2.

3.

Neither doth trouble spring out of the ground:
Yet man is born unto trouble,

As the sparks fly upward.

I would seek unto God,

And unto God would I commit my cause:
Who doeth great things and unsearchable;
+ Marvelous things without number:
Who giveth rain upon the earth,

And sendeth waters upon the fields:
To set up on high those that be low;

That those which mourn may be exalted to safety.

He disappointeth the devices of the crafty,

So that their hands can not perform their enterprise:

He taketh the wise in their own craftiness:

And the counsel of the froward is carried headlong:

They meet with darkness in the daytime,

And grope in the noonday as in the night.

But he saveth the poor from the sword,

From their mouth, and from the hand of the mighty.
So the poor hath hope,

And iniquity stoppeth her mouth.

Behold! happy is the man whom God correcteth: Therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For he maketh sore, and bindeth up:

He woundeth, and his hands make whole.

He shall deliver thee in six troubles:

Yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.

In famine, he shall redeem thee from death:

And in war, from the power of the sword.

Thou shalt be hid from the + Scourge of the tongue :

Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.

At destruction and famine thou shalt laugh:

Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the earth.
For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field:
And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
And thou shalt know that thy + tabernacle shall be in peace;
And thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.
Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great,
And thine offspring as the grass of the earth.
Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age,

Like as a shock of corn cometh in, in his season.
Lo! this, we have searched it, so it is;
Hear it, and know thou it for thy good.

BIBLE.

QUESTIONS.-Who is meant by the foolish man? Why are the wicked called foolish? What advice is given in this lesson to Job? What is the proper effect of divine chastisement?

What interjections are there in the 3d paragraph? What prepositions in the last four lines?

LESSON LIII.

REMARK.-As each one reads, let each scholar in the class mention every syllable that is pronounced wrong, and correct it.

UTTER the final g distinctly in the following words in this lesson: blazing, endeavoring, listening, wasting, surrounding, gathering, driving, neighboring, herring, swellings, tidings, ministering, defending, frowning, barking, continuing, giving, darling, springing.

1. Fag'-ots, n. bundles of sticks and 7. Com-pli-ca'-tion, n. the act mingling small branches used for fuel.

Prat'-tle, n. trifling talk.

together several things.
Sym'-pa-thies, n. compassion.

Dis'-si-pate, v. to scatter, to disperse. 9. Gush'-ed, v. flowed copiously.

2. Pu'-ny, a. small and weak.

[life.

4. Pil'-grim-age, n. the journey of human

Man'-na, n, food miraculously provided by God for the Israelites.

THE RIGHTEOUS NEVER FORSAKEN.

1. Ir was Saturday night, and the widow of the Pine Cottage sat by her blazing fagots, with her five tattered children at her side, endeavoring by listening to the artlessness of their prattle, to dissipate the heavy gloom that pressed upon her mind. For a year, her own feeble hand had provided for her helpless family, for she had no supporter: she thought of no friend in all the wide, unfriendly world around.

2. But that mysterious Providence, the wisdom of whose ways is above human comprehension, had visited her with wasting sickness, and her little means had become exhausted. It was now, too, midwinter, and the snow lay heavy and deep through all the surrounding forests, while storms still seemed gathering in the heavens, and the driving wind roared amid the neighboring pines, and rocked her puny mansion.

3. The last herring smoked upon the coals before her; it was the only article of food she possessed, and no wonder her forlorn, desolate state brought up in her lone bosom all the anxieties of a mother, when she looked upon her children: and no wonder, forlorn as she was, if she suffered the heart swellings of despair to rise, even though she knew that He, whose promise is to the widow and to the orphan, can not forget his word.

4. Providence had, many years before, taken from her her eldest son, who went from his forest home to try his fortune on the high seas, since which she had heard no tidings of him; and, in her latter time, had, by the hand of death, deprived her of the companion and staff of her earthly pilgrimage, in the person of her husband. Yet to this hour she had been upborne; she had not only been able to provide for her little flock, but had never lost an opportunity of ministering to the wants of the miserable and destitute.

