with her hair all in papers and her old gown hanging about her before she has dressed herself for the day." "Well," said Mrs. Croft, "it seems to me all people look alike now; you can't tell a gentleman now, or a lady either, when you see them. Oh, if you'd seen them as I have-the gentlemen in their powdered white wigs and cocked hats-something like; and the ladies, their hair standing half a yard high with wire and pomatum, and a nice bit of lace at the top of it-not like the caps they wear now. But that is long, long ago," she concluded, "when I was but a girl; every thing is changed since then." It so chanced that, not long after this, Sarah and her father received a visit from some of the young people of the manor-house. They were fitting up a little summer-house in the corner of the garden, in which Master Mark fancied he could study better than in the house, where, as he said, not very reasonably, there was always so much noise. He did not consider that he was generally the principal cause of the noise himself. For this summerhouse they wanted two chairs; and it was to give this order that they called at Charles Bolton's. Sarah thought herself very fortunate to be in at the time, and looked on it as a reward for her having for once resisted the temptation of strolling through the village with her friend Patience Bates, and actually seating herself down at her lace pillow instead. Charles Bolton readily undertook the commission; and after this business was transacted, soon fell to talking on his favourite subject, and entertained Mark with long histories of armies, and fighting, and battles. The young ladies preferred watching Sarah as she worked. Lacemaking was new to the younger ones; and to these even her degree of skill, small as it was, appeared very wonderful. They asked a great many questions, and kept exclaiming to one another on the wonderful rapidity of her fingers, as if they supposed her a very superior hand. Sarah vas flattered and pleased at this for a moment, hough her conscience told her it was not deserved; t length, however, she felt obliged to disown the ompliment, and with simplicity confessed that she vas a very bad lacemaker, and that when they went nto other houses they would see people make finer and broader lace far better and quicker than she could. "There's Ellen Forbes and Mary Green have not made lace so long as me, yet if ever you see heir work, young ladies, you'll see it's far better han mine." "But why can't you do as well?" asked one of he little girls. Sarah felt ashamed at first, and then had recourse to Mrs. Croft's reasoning, that some people would never make good lacemakers, and she supposed she was one. 66 "I should not like to think so, if I were you," replied Miss Bernard. "It seems one of those things that only require patience and perseverance, and surely you can get both those by trying for them. Come, Mark," she added, are you ready to go?" and with a kind good-bye the party left the cottage. "Rather slow work, mending old chairs," said Mark on their way home, "after fighting in the battle of Waterloo, as that old fellow has done." "Oh dear!" cried little Mary, "I am sure 1 should like it a great deal better; but I would rather make lace than make chairs. Was not it very honest in Sarah Bolton to tell us she could not make lace well, when she saw we knew nothing about it, and thought her quickness quite wonderful?" "No wonder she can't do any thing well," said Mark; "why, she is one of the idlest girls in the parish." "Oh, Mark, now," said his little sister, who had taken quite a fancy to Sarah, "how can you know?" "Well, I can only say," answered her brother, "I did not think so much of the gown," answered Sarah; "I like herself; she talks so prettily; I did not feel at all afraid of her. And the young ladies, they seemed so pleased with every thing, and looked at father making chairs, and me at my pillow, as if they were so amused; they had never seen such a thing before." "I like "And you passed off for quite a grand lacemaker," said Patience, with a rude laugh; that." "No, I did not," said Sarah. "That is". But here she had a kind of feeling that she should not be understood by her companions, so turned off her sentence-" Well, but don't you think it is very nice their having come to Wheatcroft? I am sure I wish they would often come to our house." "Oh, then, it is that that made you so busy just now," said Patience, "that you could not walk with us. No doubt you had been having some good advice, and had set about all at once to be good; but that's a thing you'll soon tire of." "No, I don't think they did give me good advice," replied Sarah. "Besides, why should you wish me not to be good and take advice, even if she had given it me?" "Nay," retorted Patience, "be as good as you like for me. I suppose we shall soon not be good enough for you, if you have these fine ladies coming to talk to you, and to admire your beautiful lace.' Sarah was for the moment surprised to hear Patience use the very expression of little Ellen Bernard. She did not know that instead of using it by accident, she had actually been listening at the door. The conversation would, probably, not have been carried on in a very friendly tone, had not Hannah interposed to beg a description of the whole party; and they had reached the cricket-ground before Sarah had finished her history. [To be continued.] EMBLEMS. The Lamb. THE lamb is the emblem of innocence and patience, and, as such, was chosen from earliest times to be the symbol and type of our Lord-first shadowing Him forth in those sacrifices for sin ordained in the Jewish Church, and especially in the Passover; and again, at the commencement of His ministry, being the title distinctly assigned to Him by His messenger and forerunner St. John Baptist, when he first pointed Him out to his disciples and to the Jews who listened to his preaching. He who before His coming had been spoken of by the prophets as the mighty Lord, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Lion of the tribe of Judah; when He appeared to do His work on earth was to be first known as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world; thus signifying the great work of atonement for our sins which He had undertaken for us. And as on earth He was the true Lamb without spot and blemish, the perfect emblem of innocence, the worthy sacrifice for the sins of the whole world,—so He is represented in the heavenly visions of the Revelation as "the Lamb as it had been slain" receiving the worship of angels, and saints, and all the host of heaven, who say with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing." And again; "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever." This symbol, then, points out our blessed Lord as the expiatory Sacrifice, as the grand Atonement for the sins of mankind. He was the true Paschal Lamb prefigured in the mysterious institution of the Passover, when those who would escape the plague that was to come upon the ungodly sprinkled its blood on the lintels and door-posts of their houses, thus typifying that pure and precious Blood freely poured out for us upon the Cross, by which Blood alone we can hope to be saved. Preserve us, Lord, from death! Thou art the Lamb whose blood, Sprinkled o'er Israel's doors in faith, The thought of this sacred emblem reminds me to speak of a very beautiful picture I have seen, painted more than 400 years ago, called the Apotheosis of the Lamb, where the Church triumphant is represented as worshipping the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The painters* (for the picture is the work of two brothers) have wished to bring before our eyes what is so constantly placed before our minds as a subject of thought-the glorious company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the noble army of martyrs, praising God. The plan of the picture, as is the case with all early paintings, is more formal and regular than we are now accustomed to, so that it requires some little time to become used to it; but when we have dwelt upon the scene, and taken in all its parts, even these which at first seemed defects appear to add to the reverence and sacredness of the whole effect. On the one side are the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament kneeling in worship; on the other, the apostles and martyrs of the New Testament; while above, and at a greater distance, are seen, standing in the same order, bishops, confessors, and virgins, holding branches of palms in their hands while kneeling in the midst are angels in the act of ♦ Hubert and Jan Van Eyck, |