Imatges de pàgina
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child, who comes unto thee to lament the hardness of his heart. The holy Bible teaches us that our hearts are wicked; and we can see that all the people about us-our brothers, and sisters, and play-fellows, and even the grown people we live with-have much sin in them; but we do not rightly feel the vileness of our own hearts. Hear, therefore, my prayer, O Lord, and send thy Holy Spirit to shew unto me the wickedness of my own heart; that I may hate myself, and know, that, had I my deserts, I should now be dwelling with everlasting burnings.

Oh! how proud I am! and how highly do I sometimes think of myself! and how do I despise my neighbours! and yet I have a heart full of all manner of evil, and a body full of corruption! O my Saviour! thou, in whom is no spot or stain of sin; thou, who didst die to save little children such as I am, have mercy on me, have mercy on me? and send thy Holy Spirit to make me know all my sins. Set them all before me in order, that I may know that I am a poor miserable wretch by nature, and that I may feel more and more that I can never save myself by any good thing I can do ; and that, without thee, my Saviour, I should be utterly lost for ever, and ever, and ever.

Now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, be all glory and honour for ever and ever. Amen.

HYMN IV.

THE Lord will happiness divine
On contrite hearts bestow :
Then tell me, gracious God, is mine

A contrite heart or no?

I hear, but seem to hear in vain,
Insensible as steel;

If ought is felt, 'tis only pain

To find I cannot feel.

I sometimes think myself inclin'd
To love thee if I could;
But often feel another mind,
Averse from all that's good.

My best desires are faint and few;
I fain would strive for more:
But when I say, "My strength renew,"
Seem weaker than before.

Thy saints are comforted, I know,
And love thy house of prayer:
I therefore go where others go,
But find no comfort there.

O, make this heart rejoice, or ache;
Decide this doubt for me:
And, if it be not broken, break;
And heal it, if it be..

STORY ON THE COMMANDMENTS.

THE next morning, at the time fixed by Mr. Fairchild, the children went into the study; and Mr. Fairchild shewed them more places on the Globe, and taught them many things which they did not know before. I shall put down what he taught them in this place, as you may perhaps like to read it.

"After Adam and Eve were turned out of Paradise," said Mr. Fairchild, "on account of their disobedience to God, they had many children born; and these children had children, and children's children, till, at the end of two thousand years, they had multiplied exceedingly but these people were very wicked; so very wicked, that it repented God that he had made them; and he sent a flood of water to destroy all the people that were upon the face of the earth, excepting only one person and his family."

Henry. "And that was Noah, who was saved in the ark."

"The account of Noah's preservation is given us in Heb. xi. 7," said Mr. Fairchild: " By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark, to the saving of his house: by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." Mr. Fairchild then shewed to his children, upon the Globe, a mountain in Asia, which he said was Ararat, where Noah's ark rested after the flood. And he shewed them also a place not very far distant, to which Noah's children travelled after they began to multiply upon the face of the earth, called the Plain of Shinar.

"Oh!" said Emily," and I know what the children of Noah did in the plain of Shinar."

"Let us hear, then," said Mr. Fairchild," if you can repeat the account from the Bible."

Emily."Yes, Papa. And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the East, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make bricks, and burn them thoronghly and they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded ; and the Lord said, Behold, the people are one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of the whole earth, and they

left off to build the city: therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon all the earth.' (Gen. xi. 1-9.)"

"Very well, my dear," said Mr. Fairchild. "From this place, which is called Babel, or Babylon, to this day, the families of the children of Noah spread themselves all over the face of the earth; some going one way, and some another, and settling themselves in different countries: some going towards the north, where it is extremely cold, and the fields covered with frost and snow; and others towards the south, where the sun has immense power, and the earth is in some seasons scorched with burning heat.

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"But wherever the families of the children of Noah have settled themselves," added Mr. Fairchild, they have, from the time of Noah, even till now, filled the earth with violence and wickedness. How many nations have, for ages past, forgotten the name of the true God, and have made to themselves vile gods of wood and of stone! changing the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.' (Rom. i. 23.)"

"Papa," said Emily, "is not this verse made about these people? The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands: they have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths: they that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.' (Psalm cxxxv. 15-18.)"

"But, Papa," said Lucy, "surely there are not many people in the world now who worship god

of wood, and of silver and gold: I thought people in these days knew better than that."

"The people who worship these gods," said Mr. Fairchild, “ are called idolaters; and it is a great mistake, my dear, to suppose that there are no idolaters left in the world; more than one-third of the inhabitants of the globe are supposed to be idolaters: there are numbers in Africa, in Asia, and in America: and the Roman Catholics in Europe, and other parts of the world, who address their prayers to images of saints, and of the Virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, may also be called idolaters. Many people in England are very wicked; but the people in those countries which serve idols are more horribly wicked than you can imagine; their ways and manner of life are so bad, that they are not fit even to be spoken of. St. Paul speaks of the wickedness of the heathen in these words: And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.' (Rom, i. 28-32.)"

Mr. Fairchild then stated to his children this awful truth, which few understand, or duly consider that vile and abominable as the heathen are, there is another order of people to be found too commonly in countries calling themselves

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