caves and fruit; nice vegetables, and corn, and soft green grass, and lovely flowers, all sprang up at his command. How thankful we ought to be when we remember that God made all these things for us! Next, God placed two great lights in the sky, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and covered the sky with stars. What did he call the great light? The Sun. And what the lesser light? The Moon. None of these things which God made were alive. At last he made some living things. He filled the water with fishes, some very large, and some of them very small. Then He made the beautiful birds to live in the trees, and some to swim on the water, and He made all the creeping things, and the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, and cattle, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind; and last of all He made man, and gave him dominion over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and the whole earth; and God saw all the things that he had made, and they were very good.

Now, let us try to consider what was created on each day. The first day God made the light. On the second day, the air or firmament. The third day He formed the seas and the dry land, and made the grass, herbs, and trees. On the fourth day God made the sun and moon and stars. On the fifth day, the fishes and birds; and on the sixth day He made the insects, reptiles and beasts, and also man.*

Life.

Let us think of God's goodness in granting life to all his creatures. When we awake in the morning, and feel that we are alive, how pleasant it is to see the bright daylight, and to breathe the fresh morning air! Then little children sit down to their morning meal, and hear their kind parent's voices; and when hunger and thirst are satisfied, they prepare to go to school, there to learn many good and useful things, and to spend an hour in pleasant play; tired at last, they go home to meet their dear parents once more, and then, when the sun has set and darkness covers the sky, God sends sleep to rest our bodies and to give us strength for a new day. How thankful we should be for these great blessings!

But are there no people living except those we have seen? Oh yes. Thousands of thousands of men and women and little children are now enjoying life in many other countries. Some are black, some are white like ourselves, but God supports the life of every one. And are men the only living things? No; for the beasts in the field live, and so do birds and fishes, and the little insects. Who could, count all the living things God has made? No one could number them, they are so many. Could a man cause any thing to live? No; God only could do that. Men can make many wonderful things, such as a watch, to tell the time; in it the wheels keep moving, with a ticking sound; but then, if it is not wound up it will stop; it is not alive. What is it in our breasts which beats night and day? It is the heart, which keeps on moving as long as we live. Does any one touch it to make it beat? No; it is alive. We can not stop it or make it move. We may call the heart the life-clock; it will go on beating until we die.

How many wonderful parts the body has, in order to support life. The head is at the top; it turns about on the neck. Inside the head is the brain, where we feel; in front is the face, with eyes to see, nose to smell, mouth to taste and speak with. At the sides of the head are the ears to hear with. The head seems to govern the body. Then, inside the chest, besides the heart are the lungs, by which we breathe air to keep our blood pure; and below is the stomach, to digest the food we eat, and change it into nourishment for the blood, which the heart sends to all parts of our frame. Then we have hands and arms to work and get food, and to do many other things. Our feet and legs carry us about from place to place, just as we wish, which is a most useful thing. But we must now think of another wonderful part of life; I mean that it is always changing. You are little children now, soon you will grow to be big boys and girls; then your bodies will be larger, and your minds will know much more. At last you will become men and women, and then you will not grow any more, but will change gradually

* The words in italics are to be supplied by the children.

to be old people; your strength and your senses will decay, and at last you will die, and new children will grow up to take your places in the world; for this is how God made all living things, both men and animals and plants. When a seed falls into the ground, it swells and grows: at first a little green shoot appears, then, after many years perhaps, it becomes a large tree, and bears flowers and fruit and seed. At last this tree grows old and dies. Will God ever die? Oh no! He is a spirit, and spirits do not die, they live forever. Our spirits will not die, only our bodies. The angels do not die; but all things which we see on the earth will die; they come to life, and grow, and live, and then die. Some things never had any life; stones and metals never were alive; they are called minerals. But living things could not do without those which have no life. What do we want that has no life? We want air to breathe, and water to drink; without these we should not live a day, and so God in his love has given us both in abundance. The air is every where over the earth; we live in it, and breathe it; so do plants and animals; but there is enough for the use of all. And how plentiful is water! it drops in the rain and dew, it flows in rivers and streams, and the great ocean is full of it. The minerals of the earth serve for the plants to grow in, and the plants serve to feed men and animals; so you see all things help to support life, and all life comes from God. We should thank and praise Him every day for all his blessings.

