Caroline.-No, mamma; but I was tired, and it was very warm, and I do not understand what the clergyman says, and I am but a very little child, you know.

Mamma.-You can find many excuses for yourself, I see; but suppose I were to say-Very well, as you are so soon tired. and do not understand what you hear, because you are a little child, you had better remain at home, would you like it? Caroline.-Oh no, mamma, I should be very sorry not to go to church. Pray, take me again, and I will try and be very quiet.

Mamma. And I too should be very sorry not to take you with me, because God has commanded parents to "diligently teach" their children his ways, and there are a great many parts of the Bible which prove that "little children” are to be brought to join in his service. I know you love to look for texts from 1 Deuteronomy vi. 7.

the Bible, and I dare say you will feel more pleasure than you do now, in joining in the worship of God's house, when you find that even though you are a "little child" you may fulfil his commandments by so doing. Suppose we look now for all those parts in the Holy Scriptures in which we are told that young children were brought to worship the Lord.

Caroline.-Oh thank you, mamma. I shall like it very much, and I think I should be more attentive if I could understand what the clergyman says; will you, my dear mamma, talk to me about the Prayer-book as little Edward's2 mamma did to him about the Bible?

Mamma.-I shall have much pleasure, my dear child, in endeavouring to make you understand what you hear, and you are quite right in wishing to do so. In the 14th chapter of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul says much of the 2 The authoress of "the Young Christian's Sunday

Evenings."

necessity of praying in a language which the people understand. He says, "I had rather speak five words with my understanding than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue;" and in the same chapter he says, "I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." Happy am I then, that my little girl wishes to understand what she hears. Our blessed Saviour himself, in the parable of the sower and the seed, which we find in the 13th chapter of St. Matthew, gives an awful warning to those who hear without seeking to understand. says, "Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower; when any one heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown." Let us, then, my child, pray earnestly, that our "understandings may be opened that we may understand the Scriptures,

He

3 Luke xxiv. 45.

and become "wise unto salvation."4 And now let us look for the texts which prove that your being a "little child " would not be an excuse for staying away from the worship of God, as it was the custom of God's people always to take their little ones" with them to hear the reading of the law; and next Sunday morning I hope I may be able to show you some other texts, which will tell you how you should behave when in his holy temple. I have already reminded you of those verses in the 6th chapter of Deuteronomy, in which the Almighty commands parents to teach their children; but this command refers to private instructions: "These words. which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them, when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and 4 2 Timothy iii. 15.

when thou risest up;"5 but I wish now more particularly to call your attention to the duty of attending public worship. Moses gives this commandment respecting the reading of the law, in the 31st chapter of Deuteronomy, "When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the

people together, men, and women, and children, and the stranger that is within thy gates, that they hear, and that they may learn, and fear the Lord your God, and observe to do all the words of this law and that their children, which have not known any thing, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God." And we find in the time of Joshua, the people fulfilling this commandment: "There

was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the

5 Deut. vi. 7.

6 Deut. xxxi. 11-13.