racters, the work they want to have done, and the wages they give.

The ways and the wishes of these two Masters are exactly opposite the one to the other. One is very deceitful and wicked-his work is hard, and his wages are bad. The other Master is very wise, very holy, and very merciful-his work is pleasant, and the reward he gives is far greater than words can express. I have seen people who have been for a long time in the employ of both these Masters, and they have told me how the one lulled them into wickedness and sin, making their hearts harder, and their lives more miserable and desperate every day, and how the other looked kindly upon them, bade them cheer up when they were in difficulty and sorrow, and helped them on in their work with His own hand. The one is best pleased when his servants are most wicked; the other, when his servants are holy and good.

But who are these two Masters? They are SATAN, the Evil One, and JESUS, the Merciful. The Evil One, who wishes to ruin your body and your soul; and Jesus, who died to save you, that you might dwell with Him for ever in Heaven. Hear what the Bible says, "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Now which of these two Masters do you suppose people like best to serve ? Perhaps you say, “Why, the Good Master, to be sure, who is kind, loving, and merciful." But no! it is not so! They love the Bad Master, and serve him far more than they do the Good One! I fear this is the case even with some of those who read this little " Offering," and therefore I

ask again, with all the tenderness of a friend,

are you working for ?”

"Who

Do not suppose it is no great matter for which of these Masters you are working. Your happiness now, and your happiness in the world to come, entirely depends upon this one thing,-whether you serve the great Master of Evil, or the meek and lowly Jesus.

I stood, some time ago, at the bed-side of a young man who had spent his days in the service of Satan. It was a mournful sight! He was once a Sunday scholar, and had often listened to the voice of instruction and warning. But he chose the employ of the Bad Master, and went on to work harder and harder in his service, until he became afflicted with a terrible disease, which ended in death! A voice seems still to come from his grave, demanding, with solemn earnestness, "Who are you working for?"

I have stood also by the dying bed of the Christian. How peaceful was his mind, how bright his hopes, how rich his joy! Of his Master he said:

"Jesus can make a dying bed

Feel soft as downy pillows are ;"

and at length his happy spirit took its flight, to dwell for ever in heavenly bliss. Surely he speaks to us, and with affectionate tenderness asks, "Who are you working for?"

Remember, my dear young friends, you are either working for JESUS or for SATAN. No one can serve both. The Good Master, who now invites you to his service, will one day be your Judge, and oh, how

dreadful would it be, if he should then have to say of

you,

"I know you not!"

May your hearts join in the words,

"To Thee, Almighty God, to Thee

Our childhood we resign:

'Twill please us to look back and see
That our whole lives were Thine."

S. B. S.

Sin against God.

I ONCE knew a boy so abandoned to evil passions, and so utterly destitute of moral principle, that he set fire to his mother's house, in a fit of anger with her for some reproof or punishment. I do not know whether he intended to burn the house down, or whether he expected that the fire would be extinguished, and that he should thus only frighten his mother.

A great deal of injury was in fact done by the fire, which was, however, at last extinguished. Now the boy very probably supposed this offence was against his mother alone. He knew he was responsible to her authority, and thought of nothing more.

How surprised, then, would he be, if some friend of his, after he had done this, should converse with him as follows:

"Do you know what you have done ?"

"Yes; I set my mother's house on fire."

"And what do you expect will be the consequence ?"

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Why, perhaps she will punish me; but I don't care for that.”

"I think you will find that that is not the worst of it."

"What is the worst of it ?"

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Why, you have broken the law of the land, and I expect every hour that the officers will be after you, to take you up."

"The officers!" says the boy, astonished and alarmed: "I did not know anything about the law of the land."

"There is a law of the land, you will find, and you have broken it, and they will have you put into prison for it, and tried."

At this the boy would perhaps pause and turn pale, and his next word would probably either be, "I don't believe it," or else, "What shall I do?" Perhaps he would attempt to excuse himself by saying,

"I did not know that it was against any law-I only did it to plague my mother.'

"That makes no difference," his friend would reply; "it will not help you at all. The law of every community is, and ought to be, very decided against incendiaries; because, as you well know, when you set fire to your house, you endangered the other houses near, and in fact the whole town. As to your ignorance of the written law, that makes no difference; you knew that you were doing wrong."

I do not know whether this boy learned that he had broken the law, and was in great danger of punishment, by any such conversation as the above. I know, however, that he learned it in some way, and fled. He escaped to a distant city, but the officers

found him there; and I afterwards saw him confined in prison.

Now, when men sin in this world, they almost always forget the very important circumstance, that they are sinning against God. They look upon their offences as committed solely against their fellow-men; they feel sometimes a little compunction in regard to those few cases where their conduct has injured their fellows; they never consider these as offences against a far higher law-and as to all their other conduct they feel entirely at ease in regard to it.

In such cases, the Bible comes in, and, where its voice is heeded, it holds with men much such a conversation as that which I have described between the boy and his friend.

"Do you know," it says to one who has been living an irreligious life for many years, "what you have been doing ?"

"Yes," he replies, “ I have often done wrong.

very

I have sometimes been idle, and sometimes a little passionate; but then I have endeavoured to make up for lost time by subsequent industry, and I have always repaired all the injuries of every kind that I have done to others. On the whole, I have been a good neighbour and an honest man; I have been kind in my family, and upright as a citizen."

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Ah!" says the Bible, "do you not know that there is a God; and that, by utterly neglecting him, you have been all the time unceasingly breaking his law? You have been living for yourself, detached and separate from all around you, except so far as your