near the top of the candle as to disturb the shape of the flame. You see it is soon covered with soot. Strange to say, it is the burning of this soot that gives beauty and brightness to the flame of a properly-burning candle, and makes it more brilliant than the finest diamond. Shall we try another experiment ?"

"Please do, father," cried both the boys.

Well, here is a glass jar; you might call it empty, but it is really filled with air; let us place it carefully over the candle, and watch what will happen. At first the candle burns as usual, but gradually it begins to smoke, the jar becomes cloudy, and at length the light goes out. This teaches us several things. You see a proof of what I told you before-that fresh air is necessary to support flame; and also learn that water is one of the products of a candle, for it is water which has dimmed the inside of the jar. Indeed, if we were able to continue our experiments, we should find that everything which burns with a flame produces water."

"Is there no air inside that jar now, father ?" asked Willie; "has the candle burned it all up ?"

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There is air still, my boy, but not fresh air. And here we see a resemblance between a lighted candle and ourselves. If we were shut up many hours in a small, close room, where no fresh air got in, we should die, because, as we breathe, our lungs throw off a kind of gas which, if not carried away, becomes poisonous to men and animals, though it is the very food of trees and plants. A

burning candle does the same, and cannot live in very bad air. On this account it is often used as a test; and before people venture into a deep cave or well, they try the air there by putting down a lighted candle, knowing that if it burns properly they may follow with safety. And now, dear boys, you must be tired of my long story, and very ready to experiment on the tea and toast which mother has gone to prepare; but I have just one word more. In many respects I would like you to resemble this candle. Live to be useful. Live to give light. Live to accomplish the end for which you were made; and quietly and steadily shine on, trying to do your duty-not that people may praise you, but Him who made you. For those who are enabled through grace to shine as lights here, shall shine as suns and stars for ever and ever.

IDOL GODS.

THIS picture represents one of the idol gods once worshipped on the Sandwich Islands. Many of the people of those islands have become Christians, by God's blessing on the labours of missionaries who went to them to preach the gospel; and when the poor heathen begin to love and worship the only true God, they burn or throw away their idols.

This frightful, staring image, carved out of wood, is as tall as a man, and has, as you see, a head as large as its body.

In heathen lands there are large numbers of

such gods, great and small, and many men are constantly employed in making them.

You see on the next page a picture of a shop for making idols. There is a man painting an image which has the head of an elephant and the hand of a man. Another is carving two serpents. Another is sawing a piece from a log, which will also be made into a false god.

All these blocks of wood, thus carved into various forms, are to be sold and worshipped. Is it not strange that men can be found, and millions of them too, who really believe that an image which

they themselves can make and set up is a god? In those dark places of the earth, which have never been made glad by the light of the gospel, multitudes of poor heathen are seen every day, in

their homes, in the groves, by the rivers and by the wayside, kneeling down, or standing and bowing to these gods of wood and stone, and worshipping them.

How sad is their state! How fearful it is to think that they know nothing of the love of the blessed Saviour who has died to redeem them, and who is

always ready and willing to hear the prayers of all who come to him believing his word! When you' pray, "Thy kingdom come," think of the heathen, and offer up that prayer with the earnest desire that the kingdom of our blessed Lord may come, both in your own and their hearts.

MARY LUNDIE DUNCAN.

ووو

KELSO was the home of Mary Lundie. Her mother, speaking of her birth, says: "It was in the spring of 1814 that this dear child first saw the light, when the orchards that surrounded the manse (parsonage house) of Kelso were, as her father used to say, 'a blaze of blossoms.' She was a lovely child. Her father usually spoke of her as his "sweet bud, born amongst blossoms," and when quite young it was her delight to go out in the morning and pluck a primrose for him to wear all day in the button-hole of his coat.

She was one of those little ones who seem to find their way to the heart of every person about them. And it may be well for the young to know what made Mary so much beloved. It was not her pretty face alone, for you know a child may be beautiful and yet be unlovely; but it was her constant desire to make others happy. Kindness and gentleness beamed from her eyes, and this was because she began, when very young, to love Jesus Christ, and to try to be like him.

When only four years old, she was at one time playing with her little brother Cornelius, whom