"

ing,"*

"* as the end of all our being, and the object of all our hopes.

Henry.-Mamma, you said just now,
I did not

that humility was charity.

quite know how you meant.

Mrs. B.-I should rather have said, my love, that humility towards men was a part, and a very essential part, of charity for it is by a want of humility, by a too good opinion of our own merits, that we are led to compare them with those of others, and, like the proud Pharisee, to look down on those who, perhaps, are really our superiors. If we think humbly of ourselves, we shall never think contemptuously, or uncharitably, of others. If we consider how much we need forgiveness, we shall be ready to forgive others: if we consider how little our own motives will bear being enquired into, we shall not be too ready to condemn those of others; we shall remember these two warnings, "Forgive and ye shall be for

*Phil. iii. 14.

given. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged."* And in these two, consists no small part of Christian charity. Do you understand me, now?

Henry-Yes, Mamma, quite; thank

you.

Mrs. B. And I trust, my dear children, that what you understand, you may, by the grace of God, be enabled to practise and especially this Christian virtue of humility, which, though essential to all, is yet peculiarly the ornament and the blessing of childhood; that following His blessed example, who, though the Son of God, humbled himself, and was obedient to his earthly parents, you may, like Him, "increase in wisdom and in stature, and in favour, both with God and with man."+

*Luke vi. 37.

+ Luke ii. 52.

TENTH DAY.

"I AM afraid, my dears," said Mrs. B. the following day, "that our stock of parables is nearly exhausted.”

"Oh! Mamma," exclaimed both the children at once, in a tone of disappoint

ment.

"I thought," said Mary, "there had been a great many more parables in the Bible."

Mrs. B.-There are several more, my love; but some of them I should hardly be able to make you understand; and others are expressed in short sentences, which are hardly stories, and which you will read better when you read the Bible itself. There are, however, two more, which I propose that we should read

together; but let us first consider, shortly, those which we have been reading, and the principal lesson of each of them. Do you remember, Mary, what was the first that we read?

Mary.-Oh, yes, Mamma, 1 remember that quite well. It was the sower and the seed.

Mrs. B. And the meaning ?

1

Mary. It was the way in which different people receive the word of God, and how we ought to let it grow like the seed, in our hearts.

Mrs. B.-Very well, Mary. And the next, Henry?

Henry.-Was it not the servants and the pounds, Mamma? And to shew us how we ought to improve our talents, like the servants who were to trade with their money?

Mrs. B.-Quite right, my dear boy. We then went, if you remember, into three parables at once:-The lost sheep, the lost piece of silver, and the Prodigal Son.

Mary.-Oh, that long beautiful parable! How well I remember that!

Mrs. B.—Well, my love, then tell me the moral of it.

much!

Mary.-Oh, Mamma, there was SO But the chief thing was to shew us how we ought to repent, when we had done wrong, and how God would receive us if we did.

Mrs. B.-Very well, my dear girl. And now look at these five parables, and see how large a portion they express of our first duty, duty to God. In the first, we learn the necessity of Faith, by which we receive into our hearts His Holy Word, letting it grow there, and flourish, and bring forth fruit. In the second, we learn actively to exercise our faith, and to employ the means of good which God has placed in our power, remembering, that for all of them, we must give an account to Him who gave them. The three others teach us that most comfortable doctrine of Repentance: by which we learn, that after all our sins, we yet

U