him! What a happy thought it was to follow him in the way we did, else we should not have spent such a blessed day with Jesus!" Now then, dear children, you have gone over the three points I mentioned to you, but I have not done yet, this is only the treatment of the subject. You know that in every good sermon there is always at last an Application of the subject, and this I shall divide also into three simple parts, which you must repeat also one by one, with your own lips. 1st. If we have never spent a day with Jesus, we do not know what it is to be happy. (All here repeat.) No indeed, you do not, you may have been very happy in your play-hours, singing merrily among your companions, and thinking the time of enjoyment had no sooner begun than it was ended. You may have been very happy on some birth-day, when your parents let you have your little friends to come to see you, and dressed you in new clothes, and gave you pretty presents. All this, and a great deal more, may very well be called happiness. But it is nothing to the happiness of "spending a day with Jesus." Perhaps you wonder how it is we can hope to do such a thing as that. "He has left the earth, and You say, gone to heaven; how can we spend a day then, with Jesus?" But remember He dwells in his own house, and amongst his own children. It is written. "I will dwell in them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God." Little children may be said to spend a day with Jesus when they love Him, and remember, that He is always near them; and when they try to do all they can to please Him. And then they are sure to be happy. Suppose, now, that you begin the day with prayer, praising God for being spared through the night, and asking Him to bless you, and your parents, and brothers, and sisters. Suppose that then you go to school, and learn all your lessons with diligence, remembering that Jesus is looking upon you; and that when school is over, you go back to your meals, always feeling thankful for what you eat and drink; and, suppose, that when the evening comes on, you try to think over all you have done wrong, and all you have learned about a Saviour's love, and tell it your parents; and then before going to bed, seek pardon and grace on your bended knees. Why, what happy children you must be! Then I am sure your sleep is sweet. You have had no scoldings either at home or at school, no quarrelling with naughty play-fellows; all has been peace, your Saviour has been smiling on you, angels have been waiting upon you, and the reason of it all is this: that you have been spending a day with Jesus! Oh, my dear children, try this plan, if you want to be really happy! But now I have another thing I wish you to say. 2nd. We shall never spend a day with Jesus till we have given up our hearts to Him. (All repeat here.) It is a great mistake we all fall into when we try to be Christ's without giving Him our hearts; resting content with going to Church or School, and think that is enough. But see these disciples. They heard John's sermon, one of the shortest, but best sermons ever preached. "Behold the Lamb of God;" and directly they heard it, they followed that Lamb of God, giving their minds to what He said, and their hearts to his sacred friendship; and it was only in that way they spent the day with Him. kind a welcome as He did these two disciples. He will not turn you away because you have been naughty or rude. Since this story, he has shewn more kindness still by dying for you on the Cross. Oh, give up your hearts to Him. Say you wish to be his, or else you will never be happy, and never spend a day in his company. But now for the last lesson. 3rd. If we have not spent a day with Jesus HERE, we shall never spend eternity with him HEREAFTER. I will give you two short reasons for this. (1.) He would not know us. We should be strangers in his company. I am afraid many children will come up to the judgment-seat, and plead that they have been regular at School and Church, and expect to go through the golden gates of heaven. But Jesus will say to them, "How can you think of coming here to me? True you came to School and Church; but you never really loved Me-you never sought Me at home, or gave up your hearts to Me-you never really spent a day with Me in prayer or praise, or even wished to do so. You did not love the company of good children, and of God's ministers. You are strangers to Me. Depart from Me; I never knew you." (2) We should not be fit for his company. You would not think you were fit now, dressed and educated as you are, to go and sit down to dine with the Queen of England; you would be unlike everybody else at the table; you would not know what to do, or what to say, or how to look. But if you were taught all those things first, and dressed properly, and made rich, and introduced to the Queen's com pany before-hand-then, perhaps, you might be fit for her presence. Well then, dear children, so with heaven. How do you think you will ever be fit to dwell with God, and to talk with angels, and to sit with Jesus at his table through all eternity, unless first your hearts are prepared for it, by sitting with Him now in his presence, and spending happy days in his company? You would not know what to do, or what to say there. You would be unlike everybody else; the angels would turn away from you with pity; and God would hide his face. Come then to Jesus, while you can; now give up your hearts to Him; seek Him in prayer; love his holy presence; and read his precious Word. Then, dear children, you will not only go to hear and see where He dwells; but because you have loved to spend a day with Him below, you will spend eternity with Him above, and praise Him as having bought you with his own precious blood, E. H. T. LESSONS FOR THE MARY SCHOOL. No. II.-ON FLOWERS. ARE you not fond of flowers? Sweet, beautiful flowers? Yes; you are all fond of flowers. So am I. I hope you take a walk sometimes in the green fields and pleasant lanes on a fine summer's evening. When you do so, you should often stop to look at the pretty flowers which grow in the hedges along the road side. Is it not a blessed thing to feel there is joy for all? The glorious sun shines upon the poor, as well as upon the rich, the birds sing as sweetly for the peasant as for the king, and the fair flowers bloom in the cottage garden as well as in the prince's pleasure grounds. God is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all works. Have you ever heard of Linnæus? He was a great naturalist, that is, he understood a great deal about the works of nature. One day he saw a large heath covered with the yellow furze blossoms. He thought it looked very pretty. It looked like a field of shining gold. The heart of Linnæus beat with pleasure, and he fell down on his knees, and thanked God for letting him see so beautiful a sight. Will you try to be grateful too when God permits you to feel pleased