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are Christ's at his coming." "Never let us forget then to thank that blessed Saviour who has redeemed us from the power of death, and brought to light immortality and eternal life."

By this time they had reached the garden gate; and while the children admired the little hop-dog, Mrs. M-fetched a nice piece of cake for Mary; and Mr. M-- gave her a bunch of grapes to carry to her sick friend in the hop-ground.

"May we keep the little hop-dog, papa?" said the children. 66 No, my dears; it belongs to Mary, and I dare say she will leave it safe in the field to make its chrysalis."

Mary offered to leave it if the young ladies wished to have it; but as they had watched one caterpillar make its chrysalis, Mr. M▬▬ thought it better to let it go back to its own home. As soon as Mary had eaten her dinner she gave a bit of her cake to her little brother and sister, and carried her own share to Esther, with the grapes from the vicar; and she showed her the hop-dog, and told her all that the vicar had said about it. Mary was sorry when the last day of hopping came, and yet that last evening was the pleasantest and merriest of all. Mrs. M invited all the children who had been working in Farmer Brown's hop-ground to a teadrinking in the barn, and as they left off at noon they were able to go home and make themselves clean and comfortable before they came. They had a good game of play in the field, and then tea and bread and butter and plum-cake, and then another game of play. Mr. M-- then called them all into his garden, where he had put a table with a large microscope on it; and he showed them many curious things in it. Mary was standing behind the rest, but the vicar called her, and bid her look through the little glass, and there she saw her little hop-dog, only it was the size of the largest caterpillar she ever saw, and the white hairs looked more like feathers; she could see too how beautifully the legs and feet were formed, and admired it more and more. The vicar had found a hop-dog that morning

in his garden, and thought Mary would be pleased to see it magnified, and would understand still better this wonderful work of God.

The vicar explained to the children that Mrs. M-had given them this treat after the hopping because he had been so pleased with their quiet and orderly behaviour in the hop-ground. This good conduct was the best proof that they profited by what they learnt at school. To be good, and industrious, and obedient, and ready to help one another, was of far more consequence than the reading, writing, or spelling, though they were all very useful in their way; and he hoped they would be quite as careful to practise at home the lessons they learnt at school, as when they were under his eye or that of the schoolmistress.

"Remember, my children," he concluded, "that it is God whom you must love and serve, and his eye is always over you. When you lie down, and when you rise up-when you are at work, or when you are at playHe is always guarding you and watching over you. He sees all you do, hears all you say, and knows all you think. Be careful then to live as in his presence.

EXTRACT FROM MY FAMILY BIBLE.

MARK xiv. 1-9.

E. A.

HERE, my dear family, you have the wicked chief priests and scribes doing what they could to bring about the death of our Lord, and a woman that loved Jesus, doing "what she could" to show her love. You are bound by the strongest ties of gratitude to honour Christ. Without his death and righteousness you are utterly without hope. Sinners cannot please God, and the heart and life of every child of man prove that he is a sinner, and that, if the gospel of Christ be true, the debt to Christ on the part of the whole human race is such, that no offering, however expensive and great, can be too much for a sinner to make to Him, "who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with

God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." (Phil. ii. 6-8.)

If this be true, I repeat it, where is the offering that can be too great for man to offer? The mystery of godliness, "God manifest in the flesh," stands upon evidence that nothing can shake. It is true, amazingly true, that the Maker of the universe did do that for sinners which the Apostle states above. Would to God that you and I thought more of this fact, and then, surely, our offerings of obedient faith would not be so scanty. But we must, if we do believe the doctrine of a Divine Saviour in our nature dying upon the disgraceful cross, we must indeed do what we can for his honour and glory in our own persons, and also towards his brethren in the flesh. This must be one offering. We must also be as holy and as active for the good of others as we can be, and this from love and honour to Jesus. To this end we must pray that God the Holy Ghost may take possession of our souls, and form them for Himself, for He is equally the Spirit of God the Father and of God the Son. We must read and meditate upon the Scriptures, praying to become more and more certain that they are the expressed will of God, and that they contain a true statement of the way to eternal life in the declaration of Christ the God man Himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." Then we shall feel that we have cause for love and gratitude, such as can never be removed, but which must grow stronger as we become the better acquainted with the helplessness of our own condition as sinners, by nature and deed, and also with God's amazing love. This cause will and must produce the effects of personal holiness, and an active service of our Divine and human Redeemer, to whom with God the Father, and God the Holy Ghost, three blessed persons in one mysterious but true Godhead, be glory eternal, from all in heaven and in earth. A LAYMAN.

