said the woman. A few days before, when in great pain, Bet said, "Oh, mother, I wish I was in heaven with Jesus!" "What!" said the mother, roughly, "do you want to be leaving of your mother?" "Yes, yes, mother," said the dying child; "I would leave twenty mothers for Jesus."

Next day something seemed to trouble her, and she asked whether the Bible did not say that " Our Father died for all. I don't mean my father, Billy C-," she said, "but the great good Father up in heaven." "Yes," she

was told, "Jesus did die for all." "Then," she replied, very calmly, "I won't trouble no more." Some time before she died she called her father, and, throwing her feeble arms round his neck, begged him to give up drink; never again to beat her mother; to love Jesus, and to meet her in heaven.

Her mother, who seemed much softened as she told of her child's perfect peace ir. the near approach of death, added, "And, Mr. Clarke, about an hour before she went, I said, 'Don't you know a little prayer?' when raising her eyes, with a heavenly smile, she said, 'Oh, mother, that's all done long ago. Jesus has got my prayers." And so the little gipsy girl, born under a hedge, and dying under a hedge, went up to glory, and her happy spirit stood before the Saviour she loved in paradise.

The Stingless Death.

HE dangers and difficulties of the forty long years of travelling in the wilderness all lay behind the children of Israel. They had been led to the very borders of the promised land; they stood on the brink of the Jordan, waiting the command to cross. Three solemn days of waiting these must have been to the whole congregation. What memories would fill their hearts! Memories of murmurings and unbelief and disobe dience on their part; of mercy and judgment, of love and

truth on the part of God; so that even abounded, grace did much more abound."

"where sin

How also they would look beyond the river, and think of the land promised centuries before to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! How eagerly they would gaze across, and direct their children's eyes to every visible object, and tell them all the wonderful story again of how and why they had been brought there! Reader, you and I must one day stand face to face with that of which Jordan was the type and the shadow.

What is your prospect on the other side?

We may not cross as Israel did, a multitude; the whole nation at one time. The messenger comes for one and for another, and then each must go at once, and go alone. Are you ready?

Let us see, as told in God's own Word, how His servants are wont to await the call, that we, too, may know how to "fear no evil;" no, not even in "the valley of the shadow of death."

stands in the His words are,

The aged Simeon rises before us, as he Temple, the Holy Child Jesus in his arms. "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy Word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." It was as if he had been long wishing and waiting for the word to be spoken, "Come up hither." "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." He had no fear of death. Why? He was a sinner, and he knew that he was; day by day in the Temple service he had seen the fire consume the lamb on the altar: a picture of the justice of God, of His holy hatred of sin, but a picture too of the wonderful way God Himself had opened whereby He could be "just, and yet the justifier of them that believe in Jesus." In that bleeding victim he saw the innocent suffering instead of the guilty; he saw a figure of Him who “bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness." If we would meet death as He did, it must be by being taught the same great lesson by the Holy

Spirit we must trust in the same great Substitute, we must lay hold of the same Christ, we must see the same "salvation of our God."

Another servant of God stands in the presence of death -a violent and dreadful death; his infuriated enemies rush on him gnashing their teeth, more cruel than the sharp stones they hurl at him; not a word of pity, not a look of sympathy in all that crowd. Yet this is the account we read of his death: "And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep." How was it that such a death was but falling asleep? It was that, "he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." We, too, if we would fall asleep, must look up-must with the eye of faith see Jesus, the Saviour, who gave His life for us, waiting to receive us, that where He is there we may be also.

Yet another of God's saints, his work accomplished, his suffering over, his long life, with all its work of faith, and labour of love, was all but ended. When St. Paul, from his lonely prison in Rome, waits for the Roman Emperor to pronounce his sentence of death, calmly he writes in almost the last words of his that have come down to us. Hear those words: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." So he speaks of the past. "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." Such was his view of the present. "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day;" adding, lest any should think such a crown was reserved only for such an one as "Paul the aged," ," "and not, unto me only, but also unto all them that love His appearing." Is that promise yours? Are you one of those who love His appearing? If so, you too may meet death, whenever and however it may come, calmly and fearlessly, even as

the weary child lays his head on his mother's bosom, and falls asleep there.

As David looked on, his confidence was, "Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me."

When Israel passed over the river, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant, that beautiful type of Christ, went before them, and when "the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, the waters stood and rose upon an heap. . . . And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan." So our Ark, our Priest, has said: "I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am He." "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord."

"1

"2

"3

"These all died in faith," is true of all God's people; and as they look forward each one of them may exclaim, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

" 5

Such is death to all whom it finds in Christ Jesus. But to those outside of Him, to all who know Him not as their own Saviour, who have never come to Him for pardon, never laid their sins on Him; to all who shall be found, in spite of the fulness, the freeness of the gospel offers, with sin still unforgiven; to all who have not entered by the one door, or accepted the one salvation-what shall death be? Let Gethsemane and Calvary answer. Let the cry of anguish of the Sin-bearer answer. What is it but the foretaste, the beginning of eternal death, the hearing of the dreadful words, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels ?"

Will you not, while there is yet time, "flee from the wrath 3 Psa. cxvi. 15.

1 See Josh. iii. 14-17.

2 Isa. xli. 4.

5 I Cor. xv. 55-57.

4 Rev. xiv. 13.

to come "-flee to Him whose Word stands sure: "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

Shall I Wear a Cross?"

MONG the many handsome presents given to Maude Pelham, on the occasion of her marriage, none were more beautiful than a locket of exquisite

workmanship, containing a likeness of the muchloved donor, and having a cross in brilliants on the outside. Very mingled were her feelings on getting it -admiration, gratitude, and perplexity; for, beautiful as it was, what should she do with it? To wear it was out of the question; that was alike repugnant to her principles and her feelings; yet it would be most painful to offend her kind and generous friend.

She took her difficulty where she had learnt to take her every difficulty, great or small, and sought for wisdom from Him who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and then sat down and wrote the following letter:

"DEAREST MARY,-I know not how to thank you enough for your beautiful gift; it is no small joy to be the possessor of such a likeness of the dear face I have not seen for so long. Yet, in spite of its beauty and value, I may not-cannot wear the locket. Wait one moment before you condemn me as an ungrateful girl, wholly devoid of taste. I do not plead guilty to either charge, for I am deeply grateful to the giver, and fully do I appreciate the beauty of the gift. But the cross I cannot wear.

"Suppose, dear Mary, that the one you loved best on earth-father, brother, friend-had suffered a death of utter shame and agony, and further, had suffered that death for your sake-had suffered it because some crime of yours