whether at school or at home, to God's will; never to take his name in vain, never to break his holy day requires God's help; and no child can bear the persecu tion of taunts, and laughs, and sneers, without that help. Yes, a laugh is hard to bear; but we must learn to bear it, if we are Christ's disciples. But think of those comforting words of him who knows well our trials, "Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father who is in heaven." Does it seem to some child in reading this that he never can be ashamed of Jesus? Do not be too sure. Peter said, "Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee." But Peter said so in his own strength, and both he and the other apostles forsook their Saviour, and fled from him in the hour of trial. Yes, they were ashamed of Jesus.

"Ashamed of Jesus, that dear friend,
On whom our hopes of heaven depend;
Oh, when we blush, be this our shame,
That we no more revere his name."

There was a man, of whom we read in old times, who, not long after his master was taken away, was called to follow that master in the path of suffering. He loved Jesus, and spoke much of him, and although he knew that persecution would follow his teachings, he boldly taught that Christ was the Son of God, and that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth was the long-expected Saviour King. Doctors of the law, learned Jews, Elders, and Scribes disputed with him, and then accused him of blasphemy in his answers.

But, furious as they were against him, and bent as they were on getting rid of this teacher of truth from their midst, he was blessed and happy, as his Saviour had promised that he should be; so that when brought before the Council, and facing the angry and malignant countenances of the Jews, who sought his destruction, his face was calm and beautiful as that of an angel. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, it was, who gave that calm; and Stephen-for this was the Christian's name was blessed and happy amidst their most violent and angry persecution. Boldly did he rise that day, and although the stern brow of the high priest frowned upon him, and his voice with awful meaning asked the criminal if the charge of blasphemy which the witnesses made were true, Stephen did not shrink. Oh, beautiful is the story of this trial of Stephen's faith!

He remembered the scene at Calvary; he recalled the stripes, and the thorns, the nails, and the bitter death he might expect; but he answered boldly, and denied not the Saviour who had redeemed him. They heard him patiently, for a time, as he gave a little history of the dealings of God with his people, Israel, of their resistance and disobedience to him. But when he recalled the fact that as their fathers resisted the Holy Ghost, so now did they; that they had betrayed and murdered Jesus the just one, they ground their teeth in rage; and their consciences telling them that Stephen spoke the truth, they silenced him at once, and resolved on his death. And there he stood, meekly awaiting that death, blessed though persecuted, for

Chris was with him. The Holy Ghost, the Comforter, was his stay. There was no comfort then in his own strength or righteousness. No, he looked away from himself, and saw the glory of God and Jesus his advocate standing on God's right hand. Full of joy at that sight for Stephen was a sinner, remember, and needed a Saviour as much as you and I-he cried in the fulness of his joy, "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

What a comfort it must have been for the other disciples to have heard this! The apostles had never seen Jesus there. They had seen him go up into heaven after his resurrection, but a cloud received him out of their sight, and now they knew that Christ was surely in heaven, and their hearts rejoiced. Yes, it will, one day, be our greatest comfort to see Jesus in heaven. Not a dead Saviour, but a risen, glorified Saviour, at God's right hand, ready to give all that we ask in faith.

This was indeed being blessed in persecution; but the persecutors had no mercy. They hurried Stephen from the city, and at once began to stone him; but he never lost sight of the Saviour, and still called on him, saying, "Lord Jesus receive my spirit."

The stones were hurled at him again and again. The life was almost spent, and, kneeling down, with his last breath he cried, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge," and so peacefully composing himself like a child to its rest, as peacefully as if he were about to lie on his bed at midnight, he fell asleep with the prayer on his lips, to awake in the presence of him, of whom, and of whose word, he had not been ashamed.

Here,

indeed, was the fulfilment of that glorious promise, "Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil things against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." It was but a glimpse that he saw when the heavens were opened; but when he awoke it was in the presence of him with whom is fulness of joy, and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore.

Children, you are not called to lay down your life like Stephen, but you are called to be faithful to Christ. He that is faithful in a little will be found faithful in much, and you need not think you could go with a martyr's courage to the stake unless you have a martyr's faith in your daily life. confessing Christ, confessing that and not Satan's; and oh, above all, be anxious truly to be his servants.

Never be afraid of you are his servant,

If you are not Christ's, there is another master whose you are, and keeping in his service you will never, when you come to die, see the friend of sinners seated at God's right hand ready to plead his own merits and death for your admission into heaven. No, to you, that holy, happy home, will not be opened; but you will pass eternity in the darkness of that place which the presence of God shall never lighten.

THE BROTHERS OF HEBRON.

"Where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work."James iii. 16.

AD a traveller passed through the Land of Canaan in the times of the Patriarchs, 1716 years before the birth of Christ, he would have seen in the pleasant vale of Hebron many a well-erected tent, where the shepherds dwelt and tended their plentiful flocks, and among these shepherds, the richest and most venerated he would have recognised Jacob, the long banished son of Isaac, that very Jacob who obtained his father's blessing by a lie.

No longer an alien and wanderer now, but a rich patriarch; a plain man indeed, living in his tent amidst his servants, with many flocks and herds, which grazed on those soft hills around. These were all his own, and he might have been called a happy man but for the home troubles which sprang from envy and ungodliness among some of his sons, and for the yet greater sorrow of his life, the death of his beloved wife Rachel, who had died whilst journeying hither. She had been granted her heart's desire in the birth of two sons, and was called to leave her little ones in their early infancy without a mother's love. Here, among the hills of