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Eye-gate," in Bunyan's allegory, is the most easily and the most frequently assailed of all the entrances to "Mansoul." The truth of this representation none will doubt. What day passes in which we have not to call in our own roving glances, and to reprove the "look" of others? How instantaneous is the entrance of evil, if the eye be left unguarded! Even aged Jacob found it needful to "make a covenant with his eyes "-to bind and oblige them, as it were, not to trespass or wander unlawfully. And the wisest of men, when he counselled his readers to 66 keep the heart with all diligence, since out of it are the issues of life," added, as a kindred caution-"Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee." Not from lust only, or from gold, strive to keep thine eyes; the temptations are manifold. "Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup;" for "at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder."

The Christian dispensation is deemed less burdensome and stringent than that of the law. It is so in ritual, but not in morals. In this matter we find it

rather more tenacious than less so. Christ Himself explained, in the very commencement of His ministry, that a lustful look had the essence and the criminality of adultery itself. And one of the counsels and injunctions which was repeated in His teaching concerned the peril of a roving eye. In one of His earliest sermons (Matt. v.) He said: "If thy eye offend thee (or lead thee to offend), pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell." And after His transfiguration, and shortly before His journey to Jerusalem to suffer and to die, He repeats the same counsel :-"If thy eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire" (Matt. xviii.). What stronger language could be used? what more earnest or decided counsel given ? The eye is chiefly a receptive organ; its outgoings, its actions on others, are few. Yet so perilous are often its motions, so destructive to the soul, that if it could not be restrained it were even better extirpated. These are thoughts and suggestions so weighty, that they require to be deeply pondered. On a hasty glance, the mind is almost ready to revolt from them. Yet they fell from His lips who knew what was in man, and could measure as no other man can do the infinite distance between heaven and hell, and the infinite importance of an admittance into the one and an escape from the other.-Quiver.

out producing any apparent effect; the gun-post stood unshaken. Heated and weary, the men laboured on; still the earth, from the pressure of years, refused to yield to the pick.

The work thoroughly engrossed my interest; so I lingered on the spot, to watch for the result. One hour elapsed before the toil and perseverance of the

labourers met with any reward. Then the earth, so firmly fixed for years, was loosened; and now, no longer held by it, the post tottered, would yield to the touch of childhood, and fell before the will of the workmen.

Musing, I turned away. Ah! methought, our evil, sinful habits resemble that post, as it stood. Like it, they too have been fixed by the hand of Time in Nature's soil, and are unwilling to yield their sway over us. Need the analogy,

however, stop here? No. May we not in the prostrate post find too a parallel -even in the habit overcome? Pursuing the same course in both instances, may we not meet with the same result? Surely yes; there is encouragement for all to toil on in the work of subduing any known evil habit. With every stroke of the pick, i.e. resistance, the power of any such will become less, till it will yield entirely before persevering effort.

Let us however bear in mind continually, that our own unaided effort or resistance is analogous to the pick, and not, as many imagine, to the arm which wields it. Powerless to produce any effect, the pick would have lain upon the ground had not the arm of man raised and directed it. So with human effort to subdue evil in the heart or life-equally powerless unless the arm of God, i. e. His Holy Spirit, help and direct such efforts. Ah! as vain to produce the wished for result as the pick would have proved had not the arm of man touched it!

That, useless, at his feet would lie,
Had he no arm to move :
Thus too, if God withhold His grace,
Will human effort prove.

Fellow-Christians, you know the power of habit, the difficulty in removing one of long growth or standing. The experience of every heart will testify to the truth that it becomes a

"second nature; " and nature alas is strong enough! What then, are we to give up in despair? Are sinful habits to grow among us? Surely not. Let us look once again at the prostrate gunpost, and learn to improve the lesson it would teach us.

It is a sad fact that in too many, if not in all Christians, yes, and earnest Christians too, one evil habit is allowed to counteract all other good qualities, and to mar the character, proving destructive of all influence for good with others. Irritability, selfishness, slethfulness, covetousness, censoriousnessany of these, or some other alike evilhabitually yielded to by the Christian; and whatever his other attainments, however sincere and earnest his endeavours to walk worthy of his high calling, we unhesitatingly state his character is completely marred, his spiritual growth delayed, if not out of the question altogether, and his influence with others for their good blighted. Very little reflection will convince any that these defects, or their like, are only too common among professing Christians of the present day. The besetting sin, the one prevailing bad habit, perhaps indulged in from infancy, is too often glozed over by the Christian. If its existence be not ignored in toto, yet the resistance it meets with is but feeble. One rests too often content with simply mourning over its existence and dominion over self.

For the sake of our influence with others, ah! for our own sake too, let it be so no longer with us, dear reader. Let us, upon our knees, beneath the cross, search for and discover our one evil habit or habits; then, having found such, let us manfully and daily strive against it or them, in persevering dependence upon the strength of God. Success is certain; for, strong as the power of habit is, there is a strength which is stronger. In it we must over

THE HUSBANDMEN AND VINEYARD.

Mark xii. 1-9.

WHICH of you little ones can tell me what a vineyard is? What grow on

vines ?

We have no vineyards in England, because the country is too cold for them; but in Palestine, where our Lord lived when He was on earth, the climate is much warmer; and there almost every one had his own vineyard. Vines and vineyards and grapes are often mentioned in Scripture: Lev. xix. 10; Ps. lxxx. 8; Isa. xvi. 10; Mic. iv. 4. When Moses

sent a number of men to spy out the land of Canaan (Num. xiii. 23), they returned with so large a cluster of grapes that it had to be carried on a staff between two men. In the New Testament also our Lord often makes mention of vineyards in His parables (Matt. xx. 1; xxi. 28; Luke xiii. 6); and in John xv. 1 He compares Himself to a vine.

