and some

Some children think it manly to swear, great boys are wicked enough to teach little ones to do it. Do they forget that God has said He will not hold them guiltless?

Then the seventh day is ordered to be kept holy. When reading of the creation of the world, you were told how one day in seven was set apart, and what a blessing it has been from that time to this! It is a blessing to every one; most of all to working people. What a fearful life they would lead of never-ending labour, but for the merciful rest of Sunday! How worn-out and earthly every one would grow, if there were no time set apart for us to read and think about a brighter and better place than this world of trouble! Like the children of Israel, we are journeying through the wilderness towards a promised land—that is, the eternal "rest that remaineth for the people of God."

The next commandment is, to honour your father and mother. This means more than just doing what you are told. Many reasons may render a child obedient; but to honour your parents means to behave respectfully to them, to follow their advice, and to give every help in your power to those who have done so much for you. How little do children consider all they owe their parents! How hard your father has worked to get money to pay for your food and clothes! How often your mother has lost her night's rest when you have been ill and fretful! Till children become parents themselves, they are seldom aware of all they owe to those who brought them up. If they were, they would not

need to be told how ungrateful it is of them to speak rudely and saucily, or to act independently. To take their own way, to engage in service, or to throw up their employment without ever consulting their father and mother, is not honouring them.

The next command is, not to kill. You will all agree that it is a horrible crime to put an end to the life of a fellow-creature; and yet how often does one read of murders committed in anger! Such acts do not often proceed from any settled intention, but from letting angry passions get the better of us. We are told by St. John in the New Testament that "whoso hateth his brother is a murderer." By what we feel as well as by what we do, God will judge us. Many a child who becomes so angry that he would like to hurt any one with whom he has quarrelled, lets his passion so get the better of him that he knows not what he does, and he may be guilty of murder in his heart; and a blow given in a rage may actually cause death.

Another commandment forbids stealing. You all know how wrong it is to steal; and it is a sin which generally brings with it its own punishment; and most parents, therefore, correct their children when they find them out, because they know that a dishonest child, like a dishonest workman, can never get a place. But this is a sin that often comes from very small beginnings. Some children are for ever taking little things that do not belong to them. They will carry home from school slatepencils, thimbles, needles, or anything that they hope will not be missed. Others fancy that it is all.

fair to help themselves out of their mother's cupboard when she is out, or to take some of the beer or the loaf that they are fetching for her. But all the time, they would not be found out for the world; and that shows that they know they are doing wrong. Little by little, if not detected, they get bolder, and go on from bad to worse, till they are discovered to be thieves. Then no one will employ them, and they go about with housebreakers and receivers of stolen goods, till they are laid hold of by the police, brought before the magistrate, found guilty by the jury, and condemned to penal servitude for years. And what a dreadful fate that is, you may soon learn if you inquire.

Next it is said "thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour." Neighbour means those with whom you have anything to do-not merely people who live near you. A witness means any one who has seen a thing done, or heard a description of it. If people are tried by a magistrate, he calls the witnesses to appear; that is, he calls all those who can tell anything about the crime that has been committed; and they are made to promise that they will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

But we not only are witnesses if we are called into a court of justice, we also bear witness whenever we talk about anything which we have ourselves heard or seen. If there is a quarrel amongst you— if anything is missing, and is supposed to be stolen -if any mischief is done, and inquiry is made, all of you who can tell anything about it are witnesses,

And how often does it turn out you are false witnesses-not intentionally, perhaps, but from carelessness, or from the love of having something to say that people will listen to! A little word added or left out, the tone of voice in which something has been said, may alter the meaning of the whole story. How few of you ever repeat a message word for word as it is given! and what mischief may sometimes come from a very slight alteration! A civil answer may become a very impertinent one, or may produce suspicion where none need exist. How often do you get hold of half a story about some one! You repeat it, and add to it. Those who listen to you do the same; and so the character of an innocent person may be taken away. Before you talk against any one, ask yourself whether you are perfectly certain that what you say is quite true; and even if true, whether there is any need for your saying it.

The last commandment of all is, not to covet-that is, to long for our neighbours' goods. Here, as in so many other instances in the Bible, we are told it is the inward feeling that God regards, and not only our outward acts. At the same time, one leads to the other. If we let ourselves covet (that is, long for) something that another has, it may end in our stealing it. But even if there is no danger of our doing this, if we make ourselves miserable because we have not the fine clothes, good food, or other advantages which our neighbours possess, we are very foolish. There is a great desire amongst the poor to raise themselves to a higher class. This leads to good, if

it makes them saving, sober, and industrious; but if, instead of this, they get above their work, and discontented with the state of life in which God has placed them, they must be wretched. It is a mistake to covet a higher place than we are able properly to fill; for if we get it, we shall not succeed. To do our duty as well as we possibly can in our own station of life, is the way to be happy and contented.

THE GOLDEN CALF.

WHEN Moses came down from the mount, he saw a shocking sight. Those very Israelites who had been so wonderfully and mercifully preserved by the great God of heaven and earth, had already turned back from Him to worship a golden calf, made of the ornaments that they had brought from Egypt. Because Moses had remained forty days on the mount, the impatient and unbelieving people said to Aaron, "Up, make us gods which shall go before us, for as for this Moses, we wot not what is become of him.”

It is strange, indeed, that Aaron, the brother of Moses, and one of the messengers of God to Pharaoh, should have consented to do this. Perhaps he was afraid that the people would rise up against him. He received the golden ornaments, and fashioned them with a graving tool into a golden calf, and said, "These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt. And the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play."