baptised He blessed us and made us His own children.] How can little children like you show their love to Jesus? [By being humble and gentle, very obedient to our parents and teachers and loving to one another; by trying to behave well in church, and saying our prayers reverently at home; and by being willing to give up our own will to others.]

PICTURE II.

We do not see Jesus in this picture? [No: this picture represents one of His parables.] What is a parable? Who is that man kneeling on the ground? [He is the younger son of the old man with white hair.] His clothes are much torn, are they not? [Yes; he asked his father for his portion of goods, and then left his father's house and went into a far country, where he wasted his substance with riotous living.] Was this right? [No; it was ungrateful to wish to take so much from his father, and very wicked to waste his substance.] What happened then? [When he began to be in great want, having nothing to eat, he recollected how his father's servants had enough and to spare; so he came to his father.] Did he beg pardon? [Yes; he said, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants."] Then this is the time represented in the picture? [Yes; there is his father laying his hand on his head, for he received him joyfully.] Who is that man with a robe on his arm coming out at a side door? [A servant, whom the father had desired to bring the best robe and put it on his returning son, and to put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet; he also ordered a feast to be made to welcome his son home.] And who is that talking to the servant? [The elder son, who had never left his father.] [He does not look glad to see his brother? [No; he was vexed that there was so much rejoicing on his return.] Why? [Because the same rejoicing had never been made for him.] But then he had never gone away? [No; his father's love was shown to him every day, so there was no need for a special display of it.] What did Jesus teach in this parable? [That God is willing to forgive His sinful children when they turn to Him, as the father in the picture forgave his prodigal, or wasteful, son.] What can you little children learn from it? [When we have been naughty, to ask pardon at once from God and our parents or friends; and then we may hope to be forgiven.] How should you feel when your brothers or companions have been naughty? [We should wish very much for them to be forgiven, and be very glad when they obtain pardon, and not be jealous at any mark of favour that may be shown them.]

PICTURE III.

What does this picture represent? [It represents a parable related by our Lord.] The man who is in front of the picture looks very ill and wounded? [Yes; he fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, and wounded him, so that they left him half dead.] Who are the two men in the background? [The first is a priest, the second a Levite, who, when they saw the poor wounded man, did not try to help him, though he was of their own nation, but passed by on the other side.] Then who is the man who is helping him? [He is a Samaritan.] What is a Samaritan?

[One of a neighbouring nation, whom the Jews disliked, and would have no dealings with.] And what did the Samaritan do for the poor wounded man? [He bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine.] Whom does the ass belong to? [To the Samaritan; and he put the poor wounded man on it, and brought him to an inn and took care of him.] And did his kindness end there? [No; he paid for the wounded man at the inn, and told the innkeeper to take care of him, and he (the Samaritan) would pay him when he came again.] Then the Samaritan was kinder to the Jew than one of his own nation? [Yes; Jesus would have us be kind to all our fellow creatures, and not only to those whom we love.] What may little children learn from this? [To be kind to everybody, and to those especially who are sick or in distress, even though they may be strangers.] But is it in the power of little children to show much kindness? [Yes, indeed; for though they may not have money to give, they can show kindness by going on errands for sick people, trying to help, as well as they are able, in attending them, in refraining from noise, and many such-like ways, if they only have the wish to be kind.]-National Society's Monthly Paper.

FLOWERS AND THEIR TEACHINGS.