The Mind.

Some of you, little children, may have observed how many wonderful things animals can do. You may have seen a bird's nest, and noticed how neatly and curiously it is made; or you may have looked at a little spider weaving his web. There is one kind of bird that sews leaves together to form its nest, and for this reason it is called the Tailor bird; and you have all heard of the Beaver, that cuts down trees and builds himself a house and a wall on the river side. But animals do all these wonderful works without being taught; for God has given to them what is called instinct, by which they know just what to do. To the beaver He has given a building instinct, to the spider a weaving instinct, and so on. Yet animals can learn to do some things. Dogs are trained to mind sheep, and horses to draw carriages. Some birds can be taught to sing tunes, or even to say a few words; but no animal can learn like a child; for the same child may be trained to be either a weaver, a tailor, or a builder, or to any other trade. Why is this? You know that many animals have five senses like ourselves; but can any animal learn to speak like a child? Oh no! for God has given the power of speech to man only. When God created the animals, he brought them to Adam for himn to give each a name; and you know that we have names for every thing we see or know of, and for whatever we do. When we hear the name of a thing, we think of the thing itself; and when we want to tell what we have seen, we use words only. With words we can tell whatever we feel, or think, or know; and by listening to what others say, we can learn from them. Words stand for things. We think, speak, read, and write in words. Whether we think, speak, or write the word man, it always stands for the same thing. We learn to know things through our senses: this is called perceiving. When we once know any thing, we can think of it again: this is called remembering. How do you know the difference between one object and another? By comparing them. Can you tell me which is the taller of these two children, the boy or the girl? The boy. Which is the elder? The boy. How do you know? Because he is much bigger. Yes; you have observed that children increase in size as they get older, and so you judged of their ages by their difference of size. In this way we can judge of the differences of all things, and by reasoning on their qualities we learn to know their uses. We can judge of actions as well as of things. We all know that to get our food and clothes, some one must work. Little children can not work, but their parents labor for them. Now, when we see people who are idle all day, we say that they do wrong, and that they soon will come to want. Why do we say this? Because we know that much labor is needed to prepare food and clothing for our use; and if men are idle, others will not give them what they want. It is by our minds then, that we are able to tell right from wrong.

་བས་་དས uus pཅས་་ w mip you w imagine n པ་པ་ ་པས of a tall straight tree, growing upright, with no branches at the sides, and only one great bunch of leaves at the top. Now look again at the picture; fancy the stem as tall as an clm-tree; the leaves at the top each as long as this room is wide, and a great bunch of fruit in the middle of the leaves. Have you any idea of the palm-tree now? How did you get it? Yes; from the picture, and by what you know of other trees, and by my description. Let us now see how many mental powers we have found out. We can perceive; we use signs or language; remember; compare; judge; imagine. What a wonderful thing is the mind! It is said that God at first made man in his own image; that is, He gave him a thinking spirit or soul, and made him pure and good. Two things our minds can learn about God; how well he has made all things, and how merciful he has been to man, who sinned against him. When we think of these things, it should make us love him more and more every day.

Conscience.

Almighty God has made the great world and all living things, down to the smallest insect, on a regular plan; even the water and air and light obey his laws, and he has put an instinct in every animal, by which it does that which is good and right for it to do. Have we the same instinct in us? No, but we have, what is much better, a mind which can judge between right and wrong. How do we know what is right? God has given us a law which tells us. Is this law good? Yes; for God made it, and He does all things well. Those who keep this law are happy, while those who break it are unhappy.

