is here expressed in pleasing words and to a lively tune
Wherever known it is loved. Only go to bed on the Satur-
day evening, my young friends, with this firm resolve, and
act it out in the morning, and you will find the readiest
opening for a pleasant day. I once heard of three children
who, when they awoke in the morning of the Sabbath,
would sing a hymn. The first who woke would begin—
"This is the day when Christ arose :

and sing through the verse.
The second would then commence,

:"

"This is the day when Jesus broke," &c. The third would then sing the verse,

"To-day with pleasure Christians meet; And then all would unite in singing, "I'll leave my sport to read and pray, And so prepare for heaven;

O may I love this blessed day,

The best of all the seven.'

This is a good way for a little family to begin the Sabbath.
I now often think of my father's singing with us on the
Sabbath morning the old hymn beginning,

"Awake, my soul, and with the sun,
Thy daily stage of duty run;

Shake off dull sloth, and early rise
To pay thy morning sacrifice."

How true it is, my dear young friends, that the birds are up before most of us on Sabbath mornings. Only learn from their example and you will never be late at the Sabbath school.

My young friends, value your Sabbath hours: these are given you

"To meeten, instruct, and prepare you for heaven." They are your best days, and now is the day and hour when Christ says to the wandering and the weary child, "Come unto Me." He hath loved you, and in the school you read of his love.

"These Sabbath-days will soon be o'er,

And these happy hours shall return no more." You may be called away, death may come, and Jesus may give you a home in the better land; or you may have to go to other lands where no Sabbath schools are found, or be put to service where you cannot get to the school; but if you act well you will

"Ne'er regret that 'twas your rule,

Never to be late at the Sabbath school."

UNCLE WILLIAM.

THE GOOD RULE.

I'll a-wake at dawn on the Sabbath day, For 'tis

Scripture Lessons.

LESSON XIX.-THE DELUGE.
Read Genesis vii.

appears that the distinction of animals into clean and unclean was known even before the De

more revealed than what is recorded in Genesis. "By sevens." Clean animals were much more serviceable to man than the unclean, and therefore the breeding stock of these must be seven couples, while that of the unclean animals was only a single pair. Ver. 4.-" Yet seven days, and

Ver. 1.-" Come thou and all thy house into the Ark."-The Ark was now ready. God had waited for the repentance of luge; showing that under that mankind during 120 years, dispensation there was much but they repented not. Noah had presented an example of remarkable obedience and faith, yet they continued hardened and reckless. They saw the Ark gradually and slowly preparing, until that huge vessel was completed; yet they only derided Noah's pious labours. Noah was a preacher of righte- I will cause it to rain.”—This ousness as well as a prophet-was the final notice. It seems joining his exhortations and that after God had waited so long tears with his prophetic denunciations during that protracted period; yet they heeded not (2 Peter ii. 5). The Spirit of God, though grieved and insulted, continued to strive with men, but they resisted all his holy influence, becoming each year more deeply depraved, until it became necessary that Divine justice should vindicate God's dishonoured law, and that the earth should spew out that guilty generation.

as 120 years, and all was ready, he gave at last seven days' notice, in order that mankind might have another week's warning prior to the awful judgment descending upon them. How true it is that God is slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy; and has no pleasure in the death of the sinner.

Ver. 11.-"The fountains of the great deep were broken up.". -Beneath the earth's surface were immense reservoirs of water; that surface being rent by earthquakes, the concealed water burst forth. "The windows of heaven were opened"

Ver. 2.-"Of every clean beast." -Such as chewed the cud and divided the hoof were clean; others were deemed unclean (Lev. xi. 1-8). From this it that is, the clouds and vapours

which had been held up in the | How it must have strengthened

the patriarch's faith and comforted his heart to hear that door closed by Divine interposition. Yet, awful to contemplate, the act that shut him in shut the world out: and now the storm of vengeance burst forth in all its fury.

regions of the air were now collected together; and, being rent asunder by lightning, discharged their vast volumes of water, rushing down like cataracts, as if flood-gates were opened from above as well as from below. Ver. 15.- They went in unto Noah into the Ark, two and two." Ver. 20.-"Fifteen cubits up-This indicates a special proward did the waters prevail: and vidence and a special influence the mountains were covered." from God; nothing else could-It is probable that in this great have controlled the nature of the animals, or have induced this wonderful order. Yet this itself is not more wonderful than what we see day by day in the instinct of animals.

catastrophe there was a gradual sinking down of part of the earth's surface, forming a convex space where the waters lay, thus causing the mountains to be submerged.

Ver. 16.-"And the Lord shut him in."-A remarkable passage this, so expressive of the Divine care. Everything was done at the instance of God's command and under God's providence. At God's mandate Noah built the huge vessel; at God's bidding he went in; and now it is God's own hand that shuts him in. those preserved in the Ark.

Ver. 23.-" And every living substance was destroyed."-The deluge extended over the whole earth, so far as it was inhabited by man, so that every human being perished, and every land animal perished within that area; not one was preserved alive, whether man or beast, except

LESSON XX.-PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS.

Read Matthew xxv. 1-13.

INTRODUCTORY.-If the ques- the parables, chap. xxv., form

tions Matt. xxiv. 3 be considered as denoting improper curiosity as to the time of Christ's coming, under the influence of which present duty might be forgotten and neglected, the first of

ing our present lesson, would meet this danger.

Two general truths lie in the parable, the practical effect of which was applicable not then

only—it is applicable always.