to our Creator. And His blood, thus shed for us, is able to take away the sin of our first parents, if we believe in Him as our Saviour, and pray to Him to cleanse us from all evil.

I will not say any more on this subjeet at present, lest I should confuse your ideas, instead of giving any light to your minds. It is a truth which will only reach the heart, as it is made known to us by Him who teaches as man never taught; but you will all, I trust, agree that we ought to love One who did all this for us sinners and many of you, I should hope, would wish to prove your gratitude; which you may easily do, for we read, in the New Testament, which contains an account of all the things that Jesus Christ did and commanded while on earth, that one day, while talking with his disciples, he said, "He that loveth me will keep my words, and my Father will love him." So that by trying to be good children, you will, young as you may be, shew that you wish to be disciples of that Jesus who gave up His life for

you.

I need not here tell you much of what our Saviour did when He was upon earth; for I hope you will take a pleasure in

reading for yourselves in that good book, which contains so true an account of all the events which took place both before, and for some time after the Christian era, which means the time of the birth of Christ. But I may just tell you one way in which you may make yourselves pleasing in the Divine sight: by loving one another, for you will find in the gospel written by St. John, that our Lord said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.'

Now does not this plainly prove, that instead of trying to have your own way, even when you are at play, you should willingly and cheerfully give up to the will of your brothers and sisters? and be assured that, if you accustom yourselves to do this, you will soon feel much more comfortable than if every thing were given up to your wishes. And you would do well to bear in mind the four following lines:

"The gentle child that loves to please, That hates to quarrel, fight, and tease, That would not say an angry word— That child is pleasing to the Lord.”

LETTER III.

DEAR CHILDREN,

WE read in the Bible that Adam and Eve had two sons, named Cain and Abel. Cain, the eldest, was a tiller of the ground, and Abel, his younger brother, was a keeper of sheep. They each made an offering to God, the one with the fruit of the earth, the other with the best of his flock. We find that Cain's offering was not accepted; but the Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering from which we conclude that Cain's actions were not pleasing in the sight of God. But instead of being properly sorry for it, and trying to find out what he had done amiss, he was very angry; and suffered his passion and jealousy, at seeing his brother liked better than himself, to rise so high, that one day, when they were in the fields together, he killed Abel. And when the Lord asked Cain where his brother was, he added to his great crime by denying it, and said, "I know not: am I my brother's keeper?" Then God was displeased with him, and told him that he

should be a fugitive (3) and vagabond() on the face of the earth; and that when he tilled the ground it should give him no fruit.

After this we read that "Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden."

Now perhaps you may all have heard this sad story before, but I did not like to pass it over without reminding you of it: you, very likely, may have read it, and thought Cain a very wicked man, which he certainly was, but did the thought never happen to strike you? "I am very passionate and apt to lose my temper, suppose I should one day be guilty of as great a crime." There is no knowing what people may do when they give way to passion. But you may think that it is impossible for you ever to do such a thing as this, you feel frightened at the idea of such wickedness, you feel that you love your brothers and sisters too much even to hurt them; it would be sad indeed if you did not feel thus; but, perhaps, if Cain had been told when he was a little boy, that he would have killed his brother, he might not have believed it.

You may suppose there is little harm in being rather cross or passionate, you

feel very sorry for it at the time, and think you will try not to fall into the same error again. But do you not often go away and forget your good resolutions, until something happens, rather against your will, to remind you of them afresh. Oh, that you may be persuaded to think of it more seriously, and correct these little faults in your tempers before they become great ones; for the same evil dispositions that lead you to quarrel with, and be cross to your playfellows, now you are young, would, if uncorrected, lead to consequences as dreadful as in the case now before us, and at all events make you miserable as men and

women.

On the contrary, you will find a real pleasure in giving up your own wills to the wishes of your companions; and the more you practise it, the easier it will become; but you must not expect to do this of yourselves, you must learn to pray to your Father who is in heaven, and He will help you to become what is most pleasing in His sight, humble and lowly in mind, gentle and forgiving one to another.

Yours affectionately.