How fast the earth moves round! causing the seasons to change, and the long and the short days to come. and go. Here we are now again with the harvest spread out around us in all its beauty and glory. A few months ago, and we were watching the opening days as they got longer and longer, and looking for the opening flowers as they came forth one after another in all their beauty and fragrance. Now we are coming to the close; the corn is nearly ripe, and the fruits of the gardens and orchards are ready for gathering, and the nights and mornings are getting shorter and shorter every day, and then dark and dreary winter will come with his frost and snow and short days and long nights. And so as the earth moves on in its daily and yearly course, will these changing seasons thus come and go.

Well: let us learn to be thankful in every season

for our comforts in winter, for the beauties of spring, for the glories of summer, and for the riches of autumn. In autumn especially should young people learn to admire and adore the goodness of God. They should not look abroad over the large yellow cornfields waving in the breeze, or see the loaded waggon returning slowly with its rich load to the barn, without thinking of that great and wonderful Being who thus bringeth forth food out of the earth year after year, and without whose blessing the labour of all the men in the world would be vain. Let us always remember that God gives the snow and the rain to soften the earth and the sun to warm it, and thus causes it to bring forth all its beauties and its blessings.

Whenever then, my young friends, in the harvest season of the year, you take your walks abroad, amidst the joy and happiness you feel, do not forget Him who giveth us all things richly to enjoy. Covering our hill sides and valleys with smiling plenty every year, is one of the greatest things God does for us for this life. "Give us this day our daily bread" is our prayer, and thus it is that he answers it. But he has done one thing far greater than this; he has sent Jesus Christ to save us from sin and fetch us up to that "happy land, far, far away," where we shall hunger no more and thirst no more where changing seasons are unknown-where days are without nights -where sorrow and sighing flee away-where death never comes, and where graves are never dug. Ah, my young reader, you cannot do anything better, you cannot do anything so well, anything that will do you so much good, as seeking to know all you can about Jesus Christ the blessed Saviour. Get to know all and death by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; and you can about him, by reading the histories of his life read till you feel that your heart loves him; for you ought to love him, He lived for you, and he died for

A SONG OF THE SEASONS.

you; and if you love him, he will love you more and more, and will one day take you up to himself to that

Happy Land,

Far, far away,

Where Saints in glory stand,

Bright, bright as day!

Oh how happy we shall all be to find ourselves there among them!

"Then let us join our grateful songs,

The God of heaven to bless,
To whom alone all praise belongs
For all that we possess.

He gives us rain in copious showers,
And makes his sun to shine;
But floods of richer blessings pours,
Of blessings all divine."

A SONG OF THE SEASONS.

WHEN Winter's snows have pass'd away, and the fields are fresh and green,

And bursting from the buds, the leaves upon the trees are

seen;

And little birds begin to build their nests and gaily sing,
Then we are glad to see again the pleasant season, Spring.
And now the busy gardener begins his yearly round,
And sows his peas and beans, and puts potatoes in the
ground;

The farmer sows his barley too, that from the ripen'd ear We may have meal to make our bread-God send it be not deer.

In the cheerful month of May, when the long warm days

are come,

And swallows from a distant land have found their summer home;

Oh! then the cherries, plums, and pears, will show their

blossoms white,

And apple-trees, all pink with bloom, will be a lovely sight.

Soon the tall grass must be cut down, and dried for hay so sweet,

Which when the winter comes again, the cows and horses eat;

And the thick fleece from sheep and lambs is shear'd to keep them cool,

And we have comfortable clothes, made from their useful wool.

'Tis Autumn when the corn lifts high its yellow ripen'd ears,
And the farmer very joyfully for reaping it prepares:
And then he stores it in his barn, to keep it safe, until
It can be thresh'd and winnow'd and made ready for the mill.

The apples too are rosy red, and fit for gath'ring in,
And soon to crush them in the press for cider they'll begin;
The tempting blackberries are ripe, and in the hedge-rows

near,

Hang the brown nut and purple sloe, the last fruits of the

year.

How grey and cold the mornings are, the evening closes fast, The leaves are changing colour now, and fall with every

blast;

The farmer guides his plough, to turn the furrows straight and neat,

And with his harrow breaks the clods, and then he sows the wheat.

The labours of the field are done, for Winter comes once

more;

The streams are stiff with ice, and hard the pond is frozen

o'er ;

The cattle ask their winter food, and on the leafless bough, The birds for crimson berries seek, their only nurture now.

Our heavenly Father heeds the wants of ev'ry thing that lives;

Seed time and harvest, summer's heat, and winter's cold he gives;

The leaf, the blossom, and the fruit, each in its season due: Oh! may we ever own His power, and trust and love Him

too.

HOW BEAUTIFUL!

How beautiful the Sun at his rising when he comes to disperse the darkness and cheer the face of nature with his beams-when he shines in mid-day splendour-or when he sets in glory in the western sky!

How beautiful the Moon walking in mild and chastened radiance through the clear heavens-and the Stars when they shine out of its depths profound!

How beautiful the Earth with its flowers of infinite variety in colour and fragrance-its birds of plumage gay and sweetest song-its animals graceful and majestic and man, the image of God, over them all.

How beautiful the Sea when spread out in calm magnificence, reflecting the face of the wide-spread heavens above-how awful when its waves are lifted up, and no voice but ONE can say to them "Peace be still." How beautiful the inhabitants that people its depths, and the shells of every form and hue which are scattered along its shores!

How beautiful! and yet alas how marred are all things on earth by the sin of man. Death came by sin, and hence in our world death triumphs. Birds, and beasts, and fishes, and flowers, and trees, all die -sooner or later they all die. And man dies-he sinned, and death is the awful penalty he pays.

And yet there is life. There is the principle of life in vegetables and animals. God, the great source and author of all life, keeps up a succession of all these in the world. And he has done more than this for man. He has sent his Son that we might have life and have it more abundantly. He who believeth on him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus said "I am the resurrection and the life." What mighty things for man are in those words.

By Jesus we are promised introduction into a world where all things live, and live for ever; and where we