WORDS.

WORDS are things of little cost,
Quickly spoken, quickly lost :
We forget them, but they stand
Witnesses at God's right hand,
And their testimony bear
For us, or against us, there.

Oh! how often ours have been
Idle words, and words of sin!
Words of anger, scorn, and pride,
Or desire our faults to hide;
Envious tales, or strife unkind,
Leaving bitter thoughts behind.

Grant us, Lord, from day to day,
Strength to watch and grace to pray;
May our lips, from sin set free,
Love to speak and sing of Thee;
Till in heaven we learn to raise
Hymns of everlasting praise.

A LITTLE WHILE.

A LITTLE While for patient vigil-keeping,
To face the storm, to wrestle with the strong;
A little while to sow the seed with weeping,

Then bind the sheaves and sing the harvest-song.

A little while, 'mid shadow and illusion,
To strive by faith love's mysteries to spell;
Then read each dark enigma's bright solution,
Whilst meekly owning, "He doth all things well."

And He who is Himself the Gift and giver,
The future glory and the present smile,
With the bright promise of the glad "forever"
Will light the shadows of the "little while."

Nehemiah Reprobing Sabbath-breakers.

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E have an interesting account of ancient Sabbath-breakers, in the book of Nehemiah, xiii. chap., from the 15th to the end of the 22nd verse, and of the conduct of a man of God towards them. The men of those days acted in a similar way to men in our own times, buying, selling, and transacting their ordinary business on a day which God has manded to be kept holy. The Sabbath was instituted before the giving of the law, so that it is more than a Jewish ordinance. It is part of the moral law which our Lord Jesus did not destroy, but fulfilled, established, and made binding on future generations. In observing the statutes and ordinances of God, honour and rewards are certain, both here and hereafter. But in slighting and disobeying there will be punishment, if not visibly in this world, in the world to come.

Nehemiah furnished a bright example to all the professors of Godliness. He honoured the Sabbath himself, and he was, as a governor, determined that his people

should honour it likewise. If we cannot command and compel, we can exhibit an example of regard to this high and sacred day, proving that we esteem it a delight and a privilege to assemble with those who keep holy-day in the sanctuaries of the Lord, where God has promised to meet us, and to bless us. Them that honour me, I will honour, saith the Lord. T. J. B.

T was very early in the morning, for the old clock in the church tower in Stettin, near to Dr. Waldow's house, had just struck three. But early as it was, his two sons, Philip and Rudolf, boys of twelve and ten years of age, were getting ready to go on their Whitsuntide excursion. Their breakfast was Soon

ready, and by four o'clock they stood before the door of a cousin of theirs, a young man of twenty-two, who had promised to go with them into the country to spend the day there. But they were very sorry

when the servant at the door told them that their cousin was sick that morning, and would be unable to go with thern, but that he would accompany them the very first day that he was able to leave home.

"Please excuse him," said the servant, "and you may depend upon it, you will have a nice time when he gets well."

Now, Philip and Rudolf had made every arrangement to go; had taken their lunch with them, and were in high glee as they had walked along the principal street in Stettin to their cousin's residence. But as soon as the servant had closed the door, after communicating the news which was so sorrowful to them, they did not know what to do whether to go into the country alone, without their cousin, or to wait. Both their mother and father had told them that on no account should they go into the country without their cousin, and yet, as the weather was so beautiful they thought it would be a very easy thing to find their own way, and to have a good time, and return in the even

ing in due season. Their parents, they thought, need never know anything about whether their cousin was with them or not. So they determined that they would go alone, and perhaps call for a school friend of theirs, Thomas Kohler, who lived in the suburbs of the city, right on the country road which they proposed to take. They found that Thomas was very glad to go with them; for he knew the roads quite well, and might prove a friend in need. Still, they did not feel easy at any time that whole day, for they knew that they had distinctly disobeyed their parents in leaving the city for their Whitsuntide excursion without their elder cousin.

Thomas Kohler, their schoolmate, was a very honourable, upright, and pleasant companion. He was never known to tell a falsehood, to utter an oath, or to do any other mean thing. The boys had soon got away off into the country, and could no longer see the spires of the churches and other large buildings in Stettin. At ten o'clock, they sat down on an old rock by the roadside to eat their lunch, and afterwards went in the direction of an old castle, which had been standing for a good many hundred years, and which they enjoyed visiting very much. After leaving the castle, and going some distance across the fields to a distant village, they found it was about dinner time, and Philip proposed that they should take dinner.

"But where shall we eat dinner?" replied Thomas; "surely not at a hotel, for I doubt if we have money enough for that. The best way for us would be to buy some cheese and bread at a grocery-store, and take our dinner somewhere in the open-air, just as we have eaten our lunch."

Now Philip was a proud boy, and did not wish to do things in that humble and cheap way, and was very anxious to make quite a spread, and to take his dinner at a hotel. His brother Rudolf was very much influenced