us do our best at all times, and leave the rest to God.

Do so, my dear young readers, and all will go well with you.

[To be continued.]

A FATHER.

“TRY AGAIN, DEAR.”

A SWALLOW in the Spring

Came to our house, and underneath the eaves
She tried to make a nest, and there did bring
Wet earth, and straw, and leaves.

Day after day she toil'd

With patient heart, but ere her work was crown'd,
Some sad mishap her anxious labour spoil'd,
And dash'd it to the ground.

She found the ruin wrought;

But not cast down, forth from the place she flew, And with her mate, fresh earth and grasses brought, And built her nest anew.

But scarcely had she placed

The last soft feather in the pretty cell,

When wicked hand, or chance, her work laid waste, And down again it fell.

But still her heart she kept,

And toil'd again; and last night, hearing calls,
I look'd and lo! three little swallows slept
Within the earth-made walls.

What truth, my child, is here!
When difficulties weigh thy spirits down,
Still hope, and try, and try again, my dear!
Take heart, and struggle on.

1

ADDRESSED BY A SHEPHERD TO THE LAMBS OF HIS FLOCK.

PART L

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil."-Jeremiah, xiii. 23.

On the present occasion I intend to address you, my dear young friends, on a single subject, which will lead me to enforce a single duty. That one subject, however, is so universal, that it underlies every other subject that relates to your improvement and happiness,—and that one duty is so important that it forms the very beginning and groundwork of every other. The neglect of the duty I am to point out and enforce, will lead inevitably to evil and misery, while proper attention to it will conduct you as certainly to virture and happiness.

The subject on which I am now to address you is,-The power of habit; and the duty I am to enforce is,-The importance of avoiding and, when required, of overcoming evil

VOL. I.

4

and pernicious habits and of forming habits that are good and useful.

The power of habit cannot be more forcibly expressed, or placed in a clearer or more striking light than in the passage I have chosen as a text. The Divine Being asks of his people by the prophet, as he now asks of each of you by his Word," Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" Your answer must be, what theirs must have been. The skin of the Ethiopian and the spots of the leopard are part of their nature: and they cannot be changed while their nature remains the same. When you have made this admission, which the laws of nature teach you, the Lord himself draws the conclusion, which the analogous laws of moral and spiritual life demand, "Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil."

Before proceeding to illustrate and apply this subject, I may remark, that the word "accustomed" as you will find in the margin of your Bibles, literally means "taught." "Then may ye also do good that are taught to do evil." The word however in the form in which it occurs in this passage, and in some other passages, has the sense of accustomed. You will readily perceive this secondary meaning of the Word when you reflect, that you can acquire very little from mere teaching; you can only do what is of real value by

practising what you are taught. You cannot learn to read or to write by merely being instructed in these useful arts, nor even by seeing others practise them. You can only really learn them, as you must learn every thing else, by your own practise. The rules of art cannot make an artist; they can only direct him how to become one.

But there is another and more important truth arising out of the connection between the primary and secondary meaning of this Word, to which I wish to draw your attention, and for the sake of which, principally, I have alluded to it. The truth to which I wish to draw your attention is this-that God does not blame or condemn you for any evils you may do, except those which have been taught you by others, or which you have learnt yourselves. You are not blamed or condemned for the evils which are done in ignorance; because they are done without thought and without intention. On the other hand you are not blameable for being taught or enticed to do evil; you are only blameable for consenting to it, or for doing it. Neither are you blameable for not doing good if you have not been taught to do it; but you are blameable if you are instructed to do good, and yet leave that good undone. And doing itself, whether evil or good, is only permanent in its effects, in forming the character and

determining the condition, in proportion as it is habitual. One evil or one good action may not indicate the true state of the heart. It is desirable then to know the power of habit, that you may see the great necessity and use of forming your habits while you are yet young; while your minds are yet tender and capable of being bent in the right direction. And while this subject is most interesting to the young it is one which persons of almost all ages may contemplate with advantage.

It is an observation not less true than common, that habit is second nature. Habit makes us, in a great measure, what we are, and what we shall be. Habit does not create ideas and dispositions, but it gives them a determination and fixedness, which makes them the elements of our character, and the arbiters of our condition. It moulds the mind, and indeed the whole life, into a form agreeable to itself, and this it does the more completely in proportion to the ardency with which the mind enters into the pursuit of an object or the practice of a principle.

But this remark, that habit is second nature, if grounded in truth, recognises the existence in us of a nature previous to habit, and the power of habit to form a new or second nature which may take the place of the first. Every human being is now by birth naturally inclined to evil: that inclination