fly that has just left us, and yet she must one day lie down pale and silent beneath the green hillock: her own dear mother lies pale and still below the mound she has just passed.

Those giddy little ones are gathering to gaze on another company entering the churchyard, heavy-hearted and darkly clad: they come, too, heavily laden with the coffin of the dead. The afternoon sunshine slants across the black pall as they halt a moment at the churchyard gate. Many of them are weeping bitterly for the friend that is not; but the voice of God's minister sounds through the quiet churchyard: "I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." The worn and weary body shall indeed moulder; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; but it shall rise again at the last day, and in his flesh shall the buried one look upon God.

Think you, dear children, that it is hard for Him who wakened the gay butterfly as it lay folded in the chrysalis, who has watched and cared for the little worm as it fed on the nettle leaves, who guided it till it found a burial place beneath the mouldering beam-think you it is hard for Him to bid the sleepers awake from the dry dust of the churchyard? The richest or the fairest, or the wisest amongst us now, is but as the worm feeding amid the nettles; but if we heed and obey the voice of the Holy One, we shall one day-yes, the poorest, or the simplest, or the most despised-we shall be wise, and rich, and blessed; for our vile bodies shall be fashioned like unto His glorious body, who, on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, was not found in the sepulchre, for the Lord was risen indeed!

The butterfly is lovely in your eyes, I know, dear children. Would you awaken in the day of resurrection beautiful and meet for the sunshine as that goodly creature, or loathsome and hateful as are some of the insects that go through changes nearly of the same kind, but whose end is to be destroyed whensoever they are met? If, now, angry and peevish tempers are nursed

in your hearts, and you seek not to be mild and holy,
we know well what your awakening must be. Think
of this, and ask Him who slept in the tomb for you, so
now, by his good Spirit, to change and soften your
hearts, that all evil things may die in you, and that all
things pure and lovely may live and grow
in you; and
so to keep you in all your ways, that at the last you
may lie down in peace, beneath the green hillocks of the
churchyard, with a sure and certain hope of the resur
rection to eternal life in his own image.

The tangled grass grows rank and tall
Where the low hillocks rise:
Upon the graves, beneath the wall,
How dark the shadow lies!

Yet far into the summer sky
Points up the village spire,
Its golden finger-tip on high
Shines like an evening fire.

I would I were as near the sun
That gives that crown of gold,
And leaves it when the day is done,
And all the graves are cold!

Dear child! God's faithful servant knows-
From these cold graves-the way

To a fair church, whose pavement glows
With a much brighter day.

Oh! red as is the evening light
That halts upon the spire,

That church is farther from the night,
And in the glory higher.

Within, without, its walls are lit,

And grave-stones there are none :
No shadows o'er its pavement flit,
Its psalms are never done.

It is the heaven where thou mayst dwell;
And all the saints are there:

No sunbeam on the earth can tell
How bright it is and fair.

H.T.

NOTE.-If I had ever seen the chrysalis of the peacock butterfly, (Vanessa Io,) I should have selected that insect as more distinctly the subject of the present Lesson. I know that its caterpillar feeds on the nettle, and I suppose the chrysalis is not very rare; but I am ignorant whether it is gilded and painted, as many chrysalides certainly are. The caterpillar is black, spotted with white.

SUNDAY-SCHOOL ADDRESS.

THE RESURRECTION.

"It is appointed unto all men once to die, but after this the judgment."-HEBREWS ix. 27.

A BOY once told his Teacher he should like to have been alive when our Saviour lived upon the earth, to have seen him raise Lazarus from his grave. I dare say it was with that boy as is the case with most of you childrenit had never struck him that he would one day himself see Jesus! But be assured you will all not only see him, but hear the same voice which called the widow's son from his bier, and Lazarus from his grave, calling you from your beds of dust, to stand at his judgmentseat, as certainly as you now hear my voice speaking to you in this school-room. Yes, although it is now 1800 years since he ascended into heaven, where he is now sitting at the right hand of God the Father Almighty, he will one day visit our earth again, as the two angels told his apostles at his ascension; saying, "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." "And every eye shall see Him!”

In your Catechism you are taught to believe in the resurrection of the body, and that Jesus Christ will come from heaven to judge both the quick and the dead. Many of you, it is to be feared, go on, time after time, repeating these solemn words, and yet seldom or never thinking of their meaning. But, children, there is an awful truth in them, in which both you and I should be deeply concerned. And may God, of his infinite mercy, enable you now to understand this solemn subject, and grant, that when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty to judge both quick and dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through the merits of that Saviour who will then be our Judge.

We are, my dear children, solemnly told in the Bible, that God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world. On that day will be gathered before

him the living and the dead of all nations under heaven, that all may receive according to their works, whether they have been good or bad; for God will then bring EVERY secret work into judgment. Oh! what an awful day will that day be for every ungodly sinner! terrible, indeed! for every sin they have committed will then stand up in judgment against them. Think of this, ye careless little ones, and ever remember that God knows every sinful thought you think, and that

"There's not a sin that you commit,

Nor wicked word you say,

But in his dreadful Book 'tis writ
Against the judgment-day!

"Then all the crimes that you have done

Will all be published there!

Be all exposed before the sun,

Whilst men and angels hear!"

In the parable of the tares of the field, our Saviour makes all this so plain and easy to be understood, that the youngest of you, I think, cannot mistake his meaning. You will find it in the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew. Jesus there compares this world to a field, and the people that live in it to wheat, and tares or weeds-by which are meant the righteous and the wicked. Just as the weeds grow up along with the wheat, in the same field, so there are both righteous and wicked persons living together in the same world, and in the same town-growing up together in the same house, and eating together at the same table-meeting in the same school, and sitting on the same form. And as the wheat and the weeds are cut down by the farmer -the one preserved, the other burnt up-so God cuts down with his sharp scythe (Death!) all persons, young and old, good or bad. All men die and fade away, like the grass; for "it is appointed unto all men once to die, but after this the judgment." And observe what will then take place in that judgment-day: all that are in the grave will hear the voice of the Son of God, and will come forth from thence to judgment; those who are alive upon the earth will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air; and every eye shall see him coming in

the clouds of heaven (not to suffer, but to reign!) with power and great glory. "He will send forth his angels to gather out of his kingdom all those that offend or do iniquity."

Yes, dear children, the righteous and the wicked live together now, they will then be for ever parted: and though even kings may try to hide themselves beneath the falling mountains, and ungodly children try to cleave to their righteous parents, and wicked Sunday-school boys and girls try to cling to their Teachers, all will be in vain-part they must, for Christ is come to judge them-part they shall, for angels are sent to separate them. Then the angels will treat the wicked as the reapers do the weeds and stubble in the fields, after the wheat is in the barn-burn them up!-cast them into a furnace of fire!—there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!" But the righteous shall shine forth as the sun for ever and for ever; they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, for the Lamb of God shall feed them, and lead them to living fountains of water. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." They will be for ever with the Lord,

"Where scenes of pleasure, ever new,

Will in succession rise."

Those of you, my dear children, who do not love God, who neglect to pray to him, who break the Sabbath, and tell lies, though you may have good parents, and live near good neighbours, and be taught by good ministers, yet you, yourselves, are not good; you are like the tares in the field; you are the children of the wicked one, and God knows it! And while the righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father, and enjoy the company of holy angels, all of you, my dear little ones, who neglect to pray now for the Spirit of God to teach you, to give you new hearts, and to lead you to Jesus Christ the only Saviour-remember what I say, you will hereafter see heaven afar offE-never be allowed to enter it—but will sink into hell, and suffer everlasting punishment!"

Bromsgrove.

EY.