gives to the beasts and to the birds their food.

God gives to us our homes and friends and all that makes us happy.

God gives us the Bible to tell us how he loves us.

God gives us sweet sleep at night.

God gives us health to enjoy all his gifts.

What has God given you to-day? Have you thanked him for it?

"Who giveth food to the hungry."--_Psalms 146:7_.
"Who giveth to the beast his food."--_Psalms 147:9_.
"So he giveth his beloved sleep."--_Psalms 127:2_.
"He giveth snow like wool."--_Psalms 147:16_.
"Give us this day our daily bread."--_Matthew 6:11_.
"My peace I give unto you."--_John 14:27_.
"Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all."--_I Timothy 2:6_.

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JESUS AND HIS FRIENDS

Jesus had many friends.

Some of them were people whom he had healed.

Some of them had heard him talk, and had learned to love him.

Sometimes they stayed with him, day after day.

Jesus loved his friends.

Jesus told his friends about God.

Jesus was so kind and loving to his friends
that they could not help loving him.

The friends of Jesus were called disciples.

Disciple means learner.

The disciples learned what Jesus had taught.

Jesus picked out from his friends a few to be with him all the time.

They were sometimes called disciples, too.

Sometimes they were called apostles.

Apostle means one who is sent.

Jesus sent the apostles out to tell others about himself.

There were twelve of the apostles.

The names of three of them were Peter, James, and John.

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[Illustration]
BEAUTIFUL NAZARETH:
OUTLOOK FROM HILLS ABOVE TOWN TO HISTORIC ESDRAELON

Copyright by Underwood & Underwood and used by special permission.

After he began his active ministry Jesus had no home, but while he
was a boy his home was in the town of Nazareth, beautifully situated
among the hills of Galilee. A traveler there describes the town as
it now is;--

"Almost in the center of this chain of hills there is a singular
cleft in the limestone, forming the entrance to a little valley.
As a traveler leaves the plain he will ride up a steep and narrow
pathway, broidered with grass and flowers, through scenery which is
neither colossal nor overwhelming, but infinitely beautiful and
picturesque. Beneath him, on the right-hand side, the vale will
gradually widen, until it becomes about a quarter of a mile in
breadth. The basin of the valley is divided by hedges o