and happy ? I am going to shew you the parts of a flower. What flower is this which I hold in my hand? A polyanthus. What is this little green leaf called which holds the flower? The cup. Yes; and it is sometimes called the calyx. Spell the word calyx, and it will help you to remember it, and then you can write it on your slates after one lesson is done. Every flower has not a calyx, but the polyanthus has one. You see it is composed of one leaf, sharp and upright. It is a five-angled calyx. You know what an angle means, for I taught you its meaning the other day. Now look at the beautifully coloured part, which is commonly called the flower. Botanists call it the corolla. The leaves of the corolla are called petals. How many petals has the polyanthus ? Only one petal, with the border divided into five segments. Divide the corolla, and look inside. What do you see? Slender threads with little knobs on the points. The knobs are called anthers, and the threads are called stamens. Are their numbers the same on every flower? No, they vary; and by counting the number of stamens, we know to what class a flower belongs. Would you like to know to what class the polyanthus belongs? Yes. Very well; how many stamens has it? count them, one, two, three, four, five. Then it belongs to the class pentandria. The word pentandria means five stamens; pent meaning five, and andria stamens. Here is a tulip, with its striped coat of various hues; one of the girls gave it to me as I was coming to school. You see the tulip has no calyx. How many petals has it? Six egg-shaped petals. How shall we know to what class it belongs? We must count the stamens. One, two, three, four five, six. The tulip has six stamens, it belongs to the class hexandria. How must we find what is called the order of a flower? I will tell you. I dare say you have often observed a sort of little column rising in the middle of the corolla, and pointing upwards; this little column is called the pistil or pointal; if you want to know the order of a flower, you must count the number of pistils. How many pistils has the polyanthus? Only one. Then it is of the order monogynia, because the word mono means one. How many pistils has the tulip? One. It is of the order monogynia. Now let us put my pretty nosegay which Jane and Mary have brought me, into this glass of water. We will place it in the middle of my little table, so that all the girls may see it, and then we will consider a little. There is many a lesson, children, to be learned from flowers. Do you not remember how the Lord Jesus a long, long while ago, pointed to the simple flowers of Galilee, and told his disciples to learn a lesson from those little lowly things? Can you not almost think you see the Saviour standing in the quiet fields of the Holy Land, the pretty lilies growing at his feet, and the disciples clustering round to catch each loving word as it fell from the lips of the kindest and gentlest of the sons of men? Let us listen too; and as we gaze upon the flowers of our native country, let us remember that the same hand which covered Judæa's fields with the beautiful lily blossoms, flings over England's plains the pretty daisy with its silvery fringe, the gay buttercup with its golden petals, the primrose blossom, and the cowslip bell. "Consider the lilies of the field," said Jesus. They are brighter far than the richest garments of the greatest king; and learn by this, that he who watches over each little bud that opens to drink in the rain-drop and the dew, will much more watch over you, and guard you from all real harm. Yes; the poorest, the youngest, and the weakest of our little ones, may take comfort in the thought that, as God takes care of every tiny bud that springs up in our path, much more will he take care of his believing and obedient children. There is another touching lesson which flowers teach us. Fair and beautiful as they are, you know they do not last long. Have you not sometimes gathered a sweet nosegay of pretty flowers-cowslips, primroses, violets, roses, blue bells, and honeysuckles? Yes; I am sure you have often gathered flower by flower till you could scarcely grasp the bunch you had collected. Where are those gay flowers now ? All faded, gone, and withered away. Just so, says the Bible, do we all pass away as a flower of the field. Let it, therefore, be our care so to live, as that when looking back on joys which are over and be enabled to say:gone, we may "Though these have fled, there yet will be A fairer, dearer world for me; With brighter scenes and joys arrayed, That never flec, and never fade." ILLUSTRATIONS. “I know in whom I have believed," &c. Nor long since, I was walking home, when very unexpectedly it began to rain, and the people who were in the road ran as fast as they could to find shelter. Soon there came towards me a servant girl, drawing a little chaise as quickly as she could manage it. The chaise and whatever was in it was covered quite over with a large shawl, but I heard a merry laugh from under the shawl, and then another servant came up behind and lifted up a corner, and I saw two little boys underneath. They had been covered over to keep the rain from them; they were quite in the dark, and could not see where they were going, but they knew who it was that was drawing them and they were not afraid. And just so, when a child that loves God is very ill and going to die, he is not afraid, though his eyes grow dim, and darkness comes over him; for he knows who is leading him, and that God is taking him home, so he is not afraid. 3. G. F. God over-rules the efforts of his enemies to the good of his Church. In walking over the downs and sheep-walks of Hampshire some thirteen years since, I observed thistles in every direction, growing so thickly that it was almost impossible to step without putting the foot on one or more; but at the same time the plants were so small that they would escape observation by a hasty foot-passenger. The sight of so many of these plants raised the question in my mind, How came they here ? Passing the same road on a windy day, late in the summer, my observation enabled me to answer that question satisfactorily, for I saw numberless feathery thistle seeds driven through the air at different heights from the ground, and apparently keeping the same height above it, whether ascending or descending a hill, until stopped by a bush or hedge; while at the same time other seeds were being dragged along the ground by the same force, until their onward career was checked by their little hooks becoming entangled in the grass or other obstruction. This then was the answer to the question, "How came they here ?"-for the seed once brought to a stand still, the rain and dew would soon cause the feathery part to decay, and the seeds would then sink into the ground and produce small thistle plants, which might, in favourable circumstances, in time become |