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HOW CHILDREN CAN MAKE HOME HAPPY.

HOW CHILDREN CAN MAKE HOME HAPPY. 'Dayspring' Prize Essay, by Emily Ada Guy. HERE are many ways in which children may help to make home happy, if they only try. One way is to obey their parents, teachers, and those who are placed over them, cheerfully, and at once. If they disobey, or do not do what they are told promptly and cheerfully, it both shews a bad example to those younger, and is bad for themselves. Jesus, who is our example, was always obedient, even to His earthly parents. So should not we much more be obedient to our parents.

Another way to help to make home happy is to be kind to brothers and sisters, especially to the younger ones. If the elder ones speak cross to them, they will get provoked, and will, perhaps, reply angrily, and will not do as they ask them; and then a quarrel arises, and that is not a happy thing in a family.

'Birds in their little nests agree;
And 'tis a shameful sight,

If children of one family

Fall out, and chide, and fight."

I once read a story of a little boy whose little brother died. He took his little pale hand in his and said, 'This little hand never struck me.' That boy had a kind little brother. How often a blow is struck in anger which, if we had thought a moment, would never have been struck! Once a little boy and girl had been quarrelling; the little boy said, 'Me strike oo.' But his little sister held up her lips and said, 'Me kiss 'oo.' How much better it was to kiss than to strike. When the little girl said, 'Me kiss 'oo,' the little boy said, Me kiss 'oo too,' and the brother and sister were friends again. There is a great deal also in the tone in which a thing is said; if it is said in a pleasant and agreeable tone, people are glad to help. Children, too, ought to do their lessons cheerfully and pleasantly, knowing that it is for their good. If they are difficult, they ought to set to them diligent

ly, and not make other people unhappy by their complaining about them. Children should obey their parents first, and then try to please them in other ways. If a mother wants her child to do something for her, it is not a right excuse to make that he is at his lessons.

I remember of reading about a little girl, her name was Lucy Morris. She was known to be the best Sunday scholar in her class, and was always in time. But at home she was very different. She was constantly studying her lessons; and on a Sunday morning, when her mother would call her to dress her little brothers or sisters, she would at first pretend not to hear, and then, when called again, she would come very unwillingly, and be very cross to her brothers and sisters; and when she set the breakfast, she made such a noise with the dishes, that she sometimes gave her mother more trouble than help. That girl did not seem to try to make her home happy.

Children should be very polite, especially to old people or strangers. They should also be modest, not pushing themselves forward as if they were grown people. If there is anything wrong with us, if we are not well, or are in pain, we should not cry nor fret more than we can help, but wait patiently until we are better; for it makes people unhappy to see children crying, and it is unpleasant to hear them fretting. There are many other ways in which children might help to make home happy; but these are a few of the chief things which tend to do so. But all these things cannot be done all at once, nor of ourselves; we must get a new heart first, and when the heart is right, then the things that come out of it will be right; for, as out of the bad heart proceed evil things, so, out of the new heart proceed good things.

We must pray very earnestly to God to give us a new heart, and to help us to be meek and gentle like Jesus; and by degrees we will conquer many wrong things, and so help to make our homes happy.

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HOME LESSONS ON THE OLD PATHS.

FAITH.

FAITH.

CAN any of you tell me in which chapter of the New Testament the word "faith" occurs twenty-three times? 'Twenty-three times, mamma,' said Charley.

'Yes, twenty-three times. Almost every verse begins with "By faith."'

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'I have found it, mamma,' said Nelly. 'It is the eleventh of Hebrews, the chapter that tells us about Abel and Enoch and Noah, &c., &c.'

'That is the chapter. It is like a portrait gallery, for in it we see likenesses of the good men of old-the Hebrew worthiesthe noble family of believers. When we study these, we observe in them all a striking likeness to one another-one feature especially, marks them all as belonging to one family. Can you tell me what it is?'

'It is faith,' Charley replied.

