And now as my thoughts glance backwards and linger over the little sleeper upon that sofa, so calm and beautiful in death, a voice seems sounding from the pages of Revelation that she shall not always remain thus, a prey to the spoiler. That having accomplished his work, "ashes to ashes," "dust to dust," Death shall have no more power, even over the little body which he now claims as his own. But it shall come forth, not as then, destined to see corruption, but resplendent in beauty, and shining in more than mortal loveliness; a fit receptacle for its glorified inmate, in the day of the final resurrection of the dead. Let all Christian parents who mourn the loss of pious children, comfort themselves with the words of the apostle, "Them also that sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him," "when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." It was in the month of November that Mary Jane died, and was buried; reminding one of those lines of Bryant: "In the cold moist earth we laid her, When the forest cast his leaf; And we mourn'd that one so lovely, Should have a life so brief. Yet not unmeet it was, that one, Like that young child of ours, So lovely and so beautiful, Should perish with the flowers." On the return of her birth-day, February 22, when if she had lived, she would have been seven years old, the following lines were sent to the bereaved mother by Mrs. Sigourney. THE BIRTH-DAY OF THE FIRST BORN. Thy first born's birth-day,--mother!-- That cold and wintry time, When deep and unimagined joy Swell'd to its highest prime.-- Thy little daughter smileth,-- Thy son is fair to see,-- And from its cradle shouts the babe, In health and jollity: But still thy brow is shaded, The fresh tear trickleth free, Where is thy first born darling? Oh, mother,--where is she? And if she be in heaven, She, who with goodness fraught, So early on her Father--God Repos'd her bursting thought:-- And if she be in heaven, The honor how divine, To give an angel to His arms, Who gave a babe to thine! L. H. S. * * * * * Human improvement must begin through mothers. It is through them principally, as far as human agency is concerned, that those evils can be _prevented_, which, age after age, we have been vainly endeavoring to _cure_. * * * * * He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad will as certainly become worse; vice, virtue, and time, are three things that never stand still. * * * * * Original. SABBATH MEDITATIONS. John 5:1.