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begin anything without that foundation, it is foolishness. No matter how well you begin, your work will end badly.

Let us see how badly this tower ended. When the Lord watched the builders from his high throne in heaven, and then "came down to see the city and the tower," no doubt he was very angry. He said, "These people have all one language, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

W. They would not like that.

P. No. You can easily imagine how unpleasant that would be. One morning they might all meet to work, and they would find that they could not understand one another. What confusion they would make! Suppose that one man-one of the children of Ham-asked another for some brick; if his fellow-workman were one of the children of Shem, he would wonder what he said.

W. Yes; he would say to him, “What?”

Ion. And he would say to him, "Say it over again."

L. And the other one would stare! He would open his eyes very wide, and would look at him;-but he would not say it over again, because he would not understand.

P. I should think that he would turn away, and walk off to find some other bricklayer.

W. And the one that was left would laugh at him, and say, "He's foolish."

Ion. And the next bricklayer he spoke to might be one of the family of Japhet-he too would say, "You're foolish;" then he would think that the others were foolish-soon, I expect, they would think each other to be obstinate; and at last, I suppose, they would

W. They would begin to quarrel!-that's what they would do.

P. I suppose they did so. They would make a great clatter with their tongues; and amidst all the confusion of strange sounds which they had never heard before, they would begin to think that there was something the matter" which was very serious; and they had better not live together.

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Thus, we find that "God scattered them abroad from thence, on the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city."

Yes, they left off-and that is the best thing for all people to do when they have begun anything badly. Perhaps they might all go to the tower once more before they parted. They would look at it silently, but they would not smile, they would all turn away slowly, one family wandering toward the south, another to the east, and another to the west and north. I dare say they had learned a good lesson. None of them would think now of the fine walls they had built or if they did, they would not say to themselves, "What splendid walls, how high and thick they are!" Each man would silently say to his own heart, "What foolishness!" "It is of no use to strive against God." "I will never begin anything again, without asking God's blessing, or else I may not finish it."

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THIS is a precious book indeed!
Happy the child that loves to read!
'Tis God's own word, which he has given
To show our souls the way to heaven.

It tells us how the world was made,
And how good men the Lord obeyed;
Here his commands are written, too,
To teach us what we ought to do.

It bids us all from sin to fly,
Because our souls can never die ;
It points to heaven, where angels dwell,
And warns us to escape from hell.

But, what is more than all beside,
The Bible tells us, Jesus died!
This is its best, its chief intent-
To lead poor sinners to repent.

Be thankful, children, that you may
Read this good Bible every day;

'Tis God's own word, which he has given
To show your souls the way to heaven.

THIS is God's most holy day;
We must neither work nor play;
But we'll try to pray and sing,
And to serve our heavenly King.
Oh, 'tis pleasant now to go
To our Saviour's house below;
And we hope to sing and love
In our Saviour's house above.

TAYLOR.

MRS. PARSON.

THE CALL OF ABRAM.

"And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan: and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."-GEN. xi. 31, 32; xii. 1-3.

P. Do you know what faith is, Lucy?

L. Yes, I think I do; it means belief-believing in anybody.

W. I think it must mean something else; it means depending on anybody-because I may believe that papa is a very bad man, that does not show that I have faith in him.

P. No, Willie, it does not. Faith really means dependence on the promises of another. If a bad man promises to do a very wicked thing, and you depend on his promise, then you have faith in his wickedness. So, also, we have faith in the goodness of others. There are some who promise to do us good without speaking about it-they do good to us every day; and thus they lead us to expect good from them.

L. Yes; just like the SUN-the sun never says it will shine tomorrow, but it promises to do so because it has done so ever since we were born. So we have faith in it.

W. What may we say of the sun because it always keeps its promise, and because we may depend upon it?

P. We may say that it has faithfulness, which means that it is proper for us to have faith in it.

L. And the Baker, papa, has faithfulness-we have faith in him that he will call every afternoon at three o'clock with the bread.

W. And the Milkman is faithful, he is sure to come at four o'clock. Ion. And so are the Policemen faithful-they come out at nine o'clock every evening, to watch all night. The watchmen, too, who used to cry "past twelve o'clock," and to call the hours of the night— they were faithful.

L. And you are faithful, papa! You have not promised to give me a new frock when I have worn out this one, but I know that you will, because you always have done so. And when we get up in the morning, we know that you will give us our breakfast, so we always have faith in you, and depend upon you for it.

W. And for our dinner and tea, too.

P. And there is some One, above all, more faithful still, whom you depend upon to give you an appetite to eat your breakfast;-to give you health every day-and strength.

