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often, too, has the soldier, on his departure, and in letters sent back, asked the prayers of "the loved ones at home."

In the earlier period of the war the Government had no fixed system of appointing chaplains. Many laymen and so-called local Methodist preachers were appointed to chaplaincies, by whose ignorance and lack of principle the soldiers were disgusted, and the cause of religion in the army seriously damaged. At length a law was passed allowing none but regularly ordained ministers to be appointed to this office.

What changes have the twenty past years brought to our country! How the empty sleeves and wooden limbs of many brave men remind us of the sacrifices made for the restoration of national peace and prosperity! Thousands are buried in lonely, unmarked and unvisited graves. The surviving soldiers have long since returned home, and are again enjoying the blessings of a quiet and peaceable life.

Since the war new territories have been opened, new states populated and annexed to the Union. The great resources of the country have been developed with unprecedented rapidity. Amid the present blessings of national prosperity, let us not forget the brave men that fought and suffered for our civil blessings, and the equally brave mothers and wives who because they gave to their country the most precious mortal object they possessed, suffered and still suffer untold sorrows. This, too, is patriotism. Aud above all, must we not forget to adore and gratefully praise the merciful providence of God for giving us once more a united country and restoring peace throughout our borders.

Everything in nature indulges in amusement. The lightning plays, the wind whistles, the thunder rolls, the sno flies, the waves leap, and the fields smile. Even the buds shoot and the rivers run.

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Paragraphs for Preachers. There is no lack of preachers; but Christ says laborers are few.

God is pleased to honor abundantly the "foolishness of preaching," but there is no sanction in His Word for foolish preaching.

There would be more better preachers if there were more better hearers. "Brethren, pray for us."

Stability out of the pulpit often speaks more eloquently than ability in the pulpit.

When the standard-bearers are fighting among themselves, they cannot be doing much execution in the enemy's ranks.

A man must reach God's truth in his experience before he can teach it in his doctrine.

He who preaches most of Christ to sinners may expect to preach most sinners to Christ.

Many thologians of to-day are called "broad," and are, as a consequence, very shallow.

Mr. Longfellow enjoys telling at his own expense the story that an Englishman strolled into his Cambridge home one summer day, saying, "As-ah, "Great power" in the pulpit is likethere is ah, no old ruins in this ly to be accompanied by great grace in blarsted country, I thought I'd come to the pew. Acts iv. 33.-Episeopal Resee you."

corder.

The Sunday-School Department.

A Lady's Letter from Home.

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But it is a sweet privilege for those who can do it, and good Dr. Watts, who was strict and almost severe in his ideas of

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Any one who has lived in a nursery discipline, certainly thought it right, for knows that a strong influence there to he has given us a glorious cradle song. secure peace and harmony is a song for Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber,' the little ones. is the echo of childhood for how many of us; and even now there are some blessed babies who get the whole sixteen verses every night! Yes, let us sing to the children-sing to them, as they play at our side, of beautiful things in nature, of good and joyful things; and sing to them, when they rest, of holy and heavenly things; and if God should call them and give us of His strength, we might even sing them into the rest of heaven.

A new toy pleases for the moment, and a story will keep the attention while it lasts; but the once upon a time too soon ends with, "and that is the end of my story." But when the animals won't stand up and Dolly's hair is out of curl, when frowns come in fair foreheads, and a scream is just ready to burst from rosy lips, if there comes from among the curtains, where mamma sits with her sewing, the quick little melody of "Three little Kittens" or 66 Buy a Broom," how soon the eyes are bright again and tiny feet keep time while the playing goes on, and all is serene in the

nursery.

And when the day is gone, toys all put aside, and the little ones ready for bed, who would send them to their dreams without a slumber-song to bring a vision of angels.

Mamma was away the other night, and Annie, the maid, put baby to bed. All went well till the last minute; the evening prayer was said and the crib opened, when baby looked at it and at Annie's rather solemn face,-it certainly did not look musical, and drawing back, with a trembling voice she asked: Annie, can you sing? I'm four years old, and some peoples say I ought to go to sleep by myself; but I've always been singed to sleep, and I don't think I can manage without it—any way, till I'm five."

