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sprouted from the earth, and trees rose and grew, till tall forests crowned the mountains, and waved on the slopes, while groves of orange, and fig, and citron, and all kinds of delicious fruits, clustered in the valleys. So closed the third day.

"The fourth morning came, and with it came something more grand and beautiful than all before. God said, Let there be light in the firmament.' The clouds grew bright, they parted, they melted away, and there stood the glorious sun, for the first time, shining in the clear blue sky. The whole earth seemed to laugh with gladness. Every little brook sparkled as it ran, and ten thousand flowers bloomed out all at once, and breathed forth their sweetest smells. And as evening came on, and the sun sunk down in the West, the moon beamed like a slender silver bow, in heaven, with one bright star close by her side. Night came too, but not like those other gloomy nights, for all the sky was spangled with stars, like little points of fire.

'The sun rose on the fifth morning over this beautiful and silent world. How beautiful, and how silent! Not a sound, but of the rustling leaves and the murmuring water; not a voice, not a stir of living thing amidst it all.”

66 Mother, I should have thought it was Sunday, if I had beer there.'

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"But God speaks, and the silence is gone. A gush of sudden music breaks from every grove; the trees and the air are all alive with the stir of wings. God has made the birds!. The eagle sits perched upon the lofty crag; the lark soars singing to the sun; the turtle-dove coos to its mate; the swift swallow skims along the stream; humming-birds glance among the flowers. The water, too, is all alive. Great whales are sporting in the sea, and thousands of smaller fishes dart hither and thither, and leap out of the water as if wild with joy. And so the fifth night drew its starry curtain over a world of life and happiness, as well as beauty.

"The sixth day has come. And now, at the command of God, the earth, as well as the air and the water, swarms with life. In the forests range the majestic lion, the elephant, the tiger, the beautiful leopard, the graceful deer; goats spring from height to

height; the fleet horse, with curving neck and flying mane, bounds across the plain; lambs feed in the green valleys. The squirrel chatters and cracks his nuts in the trees; the monkey shows his antic tricks. The little moles and mice are playing about the tree roots; gay lizards bask in the sun; worms, insects, and ten thousand other happy creatures, start into life at the word of the Creator. Ah, it is no silent world now. The motion and the voices of millions of joyful beings fill the air with gladness. And God looked down upon the earth, and saw that it was all very good.

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"But one thing is yet wanting. Of all these happy, living creatures, not one knows who made him; not one can love Him. The children, for whom the great Father has prepared this beautiful home, are not yet made. It is now all ready for their use. 'Then God said, Let us make man.' Two beings, a man and a woman, more beautiful and noble than any other creatures upon the earth, are formed out of the dust. They do not creep upon the ground, but stand upright. They look round on the fair earth, and up to the sky; they listen to the sweet sounds, they smell the flowers, they taste the fruits; and they know that God has made them all. They sing, and their voices swell out sweeter than the birds, for they sing hymns of praise to God. They speak, and God himself comes down and talks with them. These are the children for whom He made the earth. He gives it to them for their own. Yes, this whole earth, with all its plants, and all its living creatures, is given to them for their own. They are to rule over all the fishes of the sea, the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field. Now the creation is finished, and the sixth day closes over the perfect work of God.

"The seventh day is the Sabbath, and there is rest on earth and in heaven!"

It was debated before Agesilaus, whether courage or justice was the greatest virtue.

"There would be no occasion for valor, if all men were just," observed the king.

Original.

HOW SOON SHALL WE BEGIN?

BY REV. S. I. PRIME.

THE question is often asked, how early we may begin to inculcate religious truth on the minds of children. I have just been reading an article in a foreign review, the design of which is to discourage early religious instruction, lest the brain of the child should be unduly excited, and "cerebral disease" produced. The writer argues his case with the zeal of a skeptical physician, who would guard the life of the body at the risk of the soul. Better philosophy would teach that religious truth, imparted with gentleness, will develop the mind in harmony, and exert that soothing and restraining power on the faculties which is the best security against mental disease.

