cure did we see any of you dying without hope in Christ. Think, then, seriously upon the subject now, "Seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near," and when you come to die, you will find him near to you. Put yourselves under his guidance through life. "The Lord is good and gracious, therefore will he teach sinners in the way;" if you trust in him with all your heart, "he will never leave you nor forsake you," he will smooth the rugged path of life to you, he will deliver you from temptations, he will support you in time of trial,— his gracious promise to his depending people is, "When thou walkest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burnt, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." As you then have his gracious invitations to trust in him, you shall experience his faithfulness if you comply with his invitations. Let it then be the language of each heart, "My Father, thou shalt be the guide of my youth."

CONVERSATION XI.

ON THE RESURRECTION, JUDGMENT, &c.

F. Did you ever examine a grain of wheat or oats a few days after it was put into the ground?

H. Yes, Father, I sowed a few grains of wheat last year as you directed us, and lifted some of them, and found the small fibres striking into the earth, and the small germ springing upwards.

F. What appearance had the grains themselves?

H. They were quite rotten and useless; I let some of the grains I sowed remain, and, in harvest, I had some tall stalks, and full heads of wheat.

F. If you had never seen wheat in the fields before, you would have been astonished at the appearance so very unlike the grain you threw into the ground.

H. I certainly would.

E. I have often admired the beautiful appearance of the flower springing from the seemingly dead root of the ranunculus. If I had not often seen the wonderful change, I could not have believed that such an insignificant withered root would produce such a very fine flower.

F. I suppose you have likewise observed the wonderful transformation that takes place in caterpillars?

E. Yes; I kept a chrysalis in a box for a time, and found, as you said, that it became a beautiful gay butterfly.

F. By whose agency do you think that these, and myriads of transformations, are continually taking place?

E. It must be by the power of God.

F. You are right, and God can as easily raise and give life to the dead bodies of men, women, and children, as he can produce these admirable changes.

H. But, Father, the bodies of people moulder into dust; some of them, I have read of, have been burnt to ashes and scattered by the wind; and many have been devoured by wild beasts and fishes. How then can the parts of their bodies be collected and united again?

F. To me there is no difficulty in this, if it were necessary. There are insects which are perfect after their kind, invisible to us except by the help of microscopes; yet God has formed them, communicates life to them, and provides nourishment for them. If such small particles of matter are seen and cared for by him, does it not teach us that no particle can become imperceptible to him, and that he can, if it please him, recover all the particles of matter of which our bodies were composed at

death, unite them, and refashion them after his own will? There is nothing impossible with the Almighty. The bodies at the resurrection will be very different from our present bodies; yet they will be recognised by others, and especially by our own spirits, as the same bodies in which such deeds were done, of which we are now, and shall then be, fully conscious. Many ask the question how can such things be? If we find that such things have been promised by God, then we may rest assured they shall take place, for nothing is too hard for the Lord.

M. Has not the résurrection of the body been the hope of God's people in every age ?

F. Certainly, it has been their expectation; though the doctrine was not so explicitly stated in the Old Testament as in the New, yet we find several expressing their lively hope. "Man," said Job, "lieth down and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." "If a man die shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come. Thou shalt call and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands." He elsewhere informs us what that change was which he expected. "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth and though after my skin worms

destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.' 99 David also speaks "of his flesh resting in hope." Many of those who were tortured by their persecutors in ancient times would not accept "deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection." The prophet Hosea introduces the Messiah, saying, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plague; O grave, I will be thy destruction." The angel said to Daniel, that "them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt."

E. That passage which you have now quoted from Daniel is very similar to the words of our Saviour which we have in the Gospel by John.

F. Can you recite the passage?

E. Yes: It is, " Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation."

F. It was by the voice of the same glorious personage that existence was given to the worlds at first, and at his voice the slumbering dust of thousands of years shall awaken to