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This singing to sleep may seem a foolish indulgence to busy mothers and My name is Adele. At least it was those who think it best to teach their once. Now, it is Jenny. The first children early, and in these trifling mat- thing I remember about myself is being ters self-denial and self-dependence. crowded into a box in company with

fifty others of my relations, and then put on board a vessel bound for the United States. I can't of course describe the voyage, as I was conscious only of being in a very dark, uncomfortable place. As soon as we landed, I was unpacked and put in a gay shop window in the Sixth avenue. In a day or two, I was bought as a Christmas present by a nice-looking lady, and given to her little girl Clara. I had a very happy time for a few weeks, but when my mistress got tired of me, I began to suffer from her bad temper. One day she got so angry with her nurse, because she hurt her a little while she was brushing her long curls out, that she flung me at her with such great force that I broke a large hole in the lookingglass and got very badly scratched and battered. Clara was not punished as she should have been. I am afraid she will grow up to be a very unhappy, disagreeable woman, unless she changes before long, and then no one will love her. Of course she did not want me after all this. The nurse picked me up and, with Clara's mother's permission, gave me to a little niece of hers who was lying sick in hospital with a disease that never could be cured. Kind ladies gave her pretty things often to play with, but nothing had ever made her so happy as I did, because she was so fond of nurse. She called me Jenny on her account. She keeps me in bed with her all the time, feeds me always at meal time, and goes to sleep with me in her arms at night. Maggie, my new little mistress, is very good and patient, as so many poor little children in the hospitals are. She may live many years, but she will never be well enough to run around and play like other children. But though she suffers so much, she never gets angry nor throws me about. If she lives to grow up, she will be not only happier but more useful and more loved than Clara will be. I hope all you little children will sometimes think of this.

Birds' Nests.

The best way to find nests is to watch a bird while building; in that way, moreover you are sure to see them in the best condition, and to know when the eggs are fresh. It requires patience;

but you see the workers return again and again to the same spot, and a little closer inspection usually completes your knowledge, though you may sometimes be deceived or nonplused by the caution and cunning of the architects. You will facilitate your work by scattering cotton-wool, horse-hairs, straws, string, worsted and cloth where they will attract the attention of the birds around you. Put them on your lawn or on the piazza vines, and watch them. A robin comes to carry off the string, and having used up what you have provided, and liking the material, attacks a long piece wound around a stake, supporting a gladiolus. By persistent effort he frees a part of it, but the harder that he pulls at the rest, the tighter he ties the knot around the stake, and the string is becoming entangled with his legs; he fights twenty minutes, and gives it up. Sparrows pick up hairs and straws from the lawn, and warblers come to the vines for cotton-wool, passing fearlessly within three feet of your chair; then they come back to break off little twigs and to peel off shreds of dry bark from the honeysuckle. A pair of golden robins-the male with black and orange, the female with yellow and duller black-come for string, worsted and thread! but beware of them, for they are thieves. Leave your knitting under the tree there for five minutes, and it is gone; you will find it a week later, a part irrevocably woven into the hanging nest, and a part dangling with the needle in it. The weaving is so cleverly done that you wonder whether the orioles haven't used your needles. Not at all, madam; I defy you to produce with your implements such a piece of work as these birds have produced with their bills. Successful experiments have been made by supplying the orioles, in the tree where they are occupied, with bright silks and worsteds, which they employ altogether, if liberally provided, so that a very gay and parti-colored net may swing in your orchard where you can see it from the house. Wilson says that an old lady, to whom he showed an oriole's nest in which a piece of dry grass, thirteen inches long, was passed through thirty-four times, asked him, half in earnest, if the birds couldn't be taught to darn stockings.

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gether his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

7. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more inan over ninety and nine just persons, which neeu no repentance.

8. Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light_a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?

9. And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.

10. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

QUESTIONS.

What is the Key-note? How did Jesus prove that He is the Good Shepherd? What other great act did He perform after He had laid down His life? John x. 17-18. What was the great end of Christ's Death and Resurrection? John x. 16.

What is our subject to-day? What two Parables does the lesson embrace?

VERSE 1. Who drew near to Jesus, on this and other occasions? Who were the Publicans? The sinners? Why did these rally around Him?

2. Who were the Pharisees? Scribes? What is murmuring? On what account did these murmur? Is it not well to avoid bad company? Why did Jesus mingle with such characters, then?

3. What Parable did He first utter?

4. Who are represented by the hundred sheep? Who by the ninety and nine? Who by the lost one? What is the wilderness here? 5. How is the shepherd represented in bringing the lost sheep back?

6. What transpired at the shepherd's home? 7. How is this verse to be regarded? Over what do angels rejoice? To what degree? Who

are they who feel no need of repentance? What now was there in this Parable for those who murmured?

