This is the way in which children who truly love their parents and friends, show their gratitude

to them.

And if you truly love God, my dear children, and are grateful to Him for all his goodness and mercy to you, you will show your gratitude to Him in the same way. You will cheerfully obey his commands. You will be willing and ready to do anything that he requires of you. You will endeavor to make so kind and good a Being known to those who are yet ignorant of Him, that they may love and obey Him also. You will do all in your power, to have others understand who Jesus Christ is, and why He came into the world. You will pray and labor, that your friends, and acquaintances, and countrymen, and all mankind, may be brought to the knowledge of this Saviour, and to trust in Him. You will cheerfully give up anything of your own, or put yourselves to inconvenience and trouble, to do all this. And you will do it, too, feeling that it is nothing more than what you ought to do. You will feel that by doing it, you do not place God under any obligations to do you good, as you sometimes feel, that others should be kind to you, because you have been kind to them. On the contrary, you will feel, that you have so often failed in doing your duty; and have so often quite neglected to

do it; and have so often, and so greatly, sinned against God, that you justly deserve his displeasure, instead of his kindness. You will feel, that it is only on account of his great mercy towards you, through Jesus Christ, that you can hope for the forgiveness of your sins; for any favor from God; or that He will accept your attempts to serve Him, and grant you any blessings in this world, and still more admit you to the enjoyments of heaven.

These are the sacrifices which you can offer to God, to show your gratitude to Him;-not on the altar, in his holy temple, as Jonah did;-but in your hearts and lives; in loving and obeying God; and in feeling towards Him, and towards his Son Jesus Christ, as such sinners as you and I are, ought to feel.

CHAPTER XI.

The fish casts Jonah out upon the land. God does many things, the manner of doing which, we are not able to understand. Jonah again sent to Nineveh. He goes, and thus shows that his late repentance was sincere.

Ar length, after Jonah had been brought into great distress, and very nigh to death itself, and deeply humbled before God, and penitent on account of his sins, his deliverance came. 'And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.'

He was set free from his dismal prison. He stood once more on his feet. He walked about. He breathed the pure air, and enjoyed the pleasant light of heaven. He looked around, and everything seemed new, and bright, and fair.

For a little while the fish swam about on the top of the waves, and then plunged again into the deep, dark waters, to go down to the bottom of the sea. As Jonah saw it disappearing from his sight, he shuddered; for he could hardly feel that he was yet quite safe. It almost seemed to

him, for a moment, that he was once more going with the fish, down into the waters, and he started back, as if to escape.

The waves closed over the fish; and Jonah found, that he was indeed free from all danger.

Perhaps you wish to know, my dear children, what it was that God spake to the fish; and how it was, that the fish understood what it was to do, when it cast out Jonah upon the dry land. The Bible does not tell us; and I cannot explain it to you.

God does many things, the manner of doing which the wisest man cannot understand at all. Grown up people do many things, the manner of

doing which little children cannot understand, even if any one should try to explain it to them. They have not lived long enough, or learned enough, to be able to understand such difficult things. They must wait till they grow older; and know more, and have stronger minds; before such things can be explained to them.

But there is a vast deal more difference between the mind of God, and our minds, than there is between the minds of men and women, and the minds of children. This difference is so great that we cannot even conceive how great it is. It is infinite.

It is not at all strange, then, that we see many things around us which God does; or read, in the Bible, of many things which He has done; the reasons of doing which, or the manner of doing which, we cannot understand at all.

God has not given us minds that are yet capable of understanding them. We are all, in this respect, like little infants. Perhaps, in the future world, our minds may have so much strength, and we know so much more than we do now, that we shall understand the things which, at present, seem difficult and strange

to us.

If a child should receive a letter from his