The feeling which we have of what is right or wrong in our actions is called conscience; and although no one might see us when doing a wrong act, conscience would tell us we were not doing as we ought. We should always listen to conscience. We should always do what we know to be right, not what we see others do. Children often try to excuse themselves when in fault, by saying that they only followed the example of some of their companions: is this right? No; for we should not join in any act without first thinking if it be right to do so. Do you know what you ought to do? The great thing is to love and serve God; the next, to love your fellow-creatures, and do them all the good you can. Do you know what it is wrong and wicked to do? Is it right to hate any one, or to try to injure him? Is it right to give way to anger, greediness, and other passions? No; for we should try to govern our minds and obey God's law, and not our own bad feelings, Ought we to say what is not true? No; for God is not pleased with those who lie. May we be rude or disobedient to our parents? No; we are commanded to obey them in all things. Can children serve the Lord? Yes; Joseph, the prophet Samuel, king Josiah, Timothy, and many other holy men, sought the Lord while they were yet children; and he led them all through their lives in the right way; and we must try to learn how to be good. We can not do this all at once. Many little children who are naughty when they first come to school, learn by degrees to do what is right. Will you strive to improve? You must try very much, and not be discouraged; endeavor always to find out which is the right way to act. I will tell you about a poor American Indian who was among his white neighbors. He asked a white man to give him a little tobacco. The man had some in his pocket, which he gave him. When the Indian came to use the tobacco, he found a piece of silver money in it; so, the next day he came back and brought it to the owner. When asked why he did not keep the money, he pointed to his breast and said, "I got a good man and a bad man here: the good man say, it is not yours, take it back.' Bad man say, he gave it you; it is yours.' Good man say, it is not right; he gave you tobacco, not money.' Bad man say, 'never mind; you got it, go and spend it.' So, I don't know what to do, and I try to go to sleep; but good man and bad man keep talking all night, and trouble me; so I bring the money back, and feel good now." What did the Indian mean by the good man in his breast, who said, take back the money? He meant his conscience, which told him right from wrong. What was the bad man that told him to keep the money? This was the feeling of selfish greediness, which would have had him buy something for his own pleasure with the money.

Not long ago I saw a little girl come into school one morning; she put her own bread away, and then took some out of another child's bag. As soon as she had got it in her hand she hid it under her cloak, and looked timidly around to see if any one was near. I went to her, and asked her where she got the bread then in her hand. She said, from her own bag. Was this true? No; for I saw her take it from another bag which was now empty. What made her hide the bread, and look round to see if any one noticed what she had done? It was conscience. She knew that she had done wrong: in her own bag she had plenty of bread, but she was greedy and wished for more. This was a sad fault, it led her to steal; and then, to hide her theft from me, she spoke what was false. See how one fault leads to another: covetousness to theft, and theft to lying! But I am glad to say, she soon came to see how badly she had acted, and to be very sorry for it. Perhaps she did not think much of what she was doing, but only followed the bad feeling of greediness; yet she knew that she was doing wrong, or why did she ry to hide the bread, and then tell an untruth to conceal her fault? Let us always think of what we are doing, and try to act rightly. Even the poor Indian who had not been taught the true way, wished to be honest; and how much more should we who have the law of God.

Hope.

What a delightful feeling is hope! I think we may call it a bright feeling. You may have seen the farmer laboring to plow and sow his fields. Why does he throw the seed into the ground? Is it not that he hopes to see it grow up and bear fruit? He waits long, and is not impatient; for he says to himself, "When harvest time comes, I shall be rewarded for all my labor and cost; I will wait and hope until then." When a merchant sends out a ship laden with goods over the ocean to a far country, he says, "My goods cost me much, but when my ship comes back, I hope she will bring me many more valuable things in return."

If a mother were parting from her son who was going on a long voyage, she would say, "It is, indeed, sad to part, but I will live in hope that my child will return, and then what joy I shall feel to meet him again!" Do you, children, ever feel hope? When you have a lesson given you to learn, you may perhaps say, "It is rather hard, but never mind, I think I can learn it." If you thought you could not learn it, you would have no hope, and be very sad.

When you bid your mothers good-by in the morning on coming to school, you do it cheerfully, because you say, "In the evening we shall meet our dear mothers again." If you had not this feeling, how miserable you would be.

