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which murmured far below. The sky was clear, but it was very dark. There was no light but what the stars gave, and that was very little, and only just enabled me to see my path. I was walking quietly on, when all of a sudden I was startled by a bright and sudden light. It was so bright, that I thought the moon must have suddenly risen. I looked for the moon, but there was none to be seen. And by the time I had passed my eye back again, the light was gone, and I only just caught sight of a large looking kind of star, with a long tail, moving far away in the distant sky, until it appeared to drop into the water.

Presently I heard a gruff voice cry out near me, "Who goes there?"-it was a coast-guard, taking his solitary night's walk along the cliff. I answered, "A friend ;did you see that strange sight a minute ago?"-"Yes," he said; " I never saw the like of that before."

So he and I walked on together, and talked about this wonderful light. He did not know much about it; and I could not tell him much more than he knew. These meteors, as they are called, are strange things. What they are, what they are doing, and where they come from, and are going to, nobody seems to know. Sometimes they appear, as I saw, in the form of a powerful light, and then stream away along the dark sky. Sometimes hundreds of them may be seen, moving quickly about in the sky above.

Sometimes they fall to the earth with a great noise and force, and bury themselves very deep in the ground.

When they fall to the ground, they are generally composed of iron, and are very hot; indeed quite red hot. Some people have thought that they come from burning mountains in the moon. And perhaps they might; only that our astronomers, with their telescopes, can see no burning mountains there. Other people have thought that they are bits of broken planets and worlds which have been destroyed. Many think that there are numberless bodies moving round the sun besides our earth, and the planets that we know of; and amongst them quantities of small metal bodies, which when they come near to our earth are attracted to it, and fall upon it with great violence.

But whatever they may be, it is certain there is a great deal going on about us, of which we know very little. That there are great fires within the earth beneath us, and great worlds in the heaven above us, moving about through infinite space,-O what a vast universe this is! and what a little do we know of it! But all these fearful things are under the guidance of God. He will not let them hurt us, unless he wills it. We should try so to be living, that we can look up at the blazing meteor, or the vivid lightning; hear the rumbling thunder, and feel the earthquake shaking around us; and say with peaceful trust, My Father made them all."

But I often think when I hear of people being frightened in dark nights, and in thunder storms, and at earthquakes, and such like convulsions of nature,-how will they feel at the last great day, when the whole world shall be rent to pieces? May God prepare us for that awful day; and may He give us now so to make a friend of Jesus, that we shall fear nothing that can occur; because all obeys Him, and He loves us.

SHORT MEMOIRS OF CHILDREN.

NO. I.-CARTARET REDE.

THERE once lived in Wiltshire, a little girl, named Cartaret Rede. She gave remarkable proofs of early piety; being once asked who was her greatest enemy? She replied, "Sin is my greatest enemy." At another time, when reading in the second chapter of St. Luke's Gospel, about Joseph and Mary, that there was no room for them in the inn, and that the babe was laid in a manger, she burst into a flood of tears, saying, "What! was there no room in the inn for the Lord of glory, but must He lie in a manger among the beasts?"

One morning, before she was seven years old, when she was not well, she began her prayers thus: "O Lord, look down upon me, and give me the knowledge of thyself; take sin out of my heart, that I may be thy child;" with many such expressions. When she had done, she said, "I have a pretty

lesson in my book, which is about God's sending the Lord Jesus to die for sinners." Afterwards, sitting by the fire, she all at once burst into tears; and being asked what was the matter, she said, "I offend the Lord in all I do." Just before she was taken very ill, when reading Isaiah Iv., she stopped, and said, "Nothing but the blood of Christ can cleanse me from sin." Her mother asked her, whether she did not think that being good, and doing good works, would save her? She replied, "Our righteousness is a sinful righteousness, therefore it cannot save us." And, when playing with her cousin, they disagreed; Cartaret, recollecting herself, said, "Don't we know that Christ died for us; why should we fall out?" Not long before her death she said, "This Scripture is come into my mind, He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy,' and God will have mercy on me." Her last words were addressed to her dear father, who was watching her; she said, "Pray for me." While he prayed she lay very still, and soon afterwards she fell asleep in Jesus, in her seventh year.

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Dear children, think what a happy death was little Cartaret Rede's; you must one day die; it may be very soon. Pray for God's Holy Spirit to turn your heart to your Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

NO. II. A LITTLE SUNDAY-SCHOOL BOY.

A little boy, a Sunday-scholar, in Hamps

thwaite Sunday-school, died last January, after a very short illness.

Being informed of his sickness, I went to see him, and found him very poorly. He said, "When I was taken ill, I believed I should die;" and then added, "I thought it would be very comfortable to have my sins pardoned." I told him to pray, and said, Jesus would pardon those who were sorry for their sins, and who came to Him.

On my next visit I found him getting " Do worse, and asked him, you think Jesus has pardoned your sins?" He said, "I don't know, but I believe He will." I asked him if he read his Bible, he said, "Yes;" but the print was so small, and his eyes weak, that he wished he had one with larger print or type, which I soon furnished him with, and he received it thankfully. I read it often, for he loved the Bible, and was well acquainted with its truths.

On seeing him again, which was the last visit, I asked him how he felt; he said better. I asked if his sins were pardoned, if the heavy weight which he had felt was removed from his heart; and he said, he believed it was, for he had more comfort. I prayed with him, and then left the house; soon after this he expired; not, however, without leaving behind a good evidence that he was gone to be with Jesus, for his pious mother who was watching over him, seeing his end was near, said to him, "John, are you happy?" to which, with a feeble voice,

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