again. So the thistles spread till every field was covered with them, and every farmer had enough to do to destroy them. How people scolded the Scotchman! How they blamed him for his folly and the mischief he had made.

We shall be loved for the good we do, or hated for the evil we do.

There are some selfish people in the world who are continually annoying and teasing those about them, and yet they sometimes wonder how it is people don't love them. They are as selfish and peevish as wasps, and you never heard of anybody loving wasps. Those who think only of themselves, and care for nobody else, need not expect to be loved by everybody.

If we wish to be loved we must go about blessing, and cheering, and helping those about us. We must have a kind word, and a bright smile, and a helping hand for everybody.

Two boys were playing at horses the other day in the playground. They trotted round the yard, and then galloped round, and then walked round, and were enjoying themselves famously. While they were running at full speed, a little boy happened to cross their path, and before they saw him there was a collision, and they all three rolled over in the dirt. The two big boys were up again in a moment, and one of them began to scold the little boy for not keeping out of the way. But the other big boy was a kind-hearted, noble fellow. He took no notice of his own injuries, but lifted up the unfortunate little fellow who lay crying. He pulled out his handkerchief and wiped the boy's face and hands. He set him on his feet and comforted him by saying, "There now, don't cry; you are no worse. We did not see you."

Which would be loved the most? The kind-hearted boy who comforted his unfortunate school-fellow.

Never forget this lesson: "We are loved or hated according to our doings."

The next lesson I want you to learn from the locust is:
II.-Union is strength.

The locusts have no king or commander like the bees. They are not like an army of soldiers officered and commanded by one leader.

They

are more like a commonwealth, in which each plays its own part and takes its own share. When they settle on the farmer's fields, the unfortunate man is at his wit's end. He may kill a score, or a hundred, but he cannot kill thousands or millions. Do what he will they will master him by the power of numbers. If he resists them and kills a number, he will soon be overpowered by the immense swarms of locusts that come pouring over his land like a thick black cloud. He will be driven before them and compelled to give up the effort to keep them back. That is the secret of their strength. "They go forth all of them by bands."

If they went by scores instead of by millions, they would be destroyed. It would be possible to catch a small number, or drive them off if they attempted to settle. They would do no mischief if they were not united. Their wisdom is seen in this union for mutual protection, and we may learn from them that "union is strength."

An old man was once trying to teach this lesson to some boys by the help of a bundle of sticks. The sticks were slender and weak when he handled them singly. But he put them into one big bundle and tied them together with a string. Each boy in turn tried to break the bundle, but failed. As long as they were united they were strong. But when the bundle was untied, each individual stick was broken in a moment by the boys. You see then that union for defence is a source of strength.

He

When I was a boy we went to school across a footpath that led through the fields. In one of these fields there was a very bad-tempered and mischievous bull. Many a run have we had for life across that field with the bull at our heels. He took a great delight in showing us his horns and chasing us over the hedge, though we took care to let him alone. became such a nuisance to us boys at last, that we resolved to give him a lesson he would not forget. The farmer only laughed at us when we complained about the bull, and said he wished it would frighten everybody out of the footpath, and then he could close it. We noticed that it only ran after people when they were either alone or in very small companies, and like a great coward as it was, it generally let the men alone and chased the women

and children. One day we resolved that half a dozen of us should cross the field a few yards away from each other, and if the bull attacked any one of us, all the rest should attack him. We filled our pockets with pebbles from the brook and started across the field. He met the first boy with a great roar, and came striding towards him with his head towards the ground and his tail erect. The first boy waited for us to join him, and at a given signal we raised a shout and gave him a shower of pebbles. He did not wait for a second attack. He turned quickly round and galloped away, and we found that when we were united we were strong enough to defend ourselves from the bull.

But this lesson is true not only of defence, but of service.

A nest of insects very fond of animal food was found one day in my garden. I was anxious to observe their habits, so I put a dead mouse on the ground near them. They began to pull off its hair, and carry its body away bit by bit. They were so small that they could not carry away more than the weight of a grain of sand each; but there were thousands of them busy, and in the course of a single day they carried away every particle of its flesh, and left nothing behind but the bones. Here is another illustration of the lesson-" Union is strength."

When I was a boy we had a holiday from school one day, and my father desired me to pick the stones out of a plot of grass in the meadow that he wished to mow. I started early in the morning that I might have done by noon. But some of my school-fellows came after breakfast to ask me to play with them. I said, "I cannot play till I have gathered the stones out of this grass. If you like to help me we can do it in an hour; if I do it alone I shall be half a day." They began to help me, and a dozen boys can do a great deal more work than one. We had finished in an hour, and I had the rest of the "Union is strength."

day for play with them.

But you may make a bad use of this maxim as you may of any other. I knew a man who made a bad use of this. He was a mason, and could earn five shillings a day, and had a regular situation where he had work all the year round. His master was a kind-hearted gentleman, who treated him

with very great kindness. This man knew that "union is strength," and he said to himself, "If all my fellow-workmen were to strike and cease from work we could make our master give us six shillings a day." So he began to agitate among his fellow-workmen, until he persuaded them all to demand six shillings a day. The master reasoned with them, and showed them that if they got an extra shilling from him, he should be obliged to charge somebody else the extra shilling, so that they would get nothing out of him. The extra shilling would come out of the pockets of the public, and the public would take care they lost nothing. The baker who had to pay more for his stone would charge more for his bread. The manufacturer whose mill cost more to build and repair would charge more for his cloth. And so in the end what they gained in one way they would lose in another. If their wages were increased, their expenses would be increased.

The master reasoned in this way, but the men were obstinate. They struck just when they knew he needed them most. He engaged other men in their places at the old prices, and those who had deserted him were left to seek fresh situations elsewhere, and most of them got worse situations than those they had left.

We should only unite for what is good and right. Make a right use of the maxim, "Union is strength."

The last lesson I want you to learn from the locust is:
III.-God uses strange means to accomplish His will.

The locusts have often been used by God to bring His rebellious people to repentance. Just think what an unlikely thing a locust is to convert a nation. Yet God has often used it for the purpose, and it has answered His purpose. The Jews in their prosperity forsook God's service and forgot Him. The locusts visited them, and produced a famine. In their poverty and distress they remembered God and repented of their sins.

Now this is the lesson I want you to understand. If God can convert a nation and accomplish His will by the locusts, He will never be at a loss to carry out His designs.