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MR. EZRA CASSON.

OUR departed friend was formerly an active teacher at Salendine Nook, near Huddersfield. He afterwards removed to Heywood, near Rochdale, where he opened a room, and gathered a congregation and a sabbath school. Afterwards a chapel was erected. He died in the prime of life, when 40 years of age. His seven children had all gone before him to the grave; and his widow remains a weeping pilgrim in this vale of tears.

"AND this is death! How cold and still,
"And yet how lovely it appears;
"Too cold to let the gazer smile,
"Yet far too beautiful for tears."
Such is the scene when infants die,
When childhood's early blossoms fall:
Yet who would blame the weeping eye?
Or who the happy souls recall?

Such is the scene when saints depart,

Whose warfare ends, whose course is run;

Who kept the faith with steadfast heart-
They have the glorious victory won.

To God is all the glory due;

His grace hath made the infants bless'd;
His grace hath borne the christian through,
And brought to everlasting rest.

"All flesh is grass!" the prophet cries,
Its hold on life is fleeting breath:
Like the green herb cut down it lies,
By the resistless scythe of death.
Remember thy Creator now,

Amidst thy youthful vigour gay;
Nor wait till sickness bring thee low;
Nor hope for years of dull decay.

Who that has tasted friendship here,
Can be unmoved when joys are fled?

Who can forbid the falling tear,

That flows for friends and kindred dead?

Beside the tomb where Lazarus slept,
His sisters came with weeping eyes;
And e'en the holy Saviour wept-

Then bade the shrouded dead arise.

We ask not now that voice to speak,
And call the dead to life again;
(That voice, ere long, shall silence break,
And burst death's adamantine chain;)
But Oh! would that almighty power,
A sympathetic aid impart,

To strengthen in affliction's hour,
The mother and the Widow's heart.

Ah, sleep, ye loved ones, sweetly sleep:
Our dust with yours shall mingle soon,
For us the saints surviving weep,

And follow, when their work is done.
But the dear cause of Christ shall live,
For which they prayed and toiled below;
The Rock of Israel shall survive,

The stone shall to a mountain grow.

Then shall the Lord his power assume,
And shed the life-imparting dew;
The withered buds afresh shall bloom,
The fruitful branches spring anew.
Oh, happy parent! whose reply,

When called to take a seat in heaven,
Shall be, "Bless'd Jesus, here am I,
"And here the children thou hast given."

Rest, Ezra, rest in glorious hope,

The trumpet's quickening call to hear; Then with the waking saints caught up, Such wondrous words shall fill thine ear; "Well done, ye faithful, who have shared "With me the world's contempt and frown; "Now share the joys by me prepared, "Receive the kingdom, wear the crown." Accrington.

J. H.

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THE OLD FARM HOUSE.

In an old country like England these buildings are to be found all over the land-in villages or lone places. They may look rough and unsightly on the outside, but go into them, and you will usually find them the abodes of industry and comfort.

Early rising is one of the first things to be regarded in an English farm house. To accomplish this, they very properly go to rest early-hours before the people in large towns; and therefore they are up again hours before them. In winter, they are up long before daylight; and in longer days, seldom, except in the longest of all, does the sun get up before they do. The boys and men set out to the fields to their labour, and girls and women are busy with the milk and the cheese in the dairy and the kitchen.

Breakfast-time comes, and it is a sign that health and appetite wait upon industry, when you see how heartily those men and boys, women and girls, eat their first meal, about seven o'clock in the morning.

The food may be coarse, but there is plenty of it, and they are satisfied.

Usually, the men and boys take their dinners with them into the fields, and the clear-shining sun, or their own appetites, tell them when to eat it. They want no table, or chair, or table-cloth. Sitting beneath some hedge, or on some rising bank, they relish their humble fare better than many who sit down at tables loaded with delicacies, and attended upon by liveried menials.

In the evening, they "homeward plod their weary way," and again, seated around the clean white kitchen table, eat a hearty supper; and after a little talk around the blazing hearth, on which thorns and logs of wood are piled, they tell their simple tales, or crack their humble jokes, and soon retire to enjoy refreshing rest, and rise again to pursue the same course in the morning.

Something like this may be seen every day in an old English farm house.

And then we might say much about the comforts of that ancient dwelling. Perhaps it has been inhabited by the same family for several generations, and therefore the furniture may be old-fashioned and curious, but it is not less valuable, or interesting, on that account. Good substantial chairs and tables, and the - old pewter plates and dishes, ranged on shelves above the old oak dresser, remind you of days long gone by. And then if you were permitted to examine the store rooms, and old oak chests and drawers, in which the good housewife stows away her stores of food and clothing, you would find an ample supply of all needful things. And it ought ever to be mentioned to their praise, that whilst they are said to be rather close-fisted in parting with money, none are more generous and hospitable at their own fire-sides than the master and mistress of an old English farm-house.

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THE WEAVER'S DAUGHTER.

MARY M- was the daughter of an Irish Roman Catholic, a weaver, who emigrated to America a few years ago. This account of her conversion was given by herself to a friend who kindly visited and assisted her in her last illness.

I was educated in the strict observance of the forms and practices of the Roman Catholic religion, which I had always been taught, and fully believed to be, the only true faith. I attended church punctually, was well instructed in my catechism and missal, was regular at my confessions, at mass, on holy days, and strict in observing our fasts; thus I was called by others and really thought myself to be, a very pious girl, the favourite of her whom we ignorantly worshipped, and after whom I was named-the "Holy Mary."

But my religion was all outward; my heart was hard and proud, and my temper easily roused, so that with all this fair outside I knew nothing of the religion of the bible, having never read it or understood that it required a change of heart; much less did I feel that I was a sinner in the sight of God, or understand that

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