'Faith is the one thing which distinguishes every member of the family of God. Without it we cannot be His children. Read verse 6.'

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."

'That verse tells us both the necessity of faith, and what this precious faith is. The 13th verse makes the nature of faith still plainer.'

Charley read, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth."

"Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham all died in faith. Though they died long, long before Christ Jesus came into the world, they believed the promises, and embraced Christ, and lived and died trusting in Him alone for salvation.'

'What is faith in Jesus Christ?'

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Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace,

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whereby we receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation, as He is offered to us in the gospel.'

That answer is a scriptural and a beautiful definition of faith. If you study it along with the xi. of Hebrews, the meaning of faith will be very plain to you. Jesus is the gift of God offered to us in the gospel. When a gift is offered to us, what must we do to get it?'

'We don't do anything, mamma; we just take it, and thank our friend for giving it us.'

"That is how we should receive the Lord Jesus. We should take Him as our Saviour, and say, Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. Faith receives Jesus, the gift of God. Read John i. 11, 12.'

"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name."'

'Receiving Jesus, believing on Him, coming to Him, trusting in Him, all mean saving faith. Why is faith a saving grace?' 'Because it makes Jesus our Own Saviour.'

'That is why faith saves, and faith is a grace, because it comes from God. "For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." You know whose work it is to persuade and enable sinners to embrace Jesus Christ?'

It is the work of the Holy Spirit.'

'I will read you a story, which may help to explain this to you:-"When the late Rev. William Arnot was pastor of a church in Glasgow, he heard that a woman, whom he knew, was in trouble. She could not pay her debts, and she could not pay her rent: so he went round to her house, thinking he would help her. He knocked at the door, and listened, and thought he heard some one inside; so he knocked again, but no one came. He knocked the third time very loud, and listened, but did not hear any one; all was still. After waiting some time, he made a great noise,

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ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD.

and at last left the house. A few days after, he met the woman in the street, and he said to her, 'I was round at your house the other day. I heard you were in trouble, and could not pay your rent, and I went to help you.' The woman said, 'Was that you? I was in the house at the time, but I thought it was the landlord come for the rent; and as I had not got the money, I kept the door locked.'

Now tell me what that woman would have done, had she believed that it was a kind friend who was knocking at her door?'

'She would have opened it in a moment.' "That is how faith changes the heart. The sinner in his natural state thinks that Jesus is his enemy, and that He comes to take away his liberty and joy; and, while he continues in this mind, he keeps the door of his heart fast barred against Him. But whenever he believes that Jesus is his best friend, who has come to pay his debt, and set him free from the law, he opens the door of his heart, and the King of Glory comes in, and brings light and peace and joy. This change of mind is conversion-the work of the Holy Spirit. Nelly, you remember a question you learned some time ago, How doth the Spirit apply to us the redemption purchased by Christ?'

"The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.'

'To convert a sinner, is just to put faith in his heart. How can we ever please God if we do not trust His Word? Who were those whom Jesus commended most highly, when He was on earth?'

'The centurion was one,' said Charley. "The Syrophenician woman,' added Nelly.

'Mary, who broke the box of ointment, and poured it on His head,' said little Alice.

'It was the strong faith of each one of these, which so pleased Jesus.'

'I know that it was the centurion's faith, and the Syrophenician woman's faith; but

I thought it was Mary's love which Jesus commended.'

'No doubt Mary's love pleased Jesus; but it was her strong faith which produced her love. It was because she believed what Jesus had told her concerning His death, that she brought her costly offering. There can be no love to Jesus, where there is no faith in His death.'

'Once for all, oh, sinner, receive it!
Once for all, oh, brother, believe it!
Cling to the cross, the burden will fall;
Christ hath redeemed us once for all.'

