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He was anxious for further and more regular instruction, and an hour was fixed upon.

"Several days elapsed, and he never came. I already began to doubt him again, when yesterday morning I received a note from him, telling me that his father had forbidden him to go to my house; but that he considered it his duty to disobey his father, and that by so doing he did not think he made himself guilty of a violation of the fifth commandment. But as at the hour first agreed upon he is watched by his father, he proposed another hour. I wrote him to come. I have no doubt that a work of the Spirit is going on in that youth. Pray with me that he may be kept from adverse influences, and that Satan may not have power to injure him."

SWEDEN.

THE secretary of the National Evangelical Institution of Sweden, in a letter written from Stockholm to Dr. Bonar, acknowledges the receipt of £20 from the Colonial and Continental Committee of the Free Church. The secretary adds, "We have at present seventy colporteurs, and the circulation of tracts and periodicals amounted last year to 500,000 copies. The income was 132,000 rixdollars (eighteen rix-dollars are equal to £1 sterling). During last year, we have also begun effectively to think of the foreign mission, thirteen young men being under instruction for that purpose. May the Lord bless your dear Church, and make her a fountain of living waters for thousands of souls at home and abroad."

THE ROOT AND THE FRUIT.

FAITH cannot be separated from holiness, nor holiness from faith; and, should the separation be attempted, neither holiness nor faith can be attained.-Dr. Jones.

FOLLOW PRESENT LIGHT.

LET us follow the light of the present moment, without looking further.-Fenelon.

HOW I LOST MY FINGER.

"Be sure you don't play with the crane," said my mother to us one day when we were going to have a game out of doors. A crane is a machine used at wharfs for raising goods from boats, and is composed of a large chain passing over pulleys fixed in a beam, and moved up and down by means of two cogged wheels and a winch. The crane was fixed in the yard where we were playing; and my mother's injunction was very wise, as it would be exceedingly dangerous for children to meddle with such a machine.

But, after one or two games were played, we remembered the crane, and began to think there would be no harm in just winding each other up and down with the chain. We disobeyed our mother, and having fastened my elder brother to the large hook at the end of the chain, we began to wind him up. I took hold of the large wheel, and began to pull it round with all my strength, when my hand was entangled in the cogs, and was crushed between the cold iron wheels. O what a sight to show my mother! A hand mangled in the most shocking manner and covered with blood. The pain I suffered for weeks after, until my little finger was amputated, was indeed a just punishment for my disobedience.

Even now, although it is nineteen years since it occurred, I feel the inconvenience of that accident. Let all boys and girls who read this learn to obey their parents. And if they are blessed with parents who fear God (as I have been), let them be careful not to wound their feelings by their waywardness and disobedience, but remember the first commandment with a promise"Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land."-Children's Friend.

A FATHER'S PRAYER.

A PIOUS young man told a worthy minister that he had once disobeyed his father. His father immediately retired into his room and shut the door. Curiosity led the boy to look through the keyhole, and he saw him on his knees in prayer. He heard his father praying for him. This struck the youth to the heart: he went away and prayed for himself. His prayer and his father's prayer were heard: the young man turned to God, and became a Christian indeed.

NOTHING BUT SIN.

NOTHING but sin ought to trouble a child of God.-Mrs. Coutts.

THE POWER OF EXAMPLE.

WHEN Lord Peterborough lodged for a season with Fenelon, Archbishop of Cambray, he was so delighted with his piety and virtue, that he exclaimed at parting, “If I stay here any longer, I shall become a Christian in spite of myself."

SATURDAY NIGHT.

A TEXT FOR OUR TEACHER.

September 1863.

Sept. 5. They made me the keeper of the vineyards; but mine own vineyard have I not kept.

-Song i. 6.

12. The Lord hath been mindful of us; he will bless us.-Ps. cxv. 12.

19. Praying always.

that utterance may

be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly.-Eph. vi. 18, 19.

26. Of some have compassion, making a difference and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire.-Jude 22, 23.

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LEAVING HOME.

It is a new anxiety for a father and mother when their eldest boy is leaving school, and it comes to be decided what business he is to follow through life. Most of all it is an anxious time for Christian parents when the trade chosen takes the boy away from a quiet country home, into the bustle and temptations of a large town. How many thousands of young men and women every year go in this way to London, and Edinburgh, and Glasgow, and all the great cities of the kingdom! and what a claim those young people have on the kind care of the ministers, and elders, and Sabbath-school teachers, to whom they become known! In how many humble dwellings are the dear ones far away daily remembered at family worship, and thought of with love by a fond mother, while she looks day by day at the little cheap photograph likeness which the absent have left behind them!

The boy in the picture saying good-bye to his father and mother, is Allen Richmond, who is leaving home to begin life as an apprentice in a large city. The book which gives an account of his history is called, "What Shall I Be? or, a Boy's Choice of a Trade."* We advise every boy who is in doubt about such a choice, to consult this book, and be guided by the principles which it recommends.

"LEARN YOUNG, LEARN FAIR.”

WE remember nothing so well, when we be old, as those things which we learned when we were young.-Ascham.

* "What Shall I Be? or, a Boy's Choice of a Trade." Price 2s. 6d. T. Nelson and Sons, London and Edinburgh.

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