FREEDOM FOR PETS.



Bennie! Wouldn't it be a nice thing to have a cage made for little sister, just big enough for her to turn round in? She could stay in it all day, and sleep in it at night. Then we would have little openings for her to look out; and we could look in through them, and hear her try to talk." So said Gertrude to her little brother Bennie, watching closely the expression of his face as he thought over what she was saying. 

Bennie was not long in making up his answer. He could not see the matter just as Gertrude had suggested. "Why, Bennie," continued Gertrude, "you think it is nice for your squirrel and robin to live in a cage in that way. Why wouldn't it be just as nice for little sister?"

Bennie hung his head for a few minutes, as if in a deep study. After a little while he said, "Gerty, I don't think it is nice for my squirrel and robin to be shut up; and I have a great mind to go and let them out to play with their mates in the woods."

"That is just what I wanted you to think about, Bennie," continued his sister. "I think they will be so much happier with their playmates the squirrels and birds."

The case was all clear to Bennie's mind. It needed no further argument or persuasion. So, taking his favorite pets to the great old tree on the lawn, he opened the doors, and soon the little prisoners were free. The robin was soon up among the branches, and struck up such strains of song as Bennie thought he had never heard before; and the squirrel scampered along on the fence in so lively a manner as to show how grateful it was for its new-found freedom.




JESUS loves me, this I know, 

For the Bible tells me so; 

Little ones to him belong; 

They are weak, but he is strong.




THE SILENT POWER.



HUGE and strong are the blocks of stone in the old castle of Banias, in Syria, defying the shocks of earthquakes for centuries, but now that masonry is loosening. Can you imagine how? Little seeds fell into the crevices between these rocks; there they sprouted, and now their stout, hard growth is forcing the stones apart. 

Even so will little sins rupture a strong character. ____



AT a certain large dinner party, where were illustrious American and foreign statesmen, Mr. Colfax, one of our vice-presidents, declined to take wine, whereupon a noted senator who had already taken too much, exclaimed half jestingly, across the table, "Colfax dares not drink!" "You are right," was the answer," I dare not." And a braver reply could not have been uttered.




MANY flowers open to the sun, but one only follows him constantly. Let thy heart be the sunflower; let it not only be open to God, but bow to him and follow him.