kissing us, he told us that, in going through the world, we should find many a fine promise and glowing expectation turn out to be but a boiled snowball.

I now say to you,

Now what my grandfather said to me, and I say it by my own experience,—many of this world's proudest promises will produce nothing. They may raise your expectations, they may afford you a degree of pleasure in the prospect, but they will end in disappointment, and yield you no more solid enjoyment than we derived from the boiled snowballs of our servant Betty.

But, my dear children, if this world's promises are so deceitful and hollow; if they burst like a bubble, or melt like a snowball, there is the more reason why we should rely on those heavenly promises which God has given us in his holy word. God has promised to forgive the sins of every repentant transgressor. He has promised that those who seek him early shall find him. He has promised to give grace and glory, and to withhold no good thing from those who walk uprightly. He has promised to take away from them that trust in his mercy the fear of death, and to give them everlasting life, prepared for them by the merits of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

These are promises which will never deceive you; for faithful is He who has promised, and able and willing is he to perform. I dare say that you will not entirely forget the account given you of the snowballs: try then to remember also the promises of God to all who believe in him.

A Call on a familiar Acquaintance.

Have you an umbrella that you can spare me, for I must hasten home, though I have to go through the rain? Ay, that will do very well; though it is an old one, it will keep me from a wet skin. I shall send it back as soon as I get home, for I do think that the carelessness and neglect commonly practised in not returning borrowed umbrellas is very censurable. If it was a fine day though, friend Norton, I should not be over fond of carrying this old oilskin umbrella; for it looks as though it had been in some museum of curiosities for the last fifty years, but necessity works wonders, and overcomes many a proud feeling of the human heart.

What a poor defenceless creature is man! He protects himself from every drizzling shower, while the animals below him in the scale of creation, can endure unprotected the rudest blasts. That is a blessed text in Isaiah which thus speaks of the Redeemer. "A man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest." What a mercy to be protected through time and eternity! Eternity! what an overwhelming thought. "Millions of ages crowding on millions of ages! millions of ages crowding on millions of ages! and again, millions of ages crowding on millions of ages are but the beginning of eternity!"

A Call on a Sick Sunday Scholar.

I could not go by without calling to see how you are getting on, Sarah. Oh, come! you look much better than I expected, and are, I hope, sensible of God's mercy in giving strength to your poor feeble body; but a little patience. will be required before you can again join us at the Sundayschool. Have you taken any of your physic to-day?

Sarah. Yes, sir, and mother says that I shall only want one more bottle.

Visitor. I dare say you are not sorry to hear that; physic is by no means a pleasant thing to take, but for all that it is absolutely necessary; the bitterest draught often does us the most good. David said that it was a good thing to be afflicted; and God's people, young and old, have found it to be so as well as David. We learn more of ourselves, and sometimes more of God also, in one day of affliction, than during a month's good health.

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Let me advise you to put up this prayer, and let me hope that you will put it up with sincerity. "Accompany, O Lord, with thy blessing this sickness of my body, that it may prove to be for the health of my soul; and let my body, soul, and spirit, be devoted to thy service and to thy glory.' There are two things, Sarah, on which should reflect, the past and the future. On the past, that you may more clearly see your errors, and the goodness and forbearance of God towards you; and on the future, that you may amend your paths, and live a life more in agreement with God's holy will, and in humble dependence on his grace. I will not weary you with much talking. Think on the little which I have said. Farewell.

ON THE BIBLE.

IF we were in a desert, and did not know how to find the way out of it, and had no food or money, and some one came and gave us a book which would tell us what road to take, and how we might get food, and money, and everything else that we wanted, how thankful we should be, and with what joy should we at once begin to read a book which would do us so much good. Well, all of us are in a desert. This world is the desert, and of ourselves we know not the way to heaven. The Bible is God's message to us, which shows us the road we are to take; it is food to the hungry soul, and it tells us how we are to get those heavenly riches which last for ever. Some people think that they can find their way without reading this precious book. But they are like a man who will not take a light to keep him from falling into dangers, which may be in his road when it is quite dark. The Bible" is a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path," Psa. cxix. 105. David's soul delighted in the word of God, just as our bodies long for food. He says, "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Psa. cxix. 103. He thought it better than money. "The law of thy mouth is better," he says, "unto me than thousands of gold and silver," Psa. cxix. 72. The Bible can give us comfort when we are in the greatest trouble. It gave David comfort. "This is my comfort in my affliction." "Unless thy law had been my delights, I shonld then have perished in mine affliction." The Bible makes us truly wise. "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple." Even children, by reading the Bible, know much more about God and heavenly things than worldly wise men who do not love the Bible. It makes us better; and "Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and do it." It makes us happier: "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them "- "Great peace have they which love thy law "—" Happy are the people that have the Lord for their God." The Bible is a friend that will give us good advice at all times. It has exceeding great and precious promises for God's people in whatever state they may be. It is a friend that never will forsake us in life or death. a kind father sent you a letter, would you put it by on the shelf, and not read it? Would you not at once take it,

