"But James," said Martha, as she resumed her work, which she had only held in her hands during the conversation," haven't you a lesson in Colburn to get to-night?"

"I have got one to learn," replied James, in rather a reluctant tone; "but I don't feel much like learning it to-night. I can get it in the morning."

"But you know how you love to sleep when morning comes," replied Martha.

"Yes," said James," but I am going to try your plan of jumping up the instant I wake, if it is time to rise, and then there will be no danger."

"Well," said Ellen, "let's try him for once; and as you and I must attend to our work, why cannot we talk about some of our Bible subjects? I feel a great deal more interest in the characters of the Old Testament times, since I have come to consider them as occupied in the same way as the people of the present time. I used, as I said before, to think of Adam and Eve as having nothing particular to do but to walk about and converse with each other; and the people I always imagined as venerable personages, going about in long, flowing garments, and with very sober faces, -talking only upon very deep subjects, and receiving now and then, a formal visit from a prophet or some solemn personage of whom they were, perhaps, half afraid."

"Well done!" said Martha; "a quiet sort of world you would have had of it, with nothing going on in it. You talk of venerable personages.-I suppose there were no young people, or children then."

"Oh! yes," replied Ellen, "of course, I knew better; but then, things seemed so. The people must all have been young to be sure, before they were old; but, you know there is very little said of children in the Bible."

"No; because what it is most important for us to know, related to older persons; and the Bible was not written simply to interest or amuse us. You mention the formal visits they received now and then from some solemn personage:—I should like to tell you about a visit paid by one patriarch to another, that I was reading of the other day, and see if you can tell who they were, without my mentioning any names. There is nothing very remarkable in it, only it seemed to me as I read it, that it might have been very pleasant, and not such an awful interview as you conceive of.”

66 Well, let us have it," said Ellen.

"A certain individual,” said Martha, "started upon a very long journey. His wife and children did not set out with him, but he made arrangements for having them conducted by a different route to a place at which he expected to spend a considerable time, where he would meet them. So the wife and sons remained where they were, at her father's, until he was ready to accompany them on their way. The distance was quite a long one, and it seems to have been a considerable time before they met, at any rate, so long that the gentleman was quite rejoiced to see his family again. As they approached his house he recognised his father-in-law, and went out to meet him. There were cordial greetings on all sides; and many enquiries, as they entered the dwelling, after their mutual welfare, past and pres

ent.

The husband gave a full account of all that had happened on his journey; and the wife and her father recounted in their turn, their adventures and proceedings at home, and after they had set out. The father expressed his happiness and gratitude, for the mercies which had attended his son-in-law

as well as his own company, upon their expedition; and there were mutual congratulations upon the subject of their pleasant meeting."

"Oh! I begin to suspect who are meant," said Ellen, as Martha paused for a moment. "The father-in-law, I have guessed out."

"Well, I don't know," said James, eagerly: don't tell, Ellen, till she gets through."

"The father-in-law, happened to be a priest," continued Martha,- "one of Ellen's solemn personages: so, upon the occasion of his visit, the priests in that place, with all the other distinguished individuals, about seventy in number, came to meet him; and, at the suggestion of the stranger, offered sacrifices together, in commemoration of many circumstances of mercy in which he considered them to be placed. After this, they eat together, and the visiters dispersed.

6

"The next day, as the host went forth to his business, his guest observed him engaged for several hours without cessation, with a crowd of persons who were continually collecting about him. Why do you sit here all day long with so many people around you?' enquired the father-in-law. The son replied that he had been appointed a sort of judge or lawyer for the Israelites, so that all the difficulties or disputes between any individuals were brought to him to decide.

"Well, but you will soon wear yourself out if you apply yourself so closely to the business,' said the father-in-law, 'Why do you not divide the labor ? Why not look out some discreet individuals qualified to attend to such business, and refer to each a certain division of the people, to whose affairs they shall severally attend, as far as they are able. The

more difficult matters, they could bring to you. Thus you would be relieved of a great part of your burden, and not only so, but you would feel that you had companions in your labors.'

"The son thought very favorably of the proposal, and immediately made arrangements for carrying it into effect. He made selection of individual possessing the specified qualifications,- men of truth, without covetousness, and that feared God,' and assigned to each their division of the labor. The cases that were too difficult for them they referred to Moses and-"

"There !-to Moses- -you have told us now," said Ellen.

"How do you know that Moses is the one I have been speaking about," said Martha, "I only said they referred to Moses; how do you know but the man I have been speaking of, appointed Moses to the business."

"No, I know you meant Moses," persisted Ellen, "for I remember something about the story now, though I could not have related it, if you had asked me."

"Where is the chapter," enquired James, "I want to read it."

"It is somewhere in Exodus," said Martha; "you can find it some time. There are hundreds of interesting accounts like these, in the Bible,” continued Martha, "and I propose that some time, we each study a story, to tell to the others, just as I have told the one about Moses, without naming the characters, and see if we can guess them. We shall have to read them very carefully, if we are going to relate them, and, in this way, we shall become fa

miliar with the Bible histories, much faster than by only reading them over in the ordinary way."

Ellen and James liked the plan, and each agreed to study a story for the purpose, before the next evening.

SACRED IMAGERY.

ANOTHER BIBLE LESSON.

THERE is a great variety of ways to study the Bible besides reading it in course, or committing passages to memory. The older children of a family could invent a great many plans for interesting their younger brothers and sisters in their Bible studies. One exercise which would be found interesting and profitable, and which would answer for a great many lessons, might be the study of the figurative language of the Bible. By figurative language is meant that which is different from the language that we should most commonly use in expressing the same idea. For instance, we might speak of the thirsty ground, or the rosy morning. To express the same ideas in plain, common, language, we should say, "the ground needs watering" -and the sky in the morning is red. All the figures of speech have been arranged and classified. The following is an explanation of some of the most

common ones.

Metaphor. A metaphor is a mode of speech by which we call one thing by the name of another, to