ess, and
brought disgrace upon the school,--one of them stood up with a bold and
careless air, while the teacher was speaking, and afterwards when he
took his seat, looked round to the other scholars, and laughed. The
other boy hung his head, and looked very much ashamed; and as the
teacher had finished what he was saying, he sunk into his seat, put his
head down upon his desk before him, and burst into tears. Now, the first
one was _insensible_, or as it is called in this text, _dead_ to all
sense of shame. The other was _alive_ to it. You understand now?"

"Yes, mother," said the boys.

The party walked on for a short time in silence, admiring the splendid
and beautiful scenery which was presented to view, in the setting sun,
and the calm tranquility which reigned around.

Suddenly Caleb, seeing a beautiful lily growing in a border, as they
were walking by, stopped to gather it. Madam Rachel was afraid that he
was not attending to what she was saying.

"Now, Caleb," said she, "that's a very pretty lily; but suppose you
should go and hold it before Seizem. Do you suppose he would care any
thing about it?"

Seizem was a great dog that belonged to Madam Rachel.

"No, grandmother," said Caleb, "I don't think he would."

"And suppose you were to go and pat him on his head, and tell him he was
a good dog, would he care any thing about that?"

"Yes," said Dwight; "he would jump, and wag his tail, and almost laugh."

"Then you see, boys, that Seizem is 'quick' and alive to praise; but to
beauty of colour, and form he is insensible, and as it were, dead. The
beauty makes no impression upon him at all, he is stupid and lifeless,
so far as that is concerned.

"Now, what is meant by men being dead in trespasses and sins is, that
they are thus insensible to God's goodness, and their duty to love and
obey him. Suppose, now, I was to go out into the street, and find some
boys talking harshly and roughly to one another, as boys often do in
their plays; and suppose they were boys that I knew, so that it was
proper for me to give them advice; now, if I were to go and tell them
that it was the law of God that they should be kind to one another, and
that they ought to be so, and thus obey and please him, what effect do
you think it would have?"

"They would not mind it very much," said David.

"_I_ expect that they would though," said Dwight.

"I don't think that they would mind it much myself. Each one wants to
have his