CHILDREN.

*Of Such Is the Kingdom."

That God will approve nothing wrong is the hope of the world as to virtue. That He will reward those who love Him is the refuge of peace for each soul. In the presence of the God unveiled by Christ, the mother may in perfect hope lay down her infant in the grave. She needs place no holy earth in its coffin, no baptism upon its forehead; she needs read no ambiguous words from the rubric or the confession, for the God in Christ is a great God, and none but the consciously and willingly sinful need tremble at His wrath. As for the children in their tombs, they need no intervention of holy water or holy ground. All the maledictions of earth, all the condemnatory laws of all the bishops, all the anathemas of a thousand popes, could not detain one of those little souls a moment from the bosom of God.-SWING.

Religious Training of Children.

More and more there is growing up a disposition among parents to permit all matters of religious observance to be with their offspring mere matters of choice or preference. Your child must learn French and German and drawing; but he shall learn his catechism and his Bible lesson and a reverent observance of Sunday, if he chooses, and not otherwise. A more dismal and irrational folly it is not easy to conceive! I do not say that there may not have been folly in another and opposite direction. I am not unmindful that religious teaching

has been sometimes made a dreary and intolerable burden. But surely we can correct one excess (not, I apprehend, very frequent or very harmful) without flying straightway into an opposite and a worse one. And so I plead with you who are parents to train your children in ways of reverent familiarity with God's word, God's house, and God's day. Let them understand that something higher than your taste or preference makes these things sacred and binding and constrains you to imbue them with their spirit. And, that you may do this the more effectually, give them, I entreat you, that mightiest teaching which consists in your own consistent and devout example.-H. C. POTter.

"Little Boy Blue."

The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and staunch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket molds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair.

That was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.

"Now, don't you go till I come," he said,
"And don't you make any noise !"
So toddling off to his trundle-bed,
He dreamt of the pretty toys.
And as he was dreaming, an angel song
Awakened our Little Boy Blue!

Oh, the years are many-the years are long;
But the little toy friends are true.

Aye, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,

Each in the same old place,

Awaiting the touch of a little hand,

The smile of a little face.

And they wonder, as waiting the long years through, In the dust of that little chair,

What has become of our Little Boy Blue

Since he kissed them and put them there.

EUGENE FIELD.

The Rich, the Poor and the Children.

We feel free to affirm that no one influence can anywhere be pointed out that will equal the power which Christ has brought to bear upon the republican principles in society. The whole soul of His religion is broad. It is man—man, not rich or poor, not crowned, not chained, but man-who figures in the great Christian drama of life and death. In the religion of Jesus the rich are humiliated if riches be their idol; in the same religion the poor are exalted if they are in the paths of righteousness. Here it was the widow with two mites outranked the Dives of purple and fine linen.

Here it was the first

Those whom birth,

began to be last and the last first. or riches, or force had set up in high places began to sit uneasy on their pedestals of vanity, and slowly up rose Magdalen and all the penitents till forehead of king and forehead of subject found the level of kindred drops. In

this transformation scene of the New Testament, children came to the front, and, for the first time on man's world, were made the equals of kings, orators and philosophers. Of such is the kingdom of Heaven.-SWING.

Children Without Chastisement.

Soft-hearted mothers rear soft-hearted children. They hurt them for life because they are afraid of hurting them when they are young. Coddle your children, and they will turn out noodles. You may sugar a child till everybody is sick of it. Boys' jackets need a little dusting every now and then, and girls' dresses are all the better for occasional trimming. Children without chastisement are fields without plowing. The very best colts want breaking in. Not that we like severity. Cruel mothers are not mothers, and those who are always flogging and fault-finding out to be flogged themselves. There is reason in all things, as the madman said when he cut off his nose. SPURGEON.

A Song of Childhood.

Of all the pretty little songs I have ever heard my youngsters sing, that is one of the best which winds up:

"If at first you don't succeed,

Try, try, try again."

I recommend it to grown-up people who are down in the mouth, and fancy that the best thing they can do is to give up. Nobody knows what he can do till he tries. "We shall get through it now," said Jack to Harry, as