A Silent Teacher.


A CITY missionary was visiting in one of

those courts in a city where the houses are

crowded with inhabitants, and where every

room is the dwelling of a separate family.

In a lone room at the top of one of these

houses he met with an aged woman, whose

scanty pittance of half a crown a week was

scarcely sufficient for her bare subsistence.

He observed, in a broken tea-pot that

stood at the window, a strawberry-plant

growing. He remarked from time to time

how it continued to grow, and with what

care it was watched and tended.

"Your plant flourishes nicely; you will

soon have strawberries upon it."

"Oh, sir," replied the woman, " it is not

for the sake of the fruit that I prize it; but

I am very poor, too poor to keep any living

creature, and it is a great comfort to me to

have that living plant, for I know that it can

only live by the power of God; and, as I

see it live and grow from day to day, it tells

me that God is near." 




Children's Magazine.