has holes or pores. Can you press it into a new shape? Yes. Does it spring back to its former shape? No; things which can be pressed or moulded into new shapes in this way are said to be pliant. If you rub the bread, what happens? It crumbles away. Will the sponge crumble when rubbed? No, it is tough and elastic. Try if the bread will absorb water. Yes, but you see the water changes the bread into a sort of pulp, so that it must be miscible in water. Try which is the lighter substance, bread or sponge? Sponge. Now tell me what you know about bread? It can be eaten. It is made from flour, and flour from wheat. Then what kind of substance must bread be? Vegetable. Show me the hardest part of the bread? What made the crust

hard? When you toast bread, does the surface become hard or soft? Does it change colour? What part of the bread is most like the sponge in colour? What is sponge used for? Why is it useful for washing and cleaning? Because it is soft, flexible, elastic, and porous. Sponge is not a vegetable, like bread, but part of an animal, which lives at the bottom of the sea, and men dive down to get it from the rocks on which it lives.

Could you eat sponge ? No, the qualities which make it useful for washing render it unfit for food. God has given to each thing some purpose to fulfil; and he has made bread wholesome and nutricious to eat, and sponge useful for cleanliness and comfort. Let us think now of all the properties we have found in these two things. They are both light, but the sponge is the lighter. Both are full of holes or pores. Both suck up or absorb water. Both can be squeezed into new shapes; but the bread remains in the shape into which it is put, while the sponge springs back to its first form. When soaked in water, the bread is changed; the sponge is not. The bread is easily broken into crumbs; the sponge is not, it is tough. Bread is yellowish white; sponge is brown. Bread is vegetable; sponge is animal.

Bread is edible and nutritious; sponge is not.

Both are rough to the touch, and of One is in a natural form; the other arti If we were to try, we might find out a properties in these simple things; but wisdom and power of God, who mad wonderful a manner. The most skilful could never make a piece of sponge, this once had, or cause a single grain

What is this? What colour is it? A reddish brow shape. Round or circular. Have you else circular? A ring. Is a penny lik not? A ring has the middle part cu is solid. How many surfaces has a per see. Two flat round sides, and a circ What geometrical solid is it like the What kind of cylinder? A very sh many edges has the penny? the sides quite flat? No, the are figures in the middle. side? The Queen's likeness. And on A figure of Britannia. Are these figure on the surface? Raised. Yes, they relief. Do you know how these figures the penny? I will tell you; they we dies of very hard steel, on the surface which is much softer than steel. To exp I will melt some of this sealing wax, ar pression of the penny on it. Now you a copy of one side on the wax. Is it ex No; the figures are sunk on the wax, an penny. Why did the wax receive Because it was softer than the penny. sound you hear when I strike the pen sound. That is, because it was pressed by the steel dies. If it were softened

any

not sound the same; and bad money has generally a different sound from good, either from not having been struck in a die, or from not being made of the same metal. Now we will talk about the penny as money. You all know the use of a penny. Many of you, no doubt, have been entrusted with money by your mothers to buy things with. Did you ever think why people are so ready to give their goods for money? Because they can spend the money again. Yes, but what makes a penny of value? Because it is made of copper. You are quite right; copper is very valuable, and also very useful; it serves to cover the bottoms of ships; to make kettles and saucepans, and many other things. It is made into wire, and also, when mixed with zinc, it forms brass. But how do you think copper is first obtained? You know many things can be got without much trouble. Common stones, and earth, and wild plants can be easily picked up; but did you ever see copper lying about the ground? Oh no! if it were so common as that, it would not do to make money with, although it would be just as useful for other things. However, much has to be done before the copper to make a penny is to be had. First, men have to search out the veins of ore in the rocks, and then to dig mines down to them, and rend the hard rock with gunpowder, and break it with hammers, and then pick out the bits of ore, which must be heated and pounded fine, so as to separate all the stony or earthy part, and then it has to be melted by great heat, and refined or made pure, All this costs much labour and skill, and employs many different men, who must be paid for their work; so that by the time it is made into pure copper, it is very valuable. But with all this trouble, only a certain quantity of this metal can be got; so that it is rather scarce, and this makes it dearer, and the better suited to make money; for you know that a few pennies, which can be held in the hand, are worth as much as a loaf, or a good quantity of potatoes. If I buy a penny loaf, I give

a penny for the bread, because the con bread took much trouble to cultivate; must be paid for grinding it, and the it; and as the loaf is valuable and us the penny is valuable, because copp many things. Now suppose pennies we or lead, would they be as convenient? of the same value they would requ larger and would be too heavy to carry much money has to be paid, we do not silver or gold, which being worth more less space, and are not so heavy in pr I tell you a little story before we cl There was a very clever painter, who long time ago. He spent much time painting a picture, and when he wen money which was the price of the work him all in copper coin. The weight and he had a long way to go home; he and the fatigue of carrying so great a w hot road, so injured his health as to Now if he had been paid in gold coin, given him no trouble to carry home; fo weight of gold would have been as valua bag of copper.

A few years ago, not one of you littl alive. Where were you then? Not in a had not made you. Many children con day, and many people die every day, b ways alive! The world we live in wa word; but He lived before all worlds, and angels, and He will continue to liv God like as we are? No, for we are all is perfectly good and pure. We know w

knows every thing: we can only see an

we do and say. Will he do so? He has told us

We

way around us; He can see and hear ever so far. can only be in one place at a time; God is in every place at the same time. He is here in this room now, and knows what we are all thinking about, and all that He could destroy us all in a moment. No; for he is very kind, and loves us. how to become good, that we may go to him, and be happy for ever. He sent us his Son Jesus Christ into the world to save us from our sins, and to show us what we ought to do that we may become his children. Although God is present everywhere, yet Heaven is called his dwelling-place, for it is there that he is pleased to show his glory most; there everything is good, and pure, and holy; there saints and angels dwell, and those who serve God on earth will go there at last, to live for ever in perfect happiness. Can we see God? No, not with our eyes; but we can think of him in our minds when we see his wonderful works. If one of you saw a clock, would you think that it made itself? Would not you say some man must have made it? If the clock were going, you would know that some one must have wound it up. A clock is a very

curious work; the hands move, and the bell rings to tell the time; and many other things men make are very ingenious, but they are very different from the works of God. If one of you were to lose an arm, could any man make a new arm grow for you? No; for our bodies are the work of God. If you pluck a rose in the garden, can you join it again to the tree? No; for the rose-tree is God's work.

The great globe on which we live is always moving very swiftly on; Who could move or stop so very large a thing? The bright sun goes on always shining; Who could make so great a light? All the men and animals on the earth are fed every day; who finds so vast a quantity of food as to give all creatures enough? How many things we have to make us happy; from whom do these blessings come? From