you; and you may have it all for nothing. If you want to hear any more, you are at liberty to call on me again.

THE HUMPBACK BOY.

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I WANT to tell you a story-and a true one, too-of a little boy who was known as The Little Humpback." This poor little boy had a disease of the spine, which caused him a great deal of pain, so that he could not run about and play like other children, but all day long he used to sit on the door-step, and watch the passers by. This little boy's mother was very poor, and did not teach Willie (for that was his name) to read; so his days often passed slowly and wearily, and when night came the little fellow would lie down upon his bed of straw, and cry himself to sleep.

When Willie was about twelve years old, his mother died; and he, poor child, was left a lonely orphan. But God looked on him with pity, and put it into the hearts of some kind persons to provide a home for him, where he was treated with kindness, and made comfortable and happy.

Willie was soon taken to the Sabbath-school, and there listened with tearful eyes to the story of a Saviour's love; and there, too, he learned many hymns and precious texts of Scripture.

In the family where Willie lived there was a very old man, whom he soon learned to call grandfather. This old man loved the Saviour, and he wanted every one else to love and serve him; so he

often told Willie about Jesus, who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me;" and often would he urge him to give his heart to Jesus.

And God blessed the old man's words-and every day Willie grew more gentle and obedient.

Although nearly fourteen years of age, the little humpback did not appear to be more than ten, he was so very small; but his large eyes beamed brightly. As week after week passed by, Willie seemed to be failing in health. His step grew feeble, his voice weak, and his face thin and pale. Slowly he faded. A kind and faithful minister visited him, and one day, seated at his bedside, told him that he must die. At first the little boy shed bitter tears: for life is sweet, even to the poor, the lone, the suffering; but soon he wiped them all away, and listened to those words of Jesus: "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." He felt that Jesus had died for sinners, had died for him; he was enabled to put his trust in him, and so the sting of death was taken away. Calmly he sent messages of gratitude and love, and little tokens of remembrance, to the friends God had raised up for him; and to one far distant he sent this touching message: "God did not see fit that I should see her before I died, so I will not fret,” said the dying child; “but tell her I shall see her in heaven."

He fell asleep in Jesus, and early one lovely autumn morning the worn and wearied body of

the little humpback was borne to its last restingplace; and a simple board bearing his name now marks the spot. But his spirit, we trust, has gone to join that "glorious, happy band," in that world where there is no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:" and where "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."

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FIRST DISCIPLES OF JESUS.

ST. PHILIP.

ADA.

ST. PHILIP was born at Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. He is supposed to have been the first who fully followed our Lord; for although Andrew, Peter, James, and John were called before him, they seemed to have followed their trade of fishing for about a year after their first call. Philip is first mentioned by St. John after his call, as bringing Nathanael to Christ. When some Greek converts wished to see Jesus, and desired Philip, saying, "Sir, we would see Jesus," he first went to tell Andrew, and then went with him to Jesus. Still, although he had faith that Jesus was the true Messiah, whose coming the prophets had foretold, he was very ignorant of the Divine nature of the Messiah; as when, in order to prove his faith, the Lord asked him where they should buy bread? Philip answered, "Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient that every one may take a little." Another instance of mistrust is when he asked our Lord to "shew them the

Father." Jesus gently rebuked him, saying, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ?" After our Lord's death, Philip went into Upper Asia, where, by his preaching and miracles, he converted many heathen. After some years he came to Hierapolis, a large town of Phrygia, where he was martyred at the command of the magistrates, who were enraged at the progress Christianity was making among the people. Tradition says that St. Philip was a married apostle, and that at his death he left three daughters.

ST. BARTHOLOMEW.

Very little is known of this apostle; his name is enumerated by Matthew, Mark, and Luke, in their lists of the twelve chosen disciples of our Lord. His name is not once mentioned in St. John's Gospel, and many conjecture that he must have been the same as Nathanael, who is mentioned by that evangelist as being brought to the Lord by Philip. There are various reasons for this conjecture; the names of Philip and Bartholomew are classed together by the first three evangelists. Nathanael is mentioned by St. John as being with the other apostles after the Lord's resurrection, on the shores of the sea of Tiberias; and, lastly, as Bartholomew means simply the son of Tholomai, Nathanael might very well be called by that name as well as his own.

Nathanael had most likely read in the Scriptures that Jesus Christ was to be born in Bethlehem,

and therefore his question, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" shows his surprise. This question might also be asked because the city of Nazareth was in Galilee, and among the Jews the people there were always a despised sect. After our Saviour's death, St. Bartholomew is supposed to have followed St. Thomas to India, and there to have suffered martyrdom. Eusebius relates that a copy of St. Matthew's Gospel in Hebrew was found there, which the Indians asserted had been left by that apostle.

It is thought that St. Bartholomew was a doctor of the law; very probably he was one of the council of elders among the Jews. If so, what a noble example he sets us of giving up all for Christ; he surrendered influence, respect, and the things most valued in this world, and joined himself to a company of poor Galilean fishermen.

THE SCRIPTURE PENNY.

"And they brought unto him a penny." Matt. xxii. 19. SOME of our young readers, very probably, have supposed that the "penny" referred to in the text above given was a copper coin, like our halfpenny; but it was not so; it was a silver coin, called denarion by the Greeks, and denarius by the Romans; and was, at the time of our blessed Saviour's ministry, equal in value to about sevenpence of our money. It had on one side the por