will one day prove a wise and ripe Christian, able to instruct others also.

The leaven in the measures of meal, which by degrees leavens the whole lump, teaches the same encouraging truths. However slight our goodness may be at first, let us not be disheartened but go on, and God will bless our endeavours after Him; until our whole temper, and conduct, and character, is brought under the rich influence of His grace. And then, my dear Edward, from the last parable delivered by our Lord on His return to the house in Capernaum, let us learn to take care how we hear these sacred truths. They are not taught us for nothing. A candle is not brought to be put under a bushel, but on a candlestick, to give light, and to show us all that the darkness hid. So the truth should teach us to know ourselves, and to know and choose the things that belong to our everlasting peace; to distinguish between right and wrong, between good and evil. We must, in short, use the light which is given us; remembering that we must by and by give an account of every talent which God has been pleased to trust to our care. The knowledge of the truth, the knowledge of Christ's salvation, is one of these talents. Sad is the case of those who hide this light -the light of the glorious Gospel of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ-instead of letting it shine in their characters to give light to all around. The more we use this light, the more will it be shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. If we use what is given, we shall most certainly have more: but if we waste and neglect it, we shall lose even what we had before. I have often heard it observed, that men

who neglect or disobey the teaching of the Gospel frequently become remarkably unwise in other matters. They seem to lose the proper use even of the powers of their understandings, and give themselves up to the most foolish and unreasonable courses. May we ever rejoice in the light, and walk as children of the light, that our lamp may not be put out in darkness!

E. I suppose a great many people did come to our Lord, to beg Him to explain to them what they did not understand in His parables?

M. Not a great many I am afraid; for there is nothing of the kind said in the Gospels. Some few indeed seem to have had their hearts deeply touched by what they had heard and seen so much so, that they offered to become followers of Jesus, to attend His steps. Two of these are particularly mentioned to us, and that in such a manner as to lead us to feel a great interest about them. Our Lord, it seems, was on the point of leaving the place where He had been delivering these parables, when one of His hearers, a scribe he is called, drew near and begged to be allowed to accompany Him; unwilling, I suppose, to lose sight of One from whose lips he had first heard the words of eternal life, he said to Him, "Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest." And another came, immediately after, expressing the same wish, but adding one request, which was that he might be permitted to go first and bury his father.

E. I should like to hear our Lord's answer, Mamma; but I am quite sure He would give them leave to come with Him.

M. And so am I, my love, if they were quite sin

cere in their request. But of this there seems some doubt; as our Saviour, instead of saying to them, as He had done before to Peter, and James, and John, "Follow me," began to tell them very plainly how much patience, and self-denial, and firm endurance it would require thus to come after Him. He told them of His poverty; that He had no home in this world to offer them; that, poorer far than the foxes which have holes, or than the birds of the air which have nests, the Son of man, although Son of God too, had not where to lay His head. This was His answer to the first, and it would plainly prove whether he wished to follow Him from real love to His person, or from any hope of worldly gain or honour. To the second He said, "Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead :" showing as clearly that, though He could promise them no earthly rewards for doing so, yet He expected those who became His followers to give up every thing for His sake.

E. But people need not now give up their homes, and their employments, and even their dearest friends, need they, Mamma, in order to be Christ's true disciples ?

M. Things are altogether much altered now; it is impossible for any of us to become personal followers of our Lord, as those who loved Him once did. We cannot like them attend upon His ministry here on earth; and we can easily imagine that much would be required in those days, which would not be always necessary or even possible. The period when Christ Jesus was dwelling amongst us in His human nature was a very extraordinary one, the most extraordinary that the world ever knew. We do not then wonder that it was marked by mira

cles on the one hand, and by sacrifices on the other, of no common kind. If Christ's people were to do now every thing that the first Christians were called upon to do, both the world and the Church would be thrown into great confusion. Yet the sacrifices which we see them called upon to make may teach us what sort of spirit it is, that our Lord requires in us still. We may see that He expects us to value His service above all the riches, and honours, and pleasures of the world, and to love Him better even than we love our nearest and dearest relatives. So that if it should ever become necessary in order to do our duty faithfully towards Christ, to give up any things or any persons that we dearly love, we must be ready to do so at once. This has been the case, you know, long and long after our Saviour's time on earth; and who shall say that it may never be the case again?

E. Are you thinking, Mamma, of Wicliffe and Latimer and Cranmer? or of any of the Apostles who died for Christ's sake?

M. My thoughts were going back to all "the noble army of Martyrs;" those who shed their blood for Christ in the early ages of the Gospel, and those who for His sake counted their lives no longer dear to them at the time of the Reformation. Many of these were high in rank, and rich in wealth; yet rather than forsake Christ and His Gospel, rather than exchange any of the blessed truths that the Gospel teaches for the false doctrines of men, they exchanged their wealth for poverty, and their rank for disgraceful punishments. These alone were hard things to flesh and blood; but these saints of holy memory bore greater things than

these for the sake of Jesus Christ. Many of them had dear friends, or still dearer brothers and sisters and parents, or most beloved wives and children; yet even these they left for Him, and went alone into the fire that they might meet their dear families again with joy in an eternal home.

E. How I love, Mamma, to hear of those holy men! What very great sacrifices they made for Christ; much greater I think than that which our Lord asked this new disciple to make: I mean that one whom He told to follow Him directly without even waiting to bury his father.

M. They certainly were exceeding great sacrifices: but you must consider, on the other hand, how great and glorious He is who required them, and how abundantly able and willing He is to repay us for any sacrifices which we make in His name ;-yes, and to take care too of any of those dear relatives whom He sometimes commands His disciples to give up to His charge, instead of continuing to watch over them themselves. In considering the Martyrs' sufferings, we must never lose sight of the Martyrs' crown. Faith will tell us, what it told them, "that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed" hereafter; it will remind us of that "exceeding and eternal weight of glory," with the thoughts of which St. Paul comforted himself and all his fellow-sufferers; it will whisper in our ears, again and again, those encouraging words which the Lord Jesus left us, "I say unto you, that whosoever hath left wife, or children, or houses, or lands for my sake and the Gospel's, he