ange is it, that any persons
should be willing to live in idleness, when it will certainly make
them, unhappy! The idle boy is almost invariably poor and miserable;
the industrious boy is happy and prospered.

But perhaps some child who reads this, asks, "Does God notice little
children in school?" He certainly does. And if you are not diligent
in the improvement of your time, it is one of the surest of evidences
that your heart is not right with God. You are placed in this world
to improve your time. In youth you must be preparing for future
usefulness. And if you do not improve the advantages you enjoy, you
sin against your Maker.

"With books, or work, or healthful play,
Let your first years be past,
That you may give, for every day,
Some good account at last."

One of the petitions in the Lord's prayer is, "forgive us our debts as
we forgive our debtors." We do thus pray that God will exercise the
same kind of forgiveness towards us, which we exercise towards
others. Consequently, if we are unforgiving or revengeful, we pray
that God will treat us in the same way when we appear before him in
judgment. Thus God teaches the necessity of cultivating a forbearing
and a forgiving spirit. We must do this or we cannot be Christians.
When I was a boy, there was another little boy who went to the same
school with me, who was a professed Christian. He seemed to love the
Savior, and to try in all things to abstain from sin. Some of the bad
boys were in the habit of ridiculing him, and of doing every thing
they could to tease him, because he would not join with them in
mischief. Near the school-house there was a small orchard; and the
scholars would, without the leave of the owner, take the apples. One
day a party of boys were going into the orchard for fruit, and called
upon this pious boy to accompany them.

"Come, Henry," said one of them to him, "let us go and get some
apples."

"The apples are not ours," he fearlessly replied, "and I do not think
it right to steal."

"You are a coward, and afraid to go," the other replied.

"I am afraid," said Henry, "to do wrong, and you ought to be; but I
am not afraid to do right."

This wicked boy was exceedingly irritated at this rebuke, and called
Henry all manner of names, and endeavored to hold him up to the
ridicule of the whole school.

Henry bore it very patiently, though it was hard to be endured, for
the boy who ridiculed him had a great deal of influence and