The Spider and the Fly (verse), Mary Howitt, The Dog, Anon, PAGE. 107 109 ... Who is this and What is His Name? M'Culloch's Series, 145 Constable's Series, Oliver Goldsmith, Jane Taylor, Mrs. Marcet, ... ... Chambers's Lessons in Science, 162 New Zealand Chiefs and Wheat, Ibid, The Pilgrims and their Pitchers, Hamilton's Happy Home, The Storm, Mark vii., 47–51 Pencillings in Palestine, PAGE. ... ... 169 ... 170 The Widow of Nain (verse), 173 174 ... 175 Selfishness, Part I., The Wicked Bishop (verse), The Inchcape Bell (verse), The Heroic Smith, Humanity, The Wind in a Frolic (verse), Perseverance (verse), Admiral Lord Nelson, Ibid, The Wreck of the Hesperus, (verse), Longfellow, ... ... "Give us this Day our Daily Bread" (verse), C. A. M. W., The White Ship (1120), ... Dickens, ... ... The Battle of Hohenlinden, (verse), Campbell, The Lighthouse (verse), ... Longfellow, Murder of Arthur of Brittany (1200), Dickens, APPENDIX. Exercises on Words the same in Sound, but different in Spelling and Meaning, ... 215 Emma and Harry are going to bed. They kneel down at their mother's knee, and say that holy prayer which Jesus made and taught his disciples to use:"Our Father who art in Heaven." their Their father and mother listen, and lift up hearts to God, that he too may hear their darlings' voices. And who will doubt that he listens also. He who when on earth so loved the little children that he called them round him, took them up in his arms and blessed them, will he forget them now he is in heaven? Oh surely not. The little ones now are as dear to him as they were of old. He looks down upon them as they kneel; and let each dear child as it folds its hands and closes its eyes, that the things around may not disturb its thoughts, believe with a glad heart that the blessed Saviour waits to hear its prayer. That from the peaceful blue sky, he sends forth, as if on the wings of an angel, these blessed words, "Suffer little children to come unto me." Come, then, dear little children, to Jesus, your best friend. Tell him of your sins, your evil tempers, your unkind words. He will forgive you; he shed his blood for you, and he will give you strength to do his will. Let these thoughts make you love to come before him in your prayers, and then he will so teach you how to pass through the dangers of this world, that you may go at last to dwell with him in heaven. One summer day, a dark cloud was sailing along through the air, and, because it was alone, it felt very gloomy, and so it burst into tears and wept itself away. And some of its tears fell into the sea, and some upon the rocks; but one little drop went down into a deep valley, and rested upon a broken flower-the last and fairest of its race. It was a lovely blossom, left alone to die in the deep quiet of that shady vale. And when the tear fell upon the flower, it smiled a blessed smile, and felt that it could die in peace, for it was no longer alone; so it closed its soft sweet eye and went to sleep. Now, close beside the spot where the flower had died, amongst the high green grass, a lark had built her nest; and, just as she stretched her wing to meet the morn, the tear fell upon it from the bosom of the flower. And so the lark mounted into the air, and began singing to a little sunbeam; and she told it the story of the tear, and of the broken flower. And when the sunbeam heard it, he loved the sweet tear so much, that it kissed it off from the wing of the sweet singer, and took it up to the golden sun: and the sun made it one of his beams, and told it that because it had given comfort to that lovely flower in its dying hour, he would make it his chosen herald,—the first to awake the flowers at morn, and the last to light the bee to her cell at even. And so the tear grew bright, and more bright, until it became a little stream of liquid gold. And every little flower of the earth looked up and loved it, and all the singing birds sang when they beheld it; and the streamlets, and the fountains, and the brooks laughed a joyous laugh when it came down upon their bosoms, and all the earth grew bright with one pure smile. My little children! do not forget that we are not placed here to do our own work, but the work of Him that made us; we are not to prepare for this life, but the life which is to come. This little life will soon be past, but there is a country which shall abide forever; a kingdom which knoweth no end, into which, if we have been faithful, we shall one day be taken. There we shall shine brighter than a sunbeam, or the morning star. "And there we shall hunger no more, neither shall we thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on us, or any heat; for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed us, and shall lead us unto fountains of living waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes." Mrs. Jerram. |