EARLY DAYS. MARCH, 1846. MOSES STRIKING THE ROCK IN HOREB. OUR juvenile friends will remember that, under the guidance of the pillar and the cloud, the children of Israel advanced from the shore of the Red Sea three days' journey into the wilderness, when they began to feel the difficulties of their wandering state. "They found no water." (Exod. xv. 22.) But at their next stage their distress was increased. "They could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: and the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?" (Exod. xv. 23, 24.) What strange and unaccountable behaviour was this! What had Moses done? Was he the cause of this calamity? Why did they look unto Moses, as if he had been God, and had power to grant the supply which they demanded? Painful and unjust as the conduct of the Israelites undoubtedly was, he made no reply, but taught them by his example what was the proper line of conduct they ought to pursue. "He cried unto the Lord," and obtained deliverance. "The Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet." A few weeks after this event had occurred, they were brought into a similar difficulty, and were equally impatient, unbelieving, and rebellious. The Israelites came to Rephidim, and found no water. (Exod. xvii. 1, &c.) In this extremity, having profited nothing by former experience, they rose with great violence against Moses, demanded from him instant relief, and imputed to him a design to kill them, their children, and their cattle. Distressed by these wicked and unfounded charges, he fled to the Most High in prayer: and whither should we fly for refuge in the time of trouble? There alone are support and comfort to be found. He said, "What shall I do unto the people? They be almost ready to stone me. A favourable answer was given to this request; deliverance was vouchsafed, and an honour conferred upon the servant of God in the presence of his accusers. By divine command he smote the rock of Horeb with his potent rod, while the Elders of Israel stood by, and immediately the waters gushed out in plenteous streams, and continued to flow for the full supply of this numerous host during their long pilgrimage. Those who are active and unwearied in their endeavours to advance the interests of true religion, and the happiness of man, ought not to be surprised to find that their good is "evil spoken of," and their benevolent endeavours misrepresented by the very individuals whose benefit they were seeking to promote. Such is the perverseness of human nature! Let us learn in patience to possess our souls, and to commit our cause "to Him that judgeth righteously." C. A MENDICANT DOG. "I was travelling," says M. Blaze, "in a diligence. At the place where we changed horses, I saw a good-looking poodle-dog, (chien caniche,) which came to the coach-door, and sat up on its two hind-legs, with the air of one begging for something. Give him a sou,' said the postilion to me, and you will see what he will do with it.' I threw to him the coin: he picked it up, ran to the baker's, and brought back a piece of bread, which he ate. This dog had belonged to a poor blind man, lately dead; he had no master, and begged alms on his own account." RECOLLECTIONS OF MY CHILDHOOD. AMONG the earliest impressions connected with my childhood which I can recall, were those produced by being permitted, when but a very little child, to view the dead bodies of two infant children. They were twins, and had departed this life within a few hours of each other; and there, side by side, lay the little babies. I had never looked on death till then; and it was with a strange feeling of awe, half-defined fear, and wonder, that I gazed upon this sight of early death. Each marble countenance so placid, so immoveable, so very fair; snowdrops strewn upon their white grave-dresses, and placed in each tiny hand, the lovely floweret shedding its last bloom on all that remained of the lost little ones,-the flower and death, the emblem and its reality, brought together! And the mother stood by, weeping she could not gaze calmly upon those treasured ones; but, wiping off the rebellious tears, she turned away, saying, in scarcely uttered tones, "They are happy for ever,— 'Far from a world of grief and sin, With God eternally shut in!'" The friend who had conducted me thither, silently led me away; but the remembrance of that scene, the peaceful motionless aspect the departed infants presented, has never passed away. The stricken parent's chastened grief!—Long after I thought of this, and still dwell upon it. But rather do I now love to think of the bright homes to which those little ones escaped: quitting earth, its toils, and its trials, almost before capable of experiencing them, to dwell for ever in that land where all is brightness, holiness, and peace; a brightness, the shadows of earth may never dim; a holiness, the taint of earthly sin may never mar; a peace, earth's tumults may never interrupt;-gone to be with that Jesus who is the "fairest among ten thousand," and the altogether lovely." CLEORA. 66 SABBATH EXERCISES. Matthew iv. 17-22. JESUS BEGINS TO PREACH. VERSE 17. Who began to preach? What did he proclaim? Why should sinners repent? Ver. 18. By what sea was Jesus walking? Whom |