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THE CHILDREN'S CORNER.

emergency, Gertie-a feather blowing out of your hat, a torn flounce, a buttonless glove-how anxiously you search for a pin! Has any one got a pin?' goes round the room."

"Yes, indeed," laughed Gertie.

"Gertie speaks feelingly," said Eustace; "she is always bothering for pins, I can tell you."

"You have a Christian name, and Christian parents now, Eustace," said his aunt, "and many, many blessings, but you may never really feel the value of them until you begin your intended life as a sailor, and learn to long for what you think little of now."

Eustace did not answer this time, and Aunt Evelyn went on :

"Point number three-mark it well, Eustace-is that crooked tempers spoil all our usefulness. What is the good of a crooked pin? It is taken up, causes disappointment and delay, and is thrown aside at once. Useful as the pin is, if crooked, all usefulness is at an end. What about boys and girls, Gertie ?"

"Much the same as pins, I fancy," put in Eustace, "I think you are hitting us hard, auntie !"

"Point four is, things should always be kept in their place. A pin between your teeth, for example, or stuck in the folds of your dress, may cause injury and pain untold. Many sharp little remarks made by young people in the wrong place, cause much suffering; angry speeches given forth, instead of being repressed, rankle and fester in another's heart for ages.

"Then remember, for my fifth remark, that points are to be avoided. You will say I am talking to babies when I caution you always to take a pin up by its head; but I mean you also to remember every one around you is like a pin, and has some peculiarity of disposition, which if not carefully handled by us, may cause us annoyance. Treat people as you would pins, and beware of the points! What do you think of my lecture, Eustace ?"

"I don't mind your talks, as I said before, auntie," answered the boy, giving her an affectionate kiss, "and I think I shall never use my favourite expression without thinking of what you have said to-day."

"And I shall look upon a pin as a wonderful teacher," said Gertie.. "Well said," replied Aunt Evelyn, and smiled.

BIBLE SEARCHINGS.

We give the following subjects this month:

The Titles of Christ in connection with His being a King and a Prince.-Matt. ii. 2; Psa. xxiv. 10; Acts iii. 15.

The eight "better" things in the Epistle to the Hebrews.

HEN your little one can run alone it still keeps near you' and trusts to you to provide for it, and it tells you all its joys and sorrows. Let us seek to have more of this simple childlike trust about everything. If I try to arrange for myself I always make mistakes, so I want my Heavenly Father to order all for me, even the very smallest details

of my daily life.

How much joy, and help, and comfort we lose by not carrying all our little difficulties to our gracious Father. If the very hairs of our head are all numbered, surely there is nothing too small for Him to notice. If a sparrow does not fall to the ground without our Heavenly Father knowing it, surely He knows about each pain and each trial which His dear children have to bear. Let us trust Him more, and then we shall often be able to say with thankfulness, "My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped."

Very often your children do not like your dealings with them, and cannot understand them. God's dealings are not always what we like; sometimes they go sorely against us and we do not understand them, but by-and-by we shall know it all, and we shall see that all was working together for our good and for His glory.

One of the things you expect from your children is obedience, and that is what God expects from us. You do not make many rules, but even the little ones soon learn to know what you wish. They find it out because they are always with you. Our Father does not give us many rules, but in His Word He tells us what He wishes us to be and to do, and if we ask Him He will show us how we may please Him. We may not have much time or many gifts, but we can all be "obedient children," and thus please God.

Your children run to you for whatever they want, and they always listen for your answer when they ask you for anything. Do you pray about everything? Our Father loves to hear the voices of His children, and oh! what a comfort it is to have a Father to run to in trouble. Listen for His answer. He will send you some promise or some message. God speaks to us not only in His Word, but in many other ways. Hearken to His voice-it is the voice of a loving Father talking to His "dear children."

CHRISTIANS AND PATRIOTS.

CHRISTIANS AND PATRIOTS,

65

Will you pray this prayer, or the substance of it, daily with your families throughout 1882 ?