THE RECTOR'S DAUGHTER AND NANCY FOOT.

EPHES. iv. 31, 32.

"Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."

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As Miss Owen crossed the village green, a little girl ran up to her, and with a curtsey asked, "Please, ma'am, will you come to mother? she wants to speak a word to you.' The child's mother was lame, and therefore could not come herself to speak to the young lady. "What is it you want with me, Nancy Foot?" asked Miss Owen, as she entered the cottage.

N. F. Why, miss, I hear that Mrs. Dawes has been speaking ill of me to you again. I do wish that woman's tongue was cut out; she can't let one of her neighbours alone.

Miss O. Hush! pray do not be so violent; you need not be afraid of Dawes's, or any of your neighbour's reports, if they are not true. I never act upon them until I have heard both sides of a story-I had intended calling upon you by and by.

N. F. Thank you, miss; I am sorry I spoke so as to offend you.

Miss O. And so am I, my good woman; because it offends God, and injures yourself. Harsh words come from harsh feelings, and lead to revenge; and you know that we are told in the Bible not to give way to anger, nor to avenge ourselves.

N. F. True, ma'am; but I hope allowance will be made-for who can help being vexed with such an illnatured, busybody of a neighbour as that Dawes?

Miss O. It is, indeed, to be hoped that allowance will be made for our sins of infirmity; but we have no reason to hope it for presumptuous sins. If your child does something wrong from thoughtlessness, you do not punish her so severely as you would do were she to do wrong on purpose.

N. F. You have a way, miss, of putting things so plain. I see, if the child would be without excuse, so

should I. God pity me, I think I am a worse sinner than I used to be.

Miss O. I would hope not; but from knowing better what sin is, you think and feel more of it. When I first talked to you about your duty as a Christian, of being meek and patient, you appeared never to have given it a thought-but now you see your conduct in a different light. If a room is dark, we do not notice the dust and cobwebs, till we bring in a candle, and then its dirt is seen; so it is with our hearts. They need the lamp of God's word, and the light of the Holy Spirit, to make their impurity visible-but, like the dark room, the dust and cobwebs were equally there before the light was brought in, though we did not see them. Let this encourage you. It is not, I trust, that you are more sinful, but only that you are more aware of your sinful

ness.

N. F. Thank you, miss, it is kind of you to think so. I hope it is really the case; but it makes me out of heart to find how much I have to undo, as well as do, before I can be what I ought to be, and what I really do wish to be, since you have been so kind as to come and visit me. But as you do not sit down, may be you are in a hurry, and I had better say what I have to say at once.

Miss O. I am rather in haste, but will readily listen to what you have to tell me.

N. F. Well, ma'am, it is about the pension, as it is called by The speaker checked herself, and only said -some people. What she told you was partly true and partly false.

Miss O. So I suppose; that is mostly the case with ill-natured stories.

N. F. Last year, miss, I had five shillings a week for my leg. You know, ma'am, I got the injury by a kick of a vicious horse that was let loose on the green.

Miss O. So I heard. Who was it that allowed you the five shillings?

N. F. A rich lady, who was on a visit to Squire Bolton; she saw the accident, and took it quite to heart, like. But just before Christmas the lady went away to

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