The Juvenile instructor and companion

Lo!

"Trust in God and keep your powder dry." If you don't trust in God, mischief and misery are sure to befall you. Upon the grave of many a fallen, unhappy man might it thus be written: this is the man that trusted not in God." "Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." Still, while trusting in God, keep your powder dry," or it wont fire; keep your brain clear, your heart fresh, your arm strong, your feet shod, your loins girt, your lamp

trimmed.

"A woman conceals that which she does not know." That is rather hard upon the fair sex. It seems to imply that a woman cannot keep a secret even when she should. Well, if that be true, another thing which is certainly as near the truth ought to be said, that woman tells the thing she ought to tell more habitually than man does. Men, as a rule, have less moral courage than women have, although men may have more physical courage than women. "At two things we should never be angry. First, at what we can help; second, at what we can't help." Let us all apply this rule, then anger will grow smaller by degrees and beautifully less. "You are

gude seeker but an ill finder." Some people are nearly always seeking, upsetting, overturning. Seeking what they never need have lost, picking up what they never need to have dropped, going back to fetch what they never need to have left behind them.

"It is a good fish if only it were caught." Yes, "if" is only a small word, but it often means much. The fish may be graceful and bright, all that is wanted is a net to catch it. A fish in the water and a

fish in the hand are very different things. That position is very honourable if it were only won. That knowledge very useful if only gained. Those grapes would be very sweet if they were only plucked. The one thing wanted is will, will, WILL. "Dinna lift me before I fall." That is another bit of shrewd counsel from our Scotch friends. Men will sometimes try to lift a man before he falls, offer him help he does not need, bestow upon him honours he neither requires nor desires, thrust upon him kindnesses which are not kind, which indeed worry and bore him; but when he is down then these friends coolly pass by on the other side, simply remarking that this unhappy man ought to have kept upon his feet while he was on.

"You sit still until you sweat, and work until you freeze." Many find it hard work to do nothing, they are often utterly fatigued with setting still, and quite spent with their "masterly inactivity." Some work till they freeze-i.e., are so laborious and energetic that their blood is well-nigh chilled. A lady I well knew one day saw her servant brushing a grate so quietly and tenderly that she might have been afraid of breaking it; the lady, though not strong, took the brush and worked away vigorously until she perspired freely. The girl stood by looking on very contentedly; at last seeing the lady so warm she said, "Oh, ma'am, it never makes me sweat!" which was quite true. The girl is not alone in this respect. To some people the greatest of all the commandments might be this, "Take it easy."

"Vows made in a storm are forgotten in a calm; VOWS made in sickness, in bereavement, in poverty are too often broken amid peace and plenty.

"Your head is so hot that your brains bubble over." Hotheaded people are often in trouble, and often get other people in also. Such people are not without brains, possibly they may have more than they can manage, and they would get on admirably if they would only " keep cool," at any rate if they would only keep the head cool. Keep the feet warm," say the dcctors; "Keep the heart warm," say the parson; but both doctors and parsons say, "Keep the head cool, clear, calm."

"You need not be so crusty, you are not so hard baked." I wish our friend Nabal Churl would dine on this bit of homely counsel every day for a month. He little thinks that he is " a cake not turned." Being so well done himself, he has the more right to grumble at others, at least so he thinks. "He kicks first with one foot, then with the other, then with both together; then down he comes." When Satan or Satan's servants get "exceedingly mad" against God's children, the defeat of Satan is near and certain. It was so in the case of Saul at Tarsus. He kicked against the pricks, or, as we should say in modern speech, "he run his head against the wall." He did not hurt the wall very much, but he hurt his own head sorely," and at last he fell. Thank God he rose again a wiser, kindlier, nobler man. "A woman's strength is in her tongue." Some of it is, but there is quite as much in her tears, more still in her grace, and tenderness, and self-devotion. Of course we all know that women can talk; it would be a great pity if they could not, seeing they often talk so well. Let us all, men and women, boys and girls, talk to better purpose. "Your bread is buttered on both sides," so it seems with some. They have good health, good friends, a good home, good temper, good fortune. The lines have fallen to them in pleasant places. Prevention is better than cure." So thought the old lady when she prescribed as a remedy for sea-sickness the following: "Never go to sea, and you will never be sea-sick." Never take the intoxicating drink, and you will never be a drunkard. How long this proverb has been in existence I know not, but this I well know that men and nations are slow of heart to learn and practise it. How much crime, misery, and poverty are we trying to cure which might have been prevented. We put the match and the gunpowder close together, then when the flames rise and spread, we laboriously strive to put them out. We neglect to put our foot upon the spark, and shortly we have to fight against the mighty conflagration. A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. We slumber and dose while our young people pass away from the school into the world; then we are in agony and despair over their recovery. "You blow hot and cold in the same breath." This is said of people who turn and scheme and go with the tide e; who believe in policy rather than principle, and what will pay or

please rather than what is true, noble, and right. They praise your friend, but don't fail to remind you of some serious drawbacks in his character. He wears an excellent coat, but it does not fit him very well-is too large, is badly put together, torn here, stained there, crumpled elsewhere. He would be a good man, if only—yes, "if only," we will stop there. These hot and cold people get into the Church. "Oh," they say, "it's a fine chapel, but it wants remodelling and repairing, then I should come oftener. He is a good preacher, but not to my taste. I am rather peculiar. The singing was good; but what a horrid organist you have!" and so on, heat and cold, this and that, and yet thoroughly and heartily neither this nor that. "I would thou wert cold or hot." "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might." "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not unto men."