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PRIZE SCRIPTURE QUESTIONS.

ivy which grew on the wall of the passage. Keble, amused with the request, cut a large branch and gave it to his visitor. And the visitor carried it with him like a precious thing, saying he would be ashamed to name the sum he could easily get in America for every leaf upon the bough which was cut by Keble's hand.

H. W. II. W.

'PLEASURES FOR EVERMORE.' 'At Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.'Ps. 16. 11.

γου never had a pleasure that lasted. You looked forward to a great pleasure, and it comes, and then very soon it is gone, and you can only look back upon it. The very longest and pleasantest day you ever had came to an end, and you had to go to bed and know that it was over.

How different are the pleasures at God's right hand! They are for evermore, and you cannot get to the end or see to the end of 'evermore,' for there is no end to it.

And you see it is not one pleasure only, but pleasures,' as manifold as they are unending. Do you not wonder what they will be? We cannot even guess at most of them; and if we thought and imagined the brightest and best that we possibly could, we should still find, when we reached heaven, that God's 'pleasures' for us were ever so much greater and better than we thought.

We can tell a few things about them. They will be holy pleasures, never mingled with any sin. They will be perfect pleasures, with nothing whatever to spoil them. They will be lasting pleasures, for to-night's text says so. They will be abundant pleasures, as many as we can possibly wish, for David says (Ps. 36. 8), 'They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house, and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.' They will be always freshly flowing pleasures, for they are a river, not a little pool. They will be pleasures given by God Himself to us, for it does not say they shall drink,' but 'Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.'

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And all these God hath prepared' for you. Is He not good and kind!

'Angel voices sweetly singing,
Echoes through the blue dome ringing,
News of wondrous gladness bringing,
Ah, 'tis heaven at last!

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'Not a tear-drop ever falleth, Not a pleasure ever palleth, Song to song for ever calleth; Ah, 'tis heaven at last.' (From 'Little Pillows.') FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.

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The Dayspring Bible Class.

QUESTIONS ON MATTHEW'S GOSPEL. Chapter IX. 18-38.

Who came to Jesus while He was teaching in Matthew's house?

By what remarkable request did Jairus shew his strong faith in Jesus?

How long had the woman, in the crowd, been suffering from disease?

What made her touch the hem of Christ's garment?

What encouraging words did Jesus address to her? What miracle accompanied these words? What did Jesus say to the people who were making a noise in the ruler's house? How did they treat His words? Did Jesus permit these people to witness His raising the child to life?

Luke 8. 51.

Who alone witnessed this miracle?
How old was Jairus' little daughter? Mark 5. 42.
What was the cry of the two blind men who
followed Jesus?

What did Jesus ask them?

What did Jesus say regarding their faith? By what saying did the multitudes express their wonder at Jesus' power over the devils? How did the Pharisees show their enmity against Him?

How are the various works of Jesus in the cities and villages described?

What was it that moved Jesus with compassion for the multitudes?

What did He bid His disciples do for them? How many miracles are recorded in this chapter?

Prize Scripture Questions.

Competitors will please observe to address their answers to Rev. JOHN KAY, 11 Teviot Row, Edinburgh.

19 Where does Paul shew his strong affection for one of his friends by using in one verse five different terms when naming him?

20 Where is the benign influence of the Lord's people on those around them compared to refreshing rain?

21 In what passage of four verses, from the prophets, are those nine times reproved who look with pleasure on the calamities of others?

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Brightly, on the spray, Hangs the early dew, Would the thorn but open to drink it!

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sid,.,d,: m,.,s,|ds,.,s,: S,.,f,m,r,.,d,: t,.,d, f, S.,s,s, :d, |— : O, my heart, unclose, Upward look at morn. Drink the heav'nly dew lest thou harden!

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Let me be a rose

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Not a wounding thorn-Growing in the sweet home-garden.

Many have been stung

Wounded by the thorn:

Roses' looks are kind, sweet and sunny;

Can they keep their tongue

Sharply tipped with scorn,

While they keep their hearts full of honey?

Though the thorn, in spite,

Often pierce the rose,

Never once the rose will resent it;

But, its rare delight

Hasting to disclose,

Lives in hope the thorn may repent it.

Paisley: J. AND R. PARLANE.]

Lurks the thorn below?

Still sweet roses bend,

Stooping on their lithe stems to greet him; Longing that the foe

May become a friend,

Won by sending perfume to meet him.

Love is heaven's dew,
Ever sweet and mild;

Thorns look up, their hard heart uncloses:

Love creates anew,

Love transforms the wild,

Ever changing thorns into roses!

[London: HOULSTON AND SONS.

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THE WIDOW'S CHRISTMAS EVE.

THE WIDOW'S CHRISTMAS EVE.

GIVE me neither poverty nor riches,'

was the prayer of Agur long ago, and this happy medium is perhaps as desirable in our time as in the days of Solomon. Dont you think so, my young readers? Or would you like best to have a great deal of money? If so, I hope you also expect to make a good use of it.

But it is not necessary to be rich in order to be happy. So, at least, thought Edward Forbes, that fine summer day when he found himself able to bring home his young wife to a pretty cottage outside the country town where he had employment; and when, by-and-by, a little son and daughter came to gladden his fireside, he thought himself indeed the happiest of men. But God had other plans for this family than that of continued earthly prosperity. All too soon, to our short sight, the husband and father sickened and died, leaving no provision for his wife and little ones, but commending them to our Heavenly Father's care. Mrs. Forbes was not a person to sit down in helpless, hopeless despair. In her the grace of God had laid hold of a deep, strong nature. Early left an orphan, she was inured to hardships, and through much conflict and distress she had learned the grand secret of life, and given up her whole soul to God's keeping.

