we shall not. Our bodies are compared to seed that is sown, which springs up, not in a form resembling the seed, but in some other, much more beautiful. Suppose you had twelve different kinds of seed given you, and that you knew the names of all the flowers they would produce, still you could never, by looking at them, tell which seed would produce such or such a flower. No, Charlie, it may well be called a great mystery."

"And how thankful, mamma, we should be, that we know there is a mystery about it, and that a funeral is not the last thing about a person.'

Charlie has often in after years pondered upon this visit to the Necropolis, and he has found the truth of what was once so well expressed : "As we advance in life, we live less among the living than the dead. Every heart has its own necropolis filled with the grave stones of the loved and unforgotten."

Many of our readers may not yet have found it so. There may be many who can look round upon an unbroken circle, and feel that, with the subject of these few pages, they have no concern. But it will not always be thus. Link after link must, sooner or later, break, and even the coming year may number them, if not among the mourners, yet, among the mourned. In either case is the subject one of the deepest interest. The line of life is deeply implanted in every breast, and as the old epitaph expresses it,

"If life were merchandize which all could buy,

The rich would live: the poor alone would die."

Let us be thankful that the times and seasons are not in our own hands, and let us pray earnestly for the great gift of Eternal Life which has been bought for those who trust in him, by One who died that we might live for ever.

L. N.

HOME EDUCATION.

The child and the youth will almost invariably be what the domestic circle makes him. There he will learn the precepts and the maxims which are to guide him through life: and there he will see what will tell still more powerfully, the example of the members of the household. The castes of Hindostan are

not a more striking illustration of this remark than are the families of England: and he must be very unobservant who has not noticed proofs of it in his own immediate neighbourhood. It is long ere the words of a revered father cease to come vividly to the recollection of his son. In the rude wear and tear of life they may not be frequently remembered: but they will never, while memory holds her seat, be entirely forgotten. In the silence of evening, when the strife, or the fever of daily exertion is over; in the hour of affiction, or the season of deep and long continued adversity, they will recur again and again. Nor will the words of tenderness, of love, and of pious caution, dropped from the lips of a beloved mother, in the days of infancy and childhood, cease to produce in a greater or less degree, their effect on the character of her son, or of her daughter. Most true is it, that the best men and women, and the most useful members of society have been those who were born, nourished, and educated in pious families. We need not mention Timothy in sacred, or the two Henrys, Philip and Matthew, the author of the Commentary on the Bible, in ecclesiastical history: or W. B. Cadogan, who not at Westminster, nor even at Oxford, lost the impressions produced on his mind by the instruction of his mother; or that wise and useful minister, Richard Cecil, who had, like Timothy, a Lois and Eunice, for his maternal ancestors. And could Augustin forget his mother Monica, or Colonel Gardiner, or Dr. Doddridge, or John Newton, theirs? And how many a youth has been trained to intellectual exercise by his mother: and more of mental discipline and development are frequently imparted in the quiet seclusion of the family circle than the school, the tutor, and the college ever give.—Davis' Difficulties of Education.

THE REV. JOHN CONDER.

JOHN CONDER, afterwards D. D. was born at Wimple, in Cambridgeshire, June 3rd, 1714. His grandfather, Richard Conder kissed him, and with tears in his eyes, said, "Who knows what sad days these little eyes are likely to see;" things wearing at that time a threatening aspect, relative to Dissenters. But in two months after, the clouds broke, with Queen Anne's

death, and fair days succeeded. Dr. Conder remarked, upon mentioning the above circumstance, "These eyes have, for more than sixty years, seen nothing but goodness and mercy follow me, and the churches of Christ, even to this day." Mr. Conder began his ministry in 1738, and preached his first sermon from Rom. i. 16. "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ." He first settled with an Independent congregation at Cambridge, where he continued about sixteen years, with acceptance and usefulness. In 1754, he became Tutor of the Dissenting Academy, at Mile End. In 1762, he became sole Pastor of the congregation meeting on the pavement in Moorfields. The University of Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of D. D. It was the constant object of his ministrations to recommend Christ, in his person, offices, and grace, to poor sinners. There have been few in any age of the Christian church, who were more deeply acquainted with the things that accompany salvation, or could more skilfully divide the word of truth. In his last illness, he expressed a steadfast and unshaken confidence in the grace, faithfulness, and love, of a Covenant God in Christ Jesus. "I bless God, said he, that I can say, I have no doubt but that all things are rightly settled between me and my Master." Dr. Conder was buried in Bunhill-Fields, where a latin inscription, thus englished, is placed over his remains.

