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HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OF IT. [LESS. LXXXIX.

ping in-to a hole be-tween the branch-es. "Ha!" thought he, "what a nice pres-ent a nest of young squir-rels will be to my lit-tle mas-ter; I'll try if I can get it." Up-on this he set down his bas-ket in the road, and be-gan to climb up the tree. He had half as-cend-ed, when casting a look at his bas-ket, he saw a dog with his nose in it, fer-ret-ing out the piece of kid's flesh. He made all pos-si-ble speed down, but the dog was too quick for him, and ran off with the meat in his mouth. Rob-in-et looked after him, "Well," said he, "then I must be con-tent-ed with plain soup-and no bad thing either."

He trav-elled on, and came to a lit-tle pub-lic-house by the road-side, where an ac-quaint-ance of his was sit-ting on a bench drink-ing. He in-vi-ted Rob-in-et to take a draught. Rob-in-et seat-ed him-self by his friend, and set his bas-ket on the bench close by him. A tame ra-ven which was kept at the house came sli-ly be-hind him, and perch-ing on the bas-ket, stole away the bag in which the meal was tied up, and hopped off with it to his hole. Rob-in-et did not per-ceive the theft till he had got on his way a-gain. He re-turned to search for his bag, but could hear no ti-dings of it. "Well," said he, "my soup will be the thin-ner, but I will boil a slice of bread with it, and that will do it some good at least."

He went on a-gain, and ar-rived at a lit-tle brook, over which was laid a nar-row plank. A young wom-an com-ing up to cross it at the same time, Rob-in-et gallant-ly of-fered his hand. As soon as she had reached the mid-dle, either through fear or sport she shrieked out, and cried she was fal-ling; Rob-in-et has-ten-ing to sup-port her with his other hand, let his bas-ket drop in-to the stream. As soon as she was safe o-ver, he jumped in and re-cov-ered it, but when he took it out, he

per-ceived that all the salt was melt-ed, and the pep-per washed a-way. Noth-ing was now left but the on-ions. "Well!" said Rob-in-et, "then I must sup to-night up-on roast-ed on-ions and bar-ley bread. Last night I had the bread a-lone. To-mor-row morn-ing it will not sig-ni-fy what I had." So say-ing he trudged on sing-ing gai-ly as be-fore." Evenings at Home."

LESSON XC.-OBERLIN.

Not quite a hun-dred years ago, a high val-ley in the Vos-ges moun-tains, called the Ban de la Roche, was inhab-it-ed by a poor and i-so-la-ted peo-ple, who, though liv-ing in the heart of the French prov-ince of Al-sace, and scarce-ly a doz-en leagues from Stras-burg, were yet al-most in a state of bar-ba-rism. Their houses were mis-e-ra-ble cab-ins, their chil-dren grew up with scarce-ly any in-struc-tion. The land was as un-prom-is-ing as its in-hab-it-ants; on the moun-tain side it was so steep, as to threat-en ev-e-ry mo-ment to slide down; in the plain, in-un-da-ted with wa-ters, which, hav-ing no prop-er bed, spread in all di-rec-tions. Nor was there much to culti-vate; the soil was too sto-ny, and the cli-mate too cold, to grow vines, or even wheat, with much suc-cess; and the po-ta-to, which had been in-tro-duced in-to the country du-ring the great fam-ine in 1709, had ut-ter-ly de-gen-e-ra-ted, be-cause no pains had been ta-ken to im-prove it. Then there were no prac-ti-ca-ble roads ei-ther com-mu-ni-ca-ting with Stras-burg, or even lead-ing from one vil-lage to an-oth-er, and where there are no roads, i-de-as are as sta-tion-a-ry as men and car-ria-ges, and ev-er-y one con-tin-ues in his ig-no-rance. As for trade and man-u-fac-tures, they did not ex-ist. You will al-rea-dy have guessed that the Bi-ble was lit-tle

known in this des-o-late re-gion; for the Bi-ble does not per-mit those who lis-ten to it, to re-main in such a condi-tion. It appears to con-cern it-self only a-bout re-li-gi-on, but it re-al-ly em-bra-ces e-ver-y-thing; instruc-tion, schools, trade, com-merce, ag-ri-cul-ture, civil-i-za-tion, com-fort; so that the first thing to be done, when it is de-sired to keep peo-ple in ig-no-rance, is to pre-vent them from read-ing the Bi-ble-just as wick-ed men put out the light, when they are go-ing to com-mit á crime.

