42

An Idle Boy.

HILLOA, Rob, what's up with you now? Oh, I see, you are at your old pranks. How can you be so foolish and naughty? There you are sitting and playing and neglecting the work your mother sent you to do. Your very dog seems to wonder how you can be so silly. I don't know what's to become of you. If this were only the first time you played, while neglecting your duty, it might be looked over; but I'm sorry to think you have been going on in this way now for a long while. If you don't turn over a new leaf and mend your ways, you will find it no easy work to get through this world; and as for the next world, I'm afraid, Rob, you won't stand a good chance. I don't object to your having a bit of play, if you only take it at the proper time; but when you have work to do, do it, and do it heartily, and let everything else alone till it is done. I am not, however, going to be over hard upon you, even for what I cannot help regarding as your faults. You are young yet, and as you grow older I hope you will see things in a different light to what you do at present. And then, I don't forget you have not had the best of up-bringing so far.

Some of us would very likely have shaped even worse than you are doing had we been placed in your circumstances. As I think of all this I begin to feel kindly to you, and to make allowance for your shortcomings; and I begin to think it would not be at all surprising if you turned out better than the one who has in these lines been finding fault with you. I hope you may.

The Boyhood of Samuel.

His father

SAMUEL was a child of many prayers. and mother were praying people. His mother, in particular, prayed very much. In all her troubles and sorrows, she went to God, and asked of Him the help she needed. Scarcely any woman in the Bible impresses us so much with the depth and sweetness of her piety, and with the earnestness and importunity of her prayers. In answer to her fervent and long-continued prayers, her son Samuel was born; and, after his birth, she continued to surround him with the protecting and hallowing influence of her prayers. Having received him from God, in answer to her prayers, she gave him a name which at once proclaimed this wonderful

fact and her gratitude to God for His gift. The name, Samuel, means, Asked of God. The grateful piety of her heart was further shown by her dedicating the boy to God's service while he was yet quite a babe. She took him up to Shiloh, many miles from where she lived, and placed him under the care of Eli, the aged priest of God, to be trained in God's service and kept constantly about the sanctuary. There she left him; but she and his father continued to take a deep and tender interest in his fortunes, and, no doubt, had many a sweet and anxious talk about him, and often interceded with God on his behalf. On the occasion of their coming up from the country to Shiloh, at the yearly feasts, which they regularly did, the mother showed her loving forethought by bringing her boy a new and costly dress, year by year. Samuel turned out to be a very fine lad, pious, affectionate, and dutiful. The aged priest Eli got to love him very much, and employed him in many little services about the sanctuary. He saw he was a boy to be trusted, and not likely to bring trouble upon him (Eli), or disgrace upon religion. As he grew to be a big boy, when perhaps between nine and twelve years of age, he had gained so much upon Eli's favour and confidence, that he had him appointed to an office in the sanctuary. It is said that, boy though he was, 'he ministered before the Lord,' which probably means that he attended to the lamps and kept the doors of the sanctuary (1 Sam. iii. 3-15). I have said his good conduct and amiable disposition made him a great favourite with Eli; but it is of greater importance to know God was much pleased with him. This was made evident in a remarkable way. One day, when the services of the sanctuary were over, and night had set in, and silence brooded all around, and sleep had fallen upon the boy Samuel with the sweetness it usually visits the young, he was startled and aroused by a voice calling him by his name. Believing it to be Eli's voice, he sprang from his bed, and hurried to the apartment of the venerable priest, asking why he called him. Eli assured him he was mistaken, as he certainly had not called him, and told him to go back to bed, and compose himself. A second and a third time the Divine Voice again addressed Samuel, he believing, in each instance, it was Eli's voice, and going, as in the first instance, to ask what he wanted. The venerable priest now suspected the truth, and advised Samuel, if he heard the voice again, to say n reply, 'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.' Accordingly, when he again

heard the mysterious voice speaking to him out of the darkness, he replied as he had been told to do. God now made a revelation to him of the awful doom hanging over the house of Eli, owing to the wickedness of his sons, and his connivance at it, the full account of which you may find in the third chapter of the First Book of Samuel. From this time Samuel became known as a prophet of the Lord, and for many years he was looked up to and obeyed as the Governor of Israel. "That's an old-world story,' you say; 'nothing of the kind happens in our day.' Whoever says that, says what isn't correct. God speaks now to boys and girls as surely as He did in the olden times. There isn't a boy or girl in the world that God does not speak to. And, as in the case of Samuel, He oftens speaks to them in the darkness of the night, when all around is calm and still, and when their eyes are closed in sleep. He does not speak with an outward voice, but inwardly, in the depths of the soul. Conscience is the voice of God. When Conscience tells boys and girls, as it is constantly doing, that they must do right. and avoid wrong, God is speaking to them as surely as if He spoke to them in peals of thunder. May the boys and girls who read this page never forget that the voice of Conscience is the voice of God, and may they have grace to obey it.

I can almost hear the rustling
Of their wings above my head,
See their bright angelic faces

As they cluster round my bed.
Something tells me I am dying,

Yes, I feel my time is come; But you must not grieve, dear mother, I am only going home.