ALL the prophets were devout students of God's works, and warm admirers of the beauties scattered through them: as a proof of which, they have hung unfading garlands, which they gathered in their lonely walks, in various parts of that Temple of truth, which they helped, as God's instruments, to rear and beautify. And He to whom they all bear witness, and point out as the "Plant of Renown:" "the Righteous Branch," "the Rose of Sharon;" he who gave these flowers their lovely tints, and moulded their faultless forms; he talked to man of the flowers, teaching him to "consider the lillies," and to learn from them to trust that Providence which overlooks nothing, to which nothing is impossible, and which is pledged to fulfil all the purposes and promises of God's excellent loving kindness. Flowers also are emblems of those graces of the Spirit which believers in Jesus derive from him. The sunflower sets forth faith, and bids us be ever looking unto Jesus. The violet is the well-known teacher of humility; it hides from view, yet sheds a sweet fragrance around. The snow-drop, battling with the wintry cold, is the symbol of hope. The honeysuckle, clinging to its strong prop, and filling the air with its odorous perfume, sets forth love; while the lily, in softest tones, repeats the words of Him whom it represents, and says, "Trust implicitly your heavenly Father's care."-Sketches and Lessons from Daily Life, by Fe ix Friendly.

IGNORANCE OF SPIRITUAL THINGS.

AT A MEETING of the Liverpool Town Mission, the Rev. G. Curnock, in remarking upon the ignorance of spiritual things even among classes disposed to be religious, instanced a man who put by his wedding-coat in order that he might not be found at last without a wedding garment ;" another who fetched a minister to a dying woman, saying that they had searched the Prayer-book through for the service for the dead and could not find it.— Liverpool Courier.

A BABE'S PRAYER.

A LITTLE child, not quite two years old, the son of a pious Irish clergyman, was taken to the house of a relative, and, being too young to be separated from his nurse, went with her to dine in the servants' hall, where, having waited in vain for a blessing to be asked before commencing, put his baby hands together, and lisped a simple prayer. The aged butler was affected to tears, and uttered words to this effect: "Never again shall a babc like that teach me my duty."

CONTEMPLATIONS ON A CHILD.

A CHILD is a man in a small letter, yet the best copy of Adam before he tasted of Eve or the apple; and he is happy whose small practice in the world can only write his character. He is nature's fresh picture newlydrawn in oil, which time, and much handling, dims and defaces. His soul is yet a white paper, unscribbled with observations of the world, wherewith, at length, it becomes a blurred note-book. He is purely happy because he knows no evil, nor hath made means by sin to be acquainted with misery. He arrives not at the mischief of being wise, nor endures evils to come, by forseeing them. He kisses and loves all, and when the smart of the rod is past, smiles on his beater. Nature and his parents alike dandle him, and entice him on with a bait of sugar to a draft of wormwood. He plays yet, like a young prentice the first day, and is not come to his task of melancholy. We laugh at his foolish sports, but his game is our earnest; and his drums, rattles, and hobby-horses, but the emblems and mocking of man's business. His father hath writ him as his own little story, wherein he reads those days of his life that he cannot remember, and sighs to see what innocence he hath outlived. The older he grows he is a stair lower from God; and, like his first father, much worse in his breeches. He is the Christian's example, and the old man's relapse; the one imitates his pureness, and the other falls into his simplicity. Could he put off his body with his little coat, he had got eternity without a burden, and exchanged but one heaven for another.-Bishop Earle.

THE FACULTY OF ATTENTION.

WE are accustomed to make very heavy demands upon a child's faculty of attention, especially on Sunday. We expect him to listen to teaching from nine o'clock until past ten; then after a brief interval to compose himself into a reverential attitude, and into stillness and solemnity during a long service, the greater part of which is necessarily above his comprehension; and adapted to cases and experiences very different from his own. Then we call upon him to come again, from two till past four, and continue wakeful, respectful, and attentive, during the whole of our teaching. And all the day's engagements, we must remember, relate to a subject which, although of the deepest importance, is not naturally felt to be so in early youth. Until it pleases God to impart to a child, either through the instrumeutality of wise teaching or otherwise, an appetite for sacred truths, he has no natural curiosity about them. He is naturally very inquisitive about the things

that immediately surround him; he is curious to learn about the sun, and the moon, and the stars; about distant countries; about the manners of foreigners; about birds, and beasts, and fishes; nay, even about machines, and many other human inventions: but about the nature or God, and about man's relation to him, and the great truths of revealed religion, you know that there is rarely any strong curiosity in a child's mind. You do not find the appetite for such knowledge as this already existing there. You have to create it; and until you have created it, he cannot give you the fixed and earnest attention you want, without an effort which is positively painful to him.

