you that God is always taking care of us, by night and by day, and that he is always doing us good: and all this we learn in the Bible. Do you remember it?

James. Yes, Sir.

Marten. And what did I tell you that you ought to do for this good God?

James. You told us, Sir, that we ought to love him.

Marten. And if we love him, we ought to try to do every thing that will please him, and that he would like us to do. Do you know, James, what will please God?

James. No, Sir.

Marten. No; we cannot know what will please God, and what he has ordered us to do, without reading God's word, that is, the Bible.

Then Marten asked John a great many questions about the Bible, which I have not time to put down now; and then he made the little boys repeat five times the fifteenth verse of the third chapter of the second Epistle to Timothy.

CHAPTER IV.

"The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good."-Prov. xv. 3.

JAMES and John were walking together the next Sunday afternoon to school; and the weather being fine, they went slowly along, looking first at one thing, and then at another, as children are apt to do. Now their road lay round the master's garden, and in one part of it there hung over the pailing a bough of a fine apple tree, and on this bough there were several beautiful apples, of a fine rose colour, smelling very sweet, and quite fit to gather. "O! what beautiful apples!" said James; "I dare say they are quite ripe."

"Let's get them," answered John; "who'll know?"

"Get them!" repeated James, "why it would be very wicked."

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John. Father would not beat me, if he was to know.

James. But my father would.

John. But he won't know. Besides, we won't get them all. There is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven; and we will only get three: I'll have two, and you shall have one, and who will miss them?-and nobody can see us?

James. Yes, God can see us: he can see at all times.

John. How do you know that?

James. Why, father has told me so very often.

John. Well, I don't care; I don't think he sees us now, so I'll have an apple.

Then John jumped up to reach a little branch, which was rather more out of sight than the other branches, and on it were three fine apples; and he pulled it down, and said, "Look, James! are not these beautiful apples? which will you have?"

Now James was a very wise little boy; for he knew that he loved apples very much, and he thought that if the apples came very near

to him, he should not be able to help getting one of them: so when he saw that John was pulling the bough down, he set off and ran to school as hard as he could run.

Whether John stayed to get the apples or not James did not know, for he very soon followed him into the school; and a few minutes afterwards, Master Marten came in and heard the little boys spell: for he said, he wanted to know how far James was got in his reading, and how long it was likely to be before he would be able to read in the Testament. The boys were very fond of having their lessons heard by Master Marten: for he was not like some little boys, who, when they are hearing other children say their lessons, are very cross, and scold, and order about them as if they were grown men; but he remembered how much trouble it papa and mamma to teach him every day, and so he was very patient with his scholars on a Sun day.

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When the little boys had done spelling, it was time for them to go to church; and when they were come from church, John and James

were called to Master Marten, who was sitting on the bench under the tree in the master's garden, and they were both standing before him, before James knew whether John had taken the apples.

As soon as they were all in their places, Marten said, "I am going to talk to you today a little more about God. God is a spirit; and though we cannot see him, yet he sees and knows all things, and he can do all things. Do you know, James, what is meant by a spirit?"

James. No, Sir.

Marten. I am but a little boy, and so I cannot explain these things well: but then, too, you are very little boys, and can understand very little; but I will try to explain it as well as I can.-You, and I, and all other people, can only be in one place at a time. While we are standing in this garden we cannot be in our own houses, can we?

James. No, Sir.

Marten. But our thoughts can be in a great many places all at the same time, cannot they?