to be ministers of the Gospel; and may God spare you, and so highly honour you, as to accept of you for this work. In the meantime you must use all diligence in preparing for it. You must first know your own heart, your God, your Saviour, and your Bible. All this God only can teach you, and you must know it before you can teach others. Before a man can be a minister, he must come to Christ. His heart must be clean. He must not regard iniquity in his heart, or God will not hear him, or accept of him. He must be clothed in the glorious robe of Christ's righteousness. He must be anointed with His Holy Spirit. Every faculty he possesses must be consecrated to the service of God. In all your studies, you must keep this in mind, that one day they are to be employed in the service of God. Do you remember what happened to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost ?—Acts ii.

Charlie. They were suddenly taught to speak a great many different languages.

M. Yes. That was a miracle. They were poor men, and had not been taught, or had any opportunity of learning any language except their own; but it was absolutely necessary for the spread of the Gospel that they should know a great many; and God taught them in this way; and wherever they went, they could preach the Gospel in the language of the country. And it is quite as necessary now for missionaries to know a great many languages as it was for the Apostles. And you have not the same excuse they had for ignorance; if you are only willing, you may learn as many as ever you please. The time is not far distant, when it will be as easy to travel over all Europe as it is now to travel over Britain. And how useful it would be,

if, wherever you went, you could preach the Gospel to the people in their own language. And if you pursue your studies with this end in view, God can and will as effectually bless your labours as He did those of the Apostles. And I would have you to be very diligent also in the study of the works of God in creation. You will find, by and bye, that God has a most important use for this knowledge in His ministers; and in the study of these, you must also take the Bible for your guide, and pray for the help of His Holy Spirit, and, above all things, watch over your own hearts. Let us then "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."-Heb. xii. 1, 2. "And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ."-2 Peter i. 5-11.

THE

BOTANY OF THE BIBLE.

CHAPTER I.

ECCLES. xii. 1.-" Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth."

1 Peter iii. 3, 4.-" Whose adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price."

Frances Jane. Our Bible lesson this morning at school was the parable of the barren fig-tree. Our teacher said he hoped we would never forget the lessons that parable teaches us.

M. Can any of you tell me some of the lessons?

Catharine. Yes; there was one in particular which I hope I shall never forget. He told us that if we were not doing good, we must be doing harm. I never thought that before, but I now see it is quite true.

M. I am delighted you have learned that lesson, which I sincerely hope you never will forget. It is indeed, true, that if you are not doing good you must be doing harm.

Georgina. I used to think doing good meant only doing as much as we could for the good of others, such as making clothes for the poor, teaching them, collecting for missionary and other objects. I knew we could not always be doing that, so I did not know at first what he meant; but I now see that if we are not bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit in our hearts, we must be doing harm both to ourselves and to others.

Charlie. Yes; he told us that if we do harm to ourselves, we may at the same time be doing harm to others by our example.

M. Remember that, dear children; do as much good as possible in your own hearts; that is the chief thing, and you are sure to do good to others in very many ways. Do you not think it would be a very good thing to make your teacher's lesson do as much good as possible?

Rachel. I do think it would; but how can we make it do good?

M. Suppose we have a little conversation every day about the Botany of the Bible, and try how many lessons we can learn from it, and how many we can put into practice?

Douglas. That would be delightful! When shall we begin?

M. To-morrow, if you choose.

George. Shall we begin with the fig-tree?

M. No, if permitted to go on, I shall wind up the whole with the important lessons it teaches, by making it the very last. We shall commence with the grains and grasses which are frequently mentioned in Scripture, and are the prevailing and most useful family of

plants in the world. And, as we go on, I should like you to collect specimens of the different plants and flowers mentioned in the Bible, and preserve them. You can very easily procure most of them. I should like you also to collect as many grasses as you can find, and other plants useful in agriculture. You can do a

great deal of good by their means.

David. I cannot guess how we can do good by their

means.

M. You all know the unhappy state Ireland has been in for a long time. The attention of Christians is now turned to the necessity of doing as much as possible for the good of the young, and they hope, that by the blessing of God, when these children grow up, Ireland will be a righteous country and a blessing to the world. They are establishing schools in many places; the chief thing the children are taught is the Gospel, and they are also teaching them to be useful and industrious in many ways. Some of the schools

have farms attached to them, to teach the children how to cultivate the soil, and other branches of farming. Now, I shall tell you how you can help them; it will be most valuable information in these schools for boys to know the names of the grasses, and which are the best kinds, which grow best on hilly pastures, and which in meadows and other places; which of them cattle like best, and which they fatten best on; and also the same information about clovers, and other plants useful in agriculture. If you dry the grasses and other plants nicely, and get some cartridge paper and double it, on one page glue the specimen, and on the other write the use and value, you will be doing a great deal of good; they will be most valuable in the schools, and