How can

my think

"I think my Jacky has many blessings every day, which he hardly ever notices, and scarcely ever thanks God for. Don't you

breathe the air all day and all night? If God should take the air away from you, you could not breathe, you could not live; but would die in a few minutes. Then, what a great blessing it is to have air to breathe. Men who have been shut up in a coal-pit, where the air was poisoned by gas, would gladly give all they had for fresh air. And yet we seldom think about this great blessing, and not very often go on our knees to thank God for giving it to us. You have water to drink. If you could not have any for some days you would die of thirst. A minister, who was travelling in South Africa, was so parched with thirst, because he could find no water, that he said he would gladly have given all the money he had for a drink from the dirtiest puddle in the streets of London. How he valued water then! Do we always think of it as so precious? What would a poor prisoner, who had been for years shut up in a dark dungeon, give to spend a day in the delicious sunlight? What would a poor blind boy give if he could look upon all the beauty which we can see any day by just lifting up our eyes? See, then, how valuable these gifts of God are.

But

on

Do you think of them, and thank God for them and value them? Ah, not enough! It is because we hardly notice them. Now, if we could not have them without praying for them, we could not then help thinking of them. God is so good that He gives us these blessings, and many, very many others without our asking. ' He maketh His sun to rise the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,' and people take them and use them, and don't seem to care much for them. Everybody would enjoy them much more if they would think of them as gifts from a loving God; if they were daily to praise God for them. So of the blessings which we pray for. We first feel we want them, then we go to Jesus and ask for them; and if we feel we want them very much, and pray for them very earnestly, we shall enjoy them the more when He gives them to us.'

If we love Jesus we shall love to pray to Him.-And surely we ought to love, Jesus when we know how much He loves us.

The Bible says, "We love Him because He first loved us." If we pray to Him frequently it will show we like to be with Him, and

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that we love Him. Don't you know a beautiful hymn which begins like this,

"Jesus, the very thought of Thee
With gladness fills my breast;
But better far Thy face to see,
And in Thy presence rest."

It will be delightful, indeed, to be with Jesus, to see Him face to face, to be like Him, to repose on His bosom, and to love Him more and more for ever. O, to talk with Him then, when we can see Him! We sometimes sing,—

"I think, when I read that sweet story of old,
When Jesus dwelt here among men,

And call'd little children, as lambs to His fold,
I should like to have been with them then.

I wish that His hands had been placed on my head,
That His arms had been thrown around me,

And that I might have seen His kind look when He said,

Let the little ones come unto Me.'

If it would have been so delightful to have been taken up in His arms then, how much more SO to be close to Him in heaven! And how we shall delight to sing His praises there.

Now just think of two little girls. You see them almost always together. They call for each other in the morning, when going to school, they sit together in their classes, they play together in the playground, they

home together at night. They gather daisies and buttercups together. Wherever you see one of them, you may be almost sure to find the other. It seems as if they could not be separated. How is it? There are fifty more girls in the school, and a thousand more in the town, and yet these two are so frequently together, and so seldom with any one else. Can anybody tell me how it is? Is it because they live near to each other? No; there are many girls who live nearer to each of them. Is it that they dislike one another? No; no, that cannot be ! Well, then, is it because they love one another? O, yes, to be sure it is! You see love brings children together, and keeps them together, and makes them play together -yes, and talk to each other.

Now love brings us to Jesus in the same way, and makes us like to be with Him, and talk to Him. It is by prayer we talk to Jesus, tell Him all we wish, and all we fear, and all we hope. The more we love Jesus, the more we shall like to keep close by His side, for comfort, happiness, and safety, and the oftener we shall delight to talk to Him. It is then, too, that we feel Jesus talking to We cannot hear His voice; He speaks to our souls; and, how delightful it is

us.

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chronicled in stone or metal in cairns, cromlechs, obelisks, pyramids, pillars, cenotaphs, statues, columns, triumphal arches, and other monumental erections! London has several monuments, mostly of kings, statesmen, and warriors; and yet, considering the immense size and wealth of the British metropolis, and the long muster-roll of illustrious names which its citizens might well delight to honour, the number of its public memorials, after all, is not very large. Tallest of them all is the monument on Fish Street Hill, commemorating the Great Fire of 1666. In Trafalgar Square is Nelson's Pillar, lofty and well-proportioned, with Landseer's lions reposing at the base. Not quite so high, and yet a fine, tall erection, is the Duke of York's Column, in Waterloo Place. A greater soldier, the Duke of Wellington, has a bronze equestrian statue, by Chantrey, to his memory, in front of the Royal Exchange, and another, of larger proportions, at the top of Constitution Hill; besides which the statue of Achilles in Hyde Park, helps to perpetuate his fame and that of his companions in arms. A monument to Crimean and Indian heroes may be seen in Westminster, near the Abbey; a statue of Sir Robert Peel occupies the end of Cheapside; and another of King William IV. overlooks the crowds of crowded vehicles that roll on the City side of London Bridge.

THE ALBERT MEMORIAL, an illustration of which we give this month, has been in progress for some years, and is not yet quite finished, although it now approaches completion. The character of the design, the distinguished artists employed upon its bassreliefs, groups of allegorical figures, and other parts of the structure, and the large expenditure of time and money devoted to its production, contribute to make this beautiful memorial worthy of the admirable Prince whose excellencies it commemorates, and of the great metropolis of which it will form an ornament, honourable alike to its taste and appreciation of royal virtues. This remarkable work of art has its site in Kensington Gardens; a neighbourhood with which the names of Victoria and Albert are intimately associated, for there the one was born, and the other has left his mark in the valuable South Kensington Museum, and in the two International Exhibitions of 1862 and 1871. These, although held since his lamented death, have resulted from their predecessor of 1851, of which the Prince Consort may be considered to be the founder; and in this way they really owe their origin to him.

