sweet words. What a sweet verse is this: "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God." And is not this a sweet verse? "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." And is not this sweet? "Him that cometh unto me, I will in nowise cast out." All these are the words of Jesus, and they are written down in the Testament, that you may read them.

There is no harm in liking to play, for you are a child; but if you love Jesus, you will like to think of his words as soon as you wake in the morning, and when you are going to sleep at night, and often in the day you will think of them, and sometimes you will pray to him, and say, "Forgive my sins, O blessed Jesus. Make me good; give me thy Holy Spirit; take me to heaven when I die."

You may read the history of Martha and Mary in Luke 10: 38, to end.

Suffer me to come to Jesus,

Mother dear, forbid me not;
By his blood from hell he frees us,
Makes us fair without a spot.

Suffer me, my earthly father,
At his pierced feet to fall:
Why forbid me? help me, rather;
Jesus is my all in all.

Suffer me to run unto him,

Gentle sisters, come with me;
Oh, that all I love but knew him,
Then my home a heaven would be.

Loving playmates, gay and smiling,
Bid me not forsake the cross;
Hard to bear is your reviling,
Yet for Jesus all is dross.

Yes, though all the world have chid me,
Father, mother, sister, friend,
Jesus never will forbid me!

Jesus loves me to the end!

Gentle Shepherd, on thy shoulder
Carry me, a sinful lamb;

Give me faith and make me bolder,
Till with thee in heaven I am.

THE CRIPPLE.

SOME boys laugh at poor cripples when they see them in the streets. This is very wicked. Sometimes when walking, we meet a man with only one eye, one arm, or one leg, or who has a hump-back. How ought we to feel when we see them? We ought to pity them; we ought to think to ourselves, "How painful it must be to limp along, instead of walking easily! How unpleasant it must be to have only one hand to work with, or to dress ourselves with!" Then we ought to thank God for his kindness in giving us so many limbs, and keeping us from being hurt. If our mothers had dropped us out of their arms when we were babies, our backs might have been broken. If a playfellow had put a stick into one of our eyes, we might have lost our precious sight.

When Jesus, the Son of God, lived in this world, he took great notice of poor cripples. Once when he was in a place like a church, called a synagogue, he saw a woman who was bent double. She could not lift herself up to

look at him, but he saw her. 1 worder how she got to the synagogue. Perhaps she lived very near, or perhaps her friends helped her to come, or perhaps she crept along by herself. I have known a poor creature who waɛ bent almost double, when she wished to go to worship God in his house, she set out early in the morning; she had only half a mile to go, yet she was two hours getting along, for almost every step she sat down to rest, now upon the grass and now upon a bank, or she leaned against a gate.

I wonder how this poor woman whom Jesus saw got to the synagogue. How glad she must have been that she had come there when she heard Jesus teaching! There never was such a teacher as he was. He spoke so gently and so sweetly that poor people liked to listen to him, and to hear him say, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Jesus saw the poor cripple, and he called her to him. The people who stood round heard him call, and they watched to see what he did. First Jesus said to her, "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity." Then he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight. What a sight it was tc see that woman lift herself up, and all at once become as straight as other women. What did she do when she was made straight? She began to praise God. This woman loved God.

It was the devil who had bent her back double. God sometimes allows the devil to hurt the bodies of good people, but he does not let the devil have their souls. This poor woman had been bent double eighteen years, yet she had gone on loving God, and now at last she was saved out of her trouble. Do you think that every body was glad to see her made straight? Oh, no; there were some wicked people there, who hated Jesus, and they could not bear to see him do wonders, because they were afraid more people would believe that he was the Son of God. The chief man in the synagogue was wicked; it was he who used to offer up the prayers to God, yet his heart was full of malice and envy. After he had seen Jesus make the woman straight, he was very angry, and he told the people not to come on the Sabbath day to be made well, but on one of the six week-days.

But the people had not come to the synagogue only to be made well, they had come to be taught. Jesus himself answered the wicked man; he called him by a dreadful name "Hypocrite." He can see into the heart, and he knows who pretend to be good when they are really wicked; those people are hypocrites.

What did Jesus say to this hypocrite? He said, "Does not each one of you, on the Sabbath day, loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to the watering? And