THE BEST USE.
"My mother gave me a Bible for a gift last Christmas," said a little girl, complacently, " and Aunt Lou gave Cousin Harry one at the same time. Just look at them now, and see the difference!"
Harry's was a little worn. Its gilt edges were tarnished, and the newness was gone from the cover, but it looked as if it had been read very often. Here and there I saw pencil marks near favorite verses, and in one or two places it seemed as if tears might have fallen. Little Harry Gordon had become a Christian lately, and his Bible had evidently been very precious to him.
Minnie said triumphantly, after I had finished my look at Harry's, "Now see mine" She unfolded the tissue paper from it, and there it was, just as fresh and fair and uninjured as when it came out of the shop.
"I've never had it out of the drawer but once," said Miss Minnie, "and that was to show to some-body."
"Minnie," said I, "if your father were away from home, and should send you a letter telling you just what he wanted you to do and be, would it be good treatment never to break the seal, and to lay it away in a drawer unread? Would it not, rather, be better to take it out every day and read it over and over, trying all the more each time to obey its injunctions?"
"Yes!" said Minnie, blushing and hanging her head, as she began to see my meaning.
"This is God's letter to you, my love. Like the man who folded away his talent in a napkin, you have folded away your precious Bible. Hereafter, my child, use it as God wants you to.
'Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.'"
S. S. Times.
YOUR HISTORY.
IT is said of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, that once, when out in a sailing-boat, he became so angry at some offense given by one of the men, that he seized him and was about to throw him overboard. The man had but time to say, "You may drown me, but your history will tell of it."
Struck by the force of this fact, the emperor relaxed his hold and desisted from his terrible purpose.
Boys and girls, do you know that the acts and words of every day will make up something of your history? Once in a while, some act will be performed that will mark a special point in your life. It may be an act of blessing, it may be some dreadful, dark deed. In either case, it will loom up out of the past, and will determine in great part the character you shall form and the reputation you shall bear for life. As the colors and figures that are woven into a fabric determine its character, so the acts, the words, the thoughts, that are woven into your every-day life will de-termine with unfailing accuracy what your life shall he.
Children's Friend.