THE STORY OF S. LYDWINA; OR, CROSS-BEARING. "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross and follow Me."

SUCH is our blessed LORD's condition of discipleship, from which there is no escape, and it is not in the bare endurance of a cross which cannot be avoided, but in the ready bowing down to take it up, that the condition is fulfilled; and before we can do this, we must deny ourselves, for nature loves not the cross, but shrinks from suffering. "No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it:" yet "they that are CHRIST's have crucified the flesh, with the affections and lusts thereof."

"Shall Simon bear the cross alone,

And all the rest go free?

No, there's a cross for every one,

And there's a cross for me,"

said a little active, but delicate child, to her mamma, as she quietly resigned herself to the irksomeness of keeping her bed in the glad bright sunshine, when all young creatures were sporting themselves on a merry May-day morning. It was only a little cross, but she took it up, and was at rest.

I was much struck by the truth of an observation that I once heard to this effect; that in the two thieves who suffered with our blessed LORD, we have an example of the two great classes of mankind: all sufferers,-for sin hath entered into the world, and death by sin, but the one seeking deliverance from the Cross, the other through the Cross: one saying, in the hardness of unbelief, "If Thou be CHRIST, save Thyself and us; come down from the Cross:" the other, in the penitent humility of faith, acknowledging, "We indeed suffer justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto JESUS, LORD, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom." Perhaps the memory of such a picture as I have seen, will recall to my readers' mind the restless agony of the impenitent thief, and the patient resignation of the other, looking unto JESUS, the Author and Finisher of our faith.

O wondrous virtue of the Cross, that in so short a time transformed one agonised blasphemer into a penitent believer!

"On either side the malefactors hung

In agony of death, nor even then

Forbore the impious taunt of unbelief.

'And if Thou be the CHRIST of GOD, come down
From this Thy Cross, and save Thyself and us!'

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Awed by the Sufferer's silence, one look'd up,
As to the brazen serpent they of old,

And with the venom rankling in his veins,

He look'd, and liv'd! The poison lost its power;
The sting of death pass'd downward. Dust was all
The serpent's meat. The spirit was at rest,-

At rest with his REDEEMER!"

I do not wonder," wrote a saint of old, who for ten years was kept close prisoner at the castle of Vincennes, in France, "that some have painted the Cross-Bearer as a child making crosses in the carpenter's workshop. He is very skilful in the art." And so it is that He Who knoweth our frame, does wonderfully suit His loving discipline to the various characters of those whom He hath called to be saints. Some are called to follow Him, bearing in superhuman might the heavy cross of martyrdom; and we see them treading, with giant steps, the blood-stained Via Dolorosa,* and marvel at the sight. But if we listen, we shall hear them tell us, with that holy Bishop, S. Ignatius, "I know what is good for me, now I begin to be a disciple. I care for nothing of visible or invisible things, so that I may but win CHRIST;" and they find that, of a truth, to lose their life for Him is to save it unto life eternal. And some in lowly and neglected estate take up the cross of poverty, and behold, they are rich in faith, heirs of the kingdom, as having nothing, and yet possessing all things. Others, again, are called to follow in a way that, to the eye of man, seems lonely and uncheered by the kindly sympathies which human nature craves; but the cross of loneliness has uplifted them from earth to heaven, and in the blessed communion of all saints they hear unspeakable things, and have their citizenship in heaven, from whence, also, they look for the SAVIOUR. And some there are whose young hearts, it may be, have burned within them, to serve and glorify their LORD in all untiring ministries of zealous love; and when they thought but how like Martha, to wait upon Him, He calls them to sit still, like Mary, at His feet; and so He lays upon them the cross of sickness, of, it may be, a lifelong suffering and weariness, and they shrink at first, but when they have learned to take it up, they find rest unto their souls, and how with His stripes they are healed, and the sight of them is for others a holy lesson.

I have stood by the bedside of such an one, and watched the expression of a pale young face, worn almost to a shadowy thinness, by days, and weeks, and months, and years of agony; yet with a smile of patient meekness, and cheerful acquiescence in her heavenly FATHER'S will, that shamed and awed me into

The way of pain.

silence, for the virtue of the Cross was manifest, and its peace was holy.

It was with the face of that patient sufferer before me, and with the low and gentle tones of her thankfulness for my visit to her sick and lonely chamber sounding in my ears, that I turned to the history of a saint of old, who in like manner glorified her LORD through a long life of suffering affliction with patience; and as I read, there was a twinness in the story that led me to think of the one as the living likeness, to mortal eyes, of her of whom it told, and who had long since put off her coat of mortality, and washed her feet in the river of Jordan, and who now was hidden from our sight with CHRIST in God.

