distinct and emphatic manner. So if boys are walking in the garden, and know that their mother does not wish them to eat the green fruit, they are as much bound not to do it as if they had received an express prohibition; and yet, how often do children "mother did not tell us " not to do this or that, and consider that an excuse for doing it, when, still, they know very well, that she did not wish them to do it.

say,

But, I am wandering a little from my story. The mother of these two boys seemed much pleased that they were so ready to obey her wishes, though they were so slightly expressed. They stood at the door talking a few minutes about the game of "I spy," which the boys had been playing, and about the beautiful appearance of the last rays of the twilight which were gilding with a mild light, the distant mountains, and then they walked in. The mother led them into her bed room. There was a large easy chair in one corner of it, near a window. fore the window stood a work table, covered with books and work which their sister Lucy, a little girl, was putting up. They helped her put away her work in the drawers, and arranged the books on the shelves, and then put the work table back into its place on one side of the room. The mother then sat down in the great chair, and the children came and stood before her, for she said she wanted to speak to them.

Be

"Well, children," said she, "we have got through another week, and now it is time for us to begin to think of the sabbath.

"Now, I want you to have a happy Sabbath,— and more than that, I want you to have a Sabbath which will be followed by a happy week. Now, I

have a way to propose for you to keep the sabbath to-morrow, which I think you will find a happy way, if you will give it a fair trial."

"Well, we will," said Lucy.

"Yes, mother," said the little boy, who stood leaning on his mother's knee, and looking up into her face. I believe however I have not yet told my readers his name; it was Arthur.

"You remember the fourth commandment," said the mother, "it makes two things necessary to the proper keeping of the Sabbath. One is to cease from all the common employments of the week, and the other is to keep the day holy to God. Now I want you, if you are willing to keep the Sabbath my way, to remember that it is to be devoted to duty, not to idleness or pleasure. In fact, you must expect some hard work, for, although we rest from common labours on the Lord's day, we cannot keep it holy in the sense intended by the commandment, without engaging in some new duties, which will require a good deal of effort and self denial."

"Now some of the things I shall wish you to do, you must do with the heart, or rather I shall want you not merely to do the things themselves, but to do them from the right motives.

"For instance, I have called you in from your play, and now I shall want you to go and do all you can to prepare for to-morrow, by anticipating all the business which would otherwise have to be done tomorrow, and doing as much of it to-night as possible, so as to be free and uninterrupted during the hours of the Sabbath. But then, it will be very important that you do this from the right feeling. If you had come in pouting and unhappy, displeased because I called you in, and vexed because you lost

your play, and then should go about your preparations this evening with a discontented unsubmissive spirit, obeying only from fear of punishment, you would be miserable now, and would have made but a poor preparation for the morrow."

"I see you smile, as if it were absurd to suppose you would feel thus. I know you will not have such feelings. In fact, I have been very much gratified to observe how pleasantly and readily you came in, and how willing you now seem to be to do what I am going to propose. But there is another kind of motive which I am a little afraid will be the one which will influence you, and which is not the right one."

"What is it?" asked the children.

me.

"I am afraid your motive will be only to please While you are watering your plants, and putting up your garden tools, and arranging your rooms, and making all your other preparations for the sabbath, you will be thinking,—how pleased mother will be to see all these things done carefully and well." The children smiled.

"Now I am very glad to have you love to please me, but I want you also to love to please God. He will observe how you make your preparations for his day, and if you think of Him, and act from a desire to please Him, He will approve your conduct as much as I shall.

"Now, I want you, while you go to your work, to think occasionally that you are doing something for the sake of enabling you to obey God's commands more fully to-morrow. Be faithful and careful in all you have to do, from a desire to please God as well as to please me. I want you to be his friends and to love him, as well as to love your mother.

For I cannot stay with you always in this world; your father has already gone, and I must go too, but we want to have you with us in heaven."

There was a pause for a moment.

The children did not speak, and their mother sat still a short time, musing upon past or future scenes. Presently she continued.

"You see then, I want you now to go and make your preparations for the Sabbath, thinking of God, and desiring to please him in doing it. This will make you faithful and careful, and pleasant to one another, and when your work is done, and you are ready to go to bed, I will tell you what you shall do first in the morning.”

The children seemed pleased with their mother's proposal and apparently entered into it with all their hearts, and they hastened away out of the room to commence their operations. In a few minutes they were all busily engaged, industrious, contented and happy. At about half past eight they collected again in their mother's room to receive her instructions for the next day, and then to bid her good night. "Do you think what I am going to give you to do to-morrow is hard or easy ?"

66 Easy," said Lucy.

"Hard," said George.

"It will be hard at the time. That is, you will have to make considerable effort in the course of the day, to discharge all your duties aright."

After the mother said this, she went on explaining to them what she wished them to do, and in what way they were to keep the Holy Day. Before going on to write what she said, I wish to readers that it is not very entertaining. you have opened this book merely for the purpose

say to my

If any of

of finding something to amuse yourselves with, I presume you will skip two or three pages of what follows here. In fact, if your object is simply to be entertained, I do not know but that I should advise you to skip it. But, if you wish to know how you can make the Sabbath a happy day, and are willing to make a little effort for this purpose,-a little effort do I say, I mean a great deal of effort, I advise you to read this lady's conversation with her children, in the most careful and attentive manner. She went on as follows.

“There are four kinds of duty, which you will have to perform to-morrow which I wish to speak about now, my children, and if you really wish to please God, you will attend to what I say carefully, and try to do what I shall describe.

1. Study, and Reading.

2. Meditation and Prayer.

3. Public Worship.

4. Rest.

1. STUDY AND READING.

"Your day will be spent more pleasantly and more profitably if you devote a few hours to study and reading. You have a Sabbath School lesson to learn. Now, I advise you to rise early and spend about an hour in the silent, careful, diligent study of that lesson, before breakfast. It will be hard I know. You will feel sleepy when I call you in the morning, and it will be hard for you to confine yourselves a whole hour to your work. But when it is done and you come to breakfast with your lesson well learned, you will feel a satisfaction and happiness which will fully repay you for the effort you made. By one hour's exertion, if you make it with right motives, you will lay up a stock of happiness