to answer His questions!-to be asked with all the simplicity of childhood and a glowing earnestness that was altogether supernatural, how to reconcile many of their precepts with the plain letter of the Scriptures as quoted by him One cannot but believe that the doctors in the Temple must have been very thankful when Mary broke into the discussion on the finding of her son; for there is nothing more galling for superstition to encounter than the unsophisticated mind of a child, determined to ask natural questions and to obtain an answer to them.

We see in Jesus the operation of that law by which the human soul is ap pointed to work its way through darkness and twilight into truth by "asking questions." Each generation of children is born with a divinely inspired in stinct so to do; and if that instinct were wisely nurtured and encouraged in youth, an end would soon come to many a terrible system of despotism, fanati cism, and formality. These systems could not withstand the encircling assaul of the cross-questioning of the rising generation. But one of the chief objects o so-called religious education is to destroy this spirit of youthful inquiry, to ex tinguish that divine spark of honest curiosity which might kindle into a de structive flame; so that scarcely one here and there is found among adults wh retains the spirit of investigation into the things of God. They worship intel lectually, "Baalim, which their fathers taught them."

This spirit, however, was not to be extinguished in Jesus, and doubtles many a hearer in that famous colloquy felt that a power of simple truth and fervent love was before them, which would utterly destroy the vast fabric the traditions of the fathers--a power of fresh intelligence, joined to a spirit unfeigned reverence for the Divine Word, before which the theological puzzles of the scholastic teachers, and the authority of many foolish generations, would be driven as chaff before the wind.

The infancy and childhood of Jesus have thrown a glorious ray of hope over the whole world of the young. "The Son of the Blessed" was once a babe and can this signify less than that he is the Redeemer of children? He ha carried with him to heaven the charter of their eternal salvation. Not only earth will he take young children in his arms to bless them; not only on eart will he "set a little child in the midst of his disciples," but doubtless the Goo Shepherd on high cares for his lambs as well as his sheep, and carries them in his bosom. "Feed my lambs" were among his last words on earth; and w will not doubt that the Son of David, standing in the temple of heaven itsel delights his ears there, as he did below, with the hosannahs of the little ones.

For the childhood of Jesus himself is everlasting. He continues to be as little child, amidst all the strength and majesty of his manhood enthroned i the skies. Simplicity of character is true greatness. It is to "the holy chil Jesus" that the weary and heavy laden may come; and it is because he "meek and lowly in heart" that they shall find in him "rest unto their souls. Infinite wisdom is childlike in the simplicity of its character, and infinite lov is childlike in the warmth of its affections. W.

AIDS TO REFLECTION.

I.

Some marriages are made in heaven, some on earth, and some in the subter ranean darkness; and there is no question of deeper interest when young people come to the altar than this-to which of the three categories their marriage be longs? The Lord Himself kindled the marriage torches at the bridals of Rache

ind Rebecca. Satan must have had a great deal to do with the union of Ahab nd Jezebel. And earthly considerations may be presumed to have regulated the atal match between Ananias and Sapphira. The love which is destitute of noral sentiment, which rests only on a material basis, or depends exclusively n passion, beauty, prosperity, begins to fade as soon as it has bloomed. It is nly when souls are united by the bond of the Eternal Truth and the Eternal leauty that their love will endure to the end. "Only in the Lord" is a rule § much dictated by self-interest as by religion.

II.

Matchmaking in England is regarded as the occupation of a busybody; in rance it is exalted into a distinguished profession. The ideas of the two untries as to the necessity of moral and spontaneous affection in marriage are lustrated in the two systems. Here everything is left to accident, or love at rst sight, or the casual acquaintances springing up in religious or secular assoations; and this, while it preserves inviolate the voluntary character of matritony, leaves unmarried many who might under a more active system of dministration escape from a celibacy of which they are a little weary. The rench, thinking less of moral affection and more of social position, go to work matchmaking just as they would at any other acknowledged pursuit in life. Here is an advertisement from the number of La Patrie, the Paris newspaper, r July 7th last :-" M. de Foy, Negotiateur en mariages.-La maison de Foy st, par sa distinction et son merite hors ligne, la première de l'Europe. N'est-ce as un bienfait du ciel pour une mère de famille de pouvoir, par la médiation sculte et toute confidentielle de M. de Foy, marier richement sa fille avec utes les convenances les mieux combinées, selon leurs goûts, vues et désirs re>ectifs? Ainsi une mère (sans sortir de chez elle et dans les 24 heures) trouera pour sa fille, chez M. de Foy, un choix de 20 partis, soit dans la noblesse, magistrature, la diplomatie, et les charges en titres :-mais ce qui est d'une aute consideration, toujours positions morales, matériellement assises et des lus faciles à controler. Nota.-M. de Foy accueillera toujours, avec plaisir, aide et le concours d'intermediares d'une grande respectabilité. Relations: ngleterre, Russie, Belgique, Allemagne, Etats-Unis." Thus is the idea of rovidential action (“un bienfait du ciel") modified in each country by the ifferent measures of human activity. In England, it is conceived that God has 1ost to do with a marriage where the matchmaker has least. In France, Provience is considered to operate through the social machinery, and even through he intermediary action of M. de Foy, the Eliezer of the Parisian Abrahams nd Sarahs.

