THOUGH travelling through a wilderness,

Where duty's call divides us; Though many a wintry storm distress,

The star of hope shall guide us.

And this shall cheer the lonely way, And gild the gloom of sorrow; And, through the shades of parting day,

Point to a brighter morrow.

THE CRISIS OF BEING.

E'en should this star be clouded here, And should we meet-ah! never, The transient joys of life to share'Twill not be dimm'd for ever.

No! we shall meet, though parted here,

To part again-oh, never! But, joyful, with our Saviour there, To spend a long for ever. Gems of Sacred Poetry.

Six Lec

tures to Young Men on Religious Decision, delivered in Stockwell Chapel. By the Rev. D. THOMAS. London: B. L. Green. 8vo. pp. 104. One of the most vigorous, earnest, original, and powerful books for young men we have ever read, full of striking thoughts and affectionate appeals. A book for the age, and singularly adapted to our welleducated and thinking youth. To these we say, "get it, read it, study it; there breathes in it a spirit which, under God's blessing, may give the happiest turn to all your future destiny and course."

THE WORDS OF A BELIEVER. BY

the ABBÉ DE LA MENNAIS.
Translated from the French by
EDWARD SMITH PRYCE, A.B.
London: Aylott and Jones.

As full of conceits as its title would almost lead one to expect, and yet not without good thoughts nor a good intent.

COMMUNION WITH GOD IN PRIVATE. Compiled by RICHARD SHEPHERD, M.A., of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, Minister of St. Margaret's, near Ware. London: Hatchard and Son.

This is a compilation, chiefly from a valuable work published in 1665. It is an earnest appeal for closet prayer, and we commend it to all who are joining in our weekly concert. The hints it gives for the profitable exercise of the duties of, and appeals it makes to attend constantly upon, secret retirement with God, are all calculated to have the right effect on those who read it.

THIRTY-FOUR INITIATORY LESSONS from the Gospel Narratives; arranged in the order of Time. By ROBERT MIMPRISS. First, Second, and Third Grades. 18mo. London: Thomas Varty.

This is an attempt to bring into small compass the whole of the 100 lessons contained in the full Gra

down by Mr. Mimpriss.

Amongst other objections raised to the system, it has been said,

1. It was too long. Three years would elapse before it could be run through.

2. It was too expensive. Some ten or twelve pounds was too much to expocket at once.

3. It was too difficult. Our teachers would never learn it, or give it the needed attention.

These objections are intended to be met in these little books.

1. It is shortened. The whole 100 lessons are condensed into 34, for the use of the lower classes, allowing the upper ones to use their Bibles, and only follow the order of passages and narratives adopted in these books, so getting the whole into a single year. 2. It is cheapened. All the manuals and maps required by the teachers for a school of 100 children, with these lesson-books, and the large

3. It is simplified, so that the teachers can now, we think, easily master it, and by attaining so much, reach a step from which they can pass to the still higher and better system yet beyond.

PARABLES TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF KRUMMACHER. London: C. Gilpin. Square 16mo.

All beautiful, and in Krummacher's best style, full of touching thoughts and words, and eminently good in their moral and intentions.

GREEN'S ILLUSTRATED ALMANAC FOR 1850. London: B. L. Green.

Equally beautiful, and in some respects more so, than its predecessors, of which we have spoken so well before. Let the teachers get all their scholars to purchase one for the new year.

THE MOTHER'S HAND. A pious mother, in her prayers with her little son, was accustomed to lay her hand upon his head. She died while he was yet too young to feel the loss which he had sustained. He grew up an uncurbed and wayward boy, whom none seemed to understand and few to love. Yet in his most reckless and passionate paroxysms, something seemed partially to restrain and rule him. He said it was a hand upon his head

like his mother's hand. Often he yielded to its touch and wept bitterly. In the flush and fever of youth, he travelled widely over foreign lands. Vice tempted him, and the virtue which should have withstood it had but a frail rooting. Still, something withheld him. It was the same hand upon his head-a soft, cool hand. He dared not utterly cast off its con

trol.

In his old age, he said to some children, "A hand is upon my head,

upon my few hoary locks, the same hand that used to rest in prayer among the fresh sunny curls of my infancy. And if I am ever saved, it will be by that mother's hand and my Redeemer's mercy."

THE INFLEXIBLE FATHER.

In Roman history there is a story related of Junius Brutus, one of the consuls, the chief magistrates of Rome, to the following effect:"There was a conspiracy formed with the view of overturning the government. Among the conspirators were Titus and Tiberius, the sons of Brutus. They were tried and condemned by their own father, and were scourged and beheaded in his

presence. sons.

sons.

He did not spare his own He thought the interests of the state demanded that he should make no exception in favour of his Not that he loved his sons less, but that he loved the state more. If he had known how to secure the safety of the state, and save his sons, doubtless he would have taken that course; but when the question was whether his sons should suffer, or the state be endangered, the feelings of the father had to yield to the judgment of the consul, and the young men were put to death. I dare not pronounce unqualified approval of the conduct of Brutus; but I may employ it as an illustration. It shows how stern are the demands of law, and what danger is apprehended from allowing the law to be broken with impunity."-Brown's Lambs of the Flock.

TIME AND ETERNITY.

Here I have no abiding city; as a tenant at will I may be dismissed at a moment's warning; but I have an immortal soul-a soul that must live happy or miserable to eternity; a soul that must join angels in glory, or fiends in darkness.

How weighty, then, is the concern of salvation! and how important every moment that shortens the span allotted me below! HAWEIS.

THE HEART.

The heart comprises in itself a world of wonders; and while we admire its admirable structure and properties, we are naturally led to consider the wisdom and power of Him who formed it, and who first gave it its pulsations. May we never, whilst the vital stream flows through our veins, forget His goodness, or repay His love with ingratitude. STURM.

QUEEN ELIZABETH AND HER BIBLE.

Perhaps few characters have ever had their time more fully engrossed with business than Queen Elizabeth, yet she is said to have found time to read the scriptures daily, and to have acquired a decided taste for them. "I walk," says she, "many times in the pleasant fields of the holy scriptures, where I pluck up the goodlisome herbs of sentences by pruning, eat them by reading, digest them by musing, and lay them up, at length, in the high seat of memory, by gathering them together; so that, having tasted their sweetness, I may perceive the bitterness of life."