or you to answer this question as the other,
but at the same time you are conscious that you do love them. You feel
that they are your best friends. They provide for all your wants. They
furnish you with food and clothes and the means of education. They
take care of you when you are well and when you are ill. You feel
grateful to them for what they do for you, and you enjoy being with
them, and talking with them. You like to please them, and it makes you
sad when you have grieved them. Children who love their parents very
dearly sometimes do what they do not approve; but they are always
sorry for it, as Peter was when he went out and wept bitterly.

If you should be asked, "Do you love your heavenly Father?" could you
as readily answer, "Yes?" Do you like to hear about him and his
wonderful works? Is the story of Jesus' love for lost man one that
interests you? Is it pleasant to you to think of living forever with
the Lord when you leave this world?

If you love your Father in heaven, you do not love to do what is
wrong. If you are overcome by temptation, and sin against him, you are
sorry, as you are when you sin against your earthly parents.

Children, and grown people too, sometimes seem to think that religion
is to be kept by itself, separate and distinct from our daily duties,
and that it consists in praying, going to church, hearing sermons, and
wearing a sober face. It is true the Christian often feels sober, but
there is no one who may be so cheerful as he, for there is none that
can be so truly happy. True piety extends to all the acts of our
lives, and influences them all. It does not forbid our doing any thing
that it is right for us to do. A Christian child enjoys play quite as
well as any other child.

If Jesus should say to you to-day, as he did to Peter, "Lovest thou
me?" could you answer, "Yes, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee?" It
is just as easy for you to know whether you love him as it is for you
to know whether you love your father and mother. I trust there are
many children who do love the Saviour, and who wish to live to be good
and to do good.

MY LITTLE BAG.

On my table lies a little bag. It has no beauty to render it valuable.
It is not made of silk or velvet. The material is plain muslin, and
that by no means of the finest texture. It is not very neatly made.
The stitches are irregular. Sometimes they are piled one above
another, and again they are scattered far apart. The h