There was once a poor shepherd boy, who, from the time that he was quite young, had GOD'S especial grace with him. In the book where his history is written, I have read that one day there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock. And this child, instead of leaving that flock and thinking of his own safety, went after these two beasts, and set upon the fiercest of them, the lion, and took him by the beard, and killed him, and so saved the lamb out of his mouth. At that time the king of the country where this shepherd boy lived, had done many evil things in the sight of GOD: and because that was so, it was told this boy that, in GoD's good time, he should be king over this people. But before he became king, he had to go through all manner of trouble; and when the wicked king, that then was, hunted after him to put him to death, he had a little faithful company of soldiers with him, who kept guard over him as well as they could, and who fought for him in all his battles.

Now, my children, I come to what has to do with you. Once on a time, the city where he and his little band of men lived was taken and burnt while they were at a distance from it, and all their wives and children were carried away by their enemies. At last, and not without much trouble before, they determined to pursue after these enemies; and so they did. This man, once the shepherd-boy, who was afterwards to be the king,

had but six hundred soldiers; and when they came to follow these cruel enemies of theirs, two hundred were so tired that they had to stay behind, while the other four hundred went on. And when these four hundred had conquered the enemy's army, and taken again all that they had lost, and very much of riches, and of precious things besides, and were come back again to the two hundred who were so tired, they said at first, "We who went out to the battle ought to have everything that we then took. These, who only stayed behind and took care of the baggage, shall have nothing except their own wives and their own children." But that wise king said to them: "It shall not be so, the one and the other shall share and share alike :" and that became a law in his nation from that time for many hundred years.

Some of you, my children, know who it is of whom I have been telling you this story; and the others may try to find it out in the Bible. But this is what it has to do with you. You cannot help the Sisters in doing what they now will have to do, by being with them, or praying with them, or listening with them. No; but you can help them in this way. If, during these two days, you give no trouble, you make no noise, you never worry those who are in the Oratory by making them think, "I wonder what that is that is going on outside:" then, I fairly think you will have your reward too. Now then is the time to show that

you will do your best for those who have done a great deal for you. Here, now, in this Oratory, that is the only way that I should like to, or that I can, speak to you in. I would rather tell you how much I, for one, and how much I know that we all, trust in you; and ask you to show how much you can prove that you deserve our trust in this next forty-eight hours. Yes; of course it is difficult to keep quiet; of course you would rather have leave to do what, at other times, you may do in the way of making a noise in your play. But there is not one among you here, who does not understand me when I say that this is just the selfdenial you have to offer to GOD this Lent. We talk about Fasting. Now, then, as Fasting is only one kind of self-denial, so this shall be your Fast, after seven this evening, to show how quiet, how thoughtful, how obedient you can be. Such a little thing! No, it is not such a little thing. Nothing that we have to do because we ought, and for our dear LORD's sake, is little. I once told you how, about the same time, I knew two persons; the one a rich man (and a good man too) who built a Church at his own expense; but I suppose that the money which he gave did not oblige him to deny himself in any one way. He had it to spend, and he might have spent it on his own pleasure, and he rather laid it out in GOD's service. And he did well. But at the same time I knew of a servant girl, who, being about the age

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of the eldest of you, got up of her own accord, though she was not very strong, through the whole of a bitterly cold winter, that she might light the fires and so on, which the housemaid, who ought to have lighted them, could not have done without making a bad cough, which she had, worse and worse, and perhaps losing her life. I remember then envying, if I may so use the word, the rich man who built the Church: and I believe (then I was only twelve years old) that I thought nothing at all about that poor girl. Both of them have since been taken out of this world; and I hope both of them have been received into Paradise: but so far as these two works are concerned, the building the Church, or the lighting those fires, I know which now, beyond all comparison, I would rather have done.

And so to end, my children; this I say, that to be quiet, and steady, and obedient in these next. days, may seem a little thing to you; but if you do it because you wish to please our dear LORD, it will not be a little thing in His sight; for you know. how He said, that only to give a cup of cold water, for His sake, to a poor child should in no wise lose its reward.

READING XV.1

"Of Thine Own have we given Thee." I CHRON. xxix. 14.

IT is a long time since I have told you a story. This afternoon then, with GOD's help, you shall have one; in one sense only a story, in another, oh! so true of all of you!

There once lived a King who had a very large empire. His great wish was to make all His subjects happy; but He had enemies, who used to attack His people, sometimes by open force, sometimes by deceit and guile, which was much worse. Now this King's desire was that, in good time, all the people should go and live in His chief City; and if His friend tells us true, a wonderful place that must be. You know travellers do tell strange stories: but I have a very old Book, in which one of that King's friends, speaking about this City, says, that each several gate is a separate pearl. And I am told that another traveller, who had been there, and who had for once come back again, (for, as a general rule, those once received into that happy City, could no more go out,) said thus, that eye had not seen, neither had it entered into the heart of man to conceive what that King had prepared for His true subjects. More than that; I have read in a Life of the Son of that

1 Read on the Fourth Sunday in Lent.