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THE AFRICANS AND THE LOOKING-GLASS. THE entertaining missionary traveller, Dr. Livingstone, tells us that the tribe of the Makololos in Africa were very concerned to know how they looked. The women, in particular, often came to him and asked for the looking-glass; and he says the remarks which they made while he was engaged in reading and apparently not attending to them, were very amusing. On first seeing themselves in the glass they would say, "Is that me ?" "What a big mouth I have !" " 'My ears are as big as pumpkin leaves !" "I have no chin at all!" "See how my head shoots up in the middle!" laughing heartily all the time at their own jokes.

A man once came alone, to have a quiet gaze at his own face, when he thought Dr. Livingstone was asleep. After twisting his mouth about in various ways, he said to himself, "People say I am ugly ; and how very ugly I am!"

But we must not forget that this looking into the glass is rather a dangerous thing with some young people. They are too fond of looking on the reflection of their faces, and perhaps are not likely to cry, with the poor African, "How very ugly I am," but to flatter themselves that they are better looking than others.

There is, however, one glass into which they cannot look too often; it is the word of the Lord (James i. 23-25). The more they look therein, the more clearly will they detect their defects and perceive their and this will tend to keep them humble before

sins;

God, and lead them to walk in meekness in the sight of their friends.

When you, young reader, look at yourself in this glass, you will not see your face, but your heart. It matters very little whether you are plain and homely; but is the heart right? is it clean by the blood of Jesus and the Spirit of the Lord? Do you know the reason why many young persons, as well as older ones, do not like to read and study God's word? Because it shows how unsightly their hearts are.

Let us ask the Lord, who can change the hearts of all, to make us and the poor heathen clean and pure through the blood of our Saviour.

A LESSON FOR MY SUNDAY SCHOLARS. Now listen to me with attention, for I wish you to remember as long as you live the lesson which I am going to give you to-day. I am going to talk to you about something which is of deep concern to us allto you and to me, and to every one in the world. It is THE LOVE OF GOD TO SINNERS. Now, open your Bibles, and turn to the third chapter of St. John, the sixteenth and seventeenth verses. There you will read: "God so loved the world, that he gave his onlybegotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved."

You know that all mankind are sinners. Now

imagine a large city, like London, of which the people were all condemned for some great crime. Suppose that they must be destroyed unless some one very powerful, and great, and good, consents to die in their stead. And then think, if the king of that country were to pity their lost state so much, as to send some one very near to him out of his palace to suffer instead of the people of this city, would it not show great love towards them? And if it were his son, his only son, that he gave to die, (we know how parents value their only child), would it not show wonderful love?

And it was so that God loved the world. All had sinned against him and broken his laws. We know what is done when the laws of an earthly ruler are broken. The offender is brought to trial, and witnesses appear against him, and when he is found guilty the judge pronounces the sentence, and the man is punished according to his crime. So Christ, who came into the world as our Saviour, might have come only as our Judge, and then where would the best of us have been? But it was not so; for as we have just read, "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world;" no, it was "that the world through him might be saved."

You will find a proof of God's love to sinners in another text. Look at the eleventh verse of the thirty-third chapter of Ezekiel. There God declares, "I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth." All the histories in the Bible show us how true this is. See how he gave men warning before the flood. Though the wickedness of man was so great in the earth that God determined to drown the world which

he had made so good and lovely, yet the ark was a hundred and twenty years in building; and Noah, at God's command, kept warning the people all that time. But they were hardened in their sins, and would not repent. Remember also how God spared Nineveh. He sent Jonah to warn the guilty city, and when the people humbled themselves his anger was turned away. Think, above all, how the loving Saviour wept over Jerusalem, because he knew the misery that sin was bringing upon it, and he had no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

And have not you reason to believe that God is unwilling to punish? How he warns you-sends you ministers, teachers, the Bible, that you might not perish in your sins! Yet though he is long suffering, he will be faithful to his word, if we do not repent and believe in Christ. When a child is disobedient a fond parent may delay the punishment, because he wishes to give him time to see if he will repent. Just so, God is not the less sure to fulfil his threats as he did to Adam, you know, when he eat of the tree which was forbidden; but he stays his hand for a while, to see if we will repent. Now, if God did not love sinners, would he thus wait, and again and again in his word entreat them to turn from their evil ways ?

Then God shows his love to sinners in another way. That is, by sending his Holy Spirit into their hearts to lead them to the Saviour. We should never go to him of ourselves, because of ourselves we do not love him. We love our own sins and our own ways. Turn again to the Gospel of St. John, find the sixth chapter

and the forty-fourth verse, "No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." It is Christ who says these words. We cannot come unto him of ourselves; and it is because we will not. See a child refusing to come to school, standing perhaps at the gate, and her companions urging her to come in. She does not move. She stands still, as if not a word was said to her-and why? She cannot come, her feet cannot move because her stubborn heart will not let her. So we cannot of ourselves come to Christ because our naughty hearts will not let us. But God draws us to him. See, a kind teacher goes to the gate, puts her arms round the child, urges her, whispers loving words in her ear. child is softened; her heart begins to melt, her feet moves towards the school; she is brought in. The Spirit of God puts the good desire into our hearts. Let us follow it. It will bring us to Christ.

The

If God did not thus love us, and draw us by his Spirit, we should never turn from our sins. Look again in the Gospel of St. John, the fifteenth chapter, and the sixteenth verse. What are our Saviour's words ? "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." No one chooses God first. If we have a good desire towards him, it has been given to us by his Spirit.

And why does Christ say he has chosen his people? That they should "go and bring forth fruit." Now, what fruit can a child bring forth? The first fruit is obedience. Obedience to God's commands, obedience to parents, obedience to masters and teachers. Another fruit is truth in word and deed. Another fruit is

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