At the outset we should be aware of these two simple facts; first, that fixed attention is a hard thing for anybody to give; and second, that fixed attention to religious subjects is especially a hard thing for children to give. When we have fairly taken these facts into account, we shall be better However hard it may be to gain attention, we must get it, if we are to do any good at all in a Sunday school. It is of no use there to tell children things which go no deeper than the surface of their minds, and which will be swept away to make room for the first trifling matter which claims admission there. If children are really to be the better for what we teach, if the truths which we love so well are really to go deep into their consciences, and become the guiding principles of their lives, it is no half-hearted, languid attention, which will serve our purpose. We are not dealing with facts which will bear to be received and then forgotten; but with truths, which, if they have any significance at all, have an eternal significance; and if they are to have any practical value to a child at all, must not only be received by his understanding, but lodged securely in his memory, and made to tell upon the formation of his character for this world and the next. First, let me tell you how you will not get attention. You will not get it by claiming it, by demanding it as a right, or by entreating it as a favor; by urging upon your pupils the importance of the service, the sacredness of the day, the kindness of their teachers, or the great and solemn character of the truths you have to impart. All these are very legitimate arguments to use to older Christians. You and I, we may hope, feel their force. The sense of these things keeps us thoughtful and silent many a time, perhaps, when we are hearing a dull or unintelligible address. We feel we ought to be attentive, and so we make an effort to be so.

Nothing, in the long run (except fear, which I know you would feel to be a very unsatisfactory motive) can keep a child's attention fixed, but a sense of real interest in the thing you are saying. It is necessary that he should feel that the subject claims attention for itself, not that you are claiming attention for the subject. Depend upon it, that attention got by threats, by authority, or even by promises, or indeed by any external means whatever, is not a genuine or effective thing. The real attention, such as alone can serve the purpose of a Sunday school teacher, must always be founded on the fact that you have got something to say which is worth a child's hearing, and that you can say it in such a manner, that he shall feel it to be worth his hearing.-J. G. Fitch, on " The Art of Securing Attention."

THE GENERAL READER.

The General Reader.

DISPUTATION.

Controversy may be sometimes duty; but the love of disputation is a serious evil. Luther, who contended earnestly for the truth, used to pray," From a vain-glorious doctor, a contentious pastor, and nice questions, the Lord deliver his church."

The Scriptures are the richest jewels that Christ hath left. Satan and his agents have been endeavouring in all ages to blow out the light of God's Word, but have never succeeded-a clear evidence that it was lighted from Heaven.

UNHALLOWED WEALTH.

his life happy? No, doubtless, for nature is content with a little; and yet you shall hardly meet with a man that complains not of some want: and thus, when we might be happy and quiet, we create trouble to ourselves.

TRUTH.

A man in digging the earth found a piece of yellow metal; it shone a little, and particularly excited his attention; he rubbed it, the more brightly it shone! "It is gold" thought he, and he asked the opinion of a friend. His friend said, "I am no judge of metals, take it to a goldsmith and he will decide." The goldsmith was consulted; he thought it gold: he tried it, and was convinced he was right; he assayed it, and found it to be pure gold. Those who look for truth as more valuable than gold, must (at least in doubtful cases), take as much trouble as the man who found the metal, and the goldsmith who assayed it, or he will not be worthy of so inestimable a treasure as Truth.

MEDDLERS.

Men little think how immorally they act in rashly meddling with what they do not understand. Their delusive good intention is no sort of excuse for their presumption. They who truly mean well must be fearful of acting ill.

MEDICAL BOOKS.

A book which directs people how to physic themselves, ought to be entitled Every Man his own Poisoner, because it cannot possibly teach them how to discriminate between the resemblant

Can any man charge God that he symptoms of different diseases. has not given him enough to make Southey.