tion with him on the same self-denying principles. When at your secret altar praying "THY KINGDOM COME," do ascertain whether you attach any rational and consistent significance to your petitions—and if you are doing, to advance that kingdom, what its Lord requires of you.

There is still another thought which enforces the principle now under discussion. The Gospel is committed to us that we may communicate it to the destitute. It might almost be said, that this is the condition on which we hold it. We are the appointed, responsible executors of the last Will and Testament of our Lord. A will which includes teaching the Gospel to all the world as, a fundamental article.

What would be thought of that son, to whom the father had entrusted his entire estate, for the maintenance of his family; if, instead of using it, as directed, he should lavish the whole to facilitate his own purposes; and leave the

family to suffer in destitution? Words would poorly express the just indignation we might feel at such an act. But is there any evidence that the blessings we enjoy are not intended for all? The fact that we are made the depositories, certainly does not prove that they were intended for us only. No! Our heavenly Father has made us the honored guardians of his own best gift to men. Deal out to my starving creatures with unsparing hand. Go to earth's remotest bounds, and carry living bread to the famishing. And does that Father know how little his children have done to execute his mandates? Does he know that, in the nineteenth century, three fourths of them do not taste a morsel ?

Again we are called upon literally to pay our debts. That happy father, around whose dwelling plenty is scattered with unsparing hand, loves to draw near his peaceful home at the approach of evening. When the day's long toil has passed away, how joyously his little

Each little

ones run out to meet him. hand, with its soft embrace, speaks an affection, which no rude heathenism could ever cultivate. Does the parent consider whence come these blessings? It was not so with his far-back ancestors in the father-land. They were savage men, who fed on cruelty. No such blessings came smiling round their rude and dreary hovels. The change which makes our situation so much more eligible than theirs, is, under the power of the Gospel, the product of the toil worn missionary. Men from christian countries went, and found them wild, the very sons of nature. You can lead your little ones like a flock to the Sabbath School. Not so with your ancestors. Their temples were the wild and dreary forests; their gods the oaks, before which they bowed in blind adoration. The fond mother who has so often smiled upon her sleeping infant, and caressed it when awake, may never have thought, had it not been for the self-denying labors of the missionary, she might have had an ostrich heart, which

would have been hardened against her little ones as though they were not hers. We are debtors to the missionary who spent his life among our ancestors; who, when his day was ended, laid him down upon a barbarous shore and diedperhaps without one friend to close his sightless eye, or dig a lonely grave. But you cannot pay this debt to him. And yet, you can pay it, by sending help to those who are in the same condition with your ancestors. Parents feel remunerated for their solicitude and care, when they see them bestowing the same kind attentions on the next generation. And so our heavenly Father requires, that such as have received distinguished favors, through his servants, should bestow the same on others. Surely this is not only a debt, it is a tribute to divine mercy. How can we, who have received much, better express our gratitude than by giving much in turn ? Bring ye all the tythes into the store-house, and prove that you are the servants of God; not in word only, but in deed and in truth.

CHAPTER XI.

LAYING UP WEALTH FOR CHILDREN.

PARENTS often decline giving, either wholly, or in part, for benevolent causes ; and offer, as an excuse, that they have children to provide for. And this provision is considered so essential in its character, and so extensive in its amount, as to require all their energies, and all the proceeds of those energies, from the beginning to the end of life.

It is not the intention of the writer to question the duty of parents to provide for their children. Even nature itself teaches this duty. It is traceable in the laws of instinct. The strong ties of natural affection would enforce, even if there were no Bible to reveal it. But,