sake the life of that little sweet innocent creature, to drown my senses in eating and drinking, or waste my precious time in sleep and idleness, or consume my substance with gaming and keeping ill company! Let me learn a better lesson from the little lark: for God hath made larks to teach us what we ought to be; and he hath made swine and wolyes, and bats and owls, to teach us what we ought not to be. The lark loves the daylight; it sings before the sun rises; it is always busy and at work. But owls fly from the sun, and love darkness, and make a frightful hooting and screaming, which does not inspire us either with mirth or devotion, as the heavenly music of the lark doth; but rather fills the mind with terror and despair; and was thought of old to forebode some mischief or calamity.

THE QUESTIONS.

Q. How do the lives of worldly men differ from the lives of Christians?

A. As the life of the eel differs from the life of the lark."

Q. What is the delight of Christians?

Α. Το

A. To praise God.

Q. Does the lark spend all its time in prais ing God?

A. No, it labours for its living; and we also must do the necessary business of life.

Q. Are all creatures obedient to the Creator? A. They all follow the laws he hath given them.

Q. What is the man who disobeys the laws of God?

A. A monster, unlike to all other creatures. Q. For what end did God make the lark and the dove?

A. To teach us what we ought to be.

Q. Why did he make owls, bats, and swine?

A. To teach us what we ought not to be.

THE TEXTS.

Prov. xi. 12. Whatsoever hath no fins or scales in the water, that shall be an abomination unto you.

Psal. civ. 12. Beside them fhall the fowls of the air have their habitation, and sing among the branches.

Jam v. 13. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms.

Lev. xi. 13. These are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls the owl and the bat.

2 Pet. ii. 22. The dog is turned to his own romit again, and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire,

LESSON III,

THE SHIPS ON THE SEA.

THE ships sail upon the great and wide sea, whose waves roar; and are tossed about by the winds when the storm blows. Some set out from the land with a fair wind, and with the sun shining upon their sails and colours but after a while they are driven amongst rocks and shoals; or the great waves of the deep rising upon them like mountains, swallow them up; and the poor people on board are drowned and perish.

The like dangers attend us though we live upon the land: for, alas! we carry seas and storms within us! The wicked are like the troubled sea, which can never rest, but casteth up mire and dirt. The quiet spirit of a good man, is like the clear water of the fountain:

but

but the restless mind is like the dirty waves of the sea, when the mire of the bottom is stirred up by their motion.

Our wicked passions, such as pride, wrath, and envy, disturb our hearts, as the winds which blow upon the sea: and nothing can quiet them but the word and grace of Jesus Christ, who spake to the raging waves, and commanded them to be still. So can he now command our restless spirits, and restore them to peace; so that there shall be a calm. within us.

O how lamentable is the case of those, who perish in the storm of their own passions! If they had learned to govern them in time, they might have been saved from ruin. Perhaps, they came into this world the heirs of wealth and honour, with a fair and pleasant estate, and a fine house provided for them; and were under the care of good parents, who instructed them to be wise and happy and so they might have continued: but pride rose within them and carried them aloft upon the waves towards the clouds; pleasure transported them into a dangerous sea; then their vices brought them to ruin, and they sunk down to the bottom with despair. they tossed about like a ship in a

Thus were storm, till

they

they were swallowed up and lost. Temptation is a rock on which many souls split, and are ship-wrecked.

How shall we escape the dangers of this world, the storms of this troublesome ocean, to which we are all exposed, but in the ark of Christ's church, in which the faithful are saved, as the family of Noah were saved when the world was drowned for its wickedness?

THE QUESTIONS.

Q. What is man's life through this troublesome world?

A. As a dangerous passage over the waves of the sea.

Q. What are the rocks and shallows which threaten us with ship-wreck?

A. Temptations and worldly pleasures.

Q. What are the winds which toss us about?

A. Our own violent passions.

Q. What can quiet them?

A. Nothing but the grace of God, and the command of Christ.

Q. How is that to be obtained?

A. We must cry to him as his disciples