5. The indolent may well bear with poverty, while the ability to gain sustenance remains. The individual who has but his own wants to supply, may suffer with fortitude the winter of want; his affections are not wounded, his heart not wrung. The most desolate in populous cities may hope, for charity has not quite closed her hand and heart, and shut her eyes on misery.

6. But the industrious mother of helpless and depending children, far from the reach of human charity, has none of these to + console her. And such a one was the widow of the Pine Cottage; but as she bent over the fire, and took up the last scanty +remnant of food, to spread before her children, her spirits seemed to brighten up, as by some sudden and mysterious impulse, and Cowper's beautiful lines came uncalled across her mind:

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust him for his grace;

Behind a frowning Providence
He hides a smiling face.

+

7. The smoked herring was scarcely laid upon the table, when a gentle rap at the door, and loud barking of a dog, attracted the attention of the family. The children flew to open it, and a weary traveler, in tattered garments, and apparently indifferent health, entered and begged a lodging, and a mouthful of food. Said he, "It is now twenty-four hours since I tasted bread." The widow's heart bled anew as under a fresh complication of distresses; for her sympathies lingered not around her fireside. She hesitated not even now; rest and a share of all she had she

proffered to the stranger.

66

"We shall not be forsaken," said she, or suffer deeper for an act of charity."

8. The traveler drew near the board, but when he saw the scanty fare, he raised his eyes toward heaven with astonishment: “And is this all your store?" said he, "and a share of this do you offer to one you know not? then never saw I charity before! but madam," said he, continuing, "do you not wrong your chil dren by giving a part of your last mouthful to a stranger?"

9. "Ah," said the poor widow, and the teardrops gushed into her eyes as she said it, "I have a boy, a darling son, somewhere on the face of the wide world, unless heaven has taken him away, and I only act toward you, as I would that others should act toward him. God, who sent manna from heaven, can provide for us as he did for Israel; and how should I this night offend him, if my son should be a wanderer, destitute as you, and he should have provided for him a home, even poor as this, were I to turn you unrelieved away."

10. The widow ended, and the stranger springing from his seat, clasped her in his arms: "God indeed has provided your son a home, and has given him wealth to reward the goodness of his +benefactress: my mother! oh my mother!" It was her long lost son, returned to her bosom from the Indies. He had chosen that disguise that he might the more completely surprise his family; and never was surprise more perfect, or followed by a Aweeter cup of joy.

11. That humble residence in the forest was exchanged for one comfortable, and indeed beautiful, in the valley; and the widow lived long with her dutiful son, in the enjoyment of worldly plenty, and in the delightful employments of virtue and at this day the passer-by is pointed to the willow that spreads its branches above her grave.

ANONYMOUS

QUESTIONS.-Relate the history of the widow and her son, as given this lesson. Can evil ever come from judiciously obeying the dictates of benevolence? Are there many in this world really so poor as not to be able to do something for others ?

ARTICULATION.

Priceless, prob'd, principle, profitable, printed.

Priceless was the offering. The wound was thoroughly prob'd. Prineiple may not be profitable. The books are printed. Spring flings her rosy mantle o'er the plains. The rowers ply their weary oars:

LESSON LIV.

PRONOUNCE correctly.-An-swer, pro. an-ser: fast-en'd, pro. as'n'd: swad-dling, pro. swod-dling: treas-ures, pro. treas-yures: 4-gainst, pro. a-genst.

1. Whirl'-wind, n. a violent wind moving in a circle.

8. Swad'-dling-band, n. (pro. swod

dling-band) a band or cloth wrapped round an infant.

Stay'-ed, p. stopt.

8. Wa'-ter-course, n. a stream of water.

THE WORKS OF GOD.

1. THEN the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,

Who is this that darkeneth + counsel

By words without knowledge?

Gird up now thy loins like a man;

For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.

Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.

Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest ?

Or who hath stretched the line upon it?

Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened?

Or who laid the corner stone thereof,

When the morning stars sang together,

And all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Or who shut up the sea with doors,

When it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb? When I made the cloud the garment thereof,

And thick darkness a swaddling-band for it,