provide some way or other to supply our wants, if we pray to Him and trust Him.

I have read of a poor sick minister in the far west, who had no means of getting the delicate, nourishing food that was needed for his feeble body; but he trusted in God; and one day he was surprised to see a cat come with a little bird and lay it at his door. The next day she came with another bird, and so on day by day, till the sick man was well, and then she did not bring any more.

Once God fed a poor Christian in Germany, not by a raven, but by a little singing-bird. The man was sitting at his door early in the morning, his eyes red with weeping, and his heart crying out unto God. His money and food were gone, and he was fearing every moment that an officer would come and carry him off to prison for a debt which he could not pay. Just then a little bird flew up the street. It fluttered now one way and now another, as if not knowing where to go, and then darted right over the man's head into his house, and lodged on the cupboard. thinking who had sent the

The good man, little bird, shut the door,

caught the bird, and put it in a cage, where it immediately began to sing very sweetly; and it seemed to the man as if he sung the tune of a hymn he knew, beginning, "Fear not thou, when darkness reigns;" and while he listened he was comforted,

Suddenly some one knocked at the door.

"Ah,

it is the officer," thought the man, and he was almost afraid to open to him. But no, it was the servant of a rich lady, who said that the neighbours had seen a bird fly into his house, and wished to know if he had caught it. Oh yes," answered the man, " and here it is ;" and the runaway bird was carried back to its home.

A few minutes after the servant came back with a sum of money in his hand. "You have done my mistress a great favour," said he; "she sets a high value upon the bird which had escaped from her. She begs you to accept this money with her thanks." The poor man received it thankfully, and it proved to be just the sum he owed; and when the officer came, he said, "Here is the amount of the debt; now leave me in peace, for God has sent it to me."

66

Dear children, you may be poor and needy, and the time may come, for we know not what is before us, when you will hardly know where to look in this cold world for friends or food or shelter; but never forget to trust in your heavenly Father's love. I have been young, and now am old," said David, "yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." 'Behold the fowls of the air," poor child, and be comforted. Try to feel as that good man Martin Luther did, when he saw a bird going to roost for the night.

66

"This little fellow,"

"It was the servant of a rich lady, who said that the neighbours had seen a bird fly into his house, and wished to know if he had caught it. 'Oh, yes,' answered the man, 'and here it is.'"-P. 49.

said he, "has chosen his shelter, and is quietly rocking himself to sleep, without a care for to-morrow's lodging; calmly holding by his little twig, and leaving God alone to think for him."

Let us learn this sweet lesson of the birds; and as we have so many more things to be thankful for, let us trust and love and sing the more.

Another Bible bird is the eagle. This is the king of birds. Large and strong, they fly far beyond our sight; and their nests are high up on the crags and mountains, where no foot of man can tread. In the Book of Deuteronomy there is a beautiful song of Moses, in which he says that, “as an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings," so God does with His children. What does this mean? Why, that just as the eagle-mother teaches the little eaglets to fly by fluttering her own great wings, and then making them fall out of the nest, and then darting under them to keep them from falling too far, and bearing them up again on her broad back and wings, so God teaches us not to love too much our snug nests in this world, but to fly in the paths of duty, to trust Christ to keep us safe, and at last to fly up to heaven.

A child lies sick upon his bed, and in his pain