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HYMN II.

I sing th' Almighty power of God,
That made the mountains rise,
That spread the flowing seas abroad,
And built the lofty skies.

I sing the wisdom that ordain'd
The sun to rule the day:

The moon shines full at his command,
And all the stars obey.

I sing the goodness of the Lord,
That filled the earth with food.
He formed the creatures with his word,
And then pronounced them good.
Lord how thy wonders are display'd
Where'er I turn mine eye.

If I survey the ground I tread,
Or gaze upon the sky!

There's not a plant or flower below
But makes thy glories known:
And clouds arise, and tempests blow,
By order from thy throne.

Creatures as numerous as they be,
Are subject to thy care;

There's not a place where wo can flce
But God is present there.

In heaven he shines with beams of love,
With wrath in hell beneath;

"Tis on his earth I stand and move,
And 'tis his air I breathe.

His hand is my perpetual guard;

He keeps me with his eye,

Why should I then forget the Lord,
Who is for ever nigh?

MAN BEFORE THE FALL.

"Ir is Lucy's birth-day," said Mr. Fairchild, as he came into the parlour one fine morning in May: " we will go to see John Trueman, and take some cake to his little children; and afterward we will go on to visit Nurse, and carry her some tea and sugar."

Nurse was a pious old woman, who had taken care of Lucy when she was a baby, and now lived with her son and his wife Joan in a little cottage not far distant, called

Brookside cottage, because a clear stream of water ran just before the door.

"And shall we stay at nurse's all day, papa ?" said

the children.

"Ask your mamma, my dears," said Mr. Fairchild. "With all my heart," said Mrs. Fairchild; "and we will take Betty with us to carry our dinner."

So when the children had breakfasted, and Betty was ready, they all set out. And first they went down the lane towards John Trueman's cottage. There was not a pleasanter lane near any village in England; the hedge on each side is of hawthorn, which was then in blossom; and the grass was soft under the feet as a velvet cushion: on the bank, under the hedge, were all manner of sweet flowers, violets, and primroses, and the blue vervain.

Lucy and Emily and Henry ran gayly along before their papa and mamma, and Betty came after with the basket. Before they came up to the gate of John Trueman's cottage, the children stopped to take the cake out of Betty's basket, and to cut shares of it for John's little ones. While they were doing this, their papa and manıma had reached the cottage, and were sitting down at the door when they came up.

I promised to make my reader acquainted with John Trueman. He was a poor working man, and had a wife and six children. But I should not call him poor: I should rather call him rich: for he had cause to hope that his wife and all his children (that is, all who were old enough to inspire such hopes) had been brought to the knowledge of God; and as for John himself, there was reason to think that he was one of the most faithful servants of God in all the country round.

John Trueman's cottage was a neat little place, standing in a garden, adorned with pinks, and rosemary, and southernwood. John himself was gone out to his daily work when Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild came to his house; but his wife Mary was at home, and was just giving a crust of bread and a bit of cheese to a very poor woman, who had stopped at the gate with a baby in her arms. Why, Mary," said Mr. Fairchild; "I hope it is a sign that you are getting rich, as you have bread and cheese to spare."

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"Sir," she answered, "this poor woman is in want, and my children will never miss what I have given her."

"You are very right," said Mrs. Fairchild. "He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord,' and tho Lord will pay it again;" and at the same time she slipped a shilling into the poor woman's hand.

John and Mary Trueman had six children; the eldest, Thomas, was working in the garden; and little Billy, his youngest brother, who was but three years old, was carrying out the weeds as his brother plucked them up. Mary, the eldest daughter, was taking care of the baby; and Kitty, the second, sat sewing; while her brother Charles, a little boy of seven years of age, read the Bible aloud to her. They were all neat and clean, though dressed in very coarse clothes.

When Lucy, and Emily, and Henry divided the cake among the poor children, they looked very much pleased; but they said that they would not eat any of it till their father came in at night. "If that is the case," said Mrs. Fairchild, "you shall have a little tea and sugar, to give your father with your cake;" so she gave them some out of the basket. Mary Trueman first thanked God, and then Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild, for these good things: and she, with all her children, followed Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild with courtesies and bows to the corner of the lane.

As Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild and their children passed through the village, they stopped at the schools, and found every thing as they could wish ;-the children all clean, neat, cheerful, and busy; and the master and mistress very attentive. They were much pleased to see every thing in such good order in the schools: and having passed this part of the village, they turned aside into a large meadow through which was the path to Nurse's cottage. Many sheep with their lambs were feeding in this meadow and here, also, were abundance of primroses, cowslips, daisies, aud buttercups; and the song of the birds which were in the hedge-rows was exceedingly delightful.

As soon as the children came in sight of Nurse's little cottage, they ran on before, to kiss Nurse; and to tell her that they were come to spend the day with her. The poor woman was very glad, because she loved Mr. Fairchild's children very dearly; she therefore kissed them, and took them to see her littlo grandson Tommy, who was asleep in the cradle. By this time Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild and Betty had come up; and while Betty

prepared the dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild sat talking with Nurse at the door of the cottage.

Their discourse ran upon the mercy and goodness of God to his people, and poor Nurse especially was full of gratitude for what had been lately done for her son for this young man had for a short time past given evi. dence of a great change of heart, insomuch that he made his mother and wife extremely happy, whereas he had formerly given them great uncasinoss. "These are blessings," said Mr. Fairchild to Nurse, "for which you cannot be too thankful."

Betty and Joan laid the cloth upon the fresh grass before the cottage door; and when Joan had boiled some potatoes, Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild sat down to dinner, with the children; after which, the children went to play in tho meadow, by the brook-side, till it was time for them to be going home. But before they parted from Nurse, I should tell you that Mr. Fairchild read a chapter in the Bible aloud; and afterward they all prayed together, that God would bless them until they should meet again: and Mrs. Fairchild having given Nurse the tea and sugar, the good old woman kissed the dear children, and they returned home with their papa and mamma.

"What a happy day we have had!" said Lucy, as she walked home between her papa and mamma: "every thing has gone well with us since we set out; and every one we have seen has been kind and good to us; and the weather has been so fine, and every thing looks so pretty all around us!"

"It is very true," said Mr. Fairchild, "that we have had a happy day, my dear; for we have conversed with no persons to-day but those who live in the fear of God. If everybody in this world feared God, the world would again become nearly such as it was before Adam sinned; but by reason of sin all lands mourn.'"

"Was the world very pretty, papa," said Emily, "before wickedness came into it?"

"It is written in the first chapter of Genesis," said Mr. Fairchild, "that when God had made all things, he looked on them, and behold, they were very good. Adam and Eve were made in the image of God: they were no doubt most lovely to look upon; and they had no angry, wicked passion to disturb them. They were placed in a garden watered by four streams, in which was every kind of tree pleasan to the sight or good for food

There were no evil beasts then in the world; no sickness or sorrow, no pain, no death; but when Adam sinned, all these evils came into the world."

"If men were to leave off being wicked, papa," said L. Lucy, "would pain and sorrow leave them?"

"Men can never leave off sinning, my dear," said Mr Fairchild," because sin is in our hearts, and will continue to trouble us to our dying day; but in proportion as the people of any town, or village, or house, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and love him, they will become more and more happy; and in proportion as peo ple give way to sin, they become more miserable. In those heathen countries where God is not known at all, J the people are poor, miserable, cruel, and dirty: they do not know what it is to be happy; the fields look barren and desolate, and the very beasts share their misery. 1 remember a time when Nurse and her son did not love God; and then they were not happy, but were always quarrelling and miserable: their little cottage did not look clean, and orderly, and pleasant as it now does, but was always in an uproar and confusion; but, now that God has given them clean hearts, you see how happy they are. We must have clean hearts, before we could be happy even in heaven; without holiness, no man shall see the Lord."" Heb. xii. 14.

By this time Mr. and Mrs. Fairchild, with their children, had got home; and they were very much tired, for they had walked a long way that day. Before they went to bed, however, Mr. Fairchild taught his children a very pretty prayer, which I shall put down here for your use. 4 Prayer for the Restoration of the Image of God in which Man was first made.

O Lord God Almighty, blessed Three in one, it is written in the first chapter of Genesis, that thou didst make man in thine own image-that is, without sin in him, with a clean and innocent heart; but we are fallen from the innocence in which God first made our father Adam: our hearts are not good now; no, they are very wicked. When Adam and Eve had no sin, they lived in the garden of Eden, and were never unhappy: then they loved thee, O Lord God, and loved each other, with all their hearts: but when sin came into them, they hid themselves from God, and were angry with each other. O Lord God, give us clean and holy hearts, that we may

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