girl to the bed-side, and then, for the first time, she saw how pale that mother was, except one spot on her cheeks, which was very red; but the sad, sorrowful look her mother gave her, as she received her usual good-night kiss, touched her heart more than all the rest. But she was still too fretful to ask forgiveness.

After eating her supper, nurse put Annie to bed; but she could not sleep. The grieved, sad face of her dear mother was before her eyes whenever she closed them. She remembered how kind her mother had always been to her; she remembered how many times she had read stories to her before she had learned to say the hard words herself, and she longed now to kiss her, and ask her to forgive her; but she must wait till morning. O, how she longed for the first dawn of light! She remembered, too, what God has told us in His holy Word: to obey our parents,-to honour our father and mother; and she knew that He was displeased with her, and she wept bitterly. There she lay, on her little bed in the dark room, wishing

Soon

morning would come. she hears a noise, like many people going to and from her mother's sick room. Hark! someone approaches her door. It opens, and nurse enters in haste. Her eyes are red, and she is weeping. "Nurse, why do you cry so; and why have you come to my room? Is it morning?" "No, Annie, it is not morning. Your mother is much worse, and asks for you." Still wrapped in her loose, white night-robe, nurse hurried her to the dying-bed; but O, how shocked was she, as she gazed upon her mother, with whom she had parted but a few short hours before! That bright red spot upon her cheek was gone now, and she was much paler than Annie had ever seen her. Her eyes were large, and very bright; her long dark hair, which Annie had twisted round her fingers so often, lay in damp, heavy masses on her forehead; and her breathing was very quick and short. Annie knew not what death was; but she felt that her mother was going to leave her, and wildly, sorrowfully threw her arms around her neck, and begged for forgiveness. Little strength was left to the dying woman; but, with an effort,

Years have rolled away, and Annie, no longer little Annie, still lives, but lives to be kind to all. She has not forgotten her mother's last words; and the remembrance of her unkindness to her has caused many a tear to dim her eye, and embittered many an hour; and she says to all little children, Do not sin against God by being unkind to your parents. Dear little readers, are you ever fretful or unkind to your parents? Remember little Annie.

DEMETRIUS.*

"Demetrius hath good report of all men, and of the truth itself." (3 John 12.)

HERE are two persons mentioned in the Bible who were both called Demetrius. But, though they had the same name, they were men of a very different mind. Let us see which you would

wish to be like.

One of them was a silversmith,

*Daily Bible Readings. By Thulia S. Henderson.

living at Ephesus, who carried on a very prosperous, but an ungodly trade. He was a maker of silver shrines in honour of the goddess Diana. The numbers who visited her temple made these shrines to be in great request. But after Paul had come, and had persuaded many of the people, "saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands," Demetrius the silversmith began to think that his "craft" or trade was "in danger to be set at nought; and he stirred up a tumult, which grew so fierce, that the Apostle, whose very life was in danger, was obliged to leave the town. Demetrius the silversmith was an enemy to the truth.

It was far otherwise with the Demetrius mentioned in our text. Who he was, and what was his trade, and where he lived, we cannot tell. But we know that he was a Christian, and one who lived as a Christian should live. His character and conduct were holy; he was a Christian, notin name only, but of a truth. He had a "good report,” as one known to be a good man. He had a 66 good report of all men; " for all who knew him, whether they were Christians or not, could witness to the beauty of his godly life. This Deme

COME EARLY TO THE

HOUSE OF GOD. SUPPOSE an earthly prince should condescend

To bid you to his banquet as a friend; Would you not try, by all means in your power,

To be in court at the appointed

hour?

Shall such attention to a worm be given,

"What if it should rain gold instead of water-drops all summer?"

"Why, we could have everything in the world we wished for then. I would buy a little carriage and harness for Carlo, and Annie should have the paintbox she wants so much, and mother would not need to work a bit, and I would get her a

heaven?

Who can expect to be by Jesus

bless'd,

"But what would you get to eat? Nothing can grow without

was

RAINING GOLD. ITTLE HARRY looking out of the window, watching the rain as it pattered down on the green grass, and bent the flowerheads, dancing away over the gravel, and making little pools wherever there was the least pretence of a basin. It is a pleasant thing to sit snug in your comfortable room, and watch the rain; but Harry's brain was busy with another speculation.

"O, aunt Susan," he said,

"O, we would buy our food; we should have money enough."

66

Yes, but if it rained gold all over the world, no one would have any to sell. All the fields would be parched and baked. The grass would shrink and crumble to dust. The grain could not grow under golden rain.

These beautiful shady trees would parch, and wither up, and die. There would be no fruit nor vegetables in anyone's garden. The little streams, and many of the wells that afford refreshment to thousands, would all be dried up, and men and animals would perish with

thirst as well as hunger. Robinson Crusoe thought little of the gold he found in the sea-chest washed ashore on his island, for he could buy nothing with it. Besides, if gold were as plentiful as pebbles, we should value it no higher. Money is of no use except for what it will bring us of the comforts of life. Someone has estimated that every good summer shower is really worth in money many hundreds, and sometimes thousands of pounds. It produces what will bring that amount. We shall always find, dear Harry, the more we reflect on it, that our Creator has ordered everything a great deal more wisely and benevolently than we could."

THE COLLIER-BOY. OU all know," said an English gentleman, addressing some children who worked in the Yorkshire mines, "what it is to work down in the coal-pits, for many of you spend your days in them. A short time since, a little fellow, not more than five or six years old, was brought before some gentlemen to be questioned about his work. They asked him his age, then what he had to do. He an

swered, that every day, from five in the morning till five in the evening, he sat without a light beside a little door in the dark coal-passage, and when he heard one of the boxes come rumbling along, he opened the door by a piece of string which he held in his hand. He was asked whether he had any way of amusing himself. Once he had caught a mouse, and this was quite an event in his life. But his chief way of amusing himself was by begging of everyone who came through the door a piece of candle-end ; and then, when he had collected a sufficient number of pieces, he lighted them all. Well,' said the gentlemen, "and when you have got a light, what do you do?' 'O!' said the little fellow, 'when I gets a light I sings.'

"Now this is a simple story; but I want you to learn a lesson from it. We are met to-day to think, hear, and learn about the poor heathen in distant lands; and they are like this poor child in the coal-pit. They live in darkness,—in utter spiritual darkness. They are, the Bible tells us, sitting in darkness,' without God, without Christ, without hope. Now the object of the Missionaries is to take