emming shows
that no skilful seamstress held the needle. And yet this bag has
afforded me much pleasure. Every stitch was made by the hand of love,
and with a desire to gratify me and add to my happiness. It was a work
of toil, for the fingers were unused to such labour. Patient industry
and persevering effort were required to accomplish it. Self-denial,
too, was practised, for play was forsaken on its account.

It was a gift to me from a dear child; a token of his purest and
warmest affection; and that has made this coarse muslin more precious
than the richest material could be, which had no such extraneous
value.

What a blessing is love! How it enriches us! Without it we must ever
be poor. "God is love," and he has taught us to love one another.
"Love is the fulfilling of the law." We must love our neighbour as
ourselves.

"Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make our earth an Eden,
Like the heaven above."

No offering of true love is valueless, however small or imperfect it
may be. My little bag is rich in pleasant associations, and I never
look upon it but with a full heart.

God does not accept what we do for him because of any peculiar
excellence in our devotion, but because it is the result of our love
to him.

[Illustration]

DO YOU LIKE YOUR SEAT?

On the day after one Fourth of July, I was obliged to go into the
city. The cars were crowded with those who were returning, after
spending our national anniversary in the country. How much they must
have enjoyed that day of release from city labour, and dust, and close
streets bounded by high brick houses! How beautiful to them the green
fields, the shady trees, and the soft-flowing river! How they gazed on
the hills luxuriating in verdure, and the valleys rich with their
treasures of wealth and beauty!

"God made the country," and all his works are perfect. I pity those
who are pent up in a large prison-city with nothing but a dwarf-maple
before their windows which at all resembles the country, and who have
to look up, up, up, before they can get a glimpse of the blue sky, and
the fleecy clouds which sail majestically along, ever varying from one
form of beauty to another. Thank God, my young friends, that he has
given you a country home, and never leave it, unless stern necessity
compels you to make your abode in the hot, crowded, feverish city.

The cars, on the morning of the fifth, were, as I have told you,