THE OLD LADY'S BIRTHDAY.

MRS. LIVINGSTON was a widow lady of very respectable standing in society, and what was still more honourable to her character, she had spent many years in the fear of her God, and maintained a pious profession of the name of Jesus her Saviour. Her place of residence was in a small village near the city, where she had frequent opportunities to show her kindness and charity to the necessitous poor. She was blessed with two sons and three daughters, all happily settled in domestic life; and this day the aged mother having numbered her seventieth year, the several branches of the family united, and made the old lady a visit, to present her with their dutiful congratulations on the occasion.

Mrs. WATSON, her eldest daughter, introduced the conversation. "My dear mother, we have all come in a group to gratify our warmest feelings, to present you our congratulation on your birthday; and I have no doubt you will believe the sincerity of our devout thanks to our heavenly Father, for

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having spared you so many years to guide us with your counsel, and gladden us with your smiles.""Yes, my daughter," replied the venerable mother, "I accept your expression of duty with peculiar emotions of maternal affections. To see my children and grand-children around me, adds to the obligations I am under to my God and Saviour, for our mutual preservation, and the numberless favours we have enjoyed."-" Indeed, Madam," said Mr. GEORGE WATSON, who was of a lively turn of mind, you would have been delighted to see our little folks leaping alive early this morning, each attempting to outvie the other, who should dress first and appear the gayest, to pay their respects to their grand-mother; and now we have brought them by the hand to salute you on your birthday."-This was like a signal to the lovely children, for they immedjately flew to the old lady, who tenderly pressed them to her bosom, and saluted them. "This," said she to Mr. Watson, "reminds me of Joseph, when he presented his two sons, Ephraim and Manassch, to his father Jacob. If I remember right, the good old man said, I had not thought to see thy face: and lo! God hath showed me also thy seed; and Jacob kissed them, and embraced them. It is true, I have not been afflicted as was Jacob, several of whose sons were a sorrow to his heart, and who sold their brother Joseph for a slave. I have had no loss of my children by death; no separation; no discomposure; we have been preserved in health, unity, and love; and this is not only a source of consolation to my aged heart, but

strongly excites my gratitude to God, who is the fountain of our mutual felicity.”—Mrs. Watson, with a pearly tear of joy starting from her eye, immediately replied, "Yes, my dear mother, we are mutually interested in the bountiful care of our heavenly Father, and I hope we shall not only live to express our gratitude, but esteem it our duty and delight to exert every effort to contribute to your consolation and joy the rest of your days."

While the servant was presenting the company with fruit, cakes, and sweetmeats, the arrival of the Rev. Mr. LOVEJOY was announced, and being introduced, he, with great affability, addressed the old lady-" Madam, although I perceive your family around you, I hope I may not intrude by my morning visit. It is generally known in our village that this is your birthday, completing your seventieth year. Your benevolence to the poor, and your charming intercourse with the few who are rich among us, have made you a subject of general conversation this morning; and many good wishes have been expressed that you may yet continue to enjoy health, and every other blessing, to crown your journey's end. Sharing in this public impression, I have taken the liberty to call and personally offer you my cordial wishes for yourself and family."Mrs. Livingston replied, "Your visit to me, Mr. Lovejoy, is highly acceptable, and no doubt is equally so to all my surrounding family. I sensibly feel the good wishes of my neighbours, and they have mine in return. To you, Sir, I offer my thanks

for your visit, and I hope your life may long be preserved to cherish your family, and that your ministerial usefulness may be continued for very many years to the people of this village. True, my heavenly Father has given me seventy years, but all the rest that may come I shall receive as a loan on demand. And while I wish perpetually to say, Lord, my times are in thine hand, I should be happy to make a better use of the loan than I have done of the gift."

On hearing her mother express such pious sentiments, Mrs. Watson was much impressed, and could not forbear saying, "My dear parent, we all hope that the loan may be a very long one, and that the same good hand which hath supported you so many years, will still continue to console and uphold you to the last hour."-" I doubt it not, my daughter," replied Mrs. Livingston, "HE that hath done so much for me, will not forsake me, but will assuredly perfect that which concerneth me. I feel no anxiety on that account; the future I leave with the Lord, whether my days be many or few. My final departure I likewise most cheerfully submit to the pleasure af my blessed Saviour; the time when, place where, and the manner how he shall send death for me, none of these give me a shadow of uneasiness. My Lord is infinitely wise, and cannot err; he is everlasting in his love, and I cannot but be happy. My only wish is to walk humbly with my God, and bear some sacred fruit to the honour of his name, until I walk out of time into eternity."

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This morn

Madam," said Mr. Lovejoy," it affords me peculiar gratification to find you so composed, and cheerfully resigned to the will of your God. ing I was reading the ninetieth Psalm, and when I came to the tenth verse, I instantly thought of your birthday. The words are, the days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. But, Madam, from the composure and cheerfulness of your mind, I hesitate to apply the latter part of the verse to you, for it describes the last stage of life, to be labour and sorrow."-Mrs. Livingston felt the full force of this address, and therefore immediately replied, "Sir, you know it is common for young people to be a little more lively on their birthday than usual, and why should not the aged rally the scattered forces of their animal spirits on such an occasion? Besides, I have so much to raise my gratitude to God, and seeing my children in health around me, that I cannot be covered with a gloomy mantle to-day. The text you have introduced has frequently been a subject of my meditation; but whether my reflections upon it be correct or not, I must confess, Sir, that no commentary which I have read gives precisely the same view of it that I have myself. I think the writer of that Psalm, said to be Moses, merely describes the natural or animal life of man, and by so doing, he is very correct: For after a person has arrived to threescore years and ten, the infirmities and pains usually attendant on a decaying body, must neces