rd,
unfeeling hearts, which it could not penetrate? How stood they in their
accounts? Not their ledgers, not their cash-books did he now call upon
them to examine; but records of a far higher character, which affected
their heavenly interests, as well as their temporal prosperity--the
deeds, the words, the cherished feelings of that year, which had left an
impress upon their souls forever, and made them richer or poorer for
eternity. They owed debts to their Maker and Redeemer, and to their
fellow-men: how had they paid them? They continually received--did they
also dispense the goodness of God? If unwilling now to think of these
unsettled accounts, they should remember that one debt, notwithstanding
all their reluctance, they would be obliged to pay--the debt of nature:
and then would follow the final adjustment of all things--then would
each one reap as he had sowed below.

All listened with deep attention to the discourse, which was well
calculated to arrest the most careless trifler; and thoughts were
suggested, and resolves were formed that day, which acted, long
afterward, as a stimulus to the discharge of duty. The hand which
scattered that precious seed has since been laid low in the dust; but
the "winged words" did not fall to the ground: they still live, and
produce results, in immortal spirits.

There was no service in the afternoon. "Oh dear!" said George, "I
suppose it's not right to say so, but it's rather stupid, I think. How
we do miss Sunday School! We can't play to-day, and a fellow like me
doesn't want to read the whole time: what on earth can we do? Cousin
Mary, are you too much engaged with your book to help us poor souls?"

With a smile, Mary shut it up. "How would you like Bible stories?" said
she. "If you please, I'll tell you one, keeping to Scriptural facts, but
clothing them in my own language, and omitting the name, or giving a
false one. And then you are to find out whom it is I have been telling
you about, and to answer the questions I may ask you. How would you like
that?"

It was agreed that it would be delightful: so Mary began by telling the
story of

The Good Grandmother.

In ancient times, in a country of the East, there lived a Queen Dowager,
whose heart was eaten up by ambition. She was a king's daughter, and had
ever been accustomed to rule. While her husband lived she had exerted
great influence at court, and had turned away his heart from the true
and established religi