in some trouble since, Sarah was not quite prepared for so soon resuming her lessons; nor, to say the truth, did she feel pleased at the prospect, being, just then, deep in the exciting history of " Blue Beard." This was not a Sunday story certainly, but it was not wholly on that account that she turned so red at the sound of her mistress's voice, or thrust the book so hastily into a dresser drawer, there to keep company with an apple, some peppermint drops, a pair of rusty scissors, and various other little articles belonging to Rebecca. Her colour had come again, and her lips had formed themselves into something like a pout, when she appeared before Miss Wainwright in the library, but the young lady did not seem to notice her cross looks. "And how have you been going on, Sarah?" she inquired, "I have heard, on the whole, a good report of you; are you getting more used to this strange house and its grand ways?" Sarah did not like to be spoken to with so much kindness, it gave no handle to her ill humour, and when Miss Wainwright went on to express a hope that she had been behaving well, an uneasy feeling crept over her. "I've learned two verses of the xv. psalm, ma'am," she hastened to say, "here, if you please, is the place."

"I'm in no hurry to hear you say it, Sarah; however, you may begin if you choose, and we will have a little talk afterwards." Sarah was willing enough to postpone the "talk," and standing up, she repeated, "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle, or who shall dwell upon thy holy hill ?"

Attaching, herself, no particular meaning to the words, she was startled, almost awe-struck, by the effect they produced upon her instructress. Miss Wainwright had taken the Bible from Sarah, and had been holding it open in her hand, but she now suddenly bent her head upon it, and burst into tears.

"Oh, Miss Caroline, Miss Caroline," cried the child, all traces of sullenness disappearing from her face, "please don't." "Miss Caroline," she added, more timidly, "Have I said anything to vex you ?—just say, I won't be sullen or cross any more, I won't indeed.” said Miss Caroline, looking up,

"Sullen or cross,

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"Were you so, Sarah? I did'nt know it then. I was not thinking about you just then; it was not about you that I—there, don't be frightened, I'm better now;" and she faintly smiled at her young companion. "Didn't you like coming to lessons with me," she presently continued ; was it that that made you cross ?" Sarah made no reply, and felt annoyed at her own admission. "Don't be afraid of telling the truth, Sarah; see what the next verse of the psalm says; it describes, as you know, the character of the person who will be found worthy to dwell in the tabernacle of the Lord, and what sort of person must he be?"

"He that walketh uprightly, that worketh righteousness, and that speaketh the truth from his heart, ma'am." "And do you really understand the meaning of that verse?"

'I think so, ma'am; it means that we ought to do kind things, and—and not tell lies, if we want to be good."

"Does it signify, do you think, whether we are good

or not?"

"Yes, we ought to be good, I know."

"Oh, my dear child, nothing is of any consequence in comparison to being good. At all times we are liable to become poor, or ill, or to meet with some sad accident, or (and her voice faltered) to lose our dear, dear friends; but if we endeavour to grow continually better and better, then we may be happy still. You, young as you are, may already endeavour to be like the character described in the psalm; for if you try to do your duties here thoroughly and well- -even such little duties as sweeping out a room well in all its corners, not only where the dust may be seen; or running up and down stairs to spare Saunders, whose breath is not strong-then you will, in your humble way, be working righteousness; and if no fear of a scolding ever tempts you to make a false excuse- if you are ready at all times to say what you really believe-"

Sarah had been growing redder and redder as Miss Wainwright proceeded; she now looked up into her face, and exclaimed, "Oh, ma'am, then you know!"

"Know! what? I don't understand you, Sarah."

"About the looking-glass. Rebecca made me sayoh, but I ought not, I believe." And, in the impulse of the moment, she poured out her whole confession. Miss Wainwright listened to it with a feeling of deep pain in her heart; she was sorry for Sarah, and grieved, to the last degree, that Rebecca's influence had proved so bad, for she had thought well of this young woman. "I am sorry, very sorry," said she; "it was very wrong of Rebecca to persuade you into committing a fault, and wrong too of you to yield. I do indeed hope that another time nothing-no mistaken feeling of kindness towards another, no fear of what that other may do to you will ever induce you to tell an untruth: we are not permitted to do evil that good may come. I am, however, much pleased that you feel, and are willing to own, your fault: it is the best amends you can make." And Miss Wainwright gave her pupil so encouraging a smile, that Sarah's heart was quite touched.

