up his children aright? How can his example be for their good? How can he feed and clothe them properly? It is as much as a hard-working, sober man can do, to find clothing and food for his family, without spending his money in drink. But many labouring men do manage to provide properly for their families, and all looks clean and decent about the house; but then these men spend very little in drinking. It is what a man eats that nourishes him; what he drinks has little or no nourishment in it. I am not against a little beer by way of refreshment, and it cheers a man for his work, and helps him to get on. It is like a spur to a horse; it enlivens him, but it does not nourish him. I am sure that labouring men would do better, if they were to spend more in eating, and less in drinking. It is true, that eating too much is bad; but this is not the danger that lies in a poor man's way. Potatoes make the chief food of many families; but a more nourishing food might be got, if less were spent in drinking, so that it need not be all potatoes. When a man asks me to give him "something to drink," I always feel as if I would much rather give him something to eat. Labouring men are apt to think a great deal too much about drinking; if they would spend in good nourishing food a great part of what many of them spend in drinking, they would soon find that they were all the better for it. I am not a teetotaller, but there are many cases of men who have given up drinking beer, wine, and spirits altogether, and it has been seen that they are quite as strong, and better in every way for the change. There was a time when the fine gentry used to drink and roar, and sing hunting songs, and a gentleman was not much ashamed to be seen drunk. But this has been pretty well over for many years. Drunkenness is now pretty much in the hands of coarse and low people, and you see some among such people reeling home on market days. For my part, I wonder how they can afford it. I was a sober man in my youth, and I saved something, and now am pretty well off; but, if I was to spend half my income in drinking, I must soon go without eating. But many labouring men spend more than half their earnings in

drinking. If a man asks me to give him "something to drink," I never feel disposed to give him any thing at all, for it is worse than throwing money away. I would much rather give him "something to eat." A trifle that a man gets beyond his weekly earnings may add a good deal to the comfort of a family: and the very worst way in which a man can spend a trifle which is given to him, is to spend it in drink. E. S.

EXTRACT FROM MY FAMILY BIBLE.

MATTHEW XV. 15—21.

THE disciples, to our Lord's distress, were without understanding upon the parable that had just passed the divine lips, though, indeed our Saviour had spoken in very plain terms in the parable itself. This shows you, that even they who heard Christ most frequently did not profit sometimes by their spiritual advantages. Let the evident sorrow of Christ for this dulness of soul on the part of his disciples warn you to pray that, when at church, or in the family, or in private, you hear or read the words of Christ, they may be understood and received into the heart, to its conversion from every sin which dwells in it by nature. The Pharisees, as we have read, were very particular about the hands with which they put food into their mouths, that they should be clean, so as not to defile the food which, as our Lord says, was to turn into corruption, and pass into the draught or sewer; but as to the heart, they overlooked that altogether, and allowed it to vomit out all its natural wickedness in bad words and works. Now, my dear family, some say that "certainly there are men and women and even children, who show themselves by their actions to be very bad-hearted people; but then it is not so with all." But mark you, our Lord says, "out of the heart proceedeth evil thoughts, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." Jeremiah, also, speaking of the heart, says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?" (Jer. xvii. 9.) This means your heart, my heart, and every heart; as when we say, "The lion roars," we do not mean any par

ticular lion, but all lions. But to prove more fully the depravity and sin of all mankind, David says that God "looked down from heaven and beheld all the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God;" He found that they were "all gone out of the way, they had altogether become filthy, that there were none that did good, no not one." (Psalm xiv. 3.) Again, to go back to Moses in his book of Genesis, where he takes this saying from the lips of God Himself, "the imagination of man's heart (that is, every man's heart) is evil from his youth." (Gen. viii. 21.) Watch, then, my beloved, against this heart which you all have in common with the rest of mankind; for out of it proceed the things that defile you, and which make you unfit for the kingdom of God, where nothing that defileth shall enter." (Rev. xxi. 27.)—A Layman.

STORIES ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE CHURCH CATECHISM. (Continued from page 45.)

