that reason that her daughter would marry and settle soon, but otherwise she did not care for her making a choice so very young. Rose was only just over twenty, and Mrs. Williams' opinion was that girls did not know their own minds much before five-and-twenty. When Mr. George Fendall called the next morning, Clara was in the drawing-room as well as Rose, but she soon slipped away, as she did not much like him, and she had noticed how quiet and silent Rose became, and ill at ease altogether, which made her think that she had a partiality, if nothing more, for George. Because she did not like him herself was no reason why Rose should not, she wisely thought, and he might suit her; she knew that Rose and herself were very different, so if they were to be happy in their married lives, their husbands must be also unlike each other, and she could not help thinking how different Charles and George Fendall were, and when she did compare them, I am afraid it was very much in favour of one, and detrimental to the other, but, to do her justice, she always finished up by saying "Comparisons are odious," as if to make amends for doing so. This time she said, "Well, well, if they do marry, I hope they will be happy, and I think they are likely to suit each other in some ways; they neither of them care for the country, and both like gaiety, so they are alike in that respect anyhow, which is something, and they may be in all else for aught I know." Mrs. Williams and her daughter left Woodlands the next week, and nothing else occurred to break the monotony of Clara and her mother's existence, until Charles returned from India the next spring. A month after that event they were married very quietly in their little parish church. After their marriage they went to that quiet little spot in North Devon, where Charles had joined them, on his return from India, two and a half years before, and where they had been sadly happy; at least he had come to brighten their sadness. They were not married by the Vicar, but by Charles's great friend, Mr. John Wood, and a brother officer of Charles's was his best man. This is all I can remember to relate about Clara and her mother before her marriage, and the reader has been introduced to her since, and first made her acquaintance after that event had taken place. "WATCH AND PRAY." "When thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee."-S. John i. 48. SOILED with the dust, and wearied of the garish highway's din, Though rest is proffered where the Cross shines forth a guiding Ray, The narrow steps are steep to climb, much worn by pilgrims' feet, But separate and silent keep—beseeming those who haste, The rugged path is smoothed when pilgrims walk with heedful tread, C. A. M. W. THE LILY AND THE PALM. THOUGHTS FOR THE FESTIVAL OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF OUR LADY AND THE COMING FEAST OF PALMS. "Ye to the Heaven-taught soul present A token and a sacrament, How to the highest room Earth's lowliest flowers our LORD receives, Close to His heart a place He gives, Where they shall ever bloom." "Sunday Nosegays." Lyra Innocentium. 'ALL the green things of the earth" do honour and glory to GOD, according as it is written in the Song of the Three Holy Children. Now at this solemn tide the flowers and the trees show forth the glory of GOD. Now the palm tree bows down her wide-spreading branches to our LORD, as He goes along His dolorous way to Jerusalem, the earthly. To-day the lily-of-the-valley sends forth unto our GOD a sweet fragrance in His most holy dwelling-place, where are the cohorts of the Angels. JESUS CHRIST Our LORD stayeth even now ever amid the lilies, as it is said in the sweet song of the Canticles. He stayeth now also even amid the Palm Branches. Caught up are these trees, and flowers, into the happy garden, where the King walketh ever with His holy ones. To-day is the Festival of the Annunciation of the Virgin, and soon will come to us the Feast of Palms. To-day, the Archangel cometh down from on high to announce glad tidings. The time is coming, when our LORD shall enter His own City. Behold now a bright gleam, as of Paradise glory, amid sorrow and sadness, and the thick and lowering clouds of woe, comes over all the earth. The Maid Mother, breathed into by the HOLY SPIRIT of God, so that in the gladness of her heart she must sing this song, "My soul doth magnify the LORD." JESUS CHRIST, the Carpenter's Son, so men said, is an earthly King for the while. Now