"TOO LATE."

"How are you all to-day, Mrs. Martin," asked the rector of Beechcroft as he entered the lowly dwelling of the aged widow whom he addressed; "I mean your poor son-in-law, and his motherless children ?"

"Thank you, Sir, they are pretty well, but he takes on sadly about her, and frets as if his heart would break. It is sad, Sir, to see them, poor bairns, and no mother to look after them, and all

so young.

"We look only to the present time, my good friend, and cannot tell why it has pleased God to afflict you thus deeply, and to take away one whom He Himself gave as the natural protector of her helpless little ones; but let us not doubt that it is for some wise reason and for her good that He has removed her from this world, we will hope to one free from pain and sorrow, poverty and affliction."

"Yes, Sir, I try to think of this, and tell John he must put his trust in God, who will not leave him comfortless; but then, Sir, you see it has all come so suddenly, he can hardly think of any thing yet."

"Her illness was, indeed, a very short one, and only verifies more strongly to us the words of the Burial Service, 'In the midst of life we are in death.' A few short hours, and she who was one of the most active among us, lay numbered with the dead."

"Yes, Sir, it was very awful; I am sure I shall never forget seeing her all in flames, and screaming out for help; and then, so soon after, all was over, my poor child was gone.

"Could you tell me, Mrs. Martin, if it is not too painful, how it happened, for I was from home at the time; I had gone to see my brother who is ill, and did not return till a few hours after her death, and I have not heard any particulars yet."

"Why, Sir," replied Mrs. Martin, "she was busy washing, and all the children except the baby were gone to school, and it was asleep in the cradle. The fire-place in their house is very awkward, and the bars very forward, and she was passing quickly by with a lot of dirty things,

and somehow her gown took fire, and she was all in a blaze in a moment. The back door was open, and just then the front as well, and as the wind was pretty strong, there was such a draught and the flames burnt so quickly, that before the neighbours had time to run in, (they heard her scream,) she was so badly burnt, that Mr. Morgan said, as soon as he saw her, she could not get over it."

"But she lived some hours, did she not ?"

Yes, Sir, she continued through that day and night, and after Mr. Morgan put on the cotton wool, she seemed tolerably easy, and could tell us how it happened."

"And was she sensible of her danger ?"

Yes, Sir, quite, and she prayed so earnestly for forgiveness, and for her poor husband and children. But there was one thing which pressed upon her mind more than any thing else, and well it might, for it is a very serious thing. It was, Sir, that she had never taken the Sacrament. And many and many a time when I have talked to her about it, she has always told me that she would by and by, when her family grew up, and she had less to do for them. And then when this befel her, she wished very much that she had attended to her duty in this respect

better, and many many times she repeated 'too late, too late.""

"How sad but too true; yes, indeed, it was then too late to repair the omissions of many previous years, and how many there are in the parish who are entirely forgetting the last injunction of the dying Saviour. The young, with very few exceptions, seem to think that the duty does not belong to them, and that a few years hence will be quite time enough for them to think seriously; the middle-aged are too intent upon the cares and businesses and anxieties of life, while the aged would fain delay as long as possible pledging themselves, as they call it, to live holy lives, for it is the only redeeming point in their conduct, that they do think it a very serious thing to communicate, and fear they shall not 'live up to it afterwards.""

“Yes, Sir, that is what they all say, but I think they must know very little about its real meaning, or they would talk differently about it."

"Do you remember old Widow Gray in the almshouse, Mrs. Martin ? she had, as one may say, one foot in the grave for a long time before she died, but she could not be brought to desire the Holy Communion when she was tolerably well, and at the last her illness was very short,

and she was chiefly insensible, so that she died without partaking of the Bread of Life.' Mary Linton, too, of the Green, she was far from being an elderly person, but of a very delicate constitution, her illness terminated more suddenly than any of us were prepared for, and she has to account for her entire disregard of her Christian privileges."

"And when will those who survive take warning, if not by such fearful examples as these; for truly, and you cannot, even as her mother, conceal it from yourself, how awful is the state of the soul rendering an account at the judgmentseat for wilful acts of disobedience, and despising of holy privileges!

We, as ministers, are bound to bid our people to this heavenly feast from the altar, and from the pulpit we exhort them to come, and to consider how little the 'feigned excuses' with which they satisfy their own consciences now, will avail for their neglect when pleaded before their Almighty Judge. And by private remonstrance, too, we endeavour to remove the hindrances to a worthy Communion which deter many sincere worshippers from approaching the Lord's table, but with how little success is unhappily shewn in the numbers who depart, com