with salt, and cooked in that way. Sometimes it is killed and baked or dried in the sun. In these forms it is sold in the market and exported as an article of food. The Jews were permitted by the law of Moses to eat it. "Even these of them ye may eat; the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind" (Lev. xi. 22). The locust formed the chief food of John the Baptist in the wilderness of Judea. We should think them unsightly and disagreeable if they were offered to us, and very likely we should refuse to eat them, though we eat shrimps and crabs, and many other things that other nations would not eat.

Now this is what I want you to see. The man who is fond of eating locust, and who likes it as an article of food, will speak well of it, and love it for its usefulness.

But there is another view to take of it. The Hebrew name given to the locust means "to multiply." They lay their eggs in the sand and soil, and leave them for the sun to hatch them. The young ones need no nursing, they take care of themselves. They fly in swarms of thousands, and perhaps millions together, filling the air like flakes of snow, darkening the sky like a thick smoke, and making a noise like "a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble" (Joel ii. 5). When they settle on a fertile tract of country they eat the leaves and green stalks of plants; they devour the grass and herbs, and if that is not enough to satisfy their hunger they will eat the bark of trees and shrubs. "The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness."

is owing to their immense numbers.

The terrible mischief they make
For this reason they were often

employed by God to punish His people for their sins. When the Jews forsook God and worshipped idols, He occasionally sent a swarm of locusts to eat up their crops, and devour their harvests, and produce a famine. When the famine came the people acknowledged their dependence on God.

Now put yourselves in the place of that man whose fields have been overrun by the locusts. His crops have been devoured and his harvest destroyed. What will he say about the locust? Will he love it or hate it?

Of course he will hate it for the evil it has done, and do all in his power to destroy it.

We have seen that one man may love it as an article of food, and for its usefulness, while another man hates it for the mischief it does.

What is the lesson we draw? We are loved or hated according to our doings.

This lesson is true the world over and through all time.

There is a boy in school who is a general favourite. In the schoolroom or in the playground he is surrounded by boys who love him and will do anything to oblige him. Shall I tell you the secret of his popularity? He is unselfish and kind. If he had his pockets full of nuts, he would share them among his friends till he had scarcely any left for himself. Whatever good things he receives he is willing to share with his companions, and nobody can justly accuse him of greediness or selfishness. One day I saw a boy with a difficult home lesson go to him for help and advice. He stated his

difficulty, and the kind fellow left his play and sat down beside his friend in a corner of the playground to help him out of his difficulty. He is kind

to everybody, and you need not wonder that people love him for his kindness and unselfishness. We are loved for the good we do.

Yes, and the other side of the picture is true. We are hated for the evil

we do. I once had a big boy in school who was a tyrant over the little boys. He teased and tormented them, and seemed delighted to show his power over them. The little ones dreaded him. They ran away from him if they saw him in the street. They were pleased when he left school, for they hated him for the evil he did. Many a time have I had to interfere to prevent the bad boy from doing injustice and wrong to the little ones. He was never truly loved by his school-fellows, for they had more reason to dread and hate him than to love him.

Many years ago an emigrant ship left the shores of England on a voyage to a distant colony. They had heard of the fruitful soil and sunny climate of their new home, and had been told how greatly its plants, and fruits, and flowers differed from those of their native land. The emigrants were chiefly farm-labourers who had been accustomed to the cultivation of land, and workmen who were about to form a new settlement. It was their intention on arriving in the colony to fell the trees, clear a portion of the soil, plough and sow, and make themselves a new home. Among those on board were an Englishman, an Irishman, and a Scotchman, who were exceedingly fond of their native countries. They had sorrowed greatly about leaving the scenes of their childhood, and each of them had resolved to carry with him some seed to his new home that should constantly remind him of the old home. The Englishman had brought a sack of peas, and the Irishman had brought a sack of potatoes, but the Scotchman had brought a small parcel of thistle-seed.

When they arrived in the colony each sowed his seed, and the new soil was favourable to all of them. The Englishman's peas multiplied till he had enough for himself, and had seed enough to give to his neighbours. The Irishman's potatoes grew and multiplied till he had enough for all who wanted them. Everybody blessed the Englishman and the Irishman for their prudence and forethought. But what about the Scotchman? He sowed his thistles in a quiet corner near his new home. They grew, and flowered, and ran to seed. The wind blew the seeds over into his neighbour's garden, and each seed that was blown away settled somewhere and took root