You all wish to walk abroad and play in the fresh air; think how you would feel when shut up in a prison, with strong stone walls and iron-bound doors, so that you could not get out, and only saw the light through one small grated window. Yet, if you expected to be let out in a month, a year, or any fixed time, you would still live in hope. Perhaps you might say, It is very hard to be so long in this dark, cold cell; but, oh! how happy I shall be when the day comes, to go out and breathe the fresh air again.” Think, then, of those poor prisoners who have been shut in for life, with no hope of liberty. Oh! how sad their fate must have been! no change, no hope in this world! Some have given way to despair, and even gone mad in their dungeons. Others have trusted in God, and borne all patiently, placing their hope on a better world. Think, then, my dear children, what a blessing hope is; how many happy thoughts it gives us; how cheerful we are, and how much we can do, if we have a hopeful spirit. With this feeling our faces are bright, our hearts are light, and our hands are active and busy; so let us always try to hope, and never despond or despair.

The foregoing are merely given to show how these subjects should be simplified to suit the capacities of little children. It is a good plan for teachers, when they intend giving a lesson of this kind, to

སས་ པ་ པ་VIE་Iy པ་ བས་ gས ་ unI་ Iu aBCe, iu iuIP༦ བI་པ་་བ illustrative of the happiness and beauty of family union. Then duties of humanity in general, and of kindness and hospitality to strangers; with such narratives as Abraham entertaining the angels; the parable of the merciful Samaritan; the story of Mungo Park entertained by the poor African women; the divine command to love our enemies, and to overcome evil with good, illustrated by the example of the Saviour praying for his murderers.

The foregoing principles may be contrasted with examples of the dreadful effects of hatred, and of the misery of quarreling and anger. Inculcate, also, kindness to animals, and frequently show their uses both to man and in the scheme of creation. Also show the cruelty and cowardice of giving pain to weak and helpless things, which are placed by Divine Providence under our protection. Try to cultivate a love for natural objects generally; flowers, trees, and so forth. As children come to perceive and admire the beauty and order of creation, a feeling of love extends itself to every natural object, as exhibiting the power and goodness of God. Fear.

Show the evil and folly of indulging in unnecessary alarm at common dangers or mere appearances. Try to strengthen the minds of children to meet dangers, by directing them how they should act in such ordinary occurrences as may excite alarm. Explain what is meant by moral courage, and show how fear is generally accompanied by guilt, and that innocence gives the best feeling of security. Try to induce a constant dependence on divine protection. Explain that the feeling of fear or insecurity in darkness arises from physical causes, such as the impossibility of seeing where to step, and show how the blind overcome this feeling.

Additional Subjects for Moral Lessons.

On the continual support of all things by Divine Power.

Time. Our experience and knowledge of the past, the duties of the present, and our ignorance of the future.

The design and wisdom shown in the works of creation.

The starry heavens; the idea of distant worlds.

The stages of life, and their mutual relation and duties: infancy; youth; maturity; age.

On the various ranks and occupations of men, and of their mutual usefulness and support.

Love to God-to parents and relations--to companions-strangers and enemies. Fear.-Physical and moral.

Truth and justice in our words and actions.

Falsehood, dissimulation, and evil speaking.

Obedience. Explain the difference between willing obedience and forced obedience.

Contentment, and submission to unavoidable evils.

Patience and perseverence under difficulties.

Gentleness both in word and action.

Selfishness contrasted with self-denial for the good of others.

Industry and diligence.

Self-control-in sudden alarm or cases of illness-of provocation.

Generosity-covetousness.

Self-conceit, and a spirit of contradiction.

Effects of envy-anger and hatred.

Cruelty to animals.

Cleanliness.

The tendency of one fault to give rise to another.

Respect due to parents-to age-to good and great characters-to office and to rank.

The evil of ridicule. Forbearance and sympathy due to misfortune and deformity Punctuality. Destructiveness. Order. Honesty.

Loyalty and love of country.