"Then," said I, "Mrs. Paget only meant that Rose would go to Heaven after she died." "She meant," he answered solemnly, "that Rose might have gone to Heaven, if then it had pleased Christ to take her before she was conscious of doing right or wrong; or if now, or living to be old, she remembers her promises and lives like a Christian; for her godmother was not there to bestow any gift upon her, but to make promises in her name that she would lead a holy life, and believe in the Christian faith, and fight against all evil without and within her, all the days of her life." "But that is hard to do," said I, not that I quite understood, but I was vexed at having my bright anticipations thus crumbled away. "Yes," he replied, "but is it not worth while for the end promised?" and his face lighted up as he spoke. "Heaven is a happy place, more happy than this, there is no sorrow or blindness there, no weariness or disappointment, but we shall live for ever in the presence of God and of Christ. I dare say you remember the joy there was in the country when Master Charles was born, how they roasted an ox whole at the ball, and all the people in the village, and numbers more, dined together in the lawn. All that joy was because an heir was born to Mr. Mowbray's fine estates, these woods and fields, hill and dale, as far as the eye can reach. On her baptism day, Rose was born an heir to a better inheritance, she was promised a portion in the Kingdom of Heaven. She will surely come into possession, if she observes the conditions on which it is to be hers, if she keeps the promises she made at her baptism,—and you too, Lawrence, have made the same promises, you have the same duties to do, you are a baptized Christian, don't you know that?" I did know it, for I had said it in my Catechism, but I had never thought about it; and the idea of the responsibility in which I found myself involved, was rather disagreeable to me, so I hung down my head, and was glad when little Rose relieved me from answering, by saying to the old man :— "When shall I go there? Is it a soft warm place? Will you be there ?" "You will go there, my child, when Christ, that dear Friend that I told you of, comes to takes you home. It is a happier, lighter place than ever you felt or dreamed of, and I trust we shall all be there." "And shall I be like Lawrence, and see green things, and blue things, and big trees all covered over with tiny leaves, and mother's soft warm face," said the child. "Yes, dear child, and more than all this, your eyes will open there on a sight that would dazzle the keenest earthly vision, for you will see the King in His glory. But then little Rose, you must be a good child while you are hereyou must love Christ your Saviour, and try to do what He bids you." Here I suddenly broke in, for I had been thinking while they were speaking. "But I have never thought about my promises, I have never tried to be good, and I have often broken them, so I cannot go to Heaven." "Yes, my boy, you can repent," said old Joseph," you can try, with God's help, to do better for the future. At your baptism you were made part of Christ, you were brought near to Him, and the blood of Christ cleanses from all sins. Every day you will need to repent, your best efforts will want to be washed clean; but you must try, and pray, and if you are really sorry, and really endeavour to do right, Christ will help you, and will not let you fail at the last." I could not answer, but Rose cried out, "I will try indeed, I should like to go to Heaven, I will be a good child, I will not cry to night when mother takes me from you to go to. bed." (To be continued.) C. F. A. THE SICK CHILD. "WHAT wakes me from my gentle sleep? HE that sees ever so accurately, into the motives of other people's actions, may possibly be all the while in a great measure ignorant of his own. PASSING THOUGHTS-No. II. Ir gave us no little delight, in our reading the other day, to meet with the following passages, in our humble opinion, most admirably suited, (and more especially so in these troublous times,) to assert Great Truths, which seem liable to be forgotten in the agitation of the moment and the strife of tongues. We allude to a volume of "Sermons on various Subjects," published in 1841, by Dr. Hook, to whose unceasing labours and manful witness for the truth, the Church in Leeds and elsewhere, nay everywhere, owes so much. In that very valuable volume, there is a most remarkable sermon, entitled "The Moderation of the Church of England,” from which, we have taken the following extracts, and would that all would weigh these his momentous words: "Ever since the Reformation, it has been the glory of the English Branch of the Catholic Church, that she has stood, unmoved, in the centre, between two vicious extremes: the extreme on the one hand of Catholicism which is Popery, and the extreme of Protestantism on the other, which we will speak of as Ultra-Protestantism. This is the Providential position of our Church; and it is necessary, very frequently, to remind the members of the English Church that such is the case, because such a situation, although in some respects advantageous, is by no means a satisfactory one. It is unpleasant to be so placed as to be exposed to a constant fire on either side. By Protestants we are reviled, because we are not sufficiently Protestant; by Romanists, because we are not, as they think, sufficiently Catholic; and, although this censure of the two extremes be, in fact, a eulogy still it is natural, that there should be a disposition on the art of many to shift their position and to conciliate, either one side or the other, as men happen to be inclined to one or other of the two extremes, by which we are opposed. There is a disinclination to look right on, and to let their eyelids look straight before them; there is a desire to turn either to the right hand or to the left, men being forgetful that on either side there is evil. "Of course as our sympathies are with one or other of the two extremes, so will our desire be to form a union with parties or persons, on this or that side of us. But to any such union with persons and parties of either extreme, the Church of England presents an insuparable obstacle, from the circumstance of her being in that middle position, in which while, in some things, she accords with both, in other things she is opposed to both. * "To any attempt at union with Ultra-Protestants, our Prayer Book must ever be an obstruction, from the fact, that it is decidedly and unequivocally Catholic. They clamour for an alteration in the Prayer Book; they desire to make it more conformable, as they say, to the spirit of Protestantism; in a word, they ask the Church to descend from her central position, and to side with the Protestant extreme. There are others, who approach the extreme, opposite to that which we have just been considering. * * But here again the central position of our Church is apparent; and as an obstacle is presented in our Prayer Book, to any union with Ultra-Protestants, so, by the Thirtynine Articles, an obstacle is equally presented to our union with those who adhere to the Tridentine Council and admit the Supremacy of the Pope. "In order to conciliate Romanists, is it proposed to act |