IV. THE FAITHFUL SERVANTS.-(Part ii.)

THE laws of the good Husbandman for his servants were written on two separate tables; the first of these tables, on which were four great laws, contained all that was needful to teach them their duty to Him as their Master. These four laws you heard of in our last story. I have now to tell you about those which were written on the second table. These were six in number. The first on this table, which was the fifth law, taught them to obey their parents and all who were put over them; to be dutiful and respectful to those teachers who were sent by their Master to tell them what things were pleasing in his sight; and to this law was added a promise, that if they faithfully kept it, they should have a long and happy life. It was soon easy to see in the vineyard who were the real servants of the Husbandman, and who were not; for this law was one of the first which the soldiers of the enemy taught the younger part of the labourers to break; and they did this because they knew, that if they could but lead them to despise their parents and teachers, they would soon come over into

the enemy's camp, and fight with them against their true and lawful Master. But the good servants kept close to what was taught them by their elders; and whenever they were tempted to break their precepts, they always pointed to the table where this and the other laws were written, and said, "How can I do this great wickedness?"

The sixth of the laws, which was second on this table, taught them to be kind one to another, to do no hurt to any one, and never to take away the life of a fellowcreature. But you will remember in my very first story, that just after the very first planting of the vineyard, there was a man wicked enough to kill even his own brother; and that through the poison of the old serpent having so corrupted his heart, that instead of love and kindness, he was full of hatred and envy, which led him to that cruel act. I grieve to tell you, that many who did not go so far as this, yet broke the law by harbouring angry, revengeful, and unkind thoughts, and if they dared they would have killed those they hated, so that in heart they were as really murderers as that first wicked man had been. The Great Husbandman had ordered that every man should have a wife as a helpmeet for him, and that none should take away the wife of another this was his seventh law; but this, alas! was often broken, if not in act, yet in wish and thought, by those who listened to the temptations of the enemy's soldiers; and some even were so sinful as to kill the husbands of those whom they wished to take for their wives.

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The eighth law taught them never to take any thing that belonged to another person; yet, alas! the love of gain was so strong, that if they saw another possessed of good things which they had not, the soldiers of the enemy easily tempted the weak and sinful labourers to try to get it away by unfair means, instead of labouring honestly and diligently to increase their store by their own industry. Now the true and faithful servants always kept this, as well as the other laws, strictly, and would not so much as touch the smallest thing belonging to another, though they worked always very hard to earn

their own living, and freely gave to those who were in want, whatever they could spare.

The ninth law forbade all unkind and false speaking, which was often the cause of quarrels and murders. The soldiers of the enemy often tempted the labourers to accuse each other falsely to the Master or other overseers of the vineyard, whereby they often suffered punishment unjustly; but the faithful servants, even when strongly tempted, would never utter a word against the character of another, being fearful of hurting them, and of displeasing their Master; and also remembering, that as they had many sins of their own, it was far better to try first to break off those in themselves, than to find faults in others.

The tenth law was one which, if kept, would have prevented the labourers from breaking all the other laws in this table. It taught them not even to wish for what they did not possess, but to be content with the things they had. The faithful servants strove above all things to have this law engraven on their heart, lest they should be led, as the sinful and disobedient were, from first wishing for the goods of another, to trying to rob him of them, and sometimes, I grieve to say, to murder him in the hope of obtaining them.

Knowing how easily men forget what has been taught them, the great husbandman summed up all the laws of this table in one short sentence or rule, which if they always remembered, would help them to keep them all; and this rule was, to do to every one as they would wish others to do to them. By remembering this easy and plain rule, the faithful servants were enabled to keep their hands from stealing, their hearts from anger and malice, and their tongues from evil speaking; for they never would do or say to or of another person, what they would not wish said or done of or to themselves; and this law was therefore called the royal law, because it was so powerful and so complete, that it contained all the other laws in itself. And I may end this story as I ended the last, by saying, that if the servants had but one feeling in their hearts towards each other, they would find it easy to keep all these laws. What was