W. You mean GOD, papa?

P. Yes. The God who is "faithful and just to forgive sins," and is also faithful to give us every good gift-God, who promised Noah that there should be seedtime and harvest as long as the earth remained. If God were not faithful to his promise, the baker could not be faithful in bringing us bread-the milkman could not always bring us the milk -neither could your father and mother be faithful in providing you food and clothes.

If, then, you have faith in the sun, who gives us light, and on others around you, how much more should you have faith in God—the great Father of all!

We learned, last Sunday, of men who were foolish, because they did not know the faithfulness of God; and had not faith in him. To-day we shall hear of a man who did learn God's faithfulness, and had faith in him, as Noah had.

When the inhabitants of the world wandered away from the tower of Babel, as you saw in the picture, the family of Shem went toward the part of the world which we now call Asia ;-the family of Ham peopled the part of the world which we now call Africa;-while it is supposed that the descendants of Japhet became the inhabitants of Europe.

This good man, who was called ABRAM, was born about 290 years after the Deluge. He was one of the descendants of Shem; and this is how it happened. Shem, the son of Noah, had a son called Arphaxad. When Arphaxad became a man, he had a son named Sala. Sala grew up, and had a son named Heber.* Heber had a son called Phaleg. Phaleg's son was named Ragau. When Ragau was a man, God gave him a son, who was named Serug-Serug had a son called Nahor; and Nahor had a son called Terah. In the course of time Terah became a man, and when he was very old God gave him a son, whom he called Abram.

This was 292 years after the deluge. We will suppose that seventyfive more years have passed away-how many years after the deluge was that?

W. 367, papa.

P. Then let us imagine Abram an old man,-seventy-five years old -in the year 367 after the deluge.

I should think that by that time his beard was long and grey, and his hair perhaps was white. I dare say that he spoke slowly, and thought very much, and that his face was pleasant to look at; and when the people met him, perhaps they would stop and make a bow to him.

W. That was because he was good-they would think that he was good from his pleasant face.

L. And perhaps he was a rich man. Had he any land, papa? P. Yes; his father, Terah, and his grandfather, Nahor, and all his family, had been wealthy people. They had lived in UR, a city of the Chaldeans, which was the name given to the people who descended from Shem's son, Arphaxad. This place formed a part of the large country called MESOPOTAMIA, which you may find in your map of Asia, between the rivers Euphrates and the Tigris. By the order of God,*

* From whom, according to Josephus, the Jews received the name of Hebrews.

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Abram's father, Terah, and Abram, with Sarai his wife, and Lot, who was the son of Abram's brother, went forth from Ur, and came into a a town which, in the New Testament, is called Charran, and in the Old Testament, Haran.

Now, let us picture to ourselves this old man Abram, in his house at Haran. He had been living there fifteen years, and his old father Terah had just died at the age of 205, leaving the house and goods to his son Abram. I once had a large picture of Abram, and his house and lands. In the picture there was a great palm-tree, and the old white-headed Abram was sitting down, resting himself in the shade, and looking at his possessions. Certainly it was a large house that he lived in, and in my picture it seemed as though it had many rooms in it-for there were many doors and windows to it. As Abram looked, he could see before him his broad fields and sheaves of corn, and three carts laden with corn, which were being drawn by oxen toward a large barn. Beyond the corn-fields were large green plains, studded all over with sheep; while beyond the sheep could be seen a river, and the distant blue hills which bounded his possessions.

In the front of the picture, too, there were many things to show how rich Abram was. There were many horses feeding in one part, there were a few goats in another place; just beneath the spot where he was sitting were some men-servants driving a herd of cattle, while there were numbers of servants working in the fields; and not far off was seen one of the men leading a camel, on which was seated his wife Sarai.

W. Ah, she was going out for a ride, I should think; I suppose that Abram would look at her most.

P. In my picture, Abram did not seem to be noticing her-he seemed to be looking further off, he was looking beyond the river, beyond the blue hills, as though he would look into heaven, where God is.

L. Was he thinking of God, then?

P. I dare say he was-the thought of all he saw in his possessions would lead him on to thoughts of God. How often would everything he saw remind Abram of God's faithfulness! Not only the faithful sun that warmed him now; but even the cold winds in the winter; the green buds which came out in the spring, the seedtime, and the harvest time which God had promised; even the leaves which died and fell off in the autumn, all would tell him of the faithfulness of God, whose word is truth.

Perhaps Abram was thinking such thoughts then; and, as he looked at his possessions again, he might have been thinking, "How much has God given me !-how good a thing it is to depend upon God!" when he would perhaps hear a voice calling-" Abram!"

W. Some of his men calling him, perhaps.

P. No, there was nobody near to him; perhaps the voice did not speak to his ear, but only spoke in his mind. It next said to him"Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy

* See Acts vii. 2-4.

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