Does the

8. What other Parable followed? woman represent the Church of Christ? Who are represented by the ten pieces of silver? What soul is typified by the one piece? What does the lighting of the candle, sweeping, etc., signify?

9. What do the members of the kingdom engage in when a soul is reclaimed? Would He hereby teach the higher nature of His king dom? How could the Pharisees infer from this Parable, that their kingdom was not inspired by the Spirit of Heaven?

When may we associate with the unfortunate and wicked? With what feelings should we even regard these? Why do Publicans and sinners sometimes arrive home sooner than Pharisees and scribes? Which class did Christ seem to treat with greater tenderness-the selfrighteous or the unrighteous? Why? Are we all unrighteous? Need any one be selfrighteous?

1. The Lord my Shepherd is,
I shall be well supplied;
Since He is mine, and I am His,
What can I want beside?

2. He leads me to the place

Where heav'nly pasture grows, Where living waters gently pass, And full salvation flows.

3. If e'er I go astray,

He doth my soul reclaim,

And guides me in His own right way
For His most holy Name.

4. While He affords His aid
I cannot yield to fear;

Though I should walk through death's dark vale,

My Shepherd's with me there.

REMARKS: In the Gospel for this lowers-Levi, who is also called MatLord's day, from which our key-note thew, the author of the first Gospel. is taken, our Lord lays before us the In their eyes He uttered His own concharacteristic of the good Shepherd demnation by associating and breaking of souls. He giveth His life for the bread with the mean and despicable. sheep. That He has done this, we have Their bitter complaints even reached learned on Good Friday. And on the the ears of Jesus. Then He took occaEaster Festival, He proved to us, that sion to define His position; to give a He survived death, the grave, and reason for His conduct, and to show Hades. "Therefore," says He, "doth that His course, in this respect, was in My Father love Me, because I lay down keeping with His whole aim and plan. My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."

And now, since we have learned on the last two Lord's days, that His mission into the world was to establish a

plan of salvation, by His death and resurrection, through which all mankind may become man-kinned in "one fold," let us see, in the section for to-day, how each soul may become a member of His flock.

VERSE 3. He spake this parable. -The Parable of the Lost Sheep, as it is called.

VERSES 4-6. A hundred sheep. This full, round number may signify the whole class of Jews, who esteemed themselves as the children of Abraham, as against the immoral and loose class. The lost one of them is, then, a symbol of the publicans and sinners, who had strayed off. Now, as every shepherd of sheep would leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness (or pasture-range) and go after the lost one, to find it, so NOTES. VERSE 1. Then. We are did He, the Shepherd of souls, devote to imagine Him now tarrying in some His time and life in seeking out and town or village on His way to Jerusa- restoring those who felt themselves to lem. Publicans and sinners were tax- be lost. Laying it on His shoulders, gatherers and half-heathens. They were &c., is intended to show the affection of a detested class of characters, dishonest the shepherd for his sheep, and well and immoral. "What lions and bears are in the mountains," says an old writer, "these people were in the cities." Respec able men and women kept aloof from their society, neither walking nor talking with them. They were classed with highway robbers and murderers. Least of all, would a Rabbi, or teacher, associate with such a class.

These hated persons well knew to what degree they were shunned, and never intruded themselves upon the company of the higher and nobler ones. But they drew near unto Him! Because of the divine attraction of His face, and the unction of His kind and blessed words.

illustrates Christ's anxiety for lost and wandering souls. How long He calls, and how gladly He bears them back to God's bosom! He is never indifferent to our fate. Remember how He wept over Jerusalem! The coming together of the shepherd's friends and neighbors and their mutual rejoicing, was intended to serve as a stinging reproof of the haughty souls, who not only did not rejoice over rescued souls, but even allowed their hearts to swell with rage.

VERSE 7. I say unto you. Here we have the pointed application, now. Joy shall be in heaven (among the angels) over one sinner that repenteth. This teacheth the communion existing beVERSE 2. The Pharisees and scribes tween the spirits inhabiting the upper were the other end of Jewish society and lower worlds (1 Pet. i. 10-12.) More the moral and learned wing. A wide than over ninety and nine persons which gulf separated these two classes. And need no repentance. Let us enlarge our no wonder, at all, that these murmured, Lord's words thus: "You scribes and or secretly and bitterly complained of Pharisees-rabbis, lawyers-think you Jesus, who braved all such prejudices, are so righteous, that you need no reby mingling freely with this proscribed pentance. Remember, all men belong class, and even admitted one of the low to God's flock, and when one goes astray, order into the inner circle of His fol- and comes to himself again, that change

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