superior flavor, being a pleasant sour, and of a beautiful red color. When perfectly ripe, we have rarely ate a better apple.

Would the reader secure the blessing of coming generations, let him plant a tree.

THE DAISY.

THE daisy blossoms on the rocks,
Amid the purple heath;
It blossoms on the river's banks,
That thrids the glens beneath;
The eagle, at his pride of place,
Beholds it by his nest ;
And in the mead it cushions soft
The lark's descending breast.
Before the cuckoo, earliest spring
Its silver circlet knows,

When greening buds begin to swell,
And zephyr melts the snows;
And when December's breezes howl
Along the moorlands bare,

And only blooms the Christmas rose,
The daisy still is there!

Samaritan of flowers to it

All races are alike:

The Switzer on his glacier height,–

The Dutchman by his dyke,

The seal-skin vested Esquimaux,
Begirt with icy seas,

And underneath his burning noon,
The parasoled Chinese.

The emigrant on distant shore,

'Mid scenes and faces strange,

Beholds it flowering in the sward,
Where'er his footsteps range;
And when his yearning, home-sick heart
Would bow to his despair,

It reads his eye a lesson sage,
That God is everywhere!

Stars are the daisies that begem
The blue fields of the sky,
Beheld by all, and everywhere,
Bright prototypes on high;
Bloom on, then, unpretending flower!
And to the waverer be

An emblem of St. Paul's content,

Or Stephen's constancy.

THE PASTOR'S NEW YEAR'S SALUTATION TO HIS FLOCK.

BY REV. EDWARD F. CUTTER.

BRETHREN AND FRIENDS, welcome to a new year. This is a scason of congratulation, when all are wont to express kind wishes for their friends. May not a pastor then be permitted to express to his people his warm desire for their happiness at the entrance of the year? Ours is one of the most endearing relations of life; we are brought together in some of the most affecting scenes on earth; in sickness, in death, in the ordinances of the sanctuary we mingle in closest sympathy. May I not, then, wish you all a happy new year?

And if I were to express, in Scripture language, my desire towards my flock, I should adopt the beautiful words of the Psalmist :

PSALM 122: 7-9. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren's and companions' sake, I will now say, Peace be within thee! Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good.

In calling your attention to these beautiful verses, you will allow me a wider scope, than, perhaps, the strict letter of the text may allow, while I express to you my wishes for a happy new year to you all.

There is something deeply affecting in the glee and thoughtlessness with which we cross the boundaries of a year, that high-way mark in the great journey of life. There is, indeed, the loud wish, bursting from every lip, from prattling infancy, from vigorous manhood, and from trembling age, that it may be a "happy new year." Our households ring with the sound; but how little do we consider what will make it truly happy!

Will worldly prosperity alone fulfil that wish? Hear a memorable, though not uncommon, record: "The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought within himself, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do; I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said

unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." The Christian pastor cannot limit his wishes for his people "to good things of this life," "for what shall it profit a man though he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

Will domestic bliss alone confer happiness? It is, indeed, the sweetest bliss on earth. Home, dear home, with its priceless treasures, its hallowed affections, its blessed sympathies, — how dark would the world be without it! But home is changing. Many families, even now, enter the year with sadness, because of vacant seats round the hearth-stone. The year that has fled has brought the angel of death across the threshold; and bitter memories mingle with the congratulations of the new year. What has been shall be again. This year will cast like shadows over other households; it may be yours, it may be mine. Oh! we cannot here build our hopes of happiness, for death may dash the golden bowl, and the cup of joy turn to bitterness.

And yet all these earthly blessings are to be desired. I could wish God might bless you in your basket and your store; that his angel might encamp round your dwellings, and guard you and yours from all perils and disease. But this is not all that is in my heart to say. I would rather come to you in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. "Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." Peace be with you; the

peace of God that passeth understanding. To this end enter upon the year with a spirit of prayer. From God comes down every good and every perfect gift, and prayer is the channel by which he conveys the blessing down. Pray for yourselves, for the pardon of sin and guidance in every duty; for your households, that they may be converted unto God; for the church, that the year opening with drops of mercy may be a year of God's power. Prayer will be a rich blessing; it will comfort and strengthen under all the changes the year may bring. It will give sweet fellowship with the Father and with the Son, and prepare for all the untried scenes God may unfold to your path.

