"By my carving, which went to a London house, we were kept from want, and Ned sent us home, with sailor generosity, supplies of money. "'If he'd only come himself,' said my Mary, 'it would be better than all the gold.' "'Write and tell him so,' I said; and so we both did, and I told him of the fading away of his favourite sister, hoping it would draw him back over the sea, if anything would; but the brother and sister were not to meet here again. My Mary left me one early morn, as the sun's first streaks were gilding the sky. No answer came from my sailor son, but the good pastor who had ministered to us in our hours of sore need, came one day, and gently told me, as I sat alone, that his ship had gone down in one of the wild Atlantic storms. My boy is now safe in heaven, where there is no more sea." The aged man ceased. His eye was on the sunset cloud, but his heart was in the spirit land. His guest, rising up to depart, took tenderly the wrinkled hand, and said, "The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion, with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." Then he hastened homewards, his own heart full with this touching record of _the cost of a broken Sabbath_.--_From a Tract, published by S. W. Partridge and Co._ A SOFT PILLOW. If the pillow be too hard, it is very unlikely that the sleep should be sound. Yet this mainly depends upon circumstances. If the conscience is easy, the pillow will be comfortable, even though a block of stone. Jacob slept sweetly at Bethel, when the Lord appeared to him and told him that He was his God. If, on the other hand, there is guilt on the conscience, though the head is laid on the softest down, the pillow will not be altogether easy. RECEIVING THE TRUTH. Mrs. Le Pla was a French lady, who came over to England in the younger part of her life, with much of the vivacity for which the French nation has been remarkable. She was particularly under the eye of a grave, Pharisaic lady, by whom she was persuaded to go to church, but the dull manner in which the clergyman performed his office disgusted her so much, that she withheld her attention, and fell asleep. At this, her English friend was exceedingly angry, and reproved her sharply. On another Lord's Day her friend took her to hear Dr. F----, but his excessive action provoked her to such a degree that she burst into a loud laugh, and she was desired to walk out of the place of worship, where she had certainly shown too little regard for the Divine Being and His worshippers.