pretended that Christ had disobeyed God's command, and broken the Sabbath; and they were very angry. Not that such wicked men did really care for the Sabbath day; they only wished to throw blame on our Savior, in order to destroy Him.

What wickedness! to wish to destroy the compassionate and innocent Redeemer! and under what pretence? For an act of mercy to an unfortunate cripple! How holy, how perfect must have been the Savior's life, when His most malicious enemies could find no fault with Him, but that of curing a sick man on the Sabbath day!

The man, in the mean time, filled with gratitude, and having no opportunity of expressing it to our Lord, — who had left the place immediately after he had healed him,— went to the temple to offer his thanksgiving to God, to whom he well knew he owed his recovery, though he did not know that it was the Son of God himself who had actually performed the miracle.

At the temple he again met with our Lord, who had also gone thither, and who now came up to him, and said, 'Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.'

How many among us have been laid on the bed of pain and sickness, and are now restored to health! Whenever we get well, it is to the Lord's mercy we owe our recovery;

for although we have the help of doctors and medicines, they have been provided for us by His goodness; and, moreover, they have no power to help us without the assistance of God.

You will perhaps wonder, my dear children, why God, who is so good, allows sickness or pain to afflict us at all, I will tell you. This world is a place of trial, where, according to our conduct, we shall be rewarded or punished in the next.

Now, if there were no pain, sickness, or misfortune here, there would be no trial; and, moreover, what seems to be misfortune, often turns out to be a real blessing. When people are always well, and always happy, they are apt to think a great deal too much of this world, and very little of God and the next; and if they were to go on so, they would be in danger of being punished and of being miserable forever.

But when pain and illness come, and they are obliged to lie for many days on a sick-bed, then they find that the things of this world can no longer give them any pleasure, and that religion alone is able to comfort and support them.

Then it is, that they in earnest turn to that Savior whom in the days of health they had forgotten; and, frightened lest they should die before he has forgiven them, then it

is, that they really pray to Him, and really make resolutions of loving and serving Him for the time to come.

Perhaps God, in answer to that prayer, may restore them again to health and joy, and then, if they remember their resolutions, it will have indeed been 'good for them that they have been afflicted.' Therefore you see God in mercy often makes us ill, in order to make us good.

But when you have recovered from any illness, do not forget your Savior's words, which He says to you also, 'Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.' That worse thing is not pain for a few hours here, but sorrow, disappointment and misery in the world to come.

But I hope you will not oblige your heavenly Father to use this painful way to bring your hearts to Him. Now, my dear children, now in your day of health, in the sunshine of joy and happiness, seek that gracious Being, who never unjustly afflicts nor grieves the children of men.'

R

THE WIDOW OF NAIN.

As our Savior was one day journeying in Galilee, he arrived at a city, called Nain. Many of his disciples went with him, and a multitude of people; and as he came near the city gate, he met a funeral procession.

The funerals in those countries were not like those which you may have seen. Here the dead person is nailed up in a coffin, which is sometimes put into a hearse; but there, they merely placed the body on a bier, or wooden bed, and covered it over with a sheet.

The funeral which our Lord met at the gates of Nain was that of a young man, who, in the prime of life, had been taken from his mother; and what made the case still more distressing was, that the poor mother was a widow, and this was her only son.

How much of the comfort and happiness of her life was gone! Her only child, her beloved son, was now no longer near to sooth and cheer her declining years, -she was following his funeral! and desolate and miserable, with an aching heart and streaming eyes, she perhaps thought she had not a friend left in the world.