Lidwina, or Lydwina, for the name is differently spelt, was a poor Dutch girl, whose parents lived at Schiedam, near the mouth of the river Meuse, in Holland. She was born in 1380, and at the early age of seven her piety was noticed by others. The little girl, when sent on an errand, loved, if time permitted, to turn into a church, and there she would make her childish reverence, and repeat the Angel's salutation to the highly-favoured one; and then Lydwina would love to think of Mary's Son, the Holy Child, Whom she was taught to pray, that she might follow in all lowly obedience and subjection to her parents and elders. She is said to have been a weakly child, and to have suffered much while an infant; but she seemed to grow up strong and healthy, and she was very lovely to look upon, with a grave sweet gentleness that told of a heart set upon heavenly things. Many were the earnest questions that she asked about such matters; many the deep thoughts that passed through the child's mind, as she stood gazing, with childhood's awe and love, upon the Holy Child in the arms of His Mother, in the church I have spoken of; and the Lover of little ones smiled upon her from His throne on high, and His blessing was upon her.

As she grew up very beautiful, many persons admired her, and, poor as her parents were, asked their permission to pay their addresses to her. Her father was very anxious that his child should marry one of these suitors, who would have been rejoiced to surround the fair but delicate young girl with all the comforts that riches could command; but Lydwina had gazed too long and prayerfully upon the sculptured image that recalled to mind the blessed Virgin's story, not to have set her heart upon following in the steps of those who, caring for the things of the LORD, seek only how they may be holy both in body and in spirit; and her tears, accompanied by her pious and loving mother's intercession in her behalf, at last prevailed upon her father to consent to her desire of remaining single. At the age of fifteen, a severe illness deprived the maiden of that outward loveliness

which others had so much admired; and while they in consequence looked on her with pity or contempt, Lydwina took comfort in remembering that the LORD looks upon the heart, and there is a beauty like unto His, of Whom it is written, "He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground; He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him."

(To be continued.)

PROVIDENCE.

O SACRED Providence, who from end to end
Strongly and sweetly movest! shall I write,
And not of Thee, through Whom my fingers bend
To hold my quill? Shall they not do Thee right?

Of all the creatures both in sea and land,
Only to Man Thou hast made known Thy ways,
And put the pen alone into his hand,

And made him Secretary of Thy praise.

Beasts fain would sing; birds ditty to their notes;
Trees would be tuning on their native lute

To Thy renown: but all their hands and throats
Are brought to Man, while they are lame and mute.

Man is the world's high priest; he doth present
The sacrifice for all; while they below,

Unto the service mutter an assent,

Such as springs use that fall, and winds that blow.

He that to praise and laud Thee doth refrain,
Doth not refrain unto himself alone,

But robs a thousand who would praise Thee fain;
And doth commit a world of sin in one.

G. HERBERT.

GATHERINGS FROM NATURAL HISTORY.

SAGACITY OF A DOG.

ONE winter evening, I said to my mother that I was going to Bowerhope for a fortnight, for that I had more conveniency for writing with Alexander Laidlaw than at home; and I added, "But I will not take Hector with me, for he is constantly quarrelling with the rest of the dogs, singing music, or breeding some uproar."

aye

"Na, na," quoth she, "leave Hector with me; I like best to have him at hame, poor fallow.”

These were all the words that passed. The next morning the waters were in a great flood, and I did not go away till after breakfast; but when the time came for tying up Hector, he was wanting. "I will wager," said I, "that he heard what we were saying yesternight, and has gone off for Bowerhope as soon as the door was opened this morning."

"If that should really be the case, I'll think the beast no canny," said my mother.

The Yarrow was so large as to be quite impassable, so I had to go up by S. Mary's Loch, and go across by a boat; and on drawing near to Bowerhope, I soon perceived that matters had gone precisely as I suspected. Large as the Yarrow was,—and it appeared impassable for any living creature,-Hector had made his escape early in the morning, had swam the river, and was sitting "like a drookit hen" on a knoll at the east end of the house, awaiting my arrival with much impatience. I had a great attachment for this animal, who with a good deal of absurdity joined all the amiable qualities of his species. He was rather of a small size, very rough and shagged, and not far from the colour of a fox.-Ettrick Shepherd.

THE HALF-WILD BUSH HORSES.

The half-wild, or bush horses, bred on the large grazing dis tricts in the interior of Australia, differ greatly in their habits from those in a state of domestication, and their treatment, which is similar to that of the horned cattle, produces similar results. The natural grasses of the country being sufficient to keep them in condition both in summer and winter, they never require any additional food from their owners, but are suffered to roam at large within certain limits, and are brought back to the enclosures en masse, whenever they are wanted, either for the purpose of branding the foals, or taking out colts and fillies for breaking or for sale. They are driven in more or less frequently, according to circumstances; those herds that show symptoms of running riot and getting out of control, by rambling beyond the bounds of their owner's pastures, require to be ridden in constantly, while those that remain contented upon their feeding-grounds are often left undisturbed for many months; the stock-keepers, to whose charge they are intrusted, use their own judgment in this matter, and treat them accordingly.

Nothing can be more congenial to their natural disposition than the wandering life they lead in New South Wales; at one time revelling upon a bank of wild oats, at another, trooping off to a patch of "burnt feed" (as the young herbage is called which springs up on the spots where the old grass has been set