I

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD. IT T was Christmas Eve. The streets were crowded with people of every description, hurrying along to make or to finish their Christmas purchases. The shops were bright and gay-many of them decorated with evergreens-and the windows full of all sorts of beautiful things, considered necessaries of merry Christmas by so many people,-while at home, we had to pinch and save for necessaries of a very different kind. looked at ladies dressed in velvet and fur, and at pretty, rosy children running along beside them, and trying to drag them over to every gay window they passed. I noticed ever so many odd-looking parcels, big and little, and of all shapes, which told of so much surprise and pleasure for that evening and the next morning. Then I thought of our little home, of my widowed mother, and my little brothers and sisters, who had not these pleasures; especially of the poor wee boy so soon about to leave us, but who might, perhaps, be kept with us a little longer, if only we could have got for him some of the good things that were super-abundant in many houses. When I thought of all that, I began to wonder if it could be right that there was such a difference between these people and us. I could not understand why God would let father die, and leave us to be so poor, if He really loved us and took care of us, as

ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD

mother always said He did. I thought He must have forgotten us altogether.

While these discontented thoughts were passing through my mind, 1 was going home, cold and tired, from the dressmaker's where I worked. My head was throbbing, and my legs trembled, so that I could scarcely reach our own door, or climb the long stairs. Certainly it was not a cheery, happy face that mother saw when she looked up from her sewing as I entered the room. It was a little room, very bare, but quite neat and clean; yet so different from the pretty little cottage in the country where we had spent our last Christmas, when father was still with us.

'Poor girl,' said mother, 'how cold you are! You need a rest; you have been too busy of late; and last night you were scarcely in bed at all. After tea you must lie down on the sofa, and perhaps you will be able to sleep; that will set you all right. We won't work at all to-night; we may enjoy ourselves on Christmas Eve just as well as other people, although in a quieter way than most.'

Mother was right. Ten minutes after I lay down by the side of the fire, I fell fast asleep; and, as often happens, my dreams were of the same kind as my thoughts had been. I dreamed that an angel took me by the hand and said: 'My daughter, you are discontented with your lot; come with me.' I obeyed, and suddenly I felt myself rise from the earth, and begin to float gently through the air, the angel still holding me by the hand. By and by we stopped. Now look!' said my guide, 'what do you see?' I did as he bade me. The walls of the splendid house before us became transparent, and I saw a lovely girl, about my own age, lying on a couch in a richly furnished room. I asked my guide why he had brought me there to make me more discontented still. Look again,' he said. Then I observed that the lady's face was very pale, and her eyes were closed; and it was easy to see that she was in great pain. 'Her parents,' said the angel, were both killed in a railway accident, and she herself got her spine so

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badly hurt, that she will never again be able to leave her sofa without aid. Yet she has everything that money can buy; will you change places with her, or will you go back to your little home in that dull street, which made you so discontented this afternoon?

'No,' I said, 'oh! no. In spite of her fine house and all her wealth, I would not exchange with her.'

'Oh, take me home!' I cried; 'better be in poverty all our lives, than lose health and peace of heart and mind! Although we are poor, we love each other, and our life is simple and quiet. Take me home again.'

"You have chosen wisely, my daughter; it is not always what we envy most that would make us happy. All that glitters is not gold.'

When I awoke, mother and the children were sitting round the fire; mother was reading the story of the first Christmas, so long, long ago; and I thought, surely our poverty is nothing like what the King of Glory had to bear, when He left His throne in heaven, and became a little helpless baby, born in a stable, and then grew up to be a poor man, without a home of His own in the world, which He Himself had made. We have a home, and, after all, a happy one; so we are far better off than He was. By and by we sang together:

Hark! the herald angels sing;' then we went to bed. I felt quite contented again by that time; and two thoughts stood out very clearly in my mind. One was, 'All that glitters is not gold;' the other, 'We are often not thankful enough for the gold we have.'

THY way, not mine, O Lord,
However dark it be!
Lead me by Thine own hand,
Choose out the path for me.
Smooth let it be or rough,
It will be still the best;
Winding or straight, it leads
Right onward to Thy rest.
I dare not choose my lot;
I would not, if I might;
Choose Thou for me, my God,
So shall I walk aright.

J. D.

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