charity. True charity prompts us to make sacrifices for the sake of those who are not so well off as we ourselves are.

Henry thought that it would be much better for a boy who was hungry to have a piece of bread, than for one who was not hungry to have a bun.

Charlotte never forgot the lesson taught her that day by her kind-hearted brother. She too became loving and unselfish, and was ready at all times to give up her own pleasure for the sake of making others happy.

'Happy is he who, many things possessing, Makes them to others, and himself, a blessing."

ILLIAM LADD was the President of the American Peace Society, and he believed that the principle of peace, carried out, would maintain good will among neighbours as well as nations. But there was a time when he had not fully considered this subject-had not thought much about it-as I dare say my young readers have not, and he believed that if a man struck him a blow, it was best and fair to strike right back again, without considering if there were not some better way of overcoming the offender; or if a man did him an injury, why, as people commonly say, "he would give him as good as he sent."

He then had a farm: and a poor man, who lived on land adjoining his, neglected to keep up a fence which it was his business to keep in order; and in consequence, his sheep got into William Ladd's wheat-field, and did much mischief. William Ladd told his man Sam to go to the neighbour, and tell him he must mend the fence, and keep the sheep out. But the sheep came in again, and William Ladd, who was a very orderly man himself, was provoked.

Sam," said he, "go to that fellow and tell

"Well, sir, I guess it was because you sent him a rough kind of message; it made him mad, and he would'nt do it."

"I considered a few minutes," said William Ladd, “and then I told Sam to put the horse in the trap."

"Shall I put in the gun?" said Sam.

"No," said I. I saw he half smiled, but said nothing. I got into my trap and drove to my neighbour. He lived a mile off, and I had a good deal of time to think the matter

up

over.

When I drove up to the house, the man was chopping wood. There were a few sticks of wood, and the house was poor, and my heart was softened.

"Neighbour! I called out.

The man looked sulky, and did not raise his head.

"Come, come, neighbour," said I, “I have come with friendly feeling to you, and you must meet me half-way."

He perceived that I was in earnest, laid down his axe, and came to the trap.

"Now, neighbour," said I, "We have both been in the wrong; you neglected your fence, and I got angry, and sent you a provoking message. Now let us face about and both do right. I'll forgive you. Now let's shake hands."

He didn't feel like giving me his hand, but he let me take it.

"Now," said I, "neighbour, drive your

sheep down to my pasture. They shall share with my sheep till next spring, and you shall have all the yield, and next summer we shall start fair."

His hand was no longer dead in mine, and he gave me a good friendly grasp. The tears came into his eyes, and he said, "I guess you are a Christian, William Ladd, after all."

"And the little quarrel with my neighbour about the sheep was," said William Ladd, "the first step to my devoting myself to the Peace Society."

As it is necessary to go to press a little earlier than usual this month, we will reserve the names of those who have sent correct answers to the Puzzles in our November number. In the February number we hope to give the answers received for November and December, and also to announce who are the winners of the prizes, Mr. Iles of Bristol has so kindly offered. We now give two more puzzles. The first one is of a kind we have not yet given. By selecting one word out of each of the following lines, and putting them together, they will make a well-known proverb. What is the proverb ? I stand to mark the flight of time Through rolling years of slow decay; My senseless stone beneath the sun Gathers no gold to store away. No kindly hand now makes a trial To clear the moss from off the dial.

II..

A smuggler had a quantity of brandy which he expected would raise £9 18s. Od.; after he had sold 10 gallons, a revenue officer seized one third of the remainder, in consequence of which he only makes £8 2s. Od.; required the number of gallons he had, and the price per gallon.

Communications for the Editor to be addres sed, Mr. M. MILLER, 4, Mountfort Crescent,

Barnsbury Square, London N. London:-T. Barlow,

119, Salisbury Square, Fleet Street.

J. H. ADAMS, Printer, 7, Wilderness Row. E.C.)

Christ crowned with Thorns.

E hope our young friends have learned to love the Bible. It is a very wonder

ful book, or perhaps we ought to call it a collection of wonderful books. It used to be called the Divine Library, and that was a very good name. While all parts of the Bible are interesting and instructive, there are some parts much more so than others. We think the four Gospels are the most precious portion of the Bible; and we hope as our young friends grow older that their love for the Gospels will greatly increase. These four Gospels bring before us the Life and Teachings, the Death and Resurrection of our blessed Lord and Saviour. Their contents are very wonderful; but the absence of some things we might have expected to find is also very wonderful. For example, how little is told us about our Lord's early life. When men sit down to write the life of a great man, they naturally hunt up all the facts concerning his early life. We are all eager to learn the particulars of the childhood of distinguished men; and yet how little is recorded concerning Christ's early life. There is just one fact told us, viz., that at twelve years old He went with his parents up to Jerusalem, to keep one of the great festivals. For eighteen years He lived at Nazareth, and yet not a single word is told us concerning this period. Some time during these eighteen years it is probable that Joseph died, as he is never mentioned after the visit to Jerusalem when our Lord conversed with the doctors. We read of the brethren and sisters of the Lord, James and Joses, and Simon and Judas; but whether they were sisters and brothers, or whether they were only cousins, is hard to say. We read also that our Lord followed the trade of a carpenter. It does not appear that He worked any miracles, or even that He began to teach till, after He was thirty years old. As the Evangelists were not only very intimate with their Master, but with His mother also, they would have full opportunity

of learning all about His early life, hence it is very strange that they are silent on the subject.