Going home to be with Jesus,

Angels bright to lead the way;
Listen! mother, He is calling

Me from earth to come away.
Even now, the glory streameth
On my vision from afar,
'Jesus,' 'Jesus,' I shall see Thee
Soon within the 'gates ajar.'

Do not weep, my darling mother,
I shall soon be free from pain,
Where these aching limbs shall never,
Never trouble me again;

Where, in blooming youth and beauty,
I shall dwell at God's right hand,
Clad in robes of spotless whiteness,
With the blood-besprinkled band.

Open wide the window, mother,

Let the cool air fan my cheek;
Though I'm not afraid of dying,
I am very faint and weak.
Say that you forgive me, mother,

All the unkind words I've said;
Raise me in your arms and kiss me

'Ere I'm numbered with the dead.

Now, dear mother, I am ready!

I shall not have long to wait,
And remember, you must meet me,
Meet me at the golden gate.
But 'tis growing darker-darker-
Darling mother, one more kiss ;
Angels, spread your snowy pinions,
Waft me to my home in bliss.

-Sunday School Chronicle.

Boys who became Famous Men. ONE day a Scotch lad, not yet sixteen, started from home to take charge of a gentleman's garden in Cheshire. He bade farewell to his father, brothers,

and sisters; but his mother accompanied him to the boat on which he was to cross the Firth of Forth.

'Now, my Robert,' she said, as they came in sight of the ferry; 'let us stand here for a few minutes. I wish to ask one favour of you before we part.' 'What is it, mother?' answered the son.

'Promise me that you will do what I am going to ask you.'

'I cannot, mother,' replied the cautious boy, 'till you tell me what your wish is.'

'O Robert!' she exclaimed, and the big tears rolled down her cheeks; 'would I ask you to do anything that is not right?'

'Ask what you will, mother, and I will do it,' said the son, overcome by his mother's agitation.

'I ask you to promise me that you will read a chapter in the Bible every morning and evening.' 'Mother, you know I read Bible.' my

'I know you do, but you do not read it regularly. I shall return home with a happy heart, seeing you have promised me to read the Scriptures daily.'

The lad went his way. He kept his promise, and read his Bible every day. He read, however, because he loved his mother, not from any pleasure he found in the sacred book. At length, inattentive though he was, the truths he daily came in contact with aroused his conscience. He became uneasy, and then unhappy. He would have ceased reading, but for his promise. Living alone in a lodge, in a large garden, his leisure was his own. He had but few books, and those were works on gardening and botany, which his profession obliged him to consult. He was shut up in one book--the Bible. He did not pray, until his unhappiness sent him to his knees. One evening, while poring over the Epistle of the Romans, light broke into his soul. The apostle's words appeared different, though familiar to him.

'Can it be possible,' he said to himself, that I have never understood what I have read again and again?

Peace came to his mind, and he found himself earnestly desiring to know and to do the will of God. That will was made known to him in a simple way. One night, as he entered a neighbouring town, he read a placard announcing that a missionary meeting was to be held. The time appointed for the meeting had long passed, but the lad stood and read the placard over and over. Stories of missionaries, told him by his mother, came up as vividly as if they had just been related. Then and

there was begotten the purpose which made Robert Moffat a missionary to the Hottentots of South Africa.

The Boastful Toad.

A FABLE.

A TOAD, who thought a good deal of himself, was sitting on the bank of a stream. He had puffed himself out to twice his ordinary size, and had widened his mouth until it looked quite formidable. His eyes seemed to be starting out of his head, so greatly had he strained them in his efforts to make himself as big as possible. Having thus made the most of himself that he could, he gazed into the water, and was delighted with the image of himself that he beheld. He had not imagined that he could be so imposing, and in a congratulatory tone he thus addressed himself :

'Ah! what a fine fellow I am! what a lovely skin! what a graceful figure! what eyes! what nimble legs! Was there ever creature so endowed! I can jump and leap! and then my voice-oh, what a voice it is it may be heard far and near. Yes, natural gifts have indeed been lavishly showered upon me, and the world ought greatly to appreciate so wonderful an animal. I am above all other creatures -birds, beasts, and fishes. I am, I think, even superior to man. I should like to hear any one dispute what I say, for only look at my size-that must convince them!'

A little fish, who was swimming close by, heard the boastful toad's remarks, and, popping his head above the water, said, 'Well, you may have an opportunity of showing your superiority, if you choose, for a party of schoolboys are coming down to bathe, and are quite certain to notice you.'

'Schoolboys, did you say?' said the toad, shrinking at once to his usual size; then I shall be off at once, since they are much too impertinent for me to hold converse with. They are too young to understand my arguments; it is with men alone that I wish to deal.' So saying, the toad turned round, and croaking loudly, and leaping along with all its might, was speedily out of sight, and in hiding.

"Ah!' said the little fish, when he found himself alone, 'this is always the way with boasters; they say great things when there is no one by to contradict them; but let any one who can put their boasting to flight draw near, and they are only too glad to escape from an encounter.'