BLIND BARTIMEUS.

THE children came to their mamma next morning with sad faces. "Oh, mamma, do you know what we have heard today? Poor old blind Andrew is dead!"

"Old Andrew!" said Mrs. Ross, was that the blind beggar who sat on the church road?"

"Yes, mamma, he died last night, nurse heard it when she was out."

"Poor old man! I am afraid he will not be much missed."

and

"Oh, mamma," said Ellen, "we will miss him. We always saw him when we walked that way, and spoke to him, gave him an apple, or a biscuit, and he said he liked to hear our voices. And now we shall never see him again!" and both the children began to weep. "Poor old Andrew!" said their mamma, “I did not see him when I

was on that road two days ago. Was he long ill?"

"Only two days, mamma."

"Then he had little time to prepare for death;" and Mrs. Ross too looked sad.

"Mamma," said Harry, "will Andrew have gone to heaven, and will he see there now?"

"My love, I wish I could think so, but I am very much afraid he is not there."

"Oh, mamma, why not?"

"You know, Harry, we must like heavenly things before we go to heaven, and I do not think poor Andrew did. I have seen him drunk, but I never saw him in the house of God, or at the prayer-meeting, or heard of his taking any interest in holy things. Did you ever give him a tract, Ellen, or speak to him about his soul."

"No, mamma, I wish I had."

"We often wish that, Ellen, when it is too late."

"Did you ever, mamma?"

Yes, both papa and I have often done so."

"And what did he say?"

"He always thanked us, and was civil, but said nothing more, and seemed to like a penny better than a tract."

แ

Oh, mamma," said Ellen, "I cannot bear to think of anybody going to the other place, not to heaven.'

"My dear, it is indeed a dreadful thought, but we must not put it quite away. We know that every one must die, but every one does not go to heaven; there is another place, and this should make us very earnest to do all we can to tell sinners of the way to be saved from it. But we are not to judge poor old Andrew, we must leave him with God, we can do nothing more for him now."

"Mamma, will you give me a tract to-day, to take to the beggar on the other road?"

"I shall be very glad to do so, my dear. Now, it is time for our lesson, and I think there is one of uncle's pic

tures about a poor blind beggar who believed in Jesus, and got his eyes opened. Here it is."

"Oh, that is very pretty! Jesus is just going to open his eyes, and he looks very happy, and there are a great many people looking at them, and wondering. Shall I read about it?"

Yes, here it is in St. Mark's Gospel, read this verse."

"And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples, and a great number of people, blind Bartimeus, the son of Timeus, sat by the highway-side begging."-Mark x. 46.

"Bartimeus was just like Andrew, mamma, if he sat by the road-side begging."

"Just so, in this sinful world, there is always poverty and distress everywhere, and so there are beggars in every country. Blind Bartimeus had often heard of Jesus, and believed in him as the Messiah, and that he could bring back his sight; but he could not

go to seek him, so we may believe he was very happy when he heard that Jesus had come to Jericho. Perhaps that morning he went to his old seat just praying and hoping that Jesus might pass that way, and soon he heard the voice of a great many people coming, for he was not deaf, only blind. So he asked what it was. You may read the

"And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me."-Mark x. 47, 48.

Why did they wish him not to speak, mamma?”

"I am not quite sure, perhaps they were unbelievers, who thought Christ could do nothing for him; perhaps careless, unkind persons, who were in a hurry themselves, and did not wish then to be stopped or hindered from going