THE FATHER'S EYE.

WHEN We desire to teach little children any difficult truths, we are glad to make use of pictures and signs, by which to lead them to understand these truths. Before a little baby can speak or know the meaning of words, we show him a rod when he is naughty, and he well understands the sign; a rod in his young eyes is the emblem of chastisement; and when he is good we give him an apple or an orange, and this emblem is also understood by him.

Our duty to God is also taught us in childhood under types and emblems.

Our natural parents are the same to us in our infancy, as God and our church are to the believer in after life; and hence the little child who is taught to love, honour, and obey his parents, to trust in them, and submit wholly to their wills, is as well prepared as sinful man can be, for that state of dependance on his heavenly Father in which all human wisdom doth consist. But these are hard words for little children, such as they do not much like; so I will put no more of them in my book, but will hasten to tell my story.

My name is Mary; and I was blessed in having the kindest and best of parents. I had one brother, a little older than myself, whose name was Robert; and I had a little sister, who was born when I was four years of age: we called her Sally, and sometimes little Sally; she was the gentlest baby I ever met with, and the darling of the whole house.

It was a pleasant place where my parents lived, far in the country, down narrow lanes and over steep hills, where carriages seldom travelled, and where fine ladies were rarely seen, and where people never talked about the fashions or read newspapers: but there were pleasant fields there, and cuckoos, and wood-pigeons, and cowslips, and buttercups, and shady walks cut through woods, and squirrels and owls in hollow trees, and flocks of sheep, and pretty cows feeding in quiet meadows; and our father's house, too, was very neat, and had a

parlour with a nice carpet in it, and a study full of books, although the roof of the house was thatched, and the nursery window opened out upon the thatch. And our papa and mamma had nothing to do but to teach us, and to lead us to our God; and we were so happy! surely no little children were ever so happy as

we were.

We had no neighbours but a rich gentleman, who lived in a large red house about a mile off; but we did not see his house from our windows, because there was a hill between, and a long wood with high trees, and at the bottom of the wood a very deep brook; that brook was so deep that we could not get over it without crossing the wooden bridge in the bottom of the coppice, or going two miles round by the mill.

This gentleman had two children a little older than Robert. The eldest was Master Billy, and we thought him very grand, because he had a watch, and also a pony to ride on; and the other was Miss Maria, and she was as great in our eyes as her brother, because she wore silk slips, and feathers in her hat. But we did not see much of William and Maria, because they went to boarding-schools; and I feel quite sure that our papa and mamma were not sorry that we did not often meet these children.

Now I could tell you a great deal of the happy way in which we spent our time. When we had done our lessons we had a number of pleasures, such as little children who live in towns can have no notion of. Robert made a collection of snail-shells-he would not have two exactly alike, and you cannot think what a number of different coloured snail-shells he had; and I used to make little boxes of card for his shells, and Sally had all those which Robert did not value;-then we had dried flowers and leaves, of such various shapes and so beautiful, and our papa gave us some old books to keep them in ;-then Sally and I had each a doll, and Robert used to make ships, and put sails to them, and give them names;-and in the summer how many happy schemes we had! As long as I live I shall remember those schemes: but as I cannot describe all of them to you, because I shall not have room in my little book, I will tell you of one in particular.

It was the middle of June; and when we awoke one morning we remembered that it was little Sally's birth

day. We got up in haste, and, running to our papa and mamma, we said, "It is Sally's birthday, and the birds are singing, and the sun shining, and the flowers smelling very sweet,—may we have a scheme?" We always used to call our pleasant days in the woods and fields -a scheme.

"What sort of scheme would you have, my little ones?" replied our kind papa: "One with me, or one without me?"

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66 Oh, papa," said Robert, a scheme with you and mamma, if you please; we are so safe and happy when you are with us, and when you are away we are not safe, and we are not happy. Please, papa and mamma, to be with us if we may have a scheme-we are not satisfied when we do not see you, dear papa and mam

ma."

Our dear papa smiled; for he had taught us that while we were little, our happiness, and our peace and good, depended on our delighting in his presence, as the happiness of the children of God depends on the presence of their heavenly Father, according to the words of the Psalm, xvi., 11: "In thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand are pleasures for ever

"Well, my beloved ones," said our father, "you shall have what you ask; be ready half an hour after breakfast, and we will have a scheme."