Most of our public monuments have been erected to men of the sword, and commemorate the achievements in arms of our naval heroes and military chiefs. The Albert Memorial is reared to one who won fame in the ranks of Peace. His Royal Highness, it is true, held high rank in the British army; but it is not as a soldier that history will know anything of Albert the Good. As the husband of Our Sovereign Lady, Queen Victoria, and as "the father of our Kings to be," the late Prince Consort set a bright example of conjugal and paternal virtues. And that, in his exalted position, his example and influence were on the side of good morality, was of the very highest importance. A Court exercises a powerful influence for good or for evil upon a nation, and more especially upon families of rank and high position. It would not be easy to calculate the debt of obligation which the British nation owes to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, for the purity of the Court over which they presided, and for the manner in which they have trained and governed the Royal Family. The tastes and pursuits of the Prince Consort were of an intellectual and elevating kind. At the University of Bonn, where he was educated, he won the reputation of a diligent and devoted student, and distinguished himself in jurisprudence, history, music, and painting. Whilst yet a youth, he and his brother Ernest published a small volume of poetry and music for the benefit of the poor. In maturer life, as the Consort of the Queen of England, he was a lover and patron of art, and an originator of measures tending to social improvement amongst the industrial classes and the agricultural poor. In fact, his life was largely marked by a benevolent usefulness.

Although the Queen and Prince Albert were cousins, they never met until the year 1836, when the latter visited his aunt, the Duchess of Kent, and her daughter, the Princess Victoria, then heiress of the English throne, at their residence, Kensington Palace. The following year, upon the accession of Her Majesty to the throne of her ancestors, the young Prince wrote the following letter to her-the first which he wrote to her in English :

Bonn, 26th June, 1837. "My Dearest Cousin,-I must write you a few lines to present you my sincerest felicitations on that great change which has taken place in your life. Now you are Queen of the mightiest land of Europe, in your hand lies the happiness of millions. May Heaven assist you and strengthen you with its strength in that high, but difficult task! I hope that your reign may belong, happy, and glorious; and that your efforts may

be rewarded by the thankfulness and love of your subjects. May I pray you to think likewise sometimes of your cousins in Bonn, and to continue to them that kindness you favoured them with till now? Be assured that our minds are always with you. I will not be indiscreet and abuse your time.-Believe me, always, your Majesty's most obedient and faithful servant, "ALBERT."

The Queen did think of her cousins. To the youngest she proffered her royal hand. The secret, in which millions of devoted subjects were afterwards interested, she disclosed to her uncle Leopold, the wise and good old King of the Belgians, in the following letter:

"My Dearest Uncle,-This letter will, I am sure, give you pleasure, for you have always shown and taken so warm an interest in all that concerns me. My mind is quite made up, and I told Albert this morning of it. The warm affection he showed me on learning this gave me great pleasure. He seems perfection, and I think that I have the prospect of great happiness before me. I love him more than I can say, and shall do everything in my power to render this sacrifice (for such in my opinion it is) as small as I can. He seems to have great tact-a very necessary thing in his position. These last few days have passed like a dream to me, and I am so much bewildered by it all, that I know hardly how to write; but I do feel so very happy. It is absolutely necessary that this determination of mine should be known to no one but yourself and to Uncle Ernest until after the meeting of Parliament, as it would be considered otherwise neglectful on my part not to have assembled Parliament at once to inform them of it. Lord Melbourne, whom I have of course consulted about the whole affair, quite approves my choice, and expresses great satisfaction at this event, which he thinks in every way highly desirable."

In the document laid before the Privy Council relating to the proposed marriage, no allusion was made to the Prince's religion. This, very probably, was through the temporising policy of Lord Melbourne, in order to conciliate the Roman Catholics. This omission was noticed in the House of Lords by the Duke of Wellington, who moved an

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amendment to the Address to the Queen, by which it was recorded that the Prince in religion was a Protestant. During the debate Lord Brougham, although a member of the Government, in referring to a remark of the Prime Minister's, said: "My noble friend (Lord Melbourne) was mistaken as to the law. There is no prohibition as to the marriage with a Catholic. It is only attended with a penalty; and that penalty is merely the forfeiture of the Crown!"

On the Protestantism of Prince Albert and his family, his Uncle Leopold, King of the Belgians, said, at the time: "The Ernestine branch of the Saxon family has been, there is no doubt, the real cause of the establishment of Protestantism in Germany, and consequently in great part of northern Europe. This same line became a martyr to that cause, and was deprived of nearly all its possessions in consequence of it. Recently there have been two cases of Catholic marriages, but the main branch has remained; and is, in fact, very sincerely Protestant. Both Ernest and Albert are most attached to it."

The Queen's marriage was a happy one. She found in Prince Albert an affectionate and devoted husband, a judicious father of the family of Princes and Princesses with which God blessed them, and a wise and trusty counsellor in State affairs. His sudden death in the very prime of his days was a great shock to the whole nation, threw a dark shadow on English palaces, and inflicted a wound on the heart of England's Queen, which passing years have failed to heal.

Francis Albert Augustus Charles Emanuel, Prince Consort, second son of the late Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was born August 26th, 1819; was married to Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, on February 10th, 1840; and died December 14th, 1861. T. M'C.

an illegitimate son of the late King, though greatly favoured by him and advanced to much dignity and power, did not attempt to seize upon the vacant throne. It was left for the bold and unscrupulous, but popular, Stephen, second son of Stephen, Earl of Blois, by Adela, a daughter of the Conqueror, to devise and execute a successful scheme of usurpation. His relationship to the Con