Read the Bible whenever you can; it will tell you how to find salvation, how to live after you have found salvation, and what you can do to show your gratitude to Jesus for saving you. Pray to Jesus at all times; He can hear you in any place. When you are going to His house, ask Him to bless your soul while there, and help the minister to preach. After you have heard the sermon, ask God to help you to remember it, so that it may do you good. Pray to Jesus that your teachers may be blessed, and enabled to teach you things which you do not understand. Pray to Jesus, that your fellow-scholars may be converted, and brought to love His name. Pray to Jesus for your parents; ask Jesus to bless them, keep them, save them, and do them good. Pray to Jesus for your brothers and sisters, that they may know the pleasures of religion, and the preciousness of a Saviour's love. And while you pray, trust Jesus for an answer in His own time. BOYS BURIED ALIVE. OUR young friends have often read accounts of the great rebellion in China. They remember that the leader, Tai-Ping-Wang, had some knowledge of Christianity. He destroyed the idols, circulated parts of the Bible among his followers, and taught them to worship "Shangti," the Christian's God. These warriors gained many victories, but they suffered some defeats. At such times frightful vengeance was taken by the troops of the emperor. On one occasion, the emperor's soldiers entered a town occupied by the followers of Tai-Ping-Wang. All the poor inhabitants were at once murdered, except four hundred young boys, who were led to the commander of the troops. This man, addressing one of these children, said to him "Little wretch, what is your father?" "He is a kinschin," (that) is," a doctor of the second class.) "What God do you worship?" "We have learned to worship Shangti." "Child of the devil! I will teach you to worship Shangti-you shall die!" The little boy and several others threw themselves at the feet of the mandarin, and begged for mercy. It was in vain. The monster ordered that the children should be buried alive. For this purpose they were divided into two parties, and given to two officers. Each officer had two hundred. One of them strictly obeyed this barbarous order. The hands of the children were tied behind their backs, and then they were thrown into a deep ditch, some having their limbs broken by the fall, and the ditch was rapidly filled with earth. The soldiers, with loud shouts of laughter, trampled upon the earth of this tomb, all the while mocking Shangti, who, they said, did not know any better how to defend his worshippers. The two hundred children of the second division were spared. COMING TO JESUS. "IN Jesus' words, 'Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not,' does 'come unto me' mean dying, mamma?" asked a little child-"dying, leaving you, and going away?" "Don't you love and think a great deal about your papa when he is away?" asked her mother. 66 'Yes, mamma; I feel full of papa sometimes, answered Jessie; "I love him so dearly." "It is not necessary to see him and be with him to love him." "No, mamma, for he is in my heart really," said the little girl. "That is what the Lord Jesus means when he asks you to come to Him. It is not to go where He is, in body; but it is to love Him, to have your heart full of Him, that makes Him near to you, and you near to Him. And it is so sweet to come to Him, for He forgives our sins, and takes away our naughty wilfulness, and helps us to correct our faults, and makes us love to do right, and love each other, and every body." "Then I want to come to Jesus; I wasn't quite ready to leave you and papa," whispered the child. "If Jessie finds Jesus, Jessie will be willing to do His will, whatever it may be," said the mother, with a prayer in her heart that hers might be one of the little ones in the kingdom of heaven. THE FOX AND THE HOLE IN THE GARDEN WALL; Or, Painful Recollections the best Legacy bequeathed by Vicious Pleasures. He A FOX Once came near a very fine garden, where he beheld lofty trees laden with fruit, that charmed the eye. Such a beautiful sight, added to his natural greediness, excited in him the desire of possession. He fain would taste the forbidden fruit, but a high wall stood between him and the object of his wishes. went about in search of an entrance, and at last found an opening in the wall; but it was too small for his body. Unable to penetrate, he had recourse to his usual cunning-he fasted three days, and became sufficiently reduced to crawl through the small aperture. Having effected an entrance, he carelessly roved about in this delightful region, making free with its exquisite produce, and feasting on its most rare and luscious fruits. He stayed for some time, and glutted his appetite, when the thought struck him that it was possible he might be observed; and, in that case, he should pay dearly for the enjoyed pleasure. He therefore retired to the place where he entered, and attempted to get out; but, to his great consternation, he found his endeavours vain. He had by indulgence grown so fat and plump, that the same space would no more admit him. "I am in a fine predicament," said he to himself; suppose the 66 master of the garden were now to come, and call me to account, what would become of me? I see my only chance to escape is to fast, and half starve myself.' He did so with great reluctance. After suffering hunger for three days, he with difficulty made his escape. As soon as he was out of danger, he took a farewell view of the garden, the scene of his delight and trouble, and thus addressed it : "Garden! garden! thou art, indeed, charming and delightful-thy fruits are delicious and exquisite; but of what benefit art thou to me? What have I now for all my labour and cunning? Am I not as lean as I was before?"