III.

The presence and constant residence of one poetic and earnest soul in the nidst of any social system is an education for all who come within the sphere of Its luminous influence, or who are susceptible of its quickening beams. There are many neighbourhoods and religious connections where there is not one spirit who sees the surrounding world in the gleam of the universal glory, or kindles at the revelations of truth, at the beauty of holiness, or at the prospects of eternity. All eyes are dimmed with the scales of an animal existence, and all minds see this world and the world to come as faded away or fading, through the horny lens of a sensuous habit. The accession, therefore, of one soul to a community is sometimes of more importance than that of ten thousand others. He who brings with him the divine gift of open vision, and its usual accompaniment of enlivening speech, is a person for whom it is worth the while of any city to welcome him, even through a breach in the walls, as the Greek cities received the laurelled victors from Olympia. Isaiah was worth more to Jerusalem than all its nobility or royal family together; and Daniel was worth more

to the empire of Babylon than all the thousands who worshipped in prostrate ranks, at the sound of the heathen orchestra, the golden image on the plains of Dura.

IV.

Nothing is more surprising than the extent to which some persons will believ in mystery and miracle, who will not believe in the Bible. When they forsake "the law and the testimony," they "seek to familiar spirits and wizards that pee and that mutter," and who exact from them an amount of faith ten time greater than is required for the reception of Christianity. Thus we find that members of a blasé aristocracy, who are delighted with the destruc tive scepticism of this age, gather in anxious companies around a crystal which is supposed to reveal the distant, the future, and the invisible. But after all i said, there is no divining crystal like the Bible. "Open Thou mine eyes that may behold wondrous things out of Thy law."

V.

Ancient nations have transmitted to posterity the memorial of their life i proportion as it was moral and ideal. Those who were great only in th material sphere have left behind them enormous pyramids or heaps of moulder ing ruins, but their "thoughts have perished." In Greece, and still more i Palestine, the spiritual element has lived on, even where the works of the hands have yielded to the influence of decay. The same law operates in in vidual life. He who has lived in God lives after death, not only within th vail, but on earth as well. Earnest and honest thought is indestructible; the life of the saints is prolonged in their spiritual children.

VI.

The multiplication of books and of facilities for reading has increased th responsibility of educators and of parents in directing the reading of the young Books and papers lie about on all sides, and a few weeks' reading may poiso the thinking of a lifetime. Negative precepts, however, alone will be of litt avail; the grand obligation being to recommend those books which shall gra dually form a taste that may be relied on for an eventual voluntary rejection a corrupt and trifling literature. There are multitudes of young people of th generation who have been reading ever since their childhood, but who hay never yet read half-a-dozen books of a quality fitted to inspire them aright f the battle that awaits them. He who has read only "idle tales" is likely lead a life which abjures every nobler inspiration.

VII.

In large cities the reflective power is often injured by the infinite number the objects presented to the senses. In "solitary places" it as often decays fro a lack of sufficient stimulus from without. It is related respecting one of th voyages in search of Sir John Franklin, that the adventurous explorers of th Arctic regions found the greatest difficulty in sustaining their spirits, from th paucity of the objects of sense, so that they were compelled to make the mo of all that came to hand in order to break up the depressing monotony of th polar seas. "A gull furnished conversation for hours; a little auk or tw or a couple of seals, created a sensation. Two flies were regarded with minute si tention and interest; while a half-frozen aphis, a hundred miles from land, wa hailed with unmingled delight, and discussed with a more than scientific in terest."

* From an excellent book on Arctic Discovery and Adventure, just publishe by the Tract Society.

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