opened, when the sun goes down to rise no more, and the moon and the stars all fade away, He will still live. Death will take us all away, but He dies no more.

4. Christ never changes.

The weather

Almost everything changes. changes, the trees change, the flowers change, and all things which we see. Friends also change. Some go away from us. Some are

good friends when we are well, but leave us when we are in trouble. The severe lines of the poet are often true :

:

"The friends, who in our sunshine live,

When winter comes, are flown;
And he who has but tears to give,

Must weep those tears alone."

Yes, we may all change; we may be disappointed, may be in sorrow, in sickness, in the agonies of death; but Christ never changes, never leaves us, never forgets us. We may sink into the cold, swelling river, and be drowning, and our friends stand on the banks, not daring to go in after us; but His love cannot be quenched by the cold waters of " many floods." We shall die, and sleep in the grave. We shall awake again at the resurrection day. But in all this Christ does not change. "The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever," He ever liveth to intercede for us. Oh, what a Redeemer! "Blessed, O Lord, is the man who trusteth in Thee."

IX.-GIVING AN ACCOUNT TO GOD.

"Every one of us shall give account of himself to God." ROMANS xiv. 12.

THIS seems to be one of the plainest texts in the Bible. It tells you who shall give an account,-"every one of us." It tells us to whom you shall give an account,-"to God;" and about whom each must give the account,"of himself." So far is plain. But perhaps these children will mistake, after all. Let me make it so plain that you cannot mistake it. Suppose, when you go home to-night, a stranger comes into your house, and is asked to stay and spend the evening. He is very pleasant, and talks with all the family; and, among others, he talks with the children. He tells them he has been far away on the great waters in a ship, to catch whales; that, one day, when trying to kill a poor whale, the wounded fish turned and struck the ship with his tail, and broke it all in pieces; that he and his few men who were not drowned, got into a little boat, and rowed off, day and night, for many days, till nearly all were dead (starved to death)!-that they were then cast

upon a low, desert island, where they lived upon fish, and such things, for years, till a ship happened to pass that and brought them home. whole account of his life.

way, and took them, Thus he tells you the You thank him for it. useful account. You

It is an interesting and like to hear it. But this is not what is meant by giving account to God. Why not? Because this man does not need to give you the account unless he pleases; but we must do it to God. Because, also, you cannot know whether or not it is the true account of his life; but God will know whether we give a true account or not. Because, too, you could not reward him for the times when he did well, nor punish him for what he did wrong; but when we give account to God, He will reward us, or punish us, as we have done right or wrong.

A merchant might tell us all about his bargains, his ships, his losses and gains, and the curious things with which he has met; but though the account of his life is very interesting, yet it is not such an account as we must give to God. A lawyer could give you an account of what he has seen,—what prisoners tried for stealing,-others for murder,-and how the friends were present, and how they seemed to be brokenhearted when the sentence of death was pronounced; but this is not such an account as we must give to God at last.

Suppose that one of those little boys in that front seat should now get up and try to give me an account of his whole life. Could he do it in such a way as he would, if God should call him to do it? No. Because he would be likely to remember but a small part of it; and I could not know the rest as God can. That boy would not feel willing to put into the account all the foolish and wicked words he has ever said; the wicked thoughts and feelings he has ever had; nor the wrong things he has ever done. And I could not tell them. Besides, I could not know how to punish or reward him as he deserves; but God knows just how to do it. I should have no right to do it if I could; but God would have the right. So you see, that it is a very different thing to give an account to God from what it would be to give it to a man.

We call almost everything to account in some way or other. Just see. Did you never see a farmer go out and look carefully at the waving wheat in the field, and, taking some of the ears in his hand, rub them to get the wheat out? Why was he doing it? To see if it had much wheat in it, and to see if it were good, full wheat. This was a kind of trial or account, to which he was calling his wheat. When a man buys a new watch or clock, you will see him examining it every day, and looking carefully to see if it goes, and goes right. Yes, he calls it to

account; and if it goes wrong, or stops, he sends it back, and will not keep it. And he would blame it severely, if it could understand him, and knew better. Let a man own a horse, and keep him, and take good care of him, and he will blame the horse, and whip him, if he is not kind, and does not obey him. The very horse is called to an account for his conduct. Yes, if one of these little girls had a plant, which she had kept, and watered, and taken care of for years, and if it never produced one single blossom, she would feel discouraged, and call it to an account, and give it up, and let it perish. She would call the frail plant to a kind of account, and treat it according to its character. She might grieve over her plant, and even shed tears to have it turn out so poorly; but she would not keep on taking care of it, if it were a useless plant, and never blossomed.

Some seem to think that God does not care how we live in this world. But let us see. In the Bible, He is called our Father. Does a father love to see a child do wrong? Suppose the father of one of you should go away on a journey, and should hear, while gone, that a wicked man had set his barn on fire and burned up all his hay and his cattle; would he not feel as if the wicked man ought to be called to an account? Suppose, the next day, he should hear that the same wicked man had set his