Now let us see what the parable we have just read is about. A certain man planted a? (vineyard), and set a hedge about it. This was to keep out the wild beasts and foxes and anything that might hurt it; the foxes were very fond of grapes, and used to trample down the vineyards (Cant. ii. 15). And digged a place for the- - ? (winefat.) Do you know what that is?-(No.) What is made from grapes?— (Wine.) Yes, and the winefat or winepress was the place where the wine-makers pressed out the juice of the grapes. They threw the grapes into large vats, or sometimes they dug a place in the ground like a trough, into which the grapes were thrown, and then a man would get in and tread upon them until all the juice was pressed out; and that was called the winepress or winefat.

What more did the man do who planted the vineyard ?-(Built a tower.) Yes; each vineyard had a small house or tower in the midst of it, for the keeper of the vineyard to live in. When

all this had been done, the owner of the vineyard let it out to husbandmen or labourers, and went into a? (far country.) At the season when the fruit was ripe, whom did he send to the husbandmen? What did they do to him? Did he send again, and again? At last whom did he send? And what did they do to him? How were those wicked husbandmen punished?

And

Now, in this parable our Lord meant by the wicked husbandmen God's own peculiar people, the Jews. He had given them His holy word and commandments; they were the only people to whom He had spoken and revealed Himself; all other nations worshipped idols. God expected that the Jews would keep His laws, and love and serve Him truly. But no, from the time when He had first brought them out of Egypt down to the time of our Lord's coming on earth, they had continually provoked Him, and forsaken His laws, and gone after other gods. And when He sent His prophets to warn and reprove them, and bid them turn to the Lord with all their hearts, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance, they would not hearken to them, or turn, or repent, but only hardened themselves in their evil ways. At last He sent His own Son; and what did they do to Him? Shall I tell you how God punished the Jews for all their wickedness? In less than forty years after our Lord was crucified, the Romans (a great and powerful nation) came and took the city of Jerusalem; very many of the Jews were destroyed,-some by famine and pestilence, some by fire and sword; and all those who escaped were scattered abroad all over the world, so that their descendants have never had a settled home since.

I have chosen this subject to talk about to-day, because I want to tell you that God has given each of us a vineyard to take care of,-to me, and you, and you; we are each of us the keeper of a vineyard. What do I mean?- (Don't know.) What part of us

is it that will live for ever?-(Soul.) Well, I mean that we each of us have a soul to take care of. Some people take care of their souls, and some don't; some are good husbandmen, and some are bad. We all take care of our bodies, don't we? we feed and clothe and warm them, and give them rest at night; we never forget to take care of them; but a great many of us forget to take care of our souls. God comes very often to see whether we are taking care of them or not, whether there is any fruit there for Him.

Do you know what fruit God wants from our souls? He wants love, He wants us to love Him; that is the fruit He wants; and is it anything so very hard He asks of us, do you think? God comes very often to each one of us, and we can imagine Him to say, 66 Is there any fruit for Me here? does this soul love Me yet?" or this one? or this? He is looking at the soul of each of you little ones, and asking that now. I wonder what answer He gets; does He hear "No" from each of you-" No, I don't love Him yet;" "No, not yet"? If that is the answer you all give, then God goes away disappointed. He has come and looked for fruit in your souls, and you have none to give Him. Oh, don't send Him away with that answer any more; give Him the fruit He wants; say, "Yes, Lord, I want to love Thee; do Thou make me love Thee more and more, and bring forth fruit to Thy glory."

TIMOTHEUS.

IDLENESS AND SLOTH.

Proverbs vi. 6-11.

Now, little ones, listen attentively while I read these verses to you. What sort of a person is a sluggard? From what is such an idle, slothful being told to learn a lesson? What does the ant do for herself? (Ver. 8.) Did you ever watch an ant carrying or dragging a load two or three times as large as itself, sometimes perhaps having two or three others to help it? How busy they seemed to be!

Can you think of any other insect which is always busy? What insect is mentioned in the hymn which begins, "How doth the little busy"? --(Bee, teacher.) Yes; the bees work very hard all the summer, making a store of honey for the winter, when they know they will not be able to get any.

What lesson may we learn from the ant and the bee? Yes; to do all we do

busily and heartily. Solomon says, "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might " (Eccles. ix. 10). Do you always do that? When you are at school, or doing something for your mother, do you never waste your time, or try how little you can do without being punished, instead of trying to do as much as you can? When you are sent on an errand, do you never loiter on the way? You fall in with some companions perhaps, and stop to have a game or a chat with them; or you idle along the street, looking in at the shop windows as you go, and so take twice as long about your errand as you need. I call that being idle and slothful; and if you act in that way you are like the sluggard, and not like the ant.

Listen while I read another verse to you from the Book of Proverbs (Prov. xviii. 9). What do you waste when you are slothful? (Time.) Besides loitering over anything you are given to do, and wasting time in that way, do you never waste time in lying in bed in the morning, when you ought to be up helping your mother or getting ready for school? You can't make up your mind perhaps to get up when you are called. You are so comfortable, you must just have a few minutes more: yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep. And then, when you do jump out of bed at last, you have to hurry into your clothes, you have no time to make yourself clean and tidy, still less to kneel down and say your prayers. Then when you come downstairs you are scolded for being so late, and called a lazy child, and most likely you get out of temper; and so the day begins badly, just because you cannot make up your mind to get up a