I do not doubt that parents often err in the mode of communicating religious truth to children. Their anxiety about the future condition of their offspring leads them to seek early to awaken in their children the same anxiety for themselves. A párent, believing in the future and eternal misery of the finally impenitent, is necessarily solicitous that his precious children may be saved from the evil to come. He is distressed at the thought that his child may dwell in everlasting burnings, and he earnestly desires to secure him from such fearful danger. A fond mother is filled with anguish, at the thought that her dear child may lie down in devouring fire, and she would cheerfully give her own life a ransom for the soul of one she loves so tenderly. And when to this is added the more important and impressive consideration of the essential wickedness of sin, and its infinite odiousness in the sight of God, how anxious the maternal heart must be that the child may not be left to be an ever-living enemy of the Holy One!

When these reflections have their appropriate weight with parents, they are led to serious effort for their children's early conversion; and the considerations here mentioned are those which often give the type to the instructions which these parents impart.

Children are easily frightened. When alarmed they show their feelings readily. Indiscreet parents sometimes think they have made a great advancement in their children's improvement, when they have roused them by a fear of death and hell. Perhaps they have, but perhaps they have not. There are motives which may be addressed with great propriety to the stout-hearted, hardened sinner, that should never be urged, without great caution, upon the minds of tender children. Our Lord and Saviour would say to the proud and malicious men around him, "Ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" But when he would win the little ones to himself, he would say, "Of such is the kingdom." This is the example that suggests the mode of instruction I would inculcate. It is not well to alarm the youngthe very young. It is well to begin with the dawn of intelligence to impart religious knowledge to the mind. There are precious truths which ought to come with the most gentle and persuasive power to the heart, and these are capable of being comprehended by the child of four.

And much discrimination is required in reference to the peculiar temperament of children. Some will be easily affected by considerations that may be powerless on others. I have seen some children in paroxysms of weeping when others of equal age and equal thoughtfulness, but less nervous, have been unmoved. Exciting children to tears is not always doing them any good. Sometimes it may be doing them an injury. Those who are thus easily affected, especially when they are made restless in the night, by religious teaching, should be tenderly dealt with. The foundation of physical and mental disease, of long years of intense suffering, or perhaps of nervous derangement, fitful melancholy, and even of premature death, may be laid in the indiscreet attempts to bring such children under the dominion of divine truth. The design is good, and the result may be reached without the fearful risk of destroying body, mind, and soul.

The subject is one of great delicacy, and needs to be treated with caution, but I am satisfied there must be attention paid to it. The Christian life is often determined by the direction it takes at the outset. It ought to be a calm, consistent, cheerful life. It

will not be, if the Christian is not well balanced. The character depends much on early influences, moral and physical. And when these are brought to bear on the child, they should be exerted with judgment. What will answer for one, will not answer for another.

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If these thoughts are correct, and the principles here taught are kept in view, we cannot begin too early to teach our children the way of life. They should receive religious impressions with the very first that reach the mind. So far from receiving injury therefrom, they will be benefited even in childhood. They will comprehend divine and saving truth much earlier than the most of parents suppose. Facts are multitudinous in proof of the early sanctification of children. How early, no one can say. Of such, as infants are, is the kingdom of heaven.

Extracted from the Bible History of Prayer.

THE FIRST PRAYER RECORDED IN THE BIBLE.

BY REV. CHARLES A. GOODRICH.

THE first prayer in form, recorded in the Bible, was that of a father in behalf of a child.

Was there design in this? Did God intend to show to parents in all future time, by giving the example of Abraham so early and prominent a place in the Inspired Volume, how parents should feel, and how they should pray for their children? Many parents put forth unwearied effort for the worldly prosperity and advancement of their children, but they seldom or never pray for them. If they could do but one-better, far better, to pray; but both may be consistently combined; yet prayer should have the pre-eminence.

This first prayer asked more than God had offered to bestow. The patriarch did not ask for a reversal of the divine decision. Although he had long cherished the belief that Ishmael was the promised heir, and that the covenant was to descend to him, when informed that Isaac, and not Ishmael, was the divine choice, he

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