As soon as we had finished our bread and milk, we made haste to pack up what we thought we might want in our little baskets. Robert carried his knife and some string, and a volume of Robinson Crusoe, with some other odd things, such as boys always have about them; and Sally and I packed up our dolls and some penny books, and needles and thread, and some bits of silk and linen; and then, when we were quite ready, we went down into the hall, and found our parents there, each with their baskets, and out we set.

The dew had not dried up from the leaves and the herbs when we passed through the garden gate to go towards the wood; but we had not gone far before our great dog Cæsar came after us with a basket tied upon his neck, for Cæsar was always with us when we had a scheme, and it was Cæsar who carried our dinner, for which he was always rewarded by having his share.

Well do I remember the delightful feelings which wo

used to have on such occasions as these, when we got fairly out into the fields and woods; we did not go straight forward, but we ran this way and that way, before and behind our parents, to the right and to the left, as far as we would, being only bound by one condition, which was, that we were never to go out of our father's sight; this was a rule which had been long fixed, and which we all knew; and so settled was it upon our young minds, that, in the midst of a race or a game of play, we used often to stand still, and to look towards the place where our parents were; and then, having seen them, and perceived that their eyes were upon us, we would begin to play and run again with new delight.

We could never think that there was harm or danger when the kind eye of our father was upon us; and so, in after life, there can neither be harm nor danger when we are so acting as that our God may look upon us with approbation And although we cannot actually see the face of our God (for no man hath seen God at any time), yet we always can tell, by the means of our hearts and consciences, when our dear heavenly parent is looking favourably upon us; and this we may be quite sure of— that when we would rather God did not see what we are doing, that we are doing what is not right;—but to go on with my story.

We went on, and we came to the large wood which I spoke of before, and then we entered into a shadowy path, and proceeded till we came to the head of a dingle (now a dingle is a deep narrow valley), and then we went down into the dingle and came to the brook, which we passed over by a wide wooden bridge; and when Robert and I got into the middle of the bridge (for our papa and mamma were behind us), we began to jump upon the planks or long pieces of wood of which the bridge was made, and were vastly pleased because the boards sprang under us, and helped us to jump higher; but we were under our father's eyes, and he called loudly to us to leave the bridge, for the boards were decayed, and if we had broken them we should have fallen into the brook. So we ran off the bridge to the other side, and there we stood waiting for our parents.

Our dear papa was not angry with us for jumping upon the bridge, because we had left off doing it the moment we had heard his voice; but he pointed out

the danger of it, and showed us how (if we had broken the planks) we should have fallen into the brook.

Little Sally cried when she thought how Robert and Mary might have fallen into the water and been drowned, but she began to smile again before her tears were dry. So we went on a little, and came to an open place in the wood; about ten yards farther, and before us, was a little green mound all encompassed, excepting in front, with beautiful high trees. At the top of the mound was a sort of natural arbour formed of wild honeysuckles, and there our dear parents sat themselves down on the old stump of a tree, and our mother took out her work, and my father his book, and the basket was taken from Cæsar; and, I dare say, the poor dog was very thirsty from the exercise, for he ran down to the brook to lap some water as soon as his burden was taken from him.

"And now," said my dear father, "now, my little ones, you may amuse yourselves; you may go anywhere in my sight, but not an inch beyond it. Remember, my beloved ones, that the presence of the father is the safety of the child. While you are very young you must look to me, my little fair ones, to be your guide and protector; and it must be my business to lead you to that blessed God who will be your friend when I am no more. When you remember this day, which I trust will be a happy one, and think how you enjoyed yourselves while I and your dear mother looked down upon you from this our pleasant seat, you will be admonished to lift up your eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh your help:' Psalm cxxi., 1. But be it remembered by you, my children, that as the time will come when the eyes of your earthly father can be no longer upon you, and that, as even now, it must often happen that you are withdrawn from my sight, yet that you never can escape the searching eye of your heavenly Father, as it is written, 'If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee:' Psalm cxxxix., 8-13.