"There's another thing, ma'am, I oughtn't to have done, perhaps," she said, blushing: "Rebecca sometimes borrows story books from the library to read, without leave, you know; I didn't think it was right at first, but there was a fairy tale book I did so wish for, that "

"That you borrowed it? You ought not to have done that without my leave; it is a valuable book, and think how spoilt it might get by lying about the kitchen. Go and fetch it, Sarah." Sarah did so, but she could not help crying a little as she gave up the book; there was one story in it which was so very interesting, that she wished she could have delayed her confession until she had finished just that.

"And so you like this book Sarah?" said Miss Wainwright. will read it together some day.

you

very much, do you, "Well, perhaps we What fairy tale did

like best?" "Prince Cherry," said Sarah, cheering up; "he had a wonderful ring: a fairy gave it to him, and it pricked his finger every time he did wrong-gently when his fault was little, but very sharply for a great fault. At last, however, he threw his ring away; and then he was soon after turned into a monster."

"And what will you say, Sarah, if I tell you that you have such a ring, and that it was the pain caused by its pricking which made you confess to me what you now have done? Ah, you look surprised, but you have a ring of this kind, or rather, something which at least is quite as wonderful; you have been given a feeling which makes you conscious of pain when you have acted wrongly, and of pleasure when you have done right. Can you tell me what this feeling is called?" Sarah thought for a moment, and then said-" Do you mean conscience, ma'am?"

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I do; it is, as I said before, a very wonderful feeling, and it is very important that we should listen to what it seems to say within us, for it has power to make us more happy or more miserable than anything else in the world.' Caroline paused, and then added, with a smile, though her eyes swam with tears, And now. that you have told so much to me, it seems but fair that I should tell you something in return. The reason I was so much affected just now, was, that since I set you that psalm to learn, I have lost a friend who was very dear to me, and the thought of my loss made me sad-sadder perhaps than I ought to have been, for my friend was a true Christian; and, you know, we are taught by our Saviour's resurrection to believe, that all who have been his humble followers on earth, will live again to be happy with him for ever. But, my dear child, does not this show us how all important it is for us to be good? It is the thought of our friends' goodness which chiefly comforts us when we lose them; and for ourselves, if we do indeed try, as you and I and the poorest and weakest child can try-try above all things to please our Father in Heaven by walking uprightly, working righteousness, and speaking the truth from the heart; then we need not fear whatever may happen to us, for we shall be safe beneath His all-merciful protection, and as the psalm says, we shall never fall."

Sarah, perhaps, did not enter into the full meaning of these words, but impressed by the extraordinary earnestness of Miss Wainwright's look and tone, she felt more strongly than she had ever done before, how

important it was that she should, as she expressed it, "make haste to grow good." Poor Sarah! she found that "growing good" was no easy task, but though she sometimes gave her conscience pain by doing what it forbade, she was never long inattentive to its warnings, and with Miss Wainwright to aid and encourage her, she gives every promise of becoming in the highest sense of the words, a good and faithful servant."

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B. A. J.

SHORT SERMONS FOR LITTLE PEOPLE.

No. I.

MATTHEW V., 9,- "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." The children of God! A higher title this, than that of king, or emperor. Blessed are the peacemakers,-true fol lowers of the Prince of Peace.

How sad, when we hear these words of Him, to whom the Hebrew prophets of old, in their times of war, oppression, and invasion, looked through the ages to come, as a deliverer of their nation, and whom they called by that noble title, Prince of Peace, how sad, if then our conscience compels us to remember that we are unkind or quarrelsome. Sadder still, if when others have disagreed, we have found a wicked pleasure in making them still more angry with each other, by repeating every thoughtless or unkind word we may have heard; but even more wicked are we, if we have purposely misrepresented words and actions, so as to make the offence seem greater.

Paltry indeed, and cruel is the heart that can find pleasure in the pain of others,-that deep pain caused by the loss of friends, or the ingratitude of the obliged. Such are not the real friends of either person; such neither deserve, nor are capable of true friendship; for they have blotted out the "law of kindness" written by God in their nature; they harden their human hearts into hearts of stone.

The little children whom their mothers brought to Christ, surely never afterwards could quarrel, or think