing else than hope in God. And to-day my trust in God is stronger than ever. Before my babes were taken away, I was humbly trying to train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. But now that they are gone, I feel that, imperfect as was the attempt,

and weak as was my faith, they were sin

cere.

This fact suggested the inquiry, "Have I any reason to expect that my children, as the offspring of believers, and as dedicated to God in infancy, are safe?"

Are the children of believers, dying in infancy, redeemed from eternal death? I answer, yes. But if these, then all dying in infancy are saved.

Sorrow-stricken mourner! I hope that long since you experienced the peace of God, in being justified in the acceptance of grace, through the righteousness of Jesus Christ His Son. If so, as a believer, have you been chastened. And the fact that bereavement has fallen upon you within the limits of the covenant, "well ordered in all things and sure," should be the source of profound gratitude to God. The child of your affection was a child of the covenant, and an heir of the promise. God, "who is rich in mercy," was most graciously pleased to include it in that covenant into which He entered with you,

when you gave yourself to Him. And from what He has IIimself declared, you may most assuredly know that the child you loved with unselfish tenderness, has been securely housed from suffering, sorrow and sin. Look up, and find a joy more than compensating your sorrow, in its assumption to the bosom of God.

But whether you be a believer or notwhether or no you ever meet it again—your child is safe. The blessed Gospel authenticates the earnest hope, satisfies the deep desire of wounded affection. It alone explains the death, and it alone declares the life of the early dead. Its light dissipates doubt, and spans the saddened heart and little graves with the rainbow of promise. It teaches that each little babe is sacred to God. It declares that when it dies, the same loving-kindness which guarded its cradle helplessness, has shielded it forever from the touch of the spoiler within the walls of eternal salvation. It assures us that the little grave is but a "cradle where, in the quiet motions of the globe, Jesus rocks His sleeping child. By-and

by He will come and wake it from its slumbers, and, in the arms of angels, will translate its perfectly purified self to the skies."

O now, I beseech you, as you read these pages, ponder upon the solemn message God sends to you from your child in glory; and give your heart to its Saviour, that you may live with it in heaven.

1. Our first reason for believing in this con-solatory truth is derived from THE COVENANT

GOD MADE WITH ABRAHAM.

When God created human nature, He gave it a family organization. Man at that time was holy. And since like begets like, had man continued holy, all his descendants would have been a holy seed. The family relation being established for the perpetuation and development of a holy race, was a religious institution. It was the first, and had not sin entered, destroying the beautiful arrangement of God, it would have been the only religious institution. The church, with all provisions. of mercy, was erected on the ruins of the fall. Evidently, then, the family institution origin