"Here is interred John Conder, Professor of Divinity. A preacher of the Gospel. Pastor of a church at Cambridge sixteen years; and afterwards of one in London twenty-one years. President of the Dissenting Academy at Homerton. He was born in Cambridgeshire, in the year of our salvation, 1714. Died at Hackney, 30th day of May, 1781, in the 67th year of his age.

I have sinned.

I have repented. I have trusted.

I have loved. I rest.

I shall arise.

And through the grace of Christ,

However unworthy,

I shall reign.

Jones' Bunhill Memorials.

TIMOLEON AND THEMISTA.

(From the German.)

On the banks of the noble river Orontes, (the largest in Syria, rising in Mount Lebanon) there dwelt a married pair; but an evil spirit of strife lived with them under the same roof, and consumed their early prosperity, as the flame devoured the oil of the lamp which hung up in their hut. And after a short time the daily work, and his longing

hand of Timoleon rested from his eyes looked eagerly after wine and dice, and the flame of passion blazed fiercely in his soul, so that Themista became angry with him in her heart, and turned away from him, and went her own way.

Then the Lord sent Timoleon and his wife a warning, for he had sworn by his eternal love "that they should not perish, but have everlasting life." And he sent out a hot south wind, which blew upon the olive trees in the garden and withered them up, so that they stood there leafless. So they had no more oil, either for their meals, or for the market; yet their hearts regarded not this token of the Lord's righteous displeasure, but remained hardened, but when the lamp burnt no longer for want of oil, they quarrelled together in the dark, and ate their bread dry!

Then the Lord sent another messenger of wrath to them, to teach them to reflect on their evil course. This time the south wind blew more violently, and the snow on the surrounding mountains melted, and swelled the stream so that it overflowed its banks, covering the country far and wide with its roaring waves. Timoleon's house was soon overwhelmed, and everything moveable swept away by the mighty waters. The unfortunate couple assisted one another as well as they could out of the water, and fled for refuge to the mountains.

After a few days' time the river returned to its channel; and Timoleon came down from the place of safety to look for the spot where his hearth had stood, but it was literally washed out, so that not even a single particle of the old dust clave to the walls. So he began to build and to plant afresh, and the Lord prospered his work, for love ruled in his house as it had never done before, and sacred truth guarded the threshold, and their prayers ascended to heaven,

And when the olive trees in front of the house were again in

full leaf and blossom, they sat together once more, engaged in sweet converse, listening at intervals to the distant roaring of the wild Orontes; and Themista said to her husband, "Oh, how much the river has swept away from us which we need not consider as lost!" And Timoleon understood her meaning-and the waves of God's righteous judgment never again assailed the peaceful abode of Timoleon and Themista. J. T.

A VOICE FROM THE DUMB.*

JOHN WILLIAM LASHFORD was received into the Brighton and Sussex Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, towards the close of 1842. There was some difficulty in obtaining his admission, as he was beyond the age specified in the rules of the institution; and his appearance, at that time, gave but little hope of his ever being able to make much progress in mental improvement. Nevertheless, the ladies and gentlemen of the committee were reluctant to close the doors of the institution entirely against one who, they all felt, could never have the least hope of gaining entrance into any other institution or school, where he could have the benefit of education. It was therefore agreed that he should be taken in on probation, for three months- -an agreement, at which all who formed that committee have again and again had occasion to rejoice; especially those whose hearts the Lord first drew towards this poor boy, and whose sympathy and care watched over him, even to the last.

It would naturally be supposed that a boy having lived to the age of thirteen, entirely shut out from all around him, being uuable to communicate his own, or to receive the ideas of others, and never having felt the necessity of performing any duty, though his parents were in humble circumstances, would find great reluctance in commencing a course of study, the difficulty of which, it is utterly impossible for those to enter into or understand who have never known the want of those faculties, by which we are hourly acquiring knowledge, being blessed with the full use of the organs of hearing and speech. Still, it cannot be said that this was the case with him: and, although his progress at first was very slow, he persevered, adding word to word; and when, a few months after, he returned to

By William Sleight, Master of the Sussex Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. This is the title of a deeply touching and graphic little volume, to which we earnestly refer the reader for further information.

B b