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"What two black words may they be, Rob?"

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Against you, behind your back; a mighty difference a few letters make, sure 'nough! but I should like to know what she's been saying, sir."

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'Oh, only that you don't reckon your age by years, and that you don't ever mean to get old—at least she means it, though she has not exactly said it."

Grace nodded, as if to say, just so!

Rob did not speak for a moment, then with a beaming countenance he said,

"There seems to me great beauty in the thought that we are born children and die children, at least the most of us; here am I in my old Septembers, taking my stick to go anutting and blackberrying with all the young Septembers of the village, and I laugh as loud, may be louder than any of them, when I hook down the brambles and they spring back again; and as for the nuts, I am as pleased as little Sam when I find I've got the most 'cobbels'1 of three."

"That isn't because he's childish, sir, but just because he's so fatherly like," anxiously put in his wife.

"My Grace is sore against my being thought in second childhood," smiled Rob.

"It's only The House' I'm afeard of; they say old folks as are foolish get put away there."

"I don't think you need fear for your husband, Grace. God is only fulfilling His promise in him that he shall bring forth fruit in old age, and when he goes into the wood with the little ones, he is bringing forth the fruit of love and kindness."

The old woman gazed with admiration at Rob, and said in a tone not less approving,

"Eh, but that's true of him!"

"And more than that, Grace, when he shows himself so capable of entering into the village children's pleasures, it proves another promise true, which says his leaf also shall not wither! The Christian's heart never withers into dislike

1 I.c., triplets. Cobbels of two would be couplets, and so on.

of innocent enjoyment for others, because it never crisps up into selfishness itself."

“And that's true of her!" hastily and heartily exclaimed Rob, pointing to Grace, as though he would be beforehand with the words he saw were on her lips; and then, as if anxious to turn the subject, he said, "I'm thinking about the Lord's wonderful promise to us old folk. He don't fix any date, or day, or year, but He says all we can want to know, and all He means to do for us in those few words, 'Even to hoar hairs I will carry you.' 1 That's nothing less than providing for us altogether; not to-day or to-morrow, but always, no matter whether it's May or September, summer or winter, or all of them, the gracious promise to hoar hairs!' is enough. Hoar hairs don't always grow on aged heads; I've seen them above fair young faces that only counted summer years, and they had as much need of the blessed carrying as ever I have; and found the everlasting arms as strong and tender as my old September limbs do!"

Dear old Rob was fairly carried away by his subject, or he could not have ventured so long a speech before what he called "the gentry;" he apologized for his boldness, and pointing to his beautiful grey head, he said,

"This must plead my excuse; crowned heads should not be silent when the Lord who crowns them is spoken of!"

The righteousness that Solomon writes of was indeed the glory of this aged Christian, and any one beholding the calm dignity and holy happiness of his whole life and conversation could not doubt that he had found the paths of righteousness both pleasantness and peace, and realised that godliness with contentment is great gain, enriching its possessor now, and giving him exceeding great and precious promises for the future.

Dear old Rob; not long after this visit he was called on to meet a great sorrow; his wife died after a few days' llness only.

1 Isa. xlvi. 4.

2 Prov. xvi. 31.

3 1 Tim. vi. 6.

"Ah, sir," said he as he sat by the coffin, "I should be cast down a bit, if I didn't remember your text, He crowneth the year with His goodness, the whole year; sorrow and joy part alike."

"May I ask what you find in this dark dispensation that you can compare to crowning?" we asked in some surprise. He looked up smiling through his tears.

"If you must call it a dark dispensation, call it a dark one crowned with the light of the goodness of the Lord! When the Lord carries us into the dark, His lamp goes afore us and brightens up the night."

We could not answer such faith as this; we could only sit still and wonder. At last we said, or rather whispered to cach other," Crowned with goodness-what does he mean?"

"I mean just this; my wife dreaded old September days, as I was fond of calling my own time o' life, and she was always fretting lest I should go first, and leave her all alone in them. So it's all goodness that has taken her first and left me to follow in the dear Lord's own time. I'm not scared at loneliness, for He will carry me, and so must go with me; and as for fearing the 'House as my poor old darling did, I don't one bit; the Lord won't send me there 'cept for my good, and won't keep me there when my mansion is ready which Jesus is preparing. I've been a crowned one all my life, first by God's goodness in providence, and then by His wonders in grace; so I am not going to doubt Him in my September days, not I, thank the Lord."

The next grave that was opened in the village churchyard was for old Rob. Not a child in the place was willingly absent from his burial; and the tears shed for him were full of kindly remembrance and sincere regret. One little lad was heard to say, "There'll be no one tall enough now to hook down the nuts!" and another to reply, "You mean there'll be nobody kind enough to, now old Rob's gone away!"

So his leaf did not wither even in death!

Re-bound to God.

ow few of the many who have the word "religion" often on their lips really understand what it means, or ever think of it in its true sense!

The word

God, has

"A re-binding to God," is not that enough to fill a man's life, and to be its "chief end?" "religion" implies that man was once united to been separated from Him, and may again be brought into union and fellowship with Him. Let us think over this for a moment. What has brought this great evil on man, whom God has made capable of unison with all goodness, purity and truth? It is sin, his great enemy, which he yet clings

to so fondly!

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Have you never felt utterly weary, and yet restless? Longing for peace and rest, and unable to find it? If you have, then lay all the blame on sin, for that is what, in separating you from God, brought this misery upon you. But all this may be "done away." The Gospel has brought these "glad tidings of great joy to all people;" Jesus Christ is ready to stand as Daysman" betwixt us and God. In His Divine Humanity he has already, long ago, reunited mankind to God, but each individual man and woman who would be "re-bound" to God must receive Jesus as his Intercessor. He is standing with outstretched hand towards you; will you not take it, my fellow-sinner? It is no matter how vile may have been your life, or how cold and careless your heart: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Listen to His gentle words as He says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

In praying for His disciples when He was about to leave them to return to the Father, that He might " prepare a place for them" "among the " many mansions of the Father's one; as Thou,

house, He said, "That they all may be

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Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us." Could any words be more full of love to man than these? Sinful men to be cleansed from all evil by the blood of Jesus, which was 66 freely shed for the remission of sin," and made one with God in Christ!

"So near, so very near to God,

Nearer I cannot be ;

The love wherewith he loves the Son,

Such is His love to me!

"So near, so very near to God,
Nearer I cannot be;

For in the person of the Son,
I am as near as He!"

M. R.

Our Day on the Riffel-berg.

TAKE advantage of this wet day, when there is no possibility of out-door excursions, to write to my dear ones at home an account of the delightful day that we spent last week on the Riffel-berg; what we did and saw and felt.

We started from Zermatt one bright fresh morning on sure-footed, willing little horses, who clambered up the steep rocky paths almost as if they were goats. A charming ride of three hours brought us to the Riffel Inn, at a height of 8,000 feet above the sea. Rooms secured, luncheon partaken of, we had still several hours for sitting or strolling about, absorbed in the contemplation of the glorious mountains all around-the magnificent Matterhorn, the most wonderful, unlike as it is to all other mountains, a great cone of rocks 14,000 feet high, so steep that the snow can only lie on it in ridges here and there. The grandeur of the scene would have been almost overpowering were it not for the contrast of the innumerable flowers, quite as beautiful in their way as the mountains and

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