Again, none of the Evangelists have given us the least hint concerning our Lord's personal appearance. Not one word has escaped them concerning His bodily stature or complexion. We don't know whether He stood six feet high, or five feet and a half; we cannot say whether He had a light or a dark complexion. Now this is the more remarkable because from the second century downwards, scarcely a year has passed away, in which attempts have not been made to delineate His supposed features. Christendom is full of such supposed portraits, but the painters are compelled to draw upon their own imagination. In our first engraving this month we have a picture of our Lord, as He stood before the Roman governor, crowned with thorns, when Pilate said, "Behold the Man." It is a face full of sorrow, pity, and love; but we have no means of ascertaining whether it resembled that of our Lord.

There are many other things omitted from the Gospels which we might have expected to find recorded, and which would certainly have been recorded, if the writers had not been guided by higher wisdom than their own. But in writing the Memoirs of our Lord they were guided by Divine inspiration, hence many things are omitted which would have satisfied our curiosity, but would not have been of any real service to us.

Some two or three centuries after our Lord's death there were certain fictitious lives of Him written, that are full of the strangest stories concerning His early life. They represent Him as working all kinds of miracles when He was quite a child. Of course these lives are not true, but they show how strong the desire was to know something of our Lord's early life; and they also show what sort of Gospels we should have had, if they had been written by either fanatics or impostors. We will give you one or two specimens of what is called, "The Gospel of Thomas," and you shall judge for yourselves, of the great contrast there is between these supposed facts and miracles, and those that we find in the four Gospels in our Bibles.

We read in the fabulous gospel of Thomas, as follows:

was

"The child Jesus, when five years old, playing in the ford of a mountain stream; and He collected the flowing waters into pools, and having made some soft clay, he fashioned out of it twelve sparrows. And Jesus

clapped His hands, and cried out to the sparrows, and said to them: Off you go!' And the sparrows flow, and went off flying.

"And the son of Annas the scribe was standing there with Joseph: and he took a willow branch and let out the waters which Jesus had collected. And Jesus seeing what was done, was angry, and said to him, 'O wicked, impious, and foolish what harm did the pools and waters to thee? Behold, even now thou shalt be dried up like a tree.' And straightway that boy was quite dried up.

"After that He was again passing through the village; and a boy ran up against Him, and struck His shoulder. And Jesus was angry and said to Him: Thou shalt not go back the way thou camest.' And immediately he fell down dead.”

But

Now these Apocryphal gospels, as they are called, are full of absurd stories like these. We are quite sure that our young friends will know enough of the character of our Lord, to feel that such accounts must be untrue. if men had written the Gospels out of their own heads, in all likelihood they would have been of this sort. But the Evangelists do not give us any facts about our Lord's early life, save one; and yet it is very likely they might know many; not indeed such absurd stories as those to which we have referred, but real facts, these however, they do not record, because doubtless God saw it would be best for us that our whole attention should be given to our Lord after He commenced His public mission as the world's Saviour.

ด

Talks on Character.

BY W. L, ROBERTS.

CHAP. II.-On Being Honest.

HE characteristic of honesty is as important as the one dwelt upon in the last chapter. In fact truthfulness is but a part of honesty, and might have been spoken of under that head. Truth is honest talk; we are going to speak now of honest actions.

The Scriptures speak with decision upon this subject: "Thou shalt not steal" is one of the ten commandments. We read again, "Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him."

Dishonesty generally begins with little things; and what is said of strife may be said of nearly every form of sin, "The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water." It is not often that a man begins his course of dishonesty by stealing a large amount of money at once, or by committing a daring burglary; he more commonly begins in early life with little acts of pilfering and fraud. Sometimes he begins by stealing a marble or a ball from playmates, then perhaps a shilling from his parents; and when once a boy or girl has given way to this habit of pilfering, it increases its hold upon them, and it becomes more and more difficult to break it off.

Dishonesty assumes various forms. Amongst grown-up people it assumes the forms of pocketpicking, burglary, highway-robbery, adulteration of food,-such as mixing water with milk, putting dust among pepper, &c., short weights and measures, and forgery. But we have to do especially with dishonesty as it manifests itself amongst the young. Some boys practise dishonesty at school. They meet with a difficult sum, and after puzzling their brains about it for some time without success, they quietly copy the answer out of a book, or they copy from the slate of a school-fellow, and pass it off as their own work. That is not honest. may be they gain a few marks by such conduct, and perhaps it helps them to obtain a good

It