"To Him thy heart and thy hours be given,

For a life of prayer is a life of heaven."

Brethren, my heart's desire for you all is, that this year may be to you a year of prayer.

Enter the year with a spirit of submission in all things to God. We do not know what it may bring forth. Its pages are all sealed to our vision. Whatever comes, be prepared, by well-grounded confidence in God, to meet it. There may be trials as well as mercies in the administration of his providence and his grace. May you alike under the cloud and in sunshine rejoice in Him, who doeth all things well. There is happiness in true submission. It is

"Sweet to lie passive in his hands,

And know no will but his.”

Enter the year with repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. No wise man will pass this great stage of life without some review of the past. He would learn wisdom from past errors, and treasure up the lessons of experience for time to come. What is the record of years that are fled but a record of sin and short comings? How painful the memory of duties neglected, undone; of seasons of privilege wasted; of offers of mercy slighted! How shall the mistake be repaired but by an immediate compliance with the great conditions of the Gospel, repentance and faith? Can a year open happily, which meets us unreconciled to God in his Son? O! brethren and friends, strange at it might seem to a giddy world, our fervent wish for you is, that your hearts may be bowed in true godly sorrow, and your spirits bound to the cross of Christ in penitent faith. There is joy in repentance, joy on earth and in heaven. Joy to the sinner, for it bows his heart to the salvation of God; joy to the redeemed saint, for there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. What blessing, then, will it bring to your heart, and to those Christian friends "long mourned," who have gone before, and await your coming to the eternal home! Our earnest wish for you is, that the home on earth, and the brighter home in heaven, may be filled with one joy by your repentance.

Rejoice with joy

Lastly, enter the year with an assured and well-grounded hope of heaven. Such hope has no foundation but Christ. Are you now in ' him? Cleave to him as "unsearchable riches." unspeakable and full of glory; for now is your redemption nearer than when you first believed. Another weary year of pilgrimage is

won. Heaven has advanced another step. Welcome, brethren, to the new year; the time of trial wanes fast, the glory is at hand. God wishes you a happy new year." He not only comes in this blessed Sabbath, and in these smiles of his Spirit, but here he spreads his table, laden with the richest provision his infinite love and power could supply. Here he gives his beloved Son a ransom for sin, for you. Take this gift to your hearts, with all the blessed promises of salvation written therein, as God's gift, God's earnest desire for the new year. What more can we ask? "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up freely for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" All things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's. In the overflowing desire of my heart I could not ask more than this.

Hold it fast, and give all dili

gence to make your calling and election sure.

Are any of you out of Christ? In how many consciences may this question cause trembling! Ah! if our own heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Can I, then, look out on the year opening before us, happy, truly happy? Is there any real foundation for happiness to a soul out of Christ? What if it be written, This year thou shalt die? What remains of life but its record, to be rendered at the judgment? God bless you with salvation! My heart's desire and prayer for you

O! my dear readers, may

--

is, that you may be saved, saved in Christ, for there is salvation in no other. Begin, then, the year, and God and angels and all the holy will bend over you with congratulation, — by laying hold on eternal life. That life God now offers. "For this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life. He that hath the Son, hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." O, begin the year in life, not in death!

Brethren and friends, I have spoken my wish. Briefly and imperfectly has the tongue responded to the warm desires of my heart. There is one, far mightier and of purer affection, who hovers over with kind wishes and words of blessing. It is your God, now you moving on your hearts by his Spirit and his Word. He invites you to pray. "Come, now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." He urges you to repentance, to make this the happy year of pardoned sin; he invites to faith and heaven; he offers, as the gift of love, an