fore Thee with the loved that have gone before, where no shadow shall again darken our souls, and no sorrow press its dreadful burden on our heart.

EVEN SO COME LORD JESUS.

To an Afflicted Mother at the Grabe of her Decensed

Child, it was said---"There was once a Shepherd, whose tender Pastoral Care was over his Flock Night and Day. One Sheep would neither hear his Voice nor follow Him; He took up her Little Lamb in his Arms--then the Sheep came after Him."

The Child of James Melville.

BORN, JULY 9, 1586. DIED ABOUT JANUARY, 1588.

MRS. A. STUART MENTEATH.

This page, if thou be a pater [parent, father] that reads it, thou wilt apardone me; if nocht, suspend thy censure till thou be a father, as said the grave Lacedæmonian, Agesilaus.-Autobiography of James Melville.

ONE time my soul was pierced as with a sword,

Contending still with men untaught and wild,
When He who to the prophet lent his gourd,
Gave me the solace of a pleasant child.

A summer gift my precious flower was given;
A very summer fragrance was its life;
Its clear eyes soothed me as the blue of heaven
When home I turned, a weary man of strife.

With unformed laughter, musically sweet,

How soon the wakening babe would meet my kiss: With outstretched arms its care-wrought father greet; Oh! in the desert what a spring was this!

A few short months it blossomed near my heart;
A few short months-else toilsome all and sad;
But that home solace nerved me for my part,
And of the babe I was exceeding glad!