the Virgin is the Blessed among women, blessed in the courts of Heaven, blessed in the Sanctuaries of the King upon earth. Now JESUS CHRIST our Holy SAVIOUR is as a Conqueror, with His attendants and courtiers, owned a King by the most sacred City in all the world. Thousands and myriads to-day are singing the praises of Holy Mary, because she, earth-born, and a mortal among mortals, is found worthy to be the Mother of the LORD'S CHRIST. Thousands and myriads soon will be taking up "the Hosannas." Never have they left the earth, since the Jewish maidens, and the little children, sang their "glory, laud, and honour;" sounding ever are they, year by year, all the world over, yea, before the Throne of GOD, yea, entering into the ears of the LORD of Sabaoth. Let us go to the Lily, and smell the fragrance thereof. Let us go to the Palm, and take hold of its branches. It is the best of stations for us at this most holy Tide. The Palm Tree has bowed its branches to the Holy JESUS, once in the days of His holy Childhood, as it is told in tradition and story; and now again, when He must enter upon the Procession of Victory, which leads to the Kingship, and the Eternal Glory. The scene is ever the same in both cases; in the life of our LORD, and in the life of the Holy Virgin Mother. There is a parallel in both. Let me put our dear LORD first, as is my bounden duty. Think of our Blessed SAVIOUR, entering amid the applause, and the cheers of the populace, into His own City, and then, think of the Good Friday coming, the bitter desolation," the vinegar and the gall," -the Outcast,—the Malefactor,—He, on Whom had been passed the cruel and unjust Sentence, "for us men and our salvation." And on the other hand, think of the Holy Virgin, the Maiden of maidens, in her holy and blessed Home, and the glory of GOD coming to her, and the power of the Highest overshadowing her, and her happy child-like face of the most pure beauty, full of the still, and quiet life, receiving GOD's high message, rapt, caught up as it were into the infinite, and the sword, piercing her own heart;-and, let me go on, to see the bowed sorrowful figure, cast low before her only Son, the Widow of widows in her widowhood, the mourning Mother, bereft of her only Son, Who is scourged, and crowned, crucified and slain. Yes, it is the same lesson. It is the same lesson to ourselves,-the peace of GOD first, the bitter struggle, and then the glory. GOD give us His grace to endure. Let us go to the Palm Tree. All those who are brave, bear palms. This is the station for CHRIST's men, His brave followers, who shall be clothed in scarlet. CHRIST speaks here to men. Let us go to the Lily. CHRIST speaks now to holy women. He speaks to those Blessed ones, who are like those, whom King Lemuel sets forth in that prophecy, "which his mother taught him.”1 TO CHRIST's brave men, and CHRIST'S holy women, I speak now, to the weak and the simple: "Will you go up to the Palm Tree ?" • Will you come and consider the Lily ?" Many men and women are doing this. Many men and women are taking of the Palm Branch, and plucking of the flowers of the Lily. On earth they are brave, and true, conquerors through JESUS CHRIST, trying to resist each evil way. On earth they suffer and endure, and no word of murmuring escapes their lips. On earth they are humble, and gentle and all because they know that JESUS is the true King of all the earth, and that the Holy Virgin, through whose : 1 Prov. xxxi. 10. heart a sharp piercing sword once passed, is awaiting them in the Garden of Lilies, crowned with the King's celestial glory, placed close unto the shining All-holy Throne. And when the fitful fever of this sad life is over, they will to us re-echo from their Seats of Glory the unvarying strain, “Go, Brothers, to the Palm Tree: Go, Sisters, to the Lily: for there all things of beauty meet, a joy for ever, to the everlasting Ages." And as the Blessed and the Holy, from their celestial Abodes, seem to say this to us, "who are lingering here" in "the lonesome world," shall we not listen, and go on our way "rejoicing." "With hearts new braced and set, To run, untir'd, love's blessed race ?" NON NOBIS, DOMINE. THE ANNUNCIATION. FAIREST amongst the daughters, The Angel bowed before thee, "A vessel formed for honour, The Holiest hath deemed thee For His high purpose meet. "Far distant generations Shall bless thee, lowly maid, Like fair and stately lily, By soft wind gently stirred, 1 "Christian Year." |