d. I agonized in
prayer, till light broke in upon my disconsolate soul, and a sense of
blood-bought pardon was obtained. I immediately flew to my family,
presented them before the Lord, and from that day to the present, I have
been faithful, and am determined, through grace, that whenever my
business becomes so large as to interrupt family prayer, I will give up
the superfluous part of it and retain my devotion. Better lose a few
dollars than become the deliberate moral murderer of my family and the
instrument of ruin to my own soul."

Now this experience is highly instructive and admonitory. It proves how
much good may be doing by family worship faithfully observed when we
little know it, and the importance, therefore, of always maintaining it.
It proves the goodness of God in reproving and checking his children
when they neglect duty and go astray. And it shows the insidious way in
which backsliding begins and grievous sin on the part of God's people.
May the engagements of business never tempt any parent that reads this
article to repeat the tradesman's dangerous experiment! But if there be
any that have fallen into the same condemnation, as it is to be feared
some may have done, may God of his mercy admonish them of it, and bring
them back before such a declension, begun in the neglect of family
religion, shall be consummated in the decay and loss of personal
religion, and the growing irreligion both of your family and your own
soul.

* * * * *

THE BONNIE BAIRNS.

This exquisitely touching ballad we take from the "Songs of Scotland,
Ancient and Modern," edited by Allan Cunningham. He says, "It is seldom
indeed, that song has chosen so singular a theme; but the _superstition_
it involves is current in Scotland."

The ladie walk'd in yon wild wood,
Aneath the hollow tree,
And she was aware of twa bonnie bairns
Were running at her knee.

The tane it pulled a red, red rose,
Wi' a hand as soft as silk;
The other, it pull'd a lily pale,
With a hand mair white than milk.

"Now, why pull ye the red rose, fair bairns?
And why the white lily?"
"Oh, we sue wi' them at the seat of grace,
For soul of thee, ladie!"

"Oh, bide wi' me, my twa bonnie bairns!
I'll cleid ye rich and fine;
And a' for the blaeberries of the wood,
Yese hae white bread and wine."

She sought to take a lily hand,
And kiss a rosie chin--
"O, naught