NDER the green trees

Just over the way

Jack in the pulpit
Preaches to-day ;
Squirrel and song sparrow,
High on their perch,
Hear the sweet lily bells
Ringing to church.

BY J. G. WHITTIER.

Come hear what his reverence

Rises to say,

In his queer little pulpit,
This fine Sabbath-day.
Fair is the canopy

Over him seen,
Painted by nature's hand,
Black, brown, and green;
Green is his pulpit,

Green are his bands; In this queer little pulpit The little priest stands.

In black and gold velvet

So gorgeous to see
Comes with his bass voice
The chorister bee;
Green fingers playing
Unseen on wind lyres,
Bird voices singing—
These are his choirs;
The violets are deacons,

I know by this sign—
The cups that they carry
Are purple with wine.
The columbines bravely
As sentinels stand
On the look-out, with

All their red trumpets in hand.

Meek-faced anemones Drooping and sad;

Great yellow violets
Smiling out glad;
Buttercups' faces

Beaming and bright;
Clovers with bonnets,

Some red, some white; Daisies, their fingers

Half clasped in prayer; Dandelions, proud of

The gold of their hair;
Innocents, children,
Guileless and frail,
Their meek little faces
Upturned and pale;
Wild wood geraniums
All in their best,
Languidly leaning

In purple gauze dressed; All are assembled

This sweet Sabbath-day To hear what the priest

In his pulpit will say.

Grown up folks who worship In churches man-builded, to-day, We heard not the preacher Expound or discuss; We looked at the people And they looked at us ; We saw all their dresses,

Their colours and shapes, The trim of their bonnets, The cut of their capes; We heard the wind organ, The bee and the bird, But of Jack in the Pulpit We heard not a word.

ET me show you what injury may be done by lying.

There was a large river, across which several dams were built within the distance of a few miles. These dams were built to form as many ponds, and carry on as many mills. But during a severe storm, which greatly swelled the river, the upper dam was carried away. This brought the flood with so much pressure on the second dam that that went too; and so with all the rest, one after another. If the first dam had been strong enough to resist the pressure of the current, none of the others would have given way.

So it is with falsehood, and other sins. If we stop the first lie, we stop all the rest. If we are not disobedient the first time, we never shall be disobedient. If we do not use the first profane word, we never shall use the second. It is consenting to the first sin that does all the mischief.

Some time since, a youth about fifteen years of age, whose name was James, came to this city to reside. He was employed as a clerk in a store. He was faithful at first, and his employer liked him very much, and treated him with great confidence. One day he stepped into the store of a young man whose acquaintance he had formed.

He was offered a glass of wine. He hesitated, but finally yielded, and drank it. On the following day, this young man called in at the store where James was

employed. His employer was not in at the time. James thought he must return the kindness of his friend on the previous day, and accordingly he treated him to a glass of wine. But, in drawing the liquor, he did not close the stop-cock securely, and it was left running a little. As his employer passed through the store, he discovered it.

"Have you been at this barrel, James?" he asked.

The youth hesitated, as if there was a struggle between right and wrong, but he finally replied, "No, sir."

Here was the first dam carried away. We shall see how the others speedily followed.

His employer looked doubtful, but said

no more.

The next day the young man came in again, and said to the owner of the storehouse, "Will you sell me a barrel of wine such as James gave me yesterday?"

The gentleman gave a searching look at James, who felt almost ready to sink into the earth. He took the first opportunity to see the young man, and asked him to tell his employer that he drew the wine. himself.

Here was another dam gone. The young man promised to do so, if he would treat him to an oyster-supper. James agreed. Both parties fulfilled the agreement.

But James had no money of his own,

and

hence he took some from the drawer to pay for the supper. Here was another dam

gone. After the oyster-supper, he was invited to gamble. At first he declined; but then, thinking he might make as much money as he had taken from his employer, and thus be able to replace it, he yielded. He played and lost. But still, supposing he might win, he continued to take money from the store, until it was missed. Seeing that he was likely to be detected, he resolved one night that he would take fifty pounds that were in the desk, and endeavour to win enough to replace all he had taken from his employer.

He entered the

At midnight he arose. office, took the fifty pounds, and went to the gambling-house, where he lost the whole. Now he was desperate. What could he do? He did this. Knowing that his employer had money in the bank, he forged a cheque in his name. He hastened to the bank and presented it. It was discovered to be a forgery. He was taken up, sent to prison, and transported! Thus all the dams were swept away.

