some every day without noticing it. Our hairs are worthless, lifeless things, which we cut without painthe merest fringes on the outermost part of our outer life. If God takes so much care of these trifles, how much more care must He take of the immortal soul? In days of care, may your soul be like David's sparrow (Ps. lxxxiv. 3), that found a soft and cosy nest, and folded its wings in perfect peace under the shelter of the Temple. Now and again in Egypt you find a crocodile's head above the door, and sometimes a bird builds its nest inside the fearful jaws; and so, in nearly all circumstances, a Christian heart may build a peaceful nest for itself. By the tender skill of the parent birds, the thorns around the nest always guard and never wound the little nestlings. The worst ills are those that never befall us; the most chilling clouds on our path are the shadows cast by our own fears. Our over-care is nothing but distrust of God. Riches wont free us from care, though many think they would. "There be as many miseries beyond riches as on this side of them," said a great observer. We cannot cure our care by being careless, but we may cure it by learning of the sparrows.

2. They also teach us to obey God. All the fowls obey the law of God and of their being; they never try to live a life for which God did not intend them; they never abuse the powers God has given them. I never saw a bird drunk on a Saturday night, or at any other time: among sparrows I have not yet found a gambler, or a spendthrift, or a prodigal, or an idler,

or a suicide from over-anxiety about the future. Man defeats God's bounty as birds and beasts never do. Now we should do freely by choice what they do by instinct. By sin we put ourselves out of the common way and guard of God's providence. Man is the author of man's miseries; our calamities are not God's doing. No man really trusts in God unless he daily tries to do God's will. "Trust thou in the Lord, and do good: so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed" (Psm. xxxvii. 3). You are to commit the keeping of your soul in well-doing unto God (1 Pet. iv. 19). I admired greatly, the other day, a wood-pigeon as it rose from the road, and flew to the wood. How beautifully balanced its two wings were, and with what perfect ease and grace it moved along! Thus above the clouds and mire of earth your soul should rise heavenward on equal wings of faith and obedience. You will then understand the spirit of all the great Christian heroes. They were men who put their whole trust in God, and earnestly tried to do His will, and then had no fear about the future. They went cheerfully forward, feeling quite sure that nothing could harm them so long as they kept in the path of duty.

3. The birds also teach us to praise God. A free and happy race, they pour forth their little souls in song, and fill the echoing air with God's praises. Song, song, song is the business of many of them. How the linnet and lark sing just because they must, as if they had been taught music by the angels, as

if they could not tell all their joy. His great heartiness is one reason why the robin redbreast is so popular. Amid the snow he sings with swelling throat and breast. Some say that the nightingale's eyes flash fire with rapture while it sings. Like the lark, the higher you rise above earthliness, the louder your praise.

"So to heaven's gates the lark's shrill song ascends
But, grovelling on the earth, the carol ends."

Luther one day, in great straits, was walking in the fields, and reading one of our texts (Matt. vi. 26). Just then a sparrow picked up a crumb, and, rising, merrily repeated its simple song. The sight broke the spell upon Luther, and made him glad. As the sparrow hopped from sprig to spray, it seemed to him to sing

"Mortal, cease from toil and sorrow,
God provideth for the morrow."

Addressing the sparrow, he said, "Thou art my dear doctor of divinity, for thou teachest me God's power and goodness and wisdom, and His wonderful providence."

The young should have most of this spirit of praise. All young life is happy, even among our kittens and lambs. Your brow is not furrowed with care, your heart is not wounded with wrongs, and so it is not so hard for you to have the happy cheerfulness Christ so warmly praises. Learn thoroughly in youth at the feet of Dr. Sparrow. Let him teach you that you are not your own providence, and that

you are not, like Atlas, to bear the world upon your own shoulders. Get the cure before the disease. Little faith is the great evil with us; a childlike trust in God for everything is the grand secret of a happy life, for "he that trusteth in the Lord, happy is he." In Christ's school get to the Sixth Standard, to the Sixth A. Standard; don't be content to be only in the First Standard.

"The heart that trusts for ever sings,
And feels as light as it had wings;
A well of peace within it springs,
Come good or ill :

Whate'er to-day or morrow brings,
It is His will."

Be not like children in the dark, all whose thoughts turn into fear, and who cheat and frighten themselves. Our fears create most of, and multiply all, our afflictions.

You have a child's full trust in your father. He is your providence, and, in a sense, your God. You have no care about food, or raiment, or any earthly thing, for you know that he will provide all you need. Carry up the same feeling to your Father in heaven, and it will wonderfully sweeten your whole life.

The same fountain fills the upper and nether springs of grace and nature, for God is one, and His world is one. His bounty to the little birds is thus a pledge of His kindness to you. God help you to start life with this happy faith in an All-merciful Father, a deathless Saviour, and an endless heaven.

CHAPTER XI.

THE LILIES: A FLOWER-STUDY FOR SPRING.

"Consider the lilies of the field."-MATT. vi. 28.

THE Bible has over 250 botanical terms. This is not to be wondered at, as Palestine is a land of flowers; and hence it is also a land of bees and honey. Of its 2500 different flowers, about 500 are found in our country. Some fields in Palestine are literally clothed with scarlet, yellow, and blue; the wild flowers in them are thicker than the daisies in our summer meadows. The Eastern sun gives the colours a brightness they never have in our hazy clime. Christ wishes us to take a walk in the open fields and study these wild flowers that owe nothing to the gardener.

It is a great joy to be an admiring observer of nature. And it is Scriptural, for there is more genial description of nature in the Bible than in all the books of ancient Greece and Rome, and Christ here bids us study "these scriptures of the earth." The green earth and the blue sea and sky have been so made and painted by God as to soothe, delight, and instruct the mind. You miss many a genuine pleasure if you have not an open eye and mind for the wealth of