But again her mind wandered and she fell into a desponding frame, and in her complaint said, "If I had only a mother or somebody to do for me; but I have no mother, nor anybody to do anything for me." We could scarcely help smiling as we asked, "But what could your mother do, even though she were here ?" And again tried to assure her, though her mother was dead her heavenly Father still lived, and lived to bear and to carry her to old age and hoary hairs.

Well, our pleasant evening came to an end, as all evenings do whether pleasant or unpleasant; the evening of life will come to an end, too, with all of us. Hers was then fast drawing to a close. At the close of this pleasant evening I saw be home; the walk was but a very short one, but was too long for her; she had two or three vy severe fits of coughing, and her asthma as very bad. We had to make several halt for her to get breath, and once, when ver, I said, "Very near near her home, she asked, "Where am I go" your last resting-pla" She hardly understood me. I said, "You are just in front of the chapel She said, "I ground close to your own grave." be there. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," and another effort took her to her home. Her home did I say? no, that was not her home, that was only the inn on the road side that led to her home.

shall soor

However, on reaching what we must call her home, here she had another violent fit of coughing in which I really thought she must have burst something internally; for such an effusion of phlegm I never witnesed before or since; and I truly felt she needed if not a mother's care, yet the care of some near and dear friend, whose love and whose pity could bear with the infirmities and

suffering of age combined with the helplessness of Ichildhood. And again I remembered that God I was her Father, and that to old age He would bear and He would carry. In about a fortnight I

had to preach her funeral sermon.

"But what has

all this to do with little gleaners ?" may be asked. Well, I want to remind you little gleaners that since I sat and heard a sermon from the words, are in age. It seems but a little while ago

your old

And even to

your old age I

That sermon was

am He; and even to

hoar hairs will I carry you; I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you." Pilgrims' Society." I wonder whether any of the little gleaners contribute to that very excellent society. If it were only a penny a month, I think the receive it. And, by-the-bye, I wonder if any of the readers of this periodical could help me to get an

preached in behalf of the "Aged

treasurer or

aged pilgrim should be

secretary would be very pleased to

on to this society? If they could, I thankful. I know a good woman

very

who has been a pilgrim for many, many years; she Irons, and has for some years stood a member of was for many years a member with the late Joseph the church of which I am the pastor. She is quite disabled and entirely dependent. I should be thankful to be able to help her. I don't know

SO

pecially with the very aged and the young. But how I am wandering! I said I heard a sermon from the above words, I thought they did

not much

years of

Concern me, for I was only about twenty and I thought it will be a long, long

age,

while before my head is hoary; but the time has come; and I begin to understand a little of the old lady's feeling when she said, "It's not my great

age." I find it very hard to realize that I am really getting old; and that, I think, is the case with most, and yet we are all getting older every day, even you, little gleaners. Now, I don't expect you young folks to feel all the sympathy with the old that I do; but I should like to incite in your bosoms something like reverence for the aged. How sad it seems to see young people ridiculing, laughing at, and mocking old age. You know what befell the youths that mocked Elisha. A very sad sight was recently witnessed at the Mansion House: two boys-one in his thirteenth year and another in his fifteenth-stood before the Lord Mayor, charged with robbing and attempting to murder their grandmother. This diabolical deed arose out of what is called "fast living;" its beginning probably was smoking, one of the leading, though I am sorry to say commonest, vices of the youth of our age.

But my aim now is more especially to beget or cherish in the bosom of the young a reverence for age, remembering that ere long you, too, will be old, if not cut off before old age comes; but in either case, what then? Death! And what then? Judgment! And what then? That God may help you to answer this solemn question, is the prayer of OLD DADDY TELLTALE.

THE TRUTHFUL WITNESS.

A LITTLE girl, nine years of age, was offered as a witness against a prisoner who was on trial for a felony committed in her father's house.

"Now, Emily," said the counsel for the prisoner, upon her being offered as a witness, "I desire to know if you understand the nature of an oath."

"I don't know what you mean," was the simple

answer.

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There, your honour," said the counsel, addressing the court, "is there anything further necessary to demonstrate the validity of my objection? This witness should be rejected. She does not comprehend the nature of an oath." "Let us see," said the judge. "Come here, my daughter."

Assured by the kind tone and manner of the judge, the child stepped toward him, and looked up confidingly in his face, with a calm, clear eye, and in a manner so artless and frank that it went straight to the heart.

“Did you ever take an oath ?" inquired the judge.

The little girl stepped back with a look of horror, and the red blood mantled in a blush all over her face and neck, as she answered

"No, sir."

She thought he meant to inquire if she had ever blasphemed.

"I do not mean that," said the judge, who saw his mistake; "I mean were you ever a witness before?"

"No, sir; I was never in court before," was the

answer.

He handed her the Bible, open.

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"Do you

know that book, my daughter ?" She looked at it and answered, "Yes, sir; it is the Bible."

"Do you ever read it ?" he asked.

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'Yes, sir; every evening.'

"Can you tell me what the Bible is ?" inquired the judge.

"It is the word of the great God," she answered. "Well, place your hand upon this Bible, and listen

to what I say;" and he repeated slowly and solemnly the oath usually administered to wit

nesses.

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Now," said the judge, "you have sworn as a witness. Will you tell me what will befall you if you do not tell the truth?”

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"I shall be shut up in the state prison," answered the child.

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Anything else ?" asked the judge.

"I shall never go to heaven,"* she replied. "How do you know this?" asked the judge, again.

The child took the Bible, and turning rapidly to the chapter containing the commandments, pointed to the injunction, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour," and said, “I learned that before I could read."

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Has any one talked with you about your being witness in court here against this man ?" inquired the judge.

"Yes, sir," she replied. "My mother heard they wanted me to be a witness, and last night she called me to her room, and asked me to tell her the Ten Commandments; and then we kneeled down together, and she prayed that I might understand how wicked it was to bear false witness against my neighbour, and that God would help me, a little child, to tell the truth as it was before Him. And when I came up here with father she kissed me, and told me to remember the ninth commandment, and that God would hear every word that I said."

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'Do you believe this?" asked the judge, while a tear glistened in his eye, and his lip quivered with emotion.

*This would be quite true if the sin were never washed away by the blood of Jesus.