THINGS MONEY CANNOT DO.
SOME boys and girls have an idea that money can do almost anything, but this is a mistake.
Money, it is true, can do a great deal, but it cannot do everything. I could name you a thousand things it cannot buy. It was meant for good, and it is a good thing to have, but all this depends on how it is used. If used wrongly, it is an injury rather than a benefit;
Beyond all doubt, however, there are many things better than it is, and which it cannot purchase, no matter how much we may have of it.
If a man has not a good education, all his money will never buy it for him. He can scarcely ever make up for his early waste of opportunities.
-Neither will wealth itself give a man or a woman good manners. Nothing, next to good morals and good health, is of more importance than easy, graceful, self-possessed manners. But they cannot be had for mere money.
Money cannot purchase a good conscience. if a poor man or a boy or a girl, any one, has a clear conscience that gives off a tone like a sound-bell when touched by the hammer, then be sure he or she is vastly richer than the millionaire who does not possess such a conscience. Good principles are better than gold.
S. S. Visitor.
AN HONEST BOY.
IN a country school a large class were standing to spell. In the lesson there was a very hard word. I put the word to the scholar at the head, and he missed it; I passed it to the next, and so on through the whole class, till it came to the last scholar,—the smallest of the class,—and he spelled it correctly; at least, I understood him so, and he went to the head, above seventeen boys and girls, all older than himself. I then turned around and wrote the word on the blackboard, so that they might all see how it was spelled, and learn it better. But no sooner had I written it, than the little boy at the head cried out, "Oh, I didn't say it so, Miss W—; I said e instead of i," and he went back to the foot, of his own accord, quicker than he had gone to the head. Was not he an honest boy? I should always have thought he spelled it right if he had not told me; but he was too honest to take any credit that did not belong to him.
LAMPS IN JERUSALEM.
DR. H. BONAR says:" As there are no street lamps in Jerusalem, one must have his lantern when needing to be on the street after sunset—both because he would be laid hold of by the guard as a suspected person if found without a light, and because the rough, narrow streets really require it.
Our Jerusalem waiter, Gabriel, considered it as regular a part of his duty to come for us with his lantern as to wait at table. On he marched before us, up one narrow street and down another, always holding the light as near the ground as possible, to indicate the ruts and stones, for it was our feet alone that seemed to need the light. We thus found new meaning in the passages, 'Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.' The commandment is a lamp; and the law is light. 'The sure word of prophecy' is as 'light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise."
((The Law In the heart is worth more than money.))
IT is better to read one good book carefully than ten in a slovenly way. Be slow to begin a book if it is likely you will not have time to finish it.
Be careful how you spend your time in reading books which are not worth reading. You would better throw away money than time, for time is worth more than money.
PERFORM a good deed, speak a kind word, bestow a pleasant smile, and you will receive the same in return.