WATER-A BEAUTIFUL EMBLEM. GOD is the author of all our blessings. There is no truth, perhaps, which we are more ready to admit than this; and yet a great many people seem to act as if they did not believe it, or at least as if they were, day by day, prone to forget it.

A traveller stopped at a fountain, and letting the rein he held in his hand fall upon the neck of his horse, he permitted the thirsty animal to drink of the cooling water that came pouring down from a rocky hill, and spread itself out in a basin below. While the weary horse refreshed itself, the traveller looked at the bright stream that was sparkling in the sunlight, and said to himself, "What a blessing is water! How it refreshes, strengthens, and purifies! And how bountifully it is given ! This good gift of our Heavenly Father flows everywhere, and it is as free as the air to man and beast." While he thus mused, a child came to the fountain. She had a vessel in her hand, and she stopped to fill it with water.

"Will you give me a drink, my little girl?" said the traveller.

With a smiling face the child reached her pitcher to the gentleman, who still sat on his horse.

"Who made this water?" said the traveller, as he handed the vessel back to the happy-looking child.

"GOD made it, sir," was her quick reply.

"And do you know of anything that bright water is like?" asked the kind-hearted traveller.

"Oh yes, sir!" replied the smiling child; "father says water is like the Truth."

"Does your good father say so, my little girl?" "Yes, sir. He says water is like the Truth, because it purifies the mind as water does the body.".

"That is wisely said," returned the traveller.

The little girl smiled, and taking up her pitcher, went back to her home.

"Yes, water represents truth," said the traveller as he rode thoughtfully away. "The child was right. It purifies and refreshes us, and is spread out like truth on every hand free for those who will take it. Whenever I look upon water again I will think of it as representing truth; and then I will remember that it is as important to the mind's health and purity to have truth as it is for the body to have water."

Thus from a simple fountain, as it leaped out from the side of a hill, and from a simple village child who told what had been told her, the traveller gained a lesson of wisdom. Just so, as we pass through the world, we may find, in almost every natural object that exists, something that will turn our minds to higher and better thoughts. Every tree and flower, every green thing that grows, and every beast of the field and bird of the air, have in them a signification-if we could but learn it. They speak to

HEAVEN AND HOME.

I WAS reading the other day that on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, the wives of fishermen, whose husbands have gone far out upon the deep, are in the habit at eventide of going down to the seashore, and singing, as female voices only can, the first stanza of a beautiful hymn. After they have sung it they listen till they hear, borne by the wind across the desert sea, the second stanza, sung by their gallant husbands as the gale is tossing them upon the waves, and both are happy. Perhaps, if we could listen, we too might hear on this desert world of ours some sound, some whisper borne afar, to remind us that there is a heaven and a home; and when we sing the hymn on the shores of earth, perhaps we shall hear its sweet echo breaking in music upon the sands of time, and cheering the hearts of them that are pilgrims and strangers and look for a city that hath foundations.

things to everybody. If one of the boys did anything naughty, I used to love to tell of it instead of speaking to the boy about it; and I used to like to see people laugh at what I said, as they did sometimes. I did not care a bit how much it vexed anybody else. Oh, it was very sad!

But when I learnt to watch over my tongue,

it became so different. It was hard at first, because you see I had got into such a dreadful habit of it; but God helped me, and that made it easy." Now if any of my readers are grieving that they are not loved, that nobody cares for them, let them look into their hearts, and I think they will often find than an evil tongue has a great deal to do with it. Words have a wonderful power for good or ill. Many a little unkind word sticks in the mind like a little thorn, and makes, oh, such a sore place; but gentle, kind words are like rays of sunshine, so bright and comforting, and often more precious than gold. Do try to say kind words, and not to say unkind ones. Pray to God David's prayer, “Lord, keep the door of my lips. Set a seal before my mouth." Say it when you feel inclined to be angry or discontented, when you feel an ungentle answer rising in your heart. Don't be satisfied when you go to bed at night unless you have gained some victory over your tongue during the day, and said something kind and cheering whenever you could. Do but try this earnestly, prayerfully, humbly, and I don't think you will long have to complain that nobody loves you; and, what is more precious still, you will be following in the steps of our Lord Jesus Christ, "who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth."

D. A. D.

KIND WORDS.

NELLY GORDON was one of the most lovable children I have ever known. Every one loved her, old and young, rich and poor; all rejoiced when she came to them, and sorrowed when she was gone. Do you ask whether she was very pretty, or very clever and amusing, or very accomplished? No, Nelly was none of these things; nor was she rich, for her father was a poor clergyman with eight children, so you may fancy that very little pocketmoney fell to Nelly's share, and accordingly she had very little to give away. Then would you like to know the secret of her being so beloved? I will tell it you in her own words, for once when she was nearly grown up I said to her, "How is it, Nelly, that you manage to win people's hearts in this way? I want to know," and she answered so humbly and sweetly :

"It is since God has helped me to keep my tongue, Mr. A long time ago, when I was quite a little girl, I used to be dreadfully unhappy because nobody loved me--you look surprised, but it is very true-and mamma told me it was because I said such nasty, unkind

HEAVEN.

"WHAT a beautiful place heaven is," said a little boy, not four years old.

"Why do you think so?" said his mother.

"Because," said he, pointing to the stars, "the nails of the floor are so beautiful."

"And there shall be no night there."

A PLACE IN HEAVEN.

A LITTLE girl lost her brother playfellow, when she was just three years old; and once when she was very ill, soon after his death, she said—"Mamma, God is making me a little place in heaven close to dear Basil."

THE CHILDREN'S PICTURE-ROLL.

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