And all this followed from that first lie. If James had told the truth then, the first dam would have been protected, and all the others saved.

Or rather tires you to carry that up such a hill, Johnny."

"Yes it does, but, you see, the water is not good up our way, and mother likes a drink from the spring at the burnside. She is not very strong, and she says it does her good, and I'm glad to take a pailful up with me when going home from my work. It is rather a stiff pull, but I manage it. I find it easier now than at first; and when I feel it heavy, I think how much mother will be pleased, and how refreshing it will be to her, and that helps me up wonderfully."

"Well done, Johnny. Keep you always the same mind. Your mother deserves more of you than that, and all you have to do for her will be greatly lightened by love. She will have to depend upon you, I fear, for most of her comfort, and you may have a good deal of uphill workmuch more uphill and harder than this; but never mind, hold on, you will be the happier as you succeed.'

Johnny has had a good deal of uphill since then, but he always put a stout heart

to it, and any labour for his mother he never grudged. By his uphill work for her he has been fitted for uphill work for himself, and his advice to you now would be, "Never be afraid of uphill." It is a little harder, but the exercise is good, and will do you good. There are some of you at school. Lessons are sometimes uphill work, but you will never be scholars if you shrink from them-never. You will find them just so much the easier the more you set yourselves to overcome the difficulties. Some of you are at trades, you will meet with difficulties in learning these. In order to be good tradesmen you must never flinch from uphill work. Hard work should never frighten anyone. If it do, he is never likely to get to the top of the hill, as a tradesman or anything else. All success has had more or less uphill in it, and some a very great deal, especially at first. Never fear to face the hill, and with strong courage meet every obstacle. Above all, use every endeavour to abstain from those vices of intemperance which are the ruin of so many thousands of our youth. Avoid the smallest

beginning; it is the first yielding to temptation which often mars a life. With some it is comparatively easy to grow up into habits of sobriety and usefulness; but with others it is a matter of much difficulty. There are many difficulties of custom, and fashion, and prejudice, and companionship to overcome. It would gladden many a mother's heart if her boy were an abstainer, far more than it refreshed Johnny's mother to drink the water from the spring. And there would be the greater gladness if she saw him keeping firm notwithstanding what he had to contend against-though his progress should be uphill.

In doing battle with this great enemy, we have uphill work, even now, though the opposition is lessening. We are opposed by many who, apart from their connection with the traffic, are all that can be desired.

Such men as these would have us believe the trade in intoxicating drink to be perfectly consistent, and they continue to carry it on, although it is so evil; and so long as such large profits can be got by making and selling it, and so long as such rents can be got for the places of sale, we cannot but have uphill work. But that should not discourage us, for all good work has been uphill work. We believe that we are seeking in the temperance movement the good of man and the glory of God; and so we can press on uphill, with the assurance, in the end, of surmounting all difficulties. Love to God and man will make the uphill work more easy as we go on, and will yield more satisfaction as we advance towards full success. "Be not weary in well-doing, for in due season ye shall reap, if ye faint not."

AKE goodness, with the average in

tellectual power, and compare it with mere greatness of intellect and social standing, and it is far the nobler quality; and if God should offer me one of them, I would not hesitate which to choose. No, the greatest intellect which God ever bestowed I would not touch if I were bid to choose between that and the goodness of an average woman. I would scorn it and say, Give it to Lucifer; give me the better gift. When I say goodness is greater than greatness, I mean to say, it gives a deeper and serener joy in the private heart, joins men more tenderly to one another, and more earnestly to God. I honour intellect, reason, and understanding. I wish we took ten times more pains to cultivate them than we do. I honour greatness of mind-great reason, which intuitively sees truths, great laws, and the like; great understanding, which learns special laws and works in

I once coveted

details; the understanding that masters things for use and beauty; that can marshal millions of men into an organisation that shall last for centuries. such power, and am not wholly free from the madness of it yet: I see its use. I hope I am not ignorant of the joys of science and letters; I am not of the pursuit of these. I bow reverently before the men of genius. and sit gladly at their feet. But the man who sees justice and does it, who knows love and lives it, who has a great faith and trusts in God-let him have a mind quite inferior, and culture quite as little, I must yet honour and reverence that man far more than he who has the greatest power of intellect. I know that knowledge is power, and reverence it; but justice is a higher power, and love is a manlier power, and religion is a diviner power, each greater than even the mightiest mind.--Theodore Parker.