THE HAPPY EVENING.

DID you ever spend a happy evening? I do not call it a happy evening when men meet together in a public-house to drink. It may be a merry evening, but it is not a happy one; it often ends in quarrelling and fighting, and the next day is very miserable, for the men find their money is gone, and their heads are heavy and full of pain. I do not call it a happy evening when children play in the streets till it is dark, and make a riot, and behave rudely to the people who are passing; for when they get home they are not happy. They have nothing pleasant to think of as they lie in their beds; they remember they have made a great noise, and laughed very loud, till the neighbors were angry at their rudeness; this does not make them feel happy.

But what is a happy evening? No one can be happy who is not wishing and trying to be good. It is children who love God and wish to please him, who are the happy children. When they go and pick flowers in the fields they feel happy, and when they sit at home and repeat their little hymns to their

mothers they are happy; and even when they are sick and going to die they are happy, because they know they are going to heaven, that happy, happy place.

I am going to tell you now of some people who loved God very much, and of a very happy evening they spent. You have heard how the Son of God, Jesus, once lived in this world, and how he was killed by wicked men, and nailed to a cross of wood. Two days after he had died, some of his friends were in a room together; they were talking about him. Some of them said to the others, "We have seen him; he is alive again." Others said, "We have not.seen him." How much they did wish to see him! All in a moment Jesus stood in the midst of the room. How had he got in, for the doors were locked? He could get in whether doors were locked or unlocked; it made no difference to him, for Jesus is God, and can do all things.

Jesus spoke to his friends; these were his words, "Peace be unto you!" which means, "Be happy; I will make you happy." But though he spoke so sweetly, and looked so kindly at them, his friends were frightened: they thought it could not be Jesus himself because they had seen him die upon the cross they thought it might be a ghost or spirit, but not the body of their dear Lord. Jesus knew they were frightened, for he sees into people's hearts, and knows all they think. So he told

them not to be afraid, but to look at his hands and his feet. He said, "See, it is I myself. A spirit has not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Then his friends looked at his hands; they saw the marks of the great nails which had fastened those dear hands to the cross, and when they looked at his feet they saw the marks of the nails in them also. Then they looked at his side, and they saw the deep hole which the spear had made; for a soldier had pierced that tender side with his spear, and made the blood flow out upon the ground. Those marks did not hurt Jesus now; no one could hurt him now; he never could feel pain again, nor could he die any more.

When his friends had seen those marks, then they knew that it was Jesus who spoke to them; and oh, how glad they were! I do not think you were ever so glad in all your life as they were at that minute, for they loved Jesus so very much. They knew he had died to save them from going to hell. Oh, how they loved him! Yet still they could hardly believe it was Jesus himself; it seemed too wonderful that he should be alive again. Then Jesus said, "Have ye here any meat?" He meant to eat something before them to show them he was a real man, and not a ghost or spirit. There was a little food in the room; it was the sort of food that poor people generally ate in that country-a piece of broiled fish, and a piece of a honeycomb.