"BY HEART."
FRED said he knew his Sabbath-school lesson all by heart.
"Why, Fred! " said Cousin Mary, quietly,
"you surprise me!'
Now, Fred liked to have Cousin Mary think well of him, and he looked about an inch taller, as he replied, with a show of humility,—
"It seems as if anybody might learn such a short lesson as that! Only ten verses!"
"Oh, it was not the length of the lesson, but the breadth of it, that I was thinking of, my dear boy.
It is a great thing to learn a lesson like that by heart."
"What do you mean, Cousin Mary?"
"I was just thinking about this little verse,
' If ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.' That is a part of the lesson which you say you know by heart; but I heard you declare a few moments ago that you would never forgive Ralph Hastings as long as you lived!"
Fred was silent. He had never thought about this way of learning a lesson by heart. - When he had it all in his head, and could say it off glibly with his tongue, he had supposed that he knew it by heart. But Cousin Mary opened a new world of thought on the subject.
Was Cousin Mary right? Do we ever really know a thing until we do it? Fred learned this morning the meaning of that little word "forgive," by just forgiving Ralph, in the most real and practical manner possible. For Fred is trying to be a Christian boy, and when he once saw that the words of Jesus were meant to be done and not said merely, he honestly set about doing them. This must be the way, then, to learn a lesson "by heart"; to put it into practice!
We don't always do that, when we learn a lesson by head. Jesus must have meant something very practical when he said,—
"Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"
Selected.
CHILDREN AND PARENTS.—"Let all children remember," says Dr. Dwight, "if ever they are weary of laboring for their parents, that Christ labored for his; if impatient of their commands, that Christ cheerfully obeyed; if reluctant to provide for their parents, that Christ forgot himself and provided for his mother amid the agonies of the crucifixion. The affectionate language of this divine example to every child is, Go thou and do likewise.'"