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like Lois and Eunice, will train up the best of all helps for our missionaries, a godly native ministry.

Catharine. I think that will be a very nice way of turning our teacher's lesson to account; and I think it would be a good plan for each of us to keep a book, and mark down how often we have missed getting up, and the reason why. I do not think any of us will like laziness marked down very often.

Janet. No, I am sure none of us would like that; but I am afraid it will be sometimes. What shall we do with the hour on the Sabbath? 'M. I would recommend you to keep that hour for prayer in behalf of those you are working for, asking a blessing on your own labours: committing to memory and meditating on those passages of Scripture where we learn that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, commencing with the 67th Psalm, which you have to learn this week for your teacher. If you spend the hour in this way on the Sabbath, there will be very little fear that laziness will be marked against the hours during the week. If you persevere, a blessing is sure to be on your labours, and like the children of the excellent woman in our text, a generation will rise up who will call you blessed. I would like you, while you are young, to store your minds well with those texts of Scripture (and there are very many) which point out the work of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in creation. But remember, it requires a living faith to see the work of the Holy Trinity in our redemption, and it requires a like faith, the work of the Spirit, to see it in creation; and if we have that Spirit, it is impossible not to see that the Bible, the work of re

demption, and the work of creation, are by one and the same God. Now, we shall finish this lesson, and if ever you have to teach others, be faithful in all things, and remember that it is

"A holy trust to mortals given,
To nurture blossoms for the sky;
To train for Eden-fruits in heaven,
Those germs of immortality."

And may it be said of each one of you, "Many daugh-
ters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all."
And it will be so if you always keep in mind that
"Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a wo-
man that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised :”
then "will you eat of the fruit of your hands, and
your own works will praise you in the gates." I
shall write out some texts I am anxious you should
commit to memory, and there are very many others
you can find out for yourselves. Gen. i. 1, 2, “In
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth:
and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
waters;" ver. 31, "And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold it was very good." Psalm viii.
3, 4, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy
fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast
ordained; what is man,
that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?" Psalm
xxxiii. 6, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens
made and all the host of them by the breath of his
mouth." Isaiah xl. 26, "Lift up your eyes on high,
and behold who hath created these things, that bring-
eth out their host by number: he calleth them all
by names, by the greatness of his might, for that he is
strong in power; not one faileth." Jer. li. 15, " He

hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding." John i. 1-3, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." Rom. i. 20, "The invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead; so that they are without excuse." Heb. xi. 3, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Job xxvi. ; xxxviii. Ps. ciii.; civ.; cxxxix.; cxlv.; cxlviii. Prov. viii. 36. Col. i. 12, 19.

CHAPTER XIV.

CORN THE SABBATH.

EXOD. XX. 8.-"Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy." Matt. xii. 1-8.-" At that time Jesus went on the Sabbath-day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath-day. But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him; how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shew-bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? Or have ye not read in the law, how that on

the Sabbath-days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath-day."

Neh. xiii. 17, 18.-" Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the Sabbath-day? Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel, by profaning the Sabbath."

Isaiah lviii. 13, 14.-" If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."

M. I am anxious to have a little conversation today about the Sabbath. Corn is the only plant mentioned in the Bible in connexion with it, and as we have spoken about sowing and reaping, and the structure of grains before, I shall only tell you a true story about a single plant of oats.

Craigie. I am glad we are to have a story. I do like stories.

M. About the year 1825, a farmer in the parish of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire, had occasion to cut a number of ditches throughout his pastures. On a bank formed by the earth which had been taken out of one of these, his cow-herd, Sandy Thomson, observed, in course of the summer, an oat plant of extraordinary luxuriant growth. Now Sandy, although only a cow-herd, was a boy who observed everything he saw, and what was

better, made a good use of his observations. So when he went home, he told his master what he had seen, and begged him to go and look at it. His master did so, and was very much astonished at the number of stalks and grains which had sprung from a single seed, and one which had probably lain in the ground for very many years, and sprung on being turned up. He allowed it to ripen, and carefully preserved the seed, which he sowed next year; and so rapidly did it increase, that, in a few years, the produce was not only sufficient to sow his own farm, but also to supply many of his neighbours, and it is known by the name of Sandy's oat. Now, do not you think Sandy was a very wise boy to observe all he saw, and to make such a good use of his observations?

Charlie. Yes, that he was. I am not quite sure that we would have been so wise. I think it is more likely we would have thrown our sticks at the oat plant, and tried who would have taken the head off first.

M. That is very likely; but I think you ought rather to choose the thistles; the more of their heads you knock off the better, before the seed is ripe.

Catharine. I think it is a pity the thistle has been chosen as the badge of Scotland, especially as it is one of the curses.

M. On the contrary, I think it is a very good thing, because it keeps us in mind that there is a curse on the earth. The farmer says, "Let us root out the thistles, lest they grow up and choke the good seed we have sown ;" and good reason he has to say so. There is one kind called the acanthum vulgare, each plant of which produces about eighty heads, and each head about three hundred seeds. Now, if the produce of one

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