BY THE AUTHOR OF MEMORIALS OF HEDLEY VICARS." LMIGHTY GOD AND FATHER, in the name of Thine own beloved Son, we beseech Thee to hear our cry, and grant to us a more glorious outpouring of the Water of Life, this year, than our country has ever received before. Let it flow like a river throughout these isles, and wherever our countrymen dwell; and spread on, to bless the world. May that river come with its life-giving-or more abundant life-bringing power, to all our Bishops, and Clergy, and Missionaries; and to the Laity of all ranks-men, women, and children: most especially we would ask it for our Queen, and the Prince and Princess of Wales, and all the Royal Family: may "the Lord and Giver of Life" make Thy blessed Son, our Lord and Saviour, more real, more present, to all; Thy Holy Word, their only standard and guide; the truth, as it is in Jesus, more firmly held and deeply prized; and may all the worship and services in our churches be kept in, or brought back to, the simplicity which is in Christ. Oh, lead back all who have wandered, we pray Thee, into the way of Truth; and stop the spread alike of false doctrine and of infidelity. Grant of Thy mercy that no way may be opened whereby professed infidelity may have a place in our Parliament, and of Thy great mercy may we be kept both a Christian and a Protestant country.

Bless, guide, teach, and keep closely and humbly walking with Thee, all who are striving to spread abroad the knowledge of the Saviour; especially those two apostolic men of Thine whom Thou hast brought again to our shores. Let a hundred-fold greater blessing rest upon their labour of love, now, than even that which was granted to their former work in this Kingdom, and may there be most of all in our great London.

Grant to our Government and Parliament grace to rule in Thy faith and fear; and especially in unhappy Ireland-so that a speedy end may be put to the lawlessness and crime, and cowardly cruelties now being constantly perpetrated there, upon defenceless men and women, upon little helpless children, and Thy dumb creatures. Marvellously preserve those who are wickedly and basely appointed to torture or death. Comfort the hearts that are bleeding for their murdered ones; and provide for and comfort all who are reduced to penury and despair.

Put a stop, we pray Thee, to all cruelty in our own country; and especially to the inhuman practice of the tortures of vivisection.

Knit together, we pray Thee, by mutual kindness and sympathy, the different classes in the land, and especially the employers and the employed. Make us honest in our commercial dealings at home and abroad,—and grant us, of Thy great goodness, a year of just and honourable peace; with fair and fruitful seasons; and a spirit of thankful acknowledgment of Thy goodness to us.

Let Thy Holy Spirit come down with great power upon our schools and colleges, and especially upon the young men who are preparing to be clergymen. We ask these great things for our Saviour's sake. Amen.

OUR BIBLE CLASS.

BY A. ST, G. C. NUGENT.

T has been well said that "God's works are to us the expression of His mind, the language which conveys to us His ideas." Last month we looked for God's "bright light" in the clouds. (Gen. ix. 13; Job. xxxvii. 21; Psa. civ. 3). Let us see what more He means to teach us by His clouds. Clouds are much affected by winds. Some winds scatter them; and some winds increase them until they fall in rain. Does that mean that God's Spirit (so often compared to "wind" Ez. xxxvii. 9; Acts ii. 2) sometimes removes the dreaded clouds of sorrow, and at other times He increases them until they come to us in "showers of blessing"? Yes, clouds are the storehouses of rain. We all know how our earth needs rain; we have known times of drought, when every green thing was drooping and scorched, and all the ground dry dust. The rich, bright fields of grass and flower have been cut, and all looks barren. Are our hearts thus dried up? Is there no growth, no blossom, and no fruit of love, joy, peace, to be seen? But how changed the earth is when the rain comes in a steady, delicious downpour! The air is cooled, and all the faded, scorched green begins to brighten; there is new, fresh life on every side.

And is there any "rain" for our souls? "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass" (Ps. lxxii. 6; Hos. vi. 3). "He came into our weary, worn-out world, from which the scythe of sin had shorn away all the purity and beauty and joy, as the 'rain upon the mown grass,' and He revived and restored to fresh verdure again." And all this He does also in individual souls. Do we not want to be thus softened and refreshed, that we may grow and become fruitful? Then "Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field." "Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby Thou didst confirm Thine Inheritance when it was weary" (Zech. x. 1; Ps. lxviii. 9).