In this portion of scripture, you are again warned, my dear children, against boasting, and the love of praise, and against that hypocrisy which will lead you to try and make yourselves appear better than you really are; remember, all these things. are hateful to God, and though prayer and almsgiving are highly pleasing to your heavenly Father, and the bounden duty of every christian, yet they become, I may almost say, sinful, if done for the sake of being seen by others, and gaining their good opinion. When you do an act of kindness to your neighbour, do it for the sake of pleasing your blessed Saviour. When you pray to God, pray from your heart, with the wish of obtaining that which you ask, and grace to enable you to become a better christian, and then you have the blessed promise, that “your Father which seeth in secret, himself shall reward you openly." For be assured that he will never reject your sincere prayers, when you lift up your hearts to him in secret, but will hear and receive you for

the sake of Jesus Christ, through whom alone all you do or say is rendered acceptable to God the Father.

Father divine, thy piercing eye
Shoots through the darkest night,
In deep retirement thou art nigh,
With heart-discerning sight.

There shall that piercing eye survey
My duteous homage paid,
With every morning's dawning ray,
And every evening's shade.

O may thy own celestial fire
The incense still inflame;

While my warm vows to thee aspire,
Through my Redeemer's name.

So shall the visits of thy love
My soul with joy confess,

So shalt thou deign in worlds above
Thy suppliant still to bless.

LESSON THIRTIETH.

MATTHEW VI. 9-15.

AF-TER this man-ner, there-fore, pray ye: "Our Fa-ther which art in heav-en, hal-low-ed be thy name. Thy king-dom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heav-en. Give us this day our dai-ly bread, and for-give us our debts, as we for-give our debt-ors. And lead us not in-to temp-ta-tion, but de-liver us from evil: for thine is the king-dom, and the pow-er, and the glo-ry, for ev-er, A-men." For, if ye for-give men their tres-pass-es, your heav-en-ly Fa-ther will al-so for-give you; but if ye forgive not

men their tres-pass-es, nei-ther will your Fa-ther for-give your trespass-es.

QUESTIONS.

What have you been reading? The prayer our Saviour gave us, called the Lord's prayer.

What is the first thing Christ taught us to say in this prayer?

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Our Father who art in heaven."

Is not God then present everywhere? Yes. God is present everywhere, and near to every one of us.

Why then are we to say "in heaven"? Because the scriptures represent him as being in a more especial manner present in heaven. In the 11th Psalm, 4th verse, we read, "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven."

What is the meaning of hallowed ? Kept holy, treated with respect and not spoken of lightly.

What is the next petition?

"Thy kingdom come."

What do we pray for here?

That the Gospel may be preached throughout the world, and that the time may soon come when we shall all be "one fold under one shepherd," Jesus Christ. For what do we next pray?

"Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven."

What does this petition mean?

That God's will may be obeyed on earth by us as readily and cheerfully as it is obeyed by the angels in heaven.

What is the next petition?

"Give us this day our daily bread.”

What is meant by this?

That it will please God to give us all things needful for our souls and bodies. What follows?

"And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."