-Hebrew Tales. INVITATION TO SUNDAY SCHOOL. Will you, will you, will you, will you We know, when Jesus was on earth And taught us how we could become He said that He should know We should love all below. To do to others as I would That they should do to me, I know I should not steal, nor use Will you, &c. And this plain rule forbids me quite The Fragment Basket. COMMENTARY ON THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. AT the examination of the children of the Windsor Infant School, a little boy was asked to explain his idea of " Bearing false witness against your neighbour." After hesitating, he said it was "telling lies;" on which the worthy and reverend examiner said, "That is not exactly an answer. What do you say addressing a little girl who stood next, when she immediately replied, "It was when nobody did nothing, and somebody went and told of it." "Quite right," said the examiner, amid irrepressible roars of laughter, in which he could not help joining, the gravity of the whole proceeding being completely upset. SEEKING FORGIVENESS. How many times have I gone mourning through the day for some hasty outburst of anger, and dared not lift my voice to God in prayer for forgiveness and peace of mind. I would feel that I had sinned, and had no longer an interest at the throne of grace. And yet, as the day wore away, and whatever had caused those feelings of unhappiness had somewhat faded from memory, I have gone to God at last in real penitence and contrition, and confessed my sins and found mercy. But how much better would it have been, had I done then as my afterexperience has taught me to do-to go to God at once, and be relieved of my burden. THE NEEDLE. Boys sometimes think it takes a great deal of drilling to make them men. They wish they could get out of the shackles. Perhaps it does. But how many things do you suppose have to be done to a bit of steel wire, before it makes that simple little tool called a needle, and puts it into the market? Can you guess? Seventy; yes, seventy processes are necessary in the manufacture of a needle. Can you wonder, then, that "in making a man of you," you are subjected to a great many hard rubs? It is this drilling which strengthens, and weighs, and tempers, and polishes you for manly work in the world. THE HIDING-PLACE. 66 It is nature that teacheth a wise man in fear to hide himself, but grace and faith doth teach him where. Fools care not where they hide their heads. But where shall a wise man hide himself when he feareth a plague coming? Where should a frighted child hide its head, but in the bosom of his loving father? Where a Christian, but under the shadow of the wings of Christ, his Saviour? Come, my people," saith God in the prophet, enter into thy chamber, hide thyself." But because we are in danger like chased birds, like doves that seek and cannot see the resting holes that are right before them, therefore our Saviour giveth His disciples these encouragements beforehand, that fear might never So amaze them, but that always they might remember that whatsoever evils at any time did beset them, to Him they should still repair for comfort, counsel, and succour. For their assurance whereof His "peace He gave them, His peace He left unto them; not such peace as the world offereth," by whom His name is never so much pretended as when deepest treachery is meant; but "peace which passeth all understanding;' peace that bringeth with it all happiness; peace that continueth for ever and ever with them that have it.-Hooker. THE VALUE OF PRAYER. Prayer is a haven to the shipwrecked man, an anchor to them that are sinking in the waves, a staff to the limbs that totter, a mine of jewels to the poor, a healer of diseases, and a guardian of health. Prayer at once secures the continuance of our blessings, and dissipates the cloud of our calamities. blessed prayer! thou art the unwearied conqueror of human woes, the firm foundation of human happiness, the source of ever-enduring joy, the mother of philosophy. The man who can pray truly, though languishing in extremest indigence, is richer than all beside; whilst the wretch who never bowed the knee, though proudly seated as monarch of all nations, is of all men the most destitute.-Chrysostom. PAYING FOR A BIBLE. A missionary lodged one night in the house of a gentleman among the mountains of Kerry, in Ireland. In the morning, as he stood beside his host, looking over the wild and beautiful country, they saw a shepherd tending some sheep at a little distance. The gentleman pointed him out to the missionary. "There is Peter," said he, "one of the shrewdest men that we have in the district." Then the missionary went up to him, entered into conversation, and gave him a tract in Irish. A few weeks after, he and Peter met again. "I've swallowed the tract," said the latter. "If I give you an Irish Bible, will you swallow that?" "I won't be indebted for it, but I'll buy it." "Well, I've got two or three." "The price I ask is this: when God shall strike the light and love of it in your heart, that you will teach six men like yourself to love the Bible." Nearly a hundred years ago, Voltaire resided at Geneva. One day he said to some friends, in a boastful, sneering tone: "Before the beginning of the 19th century, Christianity will have disappeared from the earth!" Well! in that same house, in that same room where these impious words were spoken, what think you there is to-day? A large deposit of Bibles! The sacred books fill the house from the floor to the ceiling! So much for Voltaire's prediction! THE USE OF STARS. One might think the atmosphere was made transparent with this design, to give man, in the heavenly bodies, the perpetual presence of the sublime.-Emerson. BEYOND the smiling and the weeping, I shall be soon; Beyond the waking and the sleeping, Love, rest, and home! Lord, tarry not, but come. Beyond the blooming and the fading, I shall be soon; Beyond the shining and the shading, Love, rest, and home! Lord, tarry not, but come. Beyond the rising and the setting, Beyond the calming and the fretting, Love, rest, and home! Lord, tarry not, but come. Beyond the parting and the meeting, I shall be soon; Beyond the farewell and the greeting, Beyond the pulse's fever beating, I shall be soon. Love, rest, and home! Lord, tarry not, but come. Beyond the frost-chain and the fever, I shall be soon; Beyond the rock-waste and the river, Beyond the ever and the never, I shall be soon. Love, rest, and home! Sweet home! Lord, tarry not, but come. REV. DR. BONAR. GOD'S SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE. Forsake me not, my God! Take not thy Spirit from me; And suffer not the might Of sin to overcome me. A father pitieth The children he begot; My Father, pity me; My God, forsake me not! Forsake me not, my God! Forsake me not, my God! Please thee in all well-doing; Forsake me not, my God! I would be thine for ever: Confirm me mightily In every right endeavour. And when my hour has come, Cleansed from all stain and spot Of sin, receive my soul; My God, forsake me not! |