All to leave and follow thee,
Naked, poor, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shall be."

Just one year from her espousal to Christ the village of ---- was all
excitement, on an occasion which had called the young and the
middle-aged to the house of her father,--the wealthy Mr. G----, when
this lovely daughter was to be united in marriage to the accomplished,
the graceful, the pious Mr. L----, a universal favorite with persons of
all ages and ranks. A short time previous to his union to the young and
beautiful belle of ----, he had, under most favorable auspices,
commenced a lucrative business in the city of ----.

Immediately after the nuptial ceremony, Mr. L---- accompanied his bride
to the Falls of Niagara, that favorite place of resort on such memorable
occasions. They were now all the world to each other. Alas, how utterly,
for a time, did they overlook the injunction, "Little children, keep
yourselves from idols." Nor did they for once even dream how insensibly
the streams of God's bounty and goodness were withdrawing their hearts
from the fountain of all blessedness and perfection.

On their return from this delightful excursion, this envied young
husband was soon found at his post of business, surrounded by numerous
friends all eager to aid and encourage him on in his preparations to
welcome to his home and his heart, his darling "wife." Oh, how sweet to
him did that treasured name sound, when greeted by his young friends,
and the question was asked, "How is your _wife_?" "When do you expect
your _wife_?" Never, he felt, was there another more truly blessed.

How sudden must have been the transition, for the summons came, as it
were, in a moment, "The Master has come, and calleth for thee." Young
Mr. L---- had been in the city but two days, when retiring to his bed,
he was suddenly siezed with a bilious attack, and in a few brief hours,
even before his friends could reach his bed-side, he was wrapped in the
habiliments of the grave. His last faint farewell was uttered in hurried
and broken accents, just as he expired, "Tell her that Jesus makes me
willing"--"makes me willing."

In his ready, cheerful, and manly willingness to obey the Master's call,
though so sudden, we see the blessed influence of early parental
discipline--absolute unconditional submission to parental authority.

Truly this was a most sad and unexpected reverse for that youthful and
happy bride. Her face at once became as