better than the good. This life is very short. In seventy

or eighty years at farthest it is gone;

and very

few live to be so old. Then the wicked die, as well as the good. Now after death there is another life, which lasts for ever. There it will become manifest, that it was happier to honour, love, and obey God, than it was to forget him and do wickedly; for in that world, the wicked suffer eternal pain, and the righteous have everlasting joy. The wicked rich man, lifted up his eyes being in torments, while the poor good man, was happy in heaven.

Take particular notice of this; and should it be your lot, also, to suffer from poverty and want in the midst of your piety, while you see wicked men around you possessed of temporal abundance and delight, do not, on that account, become weary of the practice of godliness. Continue pious, and do nothing which is not right in the sight of God. With those who pursue this course it will go well at last, when the wicked, who were happy at first, have fallen into eternal poverty, shame, and misery. You have an instance of this, in the rich man who was not good; who, after death, as the Saviour tells us, was unable to obtain a cup of water to cool the burning heat of his tongue, while Lazarus, after the poverty and want he had suffered upon earth, was partaking of enjoyment and repose in heaven.

Fix this little narrative firmly in your minds; and as often as you read it or repeat it, pray: “Guard me, blessed Father in heaven, against everything like want of pity and tenderness of heart towards the poor and suffering."

I ask not wealth or honour here,

But like my Lord above,

With those who weep, to drop a tear
Of sympathy and love;

THE MERCIFUL SAMARITAN.

And when I come at last to die,

A humble part to share

With the redeemed above the sky,
And be remembered there.

139

SECTION VI.

THE MERCIFUL SAMARITAN.

I HAVE just been telling you how, from the account of the rich man and the poor Lazarus, and the different treatment they received in the other world, you should learn to use property aright and to sympathize with and assist all who are poor and needy.

The little narrative or parable of Jesus, about the merciful Samaritan, is also calculated to excite you to the same good conduct. You have all doubtless read it; but to fully understand it, you must be informed that the man who got so wounded on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho, a road frequented by thieves and robbers even to this day, was evidently a Jew; that the priest and Levite, who passed by him, were Jews too, and hence bound as brethren, but much more by their profession, to assist this poor wounded man; and that the Samaritan who finally treated him so kindly, belonged to a class of people with whom the Jews had no dealings, and whom indeed they looked upon as enemies. The Samaritan, therefore, did not merely find a man and a stranger in distress. The person whom he found wounded and forsaken and half dead, and took such tender care of, was his bitter enemy.

In this parable, then, you have beautifully set forth, by the Saviour himself, the duty of loving your fellow crea

tures, of which I have more than once spoken. You are always to be ready to do, as the Samaritan did,-to assist those who need your assistance, without any regard to the place or country to which they belong, even should they happen indeed to be your bitter enemies.

If, therefore, you see another child fallen down and brought into danger, or a poor man lying in the streets and in danger of dying from cold and hunger; you must raise this little child up, and do every thing you can to save it. You must ask your parents and neighbours to give this poor man food and clothing and to bring him into a house, in order that he may not perish of cold and hunger. That would be a very wicked child who should rejoice to see others in misery, or ridicule a poor man who should be suffering with want. That would be a very foolish and ignorant child, who should think that we ought not to give anything to or help a sufferer, because he was of a low rank, or had been educated in another religion. Whatever the sufferer be called, whether high or low, Christian or Jew, Lutheran, Catholic, or Reformed; regard it not. Serve him, help him, give him what he needs. So God does. So Jesus, according to the account of the merciful Samaritan, would have us do. So the angels would do, if they lived upon earth.

CHARITY.

Cold the heart of man was beating,
When heaven's Love in pity came,
And, with kind and gentle greeting,
Softly whispered Jesus' name.

Slighted oft, and unattended,

Still she wanders here below,
Seeking for the unbefriended,
Listening to the tale of woe.

THE SOWER. AN OBSTINATE YOUTH.

O'er the stranger, see her bending,

As he fainting lies and cold;
While, with anxious care attending,
On she leads him to her fold.

Should in distant wilds I languish,
Let me view her watching by,
Hear her soothe my dying anguish,
See her pointing to the sky.

And, earth left, with hope to stay me,
Covered o'er with wounds of sin,

At heaven's portal down I'll lay me,
Till she come and lead me in.

141

SECTION VII.

THE SOWER.

In the parable of the sower, we read, how the seed which was scattered abroad, fell upon many different kinds of soil. A part of it, in particular, fell upon a hard trodden footpath, where it found no earth, and was lost.

This representation reminds us of many foolish and obstinate youth, who remain inattentive and indifferent to all the religious instruction and good exhortations they have received from their teachers and parents, who, though possessed of the best means for growing in christian virtue and knowledge, make no use of them whatever, but still remain ignorant and wicked.

I remember such a youth. He was my class-mate at an academy, and called Stephen. His father, a pious and good man, had taken great pains with him, and tried various ways to bring him to repent of his sins and love the Lord

Jesus Christ, but all in vain. He still remained a wild and irreligious youth; and at last, when urged by his father to go to a sabbath-school, which had just been established in the place, he boldly declared to him that he did not wish to be driven to heaven. The scene however soon changed. On going to the academy one morning, I was told, and the news gave me an inexpressible shock, that Stephen was dead. He had had no sickness. On the other hand, he was smart and active; and but a day or two previous, he had recited with his class.

On the evening before his death, at a party of young people, he got to bantering with his companions about drinking what he called the essence, but they affirmed to be the oil of wintergreen, until he finally swallowed quite a vial full of it. Soon after the poor fellow's return home he was seized with dreadful thirst, and asked a little brother to rise and get him some water. Great agony succeeded, which continued to increase in spite of the efforts of the physician, even after the cause had been ascertained, for the information was given too late. Nor was this all. His mind was in greater agony than his body; and when he found death inevitable, deeply did he lament the manner in which he had treated the pious efforts of his father, and refused to go to the sabbath-school.

Poor youth! His mind and heart had been like the footpath which is trodden down hard. The seed of the word of God could find no soil there; and in the end, he died as the fool dieth.

Happy will it be for you, my readers, if your hearts resemble that good ground, in which the seed sown, took root and brought forth rich fruit,—if you listen attentively to pious exhortations and religious instruction from your parents and teachers, and treasure the truth up in your