compared it with some other tree, and measured its growth every five or ten years. But they continue to grow even when you do not notice them; and send up their leaves and branches a little higher, and their roots a little lower every year. Gradually, and silently, and quietly they grow, till they are perfect trees, and bear plenty of fruit. This is the first lesson I want you to learn from their growth: Be steady and constant in your improvement.

You are young, and like the palm-tree we have been talking about; people will expect you to grow and improve. Your bodics will grow. Sometimes you measure your height, and stretch out your arms to see how far you can reach. You are pleased when you find you have grown since you were measured last. Be content to grow slowly and steadily. If you grow too fast your limbs will become crooked and weak, perhaps you will be weak in the knees, or have pains in your back, and you may lose your health or your life by growing too fast. Be thankful if you can imitate the palm-tree by growing steadily, slowly, and constantly.

Your minds will grow. You can read and think now, but as you grow older you will read more, and understand things better. You will be able to think and study more easily, and if you are industrious and wise, you may become clever men and women. Some minds grow a great deal faster than others. Some children are sharp and clever at gaining information, while others are slow and need to work very hard for what they know. You will find that those who learn a great deal with very little trouble, generally forget things as quickly. "Lightly come, lightly go." Those who toil hard for their knowledge generally remember it; and therefore you may be thankful if your minds grow as slowly and steadily and constantly as the palm-tree. Have patience. "Rome was not built in a day."

Your affections will grow. When you are young you soon forget what you love if it is long out of your sight. A little girl loved her mother very much when she was three years old, but her mother went abroad, and left her in England for ten years. When she returned the girl was thirteen, and had forgotten all about her mother, and had ceased to love her. Little children love their playthings, but they soon forget them if they do not often see them.

While you are young your hearts are tender. Impressions are soon made on them, and soon changed again. You can easily be trained to love the good and hate the bad while you are young. But your affections will grow.

Habits are

A BRANCH OF THE VINE.

forming now that will make or mar your future life. If you are honest and true and good, you will keep good company, and read good books, and form good habits. You will love good people, and you will love God, and your affections will grow. Every year you will be better, and wiser, and lovelier, at

the end of the year, than you were at the beginning. If you are "righteous," you may flourish like the palm-tree in its steady and constant growth.

But there is another lesson I want you to learn from its growth. The palm-tree grows in hot countries, and sometimes in very unfavourable places, It is found sometimes growing in the desert, with hot sand blowing round it. to scorch its leaves and burn its trunk. Sometimes it receives no rain for months, and bears the hot sunshine all the time. Nobody cares for it or waters it. Alone, and without any help from men, it grows in the desert. Suppose you were to plant the olive, or the vine, by its side in the desert, and leave them uncared for, they would die. They need to be cultivated and cared for if they are to grow and flourish, but the palm-tree grows in spite of difficulties. And this brings out our second lesson: Don't be discouraged by difficulties.

You will meet with hard work, and unkind treatment, and unreasonable masters; and when you are doing your best you will be blamed sometimes. In your studies you will meet with questions you cannot answer, and puzzles you cannot understand. You will often need courage and perseverance to grapple with difficulties. When you are honestly doing your duty and trying to please God you will meet with disappointments. If you are pious, and industrious, and persevering, you will not go through life without trials and difficulties. Nobody ever did; and you must expect them. But don't be discouraged by them. There is a way out of every difficulty if you will patiently seek it. You may become wiser and better, and more beautiful as you grow older, if you conquer your difficulties and bravely do your duty.

A young man went to work in a large iron foundry, where he was surrounded by wicked men. They knew he was pious, and they upbraided him for it. They abused and cursed him every day without cause. If any bad man in the place lost his temper, he vented his rage on this young man. They lost their tempers twenty times a day, and were surprised that curses and abuse could not make him curse them in return. They tried in various ways to make him angry and lead him into sin. They would steal his tools, and hide them to hinder him in his work. They would tell the most wicked