ma'am, as I open my kiln, and draw out pots and jars sound and uninjured, and, indeed, only perfected by the fire, while I find many of my vases marred and ruined by the same process, I am constrained to bless Him who has exposed me to the furnace of trial and temptation appointed for all, under circumstances which render me, irrespective of myself, so much less liable to be overcome by its fires. Yes, young lady, you may learn a lesson from visiting my humble pottery; and if your friend will allow me, I'll be so bold as to beg you to take home one of my vases, and one of my plain flower-pots, and keep them both in your chamber or garden. And if ever you are tempted to feel proud in prosperity, or discontented in adversity, think of the conversation we have had to-day; it may be, by God's blessing, a lesson not sent in vain."

153

66

THE LITTLE GIRL AND THE RAIN.

"MOTHER, it rains," said a little girl, who was looking out of the window. "I am sorry not to make a visit to Emma. She invited me twice before, but it rained, and now it is raining hard again."

I will

"I hope you will not be unhappy, my dear," said her mother. "I think I notice tears upon your cheeks. not say it is a little thing, for the troubles of children seem great to them; but I trust you will be patient and wait pleasantly for good weather."

"Mother, you have told me that God knows everything, and that he is always good. Then he certainly must know that there is but one Saturday afternoon in the week, and that is all the time I have to play with my little friends. He must know that it has rained now these

three holidays, when I wished so much to go abroad. And can he not make sunshine whenever he pleases?"

"We cannot understand all the ways of God, my child; but the Bible tells us he is wise and good. Look out into your little garden, and see how happy the rose-buds are to catch the soft rain in their bosoms, and how the violets lift up their sweet faces to meet it, and as the drop falls into the quiet stream how it dimples with gladness and gratitude. The cattle will drink at the stream and be refreshed. Should it be dried up they would be troubled, and were the green grass to grow brown and die, they would be troubled still more, and some of them might perish for want of food."

Then the good mother told her daughter of the sandy deserts in the East, and of the camel who patiently bears thirst for many days, and how the

fainting traveller watched for the raincloud, and blessed God when he found water; and she showed her the picture of the camel and the caravan, and told her how they were sometimes buried under the sands of the desert. And she told her a story of the mother who wandered into the wilderness with her son, and when the water was spent in the bottle she laid him under the shade to die, and went and prayed in her anguish to God; then how an angel brought the water from heaven, and her son lived. She told her another story from the Bible, how there fell no rain in Israel for more than three years, and the grass dried up, and the brooks wasted away, and the cattle died; and how the great prophet prayed earnestly to God, and the skies sent their blessed rain, and the earth gave forth her fruit. Many other things this good mother said to her child to teach and entertain her. Then they

sang together a sweet hymn or two, and the little girl was surprised to find the afternoon so swiftly spent, for the time passed pleasantly.

So she thanked her kind mother for the stories she had told and the pictures she had shown her. And she smiled and said, "What God pleases is best."

Her mother kissed her child and said, "Carry this sweet spirit with you, my daughter, as long as you live, and you will have gathered more wisdom from the storm than from the sunshine."

GRATITUDE FOR DELIVERANCE.

I was at sea, on the broad Atlantic, as we now are. It was just such a bright, moonlight night as this, and the sea was quite as rough. The captain had turned