Now that a grave responsibility rested on her, she did not take time to bewail her heavy loss, though knowing very well that the sore pain of bereavement would not easily pass away. She quietly accepted her widowhood, and girding herself up once more for the battle of life, in God's strength, she can still thank Him for ' remembered joys.' In order to maintain herself and her children she must work. In pursuance of this design she leaves the pretty cottage home, with its blooming roses, and free, fresh breezes, to reside in one small room of a huge, dingy building in the narrow street of a distant city. Here we find her one Christmas eve some years afterwards. She has got employment,

for the good reason that she was willing to take up any honest work that offered.

The whole appearance of the apartment, and the tidy look of the children, testify to the respectability that she has been able to keep up. Little Mary is deep in the mysteries of Miss Dolly's toilet; and you girls will be able to sympathise with her, if you have ever had the happiness to find a nice big doll, with clothes to put off and on, laid, perhaps, beside your pillow, by some loving hand, to give you a pleasant surprise in the morning. Ah, dear little ones, you like the toys now; one day, I hope, you will learn to value still more the affection that gives you them. And, even when, as time goes on,-the kind hands that have so ministered to your childish joys are cold in death, and the loving heart has ceased to beat, you will, I trust, be able to thank God for father and mother safe in Heaven.

But to return to Mrs. Forbes's little room on Christmas eve.

'Mother,' says Willie, with an eager, questioning look, 'Why does Santa Claus bring all his nice gifts to rich boys, who have plenty already? Tom Willis expects to find a chemical box and ever so many other things in his Christmas stocking.'

Now, Willie Forbes was not an ungenerous or envious boy. Usually he would have been as happy as Tom himself over any new possession of his friends, but somehow this evening Willie got to thinking about Tom's hopes and expectations as compared with his own; and it was very natural for him to feel that he would like sometimes to have the chance of doing a good turn as well as receiving many favours -a power, this, which riches seemed to confer. For Willie was old enough to understand that the mystic Santa Claus, who is supposed to fill the children's stockings with Christmas gifts, is just a name for kind papas and mammas, uncles and aunts; so that his real trouble was one that sometimes puzzles older heads than histhe apparent unequality in the distribution of the good things of this life. Neither was it exactly a selfish feeling with the boy,

WITNESSING FOR JESUS.

for his brightest day dreams were ever glorified by the grand things he was to do for mother.' Tom and Willie meant one day to become doctors, and even now they thought that they were fitting themselves for this profession, by trying little experiments in chemistry; hence their ambition to possess a box such as they had once seen, containing the materials for their purpose.

Mrs. Forbes was a wise woman, and so was careful not lightly to set aside the difficulties of her child; but after lifting up her soul to God in secret prayer for wisdom to speak the right word to Willie, she gently called him to her side for one of those talks with mother' that he had learned to value so much.

'Tell me, my son,' she said, 'Why it is that we make Christmas a festive season, and a time for giving and receiving of gifts, great or small?

'Because it commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, who came to save us from our sin,' was Willie's reverent reply.

'And in saving us does He not give us everything that is good for us?'

'Yes, surely.'

'Now we find that Christ's life, although He did, by it and in it, the most wonderful things that the world ever saw, was not a life of ease and honour, but of penury and suffering. The heavenly child, at whose birth the skies were filled with angels singing-"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men," was yet born in a stable and cradled in a manger. And you remember what the hymn says about Jesus after he grew to be a man :

"Who is He in yonder cot, Bending to His toilsome lot? "Tis the Lord! oh wondrous story! 'Tis the Lord, the King of glory!" 'Does this make things seem any clearer to you, Willie ?'

"Yes, mother, but is it then best to be poor, and wrong to be rich?'

'No, my son, there is no merit in being poor any more than in being rich. But what I would have you learn is this, that the true life of God's children is not to be found in outward things at all. The rich

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man may glorify God and help his fellows by means of his wealth, the poor man in his toil is alike bound, although in another way, to seek the same great end.'

Willie Forbes never forgot this 'talk with mother.' He thought, and rightly, that it was a solemn thing to know that he, though a little boy and poor in this world's good's, must try to do everything he had to do in the very best way he could, because that was glorifying to God. And when, in after years, this same faithful spirit did raise him to rank and fortune, he was no less careful to fulfil his wider mission, and so proved himself worthy of his stewardship.

THE

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WITNESSING FOR JESUS.

A. W.

HERE was once a little Hindoo girl named Rajee. She went to a missionary's school, but she would not eat with her school-fellows, because she belonged to a higher caste than they did. As she lived at the school, her mother brought her food every day, and Rajee sat under a tree to eat it.

At the end of two years she told her mother she wished to turn from idols, and serve the living God. Her mother was much troubled at hearing this, and begged her child not to bring disgrace on the family by becoming a Christian; but Rajee was anxious to save her precious soul. She cared no longer for her caste, for she knew that all she had been taught about it was deceit and folly; and, therefore, one day she sat down and ate with her school-fellows.

When her mother heard of Rajee's conduct, she ran to the school in a rage, and seizing her little daughter by the hair, began to beat her severely. Then she hastened to the priests, to ask them whether the child had lost her caste for ever.

The priests replied, 'Has the child got her new teeth?

7

'No,' said the mother.

Then we can cleanse her. And when her new teeth come, she will be as pure as But you must pay a good deal of money for the cleansing.'

ever.

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