recover it. He did so, but was surprised to find not only the stolen lace, but the following strange collection of articles: part of a worsted stocking, a silk handkerchief, a frill, a child's cap, besides several other things, so ragged and worn out that it was difficult to make out what they were. When tamed, magpies may be called thieves, because they hide the things they steal in a hole, or some other place of concealment; but in their wild state they may rather be called robbers, as they build a nest, in which they keep their plunder. This is fortified all round with strong thorny branches, and covered with a canopy of thorns, leaving only a small hole for an entrance. The sticks they use for fortifying their nest are sometimes so large as to require the united strength of two birds to carry them. If they build in a tree, the nest is less strongly fortified, because it is more safely situated; but if the nest is low, it is more thickly surrounded with thorns. A magpie's nest has been seen in a gooseberry bush, so closely barricaded with briers and thorns as to be perfectly safe from cats, hawks, and foxes. From this safe retreat the magpie goes out to plunder the nests of other birds, steal their eggs, and kill their young ones, and in his thorny castle he keeps his stolen hoards of whatever he can manage to carry away. The American crow is also a bird-thief. It pierces the eggs of other birds neatly with its bill, and so carries them off to eat in security. In this manner it has been seen stealing all the eggs from a wild turkey's nest. Sometimes, however, the robber is robbed in its turn. While it is plundering the nests of others, the blue jay steals into its nest and carries off the eggs. Birds are innocent thieves; but we all know that theft committed by a human being is a great crime. There are, however, many who would be very angry if you were to call them thieves, who do not hesitate to break the eighth commandment, because they do not fully understand its meaning. We break it when we waste or destroy the property of others, as well as when we actually take it; and we break it when, by cunning or deceit, we get more than is our due. It is as great a sin to steal a very small thing as a great thing, and children are apt to forget this. To take the very smallest thing that does not belong to us, without permission, is stealing; and if we would not be thieves, we must resist the very beginnings of sin. Some children begin to steal at the sugar-bowl, or the cake-basket. A man who was going to be hung for robbery and murder, confessed on the scaffold, that he began to steal by taking a halfpenny from his mother's pocket when she was asleep. It is the grace of God alone that can keep us from this or any other sin. Let us pray with all our hearts, "Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep thy law." "Children, can you tell me who This command of God breaks through?- Or the wish to do so feels? "If I should, when all alone, Something from another take, In the dark as in the light; As if thousands saw the sight. "If I should refuse to give Words and deeds of love to men, Active love for Jesus' sake; Then I this commandment break. "Higher yet this sin extends; For to steal the spirit's love Help us, Lord, to love thee more; Teach us to begin to-day, If we have not loved before." THE KING'S HIGHWAY. FIRST DISCIPLES OF JESUS. ST. THOMAS. THE Holy Scriptures are silent as regards the birthplace or early history of St. Thomas. His name is among the first three in the lists of the apostles, and he is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles as being at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, waiting for the descent of the Holy Ghost. St. John, however, in his Gospel mentions him as four times taking an active part among his fellow disciples during the ministry of our blessed Saviour. St. Thomas had also the name of Didymus; both names mean "a twin." He is supposed to have been a Galilean, and by trade a fisherman. He went out fishing with Peter and some of the other disciples, after our Lord's resurrection. John xxi. 2. At the time of Lazarus's death, Thomas showed a great proof of his zeal and love to the Saviour, by saying to the other disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." Although the other disciples were trying to persuade our Saviour not to go to Jerusalem, as the Jews were seeking his life, yet, when Thomas saw the resolve of our Saviour, he urged the other apostles to fresh courage. The next mention of this apostle is when our Saviour, a little while before his crucifixion, spoke to his disciples of the joys of heaven, and of his going to prepare a place for them, to which he would receive them unto himself: Thomas questioned, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way ?" Our Saviour answered him in those blessed words, so full of precious meaning, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." From this passage we may see that this apostle had not clear and perfect faith; which was still further shown after our Lord's resurrection, when he declared his unwillingness to believe the glad tidings until he should see and feel him. The Saviour graciously permitted him to do so, saying, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing." Thomas then showed himself as eager and joyous in expressing his belief as he had before been slow in believing, and cried, "My Lord and my God!" We learn from the writers of early Christian history, that Thomas went into Parthia; and Bishop Heber, who travelled in India, says in his Journal, "I have as fair historical evidence as the case requires, that St. Thomas preached the gospel in India, and was martyred at a place called Millaporr or Meilapoor. The eastern Christians whom the Portuguese found in India, all agree in marking out this as the spot, and in saying that the bones, originally buried there, had been carried away as relics to Syria; and they, and even the surrounding heathens, appear to have always venerated the spot, as these last still do.” THE SONG OF THE BEES. FLYING out, flying in, Circling the hive with ceaseless din, Now abroad, now at home, Busy through wood and field we roam. |