In-to this lit-tle ter-ri-to-ry, where rude-ness, ig-norance, pov-er-ty, and un-be-lief, seemed to have es-tablished them-selves as in an is-land of the South Sea, or among a tribe of Hot-ten-tots, came one day, in the year 1767, a young pas-tor, twen-ty-seven years of age, named O-ber-lin, who had ac-cept-ed this hum-ble po-si-tion be-cause no one else was wil-ling to do so. A pi-ous and be-nev-o-lent heart anx-ious to do good, an o-pen and cul-ti-va-ted mind to de-vise the best meth-ods, and a per-se-ve-ring will to car-ry them in-to prac-tice ; these are three things es-sen-ti-al to use-ful-ness, and O-ber-lin pos-sessed them all in a rare de-gree. He set to work im-me-di-ate-ly, stri-ving to do two things, to re-new the peo-ple by the Gos-pel, and the coun-try by civ-il-i-za-tion; thus fol-low-ing the ex-am-ple of our Lord Je-sus Christ, who dis-pensed at once tem-po-ral and spi-rit-u-al bles-sings. On the Sun-days he preached the Gos-pel, and by pro-claim-ing the love of our heav-en-ly Father, who" so loved the world that He gave His only be-got-ten Son, that who-so-ev-er be-liev-eth in Him should not per-ish, but have ev-er-last-ing life," he melt-ed the hard-est hearts, and made his pa-rish-ion-ers his friends, whilst he made them friends of Je-sus Christ. He

even called them his children, and they called him their fath-er. Then, du-ring the week, he set out at their head, pick-axe on shoul-der, dug chan-nels to re-ceive the wa-ters, raised walls to sup-port the soil, opened highways be-tween the vil-la-ges, and con-struct-ed a road and a bridge to com-mu-ni-cate with Stras-burg. This was not all. He im-port-ed po-ta-toes from Ger-ma-ny to re-new the spe-cies, and flax seed from Ri-ga in Rus-sia to nat-u-ral-ize it in the Ban de la Roche; he es-tablished a sav-ings' bank, en-cou-raged in-dus-try, sent at his own ex-pense in-tel-li-gent youths to Stras-burg, to learn to be-come ma-sons, car-pen-ters, gla-ziers, far-ri-ers, and wheel-wrights; in-tro-duced cot-ton spin-ning; and by his in-flu-ence, which spread wide-ly, at-tract-ed into the dis-trict the fam-i-ly of Le Grand, of Basle, who found-ed a large rib-bon fac-to-ry, and be-came in tem-po-ral and spi-rit-u-al things a rich bles-sing to the whole coun-try. After a min-is-try of six-ty years he fell asleep, at the age of eighty-six, in the midst of his weep-ing fam-i-ly, leav-ing a Christ-ian peo-ple where he had found hea-thens, and a pros-per-ous coun-try in place of a rude and sav-age one.

Do not think that O-ber-lin did all this with-out op-posi-tion; you know what his Mas-ter and ours has said, “If an-y man will come after me, let him de-ny him-self and take up his cross and fol-low me." O-ber-lin found the truth of this, as oth-ers have done; but he tried to "o-vercome evil with good," and he suc-ceed-ed. One day he was se-cret-ly warned that some peas-ants, op-posed to the Gos-pel and to his in-struc-tions, had re-solved to sur-prise him in a lone-ly place, and to ill-treat him, in or-der to de-ter him from car-ry-ing on his re-forms. A Sun-day was fixed up-on for the ex-e-cu-tion of the scheme. On this day O-ber-lin took for his text the

words of our Sav-iour, "Re-sist not evil, but who-so-ev-er shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the oth-er al-so." After the ser-vice, those who were in the plot as-sem-bled at the house of one of their num-ber to pre-pare for their deed, when sud-den-ly the door o-pened, and O-ber-lin en-tered a-lone. "My friends," he said, "here I am; I know your pur-pose. You wish to punish me; doubt-less, be-cause you think me de-serv-ing of pun-ish-ment. Well, if I have been dis-o-be-di-ent to the truth which I preach to you, pun-ish me; I would rath-er sur-ren-der my-self to you, than that you should be guil-ty of the mean-ness of ly-ing in wait." What do you think these bad men did? They en-treat-ed his par-don, and from that mo-ment they strove to ef-face the mem-o-ry of their crime by do-ing all they could to pro-mote his be-nev-o-lent ob-jects.

Here is a man who did the work pre-pared for him by God, and for which God had pre-pared him. For who can think that O-ber-lin could have done bet-ter elsewhere than in the Ban de la Roche, or that any oth-er per-son could have done his work bet-ter than he did? Ask his chil-dren, who still show to stran-gers with af-fection-ate pride the tomb of their good pas-tor, if he was not a-ble to say at his death, "I have fin-ished the work which Thou gavest me to do."-A. Monod.

LESSON XCI.-THE PEACH.

A farm-er brought to his chil-dren five beau-ti-ful peach-es. They saw this fruit for the first time, and they were en-chant-ed with the love-ly peach-es with ro-sy cheeks and vel-vet down. The fath-er gave one to each of his four children, and the fifth to his wife. In the

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