would be sinning if they knew they were doing things which must damage if not destroy their own souls, and which therefore must be displeasing to GOD. But they ought not to say how God's good gifts must act upon others. Use all GOD's gifts well. Thank Him for them all. Never abuse them. Receive them as from Him. But do not find fault with others, just because they use them differently from yourself. "All things which God gives are good, and nothing to be refused, if they be received with thanksgiving."

Yes; but remember this too, that all your feasts should be such that there Jesus could come. That is what St. Paul means by "receiving God's gifts with thanksgiving."

All our joys would not make us happier, if we were to use them so that we should wish GOD could not

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see us in them. Our dear LORD does not wish to stop our pleasures, but only sin. And He too adds His blessing to all our proper pleasures.

'The common round, the daily task,” He turns into greater things, as He made water into wine.

Thus it all comes to this—it is not only in church that Jesus can be with us, but everywhere. And He will be with us if we are good and using His goodness as He wishes us. Miracles are signs, as I said above. They are signs of Divine

power. they are signs too of God's will.

But

At the Marriage Feast of Cana our dear LORD gave us a lesson of—

1. How He works for our happiness. 2. How He wishes to be present at our joys.

And, lastly, how He means to bless us through them all.

Oh! do not let us pervert His good

ness, abuse His grace, or forfeit any of the blessedness which comes of our using aright the highest or the lowest gifts of Divine love. But rather let us praise Him, Whose Epiphany we now celebrate, for His goodness as He best loves to be praised, by a thankfulness, and an obedience, and a lowliness in our behaviour which obeys and loves, and loves and worships.

"Songs of thankfulness and praise,
Jesu, LORD, to Thee we raise;
Manifest at Jordan's stream,
Prophet, Priest, and King supreme;
And at Cana, wedding guest
In Thy Godhead manifest:
Manifest in power Divine
Changing water into wine.

Anthems be to Thee addrest

GOD in man made manifest!"

IV.

Septuagesima.

CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

O LORD, Thou preservest man and beast. How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O GOD! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings."— PSALM xxxvi. 6, 7.

TO-DAY you have heard read once more the account of GOD's Creation. Of course you knew before that it was GOD Who had made everything. When in the summer you are ever taken into the country, and see the flowers and the fruits and the golden corn waving in the fields, you know that these are the beauties of GOD's world. For this world and all its beauties are GOD's; because He created them all. And He created us-yes all

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of us-to enjoy these. At this season of the year the Church reminds us of this, to bid us think how (as we have just been taught again) GOD made everything "very good," and how (as in the following weeks we are shown) man through Adam's sin became wicked: because this teaching prepares us for Lent, that already throws its shadow before it. Lent is the time for plain thoughts about our sinfulness. And in due time I will try to teach you its special lesson. But to-day I want you to learn something that seems to me to come directly from the story of Creation that you have heard told you again -and a something too which many think that others besides children need sometimes sadly to learn. It is this: -If GOD made all the world good, and made us in His image (i.e., with a mind to think and a will to direct our actions), we ought to be good