THIN PLACE IN THE ICE. H URRAH for the skaters! How they wheel, how they skim over the clear, smooth ice The air is still, the sun bright; the trees, fields, and fences, are gemmed with brilliants; and the earth looks like a snow-palace, with broader halls and richer roofing than ever Queen Catharine of Russia had in her famous ice-palace on the Neva. A winter scene like this reminds me of a skating scene long ago. There was always a thin place in the ice on our river near the dam where the boys were warned not to go, and where there was a post up with “Danger " painted on it. “Give a wide berth to the thin ice yonder,” was said to the little boys and new recruits among the big lads. But it was singular how almost every boy liked to try his skates near that dangerous spot. One would skim along, and look over it. Another—he didn't believe there was danger—would take a bolder sweep, and just escape its edge. Another—he didn't care for danger, not he 1–would shoot across it, bending and cracking under him, and only save himself by the swiftness of his flight; until the leader of a gang of boys, in the high excitement of a chase, dashed boldly on the thin place in the ice, every one at his heels. Crack, crash plunging, leaping, splashing —and half-a-dozen were struggling and gasping for life in the icy waters. Two were drowned ; two were rescued by the utmost efforts of some men who came to help; and two got out themselves. I often am reminded of that thin place in the ice, for I see many just such thin places on the surface of society, where, in spite of all warning, many and many a boy drops through, and is hurt, or perhaps lost altogether. When I see a boy idling with bad companions in the evening, or slinking into doubtful places, and thinking it makes him grand to drink and smoke, —ah ! then I say, he's getting on a thin place, which will certainly let him down if he does not beat a retreat, and that speedily. When I see a youth's seat at church empty, and find him despising the wish of his father and refusing to obey his mother, and complaining of the strictness of his clergyman, then I say that youth is on a thin place in the ice, which will surely give way under him, and leave him to sink in the cold and dreary waters of despair. There are very many thin places in the ice; the devil is always tempting us to try them. He would have us believe there is “no danger;” but if we are wise, we shall give them a wide berth—secure solid footing, and then press on, right on and on for the right ! CHILDREN OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. ISAAC. *E all know how precious an only child always is to its parents; but there was a special reason why Isaac was dearly loved by Abraham and Sarai. God had promised to Abraham that “his seed,” that is, his children and his children's children to many generations, should be as the stars of heaven, which are so many that we cannot number them. (Gen. xv. 5.) God had said too, that it was not the descendants of Ishmael, but those of Isaac that were to be an honour and glory to Abraham (Gen. xxi. 12); and so we may be sure that Abraham deeply loved his son Isaac. And when we think of this love, we may more fully admire the way in which Abraham obeyed God and trusted God, when God said to him, “Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou Koi. and et thee into the land of Moriah, and offer im there for a burnt-offering, on one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” (Gen. xxii. 2.) As you may read in this beautiful story, so simply told in the twenty-second chapter of Genesis, Abraham obeyed at once; he knew that God's command must be right, and he believed that God had power even to raise Isaac to life after he was dead. So Abraham arose in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two servants with him, and Isaac, and the wood for the fire on which the offering was to be burnt, and #: went to the place which God showed 1In. After three days, they saw afar off the mountain where Isaac was to be offered. Then Abraham said to the servants, “Stay here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship,and come again to you.” As they walked along, Isaac said, “My father, behold the fire and the wood; but where is the lamb for a burnt-offering 7” With sad heart Abraham answered, “My son, God will provide Himself alamb:” so they went on till they came to the place of which God had told Abraham : and there Abraham built an altar and put the wood upon it, and then he bound Isaac, and took the knife to slay his son! But at that moment the Lord called out of heaven and said, “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thy only son, from me.” Then Abraham looked and saw a ram caught in a bush by the horns, and he offered the ram for a burnt-offering instead of Isaac ; and the voice of the Lord called again unto Abraham out of heaven and | said, “Because thou hast done this thing, in blessing I will bless thee, and I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because, thou hast obeyed my voice.” In the birth of Jesus, which on Christmas day we celebrated, One was born of the seed of Abraham, by Whose birth and death all nations of the earth may be blessed, and Isaac was a type, or picture beforehand of Jesus. Isaac was a stripling, and his father was an aged man when they went together to the Mountain of Sacrifice, and yet Isaac did not resist his father's will, he was obedient even unto death; and so, willingly and meekly, Jesus, obedient to the will of His Father, was “led as a lamb to the slaughter,” and for our sakes He yielded up His life upon the cross, on that very same mountain on which nearly 2000 years before Isaac had been laid upon the altar of wood. Surely, we should truly love and ever try to serve our Lord Jesus, who so freely gave Himself for us; surely, we should love and adore “Our Father in heaven,” in that He “sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” God has given to us far more than Abraham was ready to give to God by sacrificing his son Isaac. For God gave up to death for us His beloved and only-beotten Son. How should we love Him who as so loved us! “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." (2 Cor. ix. 15.) THE COLLIER'S STOLEN DINNER. HEN George Stephenson, the great engineer, was a working collier, he had a favourite dog, which he had trained to bring his dinner to him to the pit: the tin can of dinner was hung round the dog's neck; * and, thus laden, the sagacious animal walked through the village of Newburn to the coal-pit. He did not turn to left or right, nor give any heed to the barking of curs at his #. One day a big dog of a passing butcher saw the engine-man's messenger, with the tin can about his neck, and ran after him, and fell upon him. There was a terrible worrying between the two dogs, but after awhile George saw his faithful four-footed servant coming along, bleeding, but victorious. The can was still round his neck, but the dinner had all fallen out during the struggle, and so George had no dinner that day: but he was prouderthan everofhis dog. Another collier once lost his dinner b the trick of a thieving dog; but thoug very vexed at first, he soon was thankful, for he found that, by God's providence, the loss of his dinner was the saving of his life. One morning he had laid down his dinner, tied up in a handkerchief, while he went to do something to the machinery before he and others went down the coalpit. He was just going back for it, to take it with him, when he saw a lean and hungry dog, who could not resist the tempting smell, snuffing round it, and poking his nose into it: the collier shouted at the dog, when he seized the bundle in his mouth, and set off at full speed. The collier did not like going down the pit without his meal, and he gave the chase, while his comrades laughed . shouted after him. But the dog was a swift one, and fear spurred him on ; so, after the collier had run a long way, he was obliged to give it up, and go back to the pit. He went back in a very surly humour, abusing the dog; but when he got there he found that the dog had really been God's instrument for saving his life. . His comrades had gone down the shaft without him—the rope had broken, and they had all been dashed to the bottom, and died a dreadful death. Often in life, children, you will find that what you took for a misfortune has been God's way of sending you a blessing. DON'T BE SELFISH. MY aunt kindly gave me a shilling last night, For she knew that I wanted to buy a new kite; But a poor aged widow lives over the way, And she says she has not had a morsel to-day. Here, dry up your tears, and buy something with this, For to spend all on playthings—how selfish it is : As Christ has commanded, I'll constantly try My neighbours to love, and myself to deny; From my own little pleasures a trifle I'll spare, To gladden their hearts, and to lighten their care; That whate'er my friends find in my conduct amiss, They never may say—how selfish it is! S. W. P. WHAT IS RELIGION ? A LITTLE child is . to answer |