has hidden here and there for us. We shall come upon them unawares, as Hagar did, when "the Lord opened her eyes and she saw a well of water."

Some of us may have in our stocking a sealed message which one day this year we shall have to read—a call from the heavenly land, and a title-deed to the inheritance unfading. If so, we shall have clearer light thrown on God's preparations for His people; we shall read clearly the reason of many things which seemed dark.

Dear children, you may not be able to gather all the lessons to be read from this parable, but if you believe that your heavenly Father has prepared your path and your lot, and if you keep watching God's hand in everything, you will come upon wonderful surprises as you go along, and you will have what all your friends have already wished you, and asked God to give you

A very Happy New Year.

Seeking what path Thou'dst have me
take,

What heart to cheer and bless,
Even as I would ask of Thee

For comfort in distress,

Content to share in others' joys;
And if this may not be,

Still happy that my chequered lot
Was chosen, Lord, by Thee."

RAGGED CHILDREN AND WHAT THEY LEARN.

LAST month a paper came before the Birds' Nest Committee recommending for admission a child of twelve years old, who was in circumstances of great destitution.

On going to inquire into the case, I found her in the Luke-street Ragged-school, her face and limbs worn and white from starvation, a single ragged petticoat and jacket her only covering. She said her father had left for America four years ago. Her mother gained a living by picking up bits of coal on he quays and selling it. She had

two little sisters and a brother in the Infant-school, whom she called. Such starved looking little creatures! the youngest disfigured and stunted in growth from perpetual hunger.

I told Kate we would take her into the Birds' Nest. A momentary beam of joy lighted up her pale face, then tears filled her eyes, and she said, "I shall have food and clothes, but these they'll have nothing till to-morrow morning."

I asked how it was they had not gone to the poor-house. Kate shook her head, "My mother says we can keep from wicked company at home, however poor we are, but she could not keep us in the poor-house, and the breakfast every morning in the school is such a good thing we can almost live on that."

Another little girl, with a sweet modest face, standing near, said she was her widowed mother's only child; they lived on the proceeds of their needle-work. "And do you get

much?" I asked. "Only one shirt this week, ma'am ; we shall get sixpence for it on Thursday, but it's a long time."

There are dozens of children in the Luke-street schools as poor as these, half living on the daily meal. Wan, pinched features, but bright intellects, quick to learn and carry home the truths taught them-not in parrot fashion, but understanding and applying them to their own sore needs. One day, asking these little ones for texts on different subjects, which they gave very quickly, I said, "Do you know any texts about heaven?" A poor little fellow, one of the most miserable-looking there, put out his hand to show he knew one-" Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," he said. "Which word is it that means heaven?" I asked. REST," he said, "heaven What a lesson this for a poor little weary one to learn.

is rest."

"A pilgrim and a stranger,
I journey here below;
Far distant is my country,
The home to which I go.
HERE I must toil and travail,
Oft weary and opprest;
But THERE my God shall lead me
To everlasting REST."

In this Luke-street Infants' school there are generally 100 children, but just now there is a great deal of illness amongst them. Many of our little ones are lying on little heaps of straw in the damp dark cellars about Townsend-street. No blankets to cover them-no nice soft flannel to put on the little chests distracted with coughing. We should like to have a sick fund connected with the school, but it is more than we can do to provide the daily breakfast for those who can come and eat it. Sometimes we think we shall have to stop giving it, for money fails; but then we think of Christ's words, "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little