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break the seal, and read it over again and again? Would you not be pleased to read how he loved you, and what kind messages he sent you? Well; the Bible is our heavenly Father's kind letter to us, in which he tells us how he loves us, and how ready he is to do us good. We shall then be very unthankful if we do not read and attend to this message from God. I hope you will not be so foolish as to do so. Let us follow these rules :

1. Read it with prayer. The Bible is God's word, and the Holy Spirit is the best teacher. To pray when we read is the best way to understand it, and get good from it. David prayed, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." A pious man once said, "Since I began to beg God's blessing on my studies, I have done more in one week than in the whole year before." 66 If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given him."

2. Read it very attentively, and think over it. Some persons run over many chapters, but do not think at all about what they read, nor try to know its meaning. They are not likely to get much good. In spring-time many more violets can be found by him who looks about carefully for them, than by another who is in a hurry, and looks only here and there. So there are rich treasures in the Bible which many pass by and see them not, but which we may find if we try. Therefore do not only read, but search into the word of God. "If thou seekest her (wisdom) as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God."

3. Read it every day, not only now and then. It ought to be loved above every other book, and not to be thought a dull book. Sir Matthew Hale said that if he did not read some every morning, things went not well with him all the day. A pious shepherd said, "Blessed be God! I learned to read when I was a boy. I believe there is no day for the last thirty years that I have not peeped at my Bible. If we cannot find time to read a chapter, no man can say that he cannot find time to read a verse; and one verse, well followed and put in practice every day, would make no bad figure at the year's end; three hundred and sixty-five texts, without the loss of a moment's time, would make a pretty stock, a little golden treasury, as one may say, from new

year's-day to new year's-day; and if children were brought up to it, they would come to look for their text as naturally as they do for their breakfast. I can say the greatest part of the Bible by heart. I have led but a lonely life, and have often had but little to eat; but my Bible has been meat, drink, and company to me; and when want and trouble have come upon me, I do not know what I should have done indeed if I had not had the promises of this book for my stay and support." No one in good health would like to go a day without food, and no Christian should like to go a day without feeding his soul with God's word. As new born babes wish for milk, we should wish for the Bible, that our souls may be nourished and grow, 1 Pet. ii. 2.

4. Learn a little of it by heart every day. A poor man always learned a verse at breakfast, which he thought upon through the day, and he laid up so much in his mind in this way that the neighbours called him a walking Bible.

5. Teach your children to read it, and speak to them about it, and beg all you can to read it. Dr. Doddridge's mother taught him a great many things out of the Bible before he could read, and they did him much good. A minister says, "A man called at my house; my servants talked with him about the Testament, and asked him to buy one. 'What use can it be to me,' said he, 'I cannot read.? Yes, it may be of great use to you; you can carry it to your lodgings, and have it read to you. It will do you good; buy one.' The man did so, and took it to his lodgings.

Some months after he came back. You cannot think,' he said, 'what good that book has done. There are more than thirty of us at the lodgings; when I first took home the book these men spent almost every evening at the public-house and got drunk, but now scarcely a man goes out in the evening. There are three among us who can read, and they take it by turns, and the others sit round and hear. There is no drunkenness now."

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6. Read it to others; to as many as you can. A gentleman heard a little boy praying with his dying mother. went into the room. "He is a dear child," she said. "I cannot read myself, but he can; and he has read the Bible to me, and I hope I have cause to bless God for it. I have heard from him of Christ Jesus, who came into the world to save sinners."