TWO GOOD HANDS.



WHEN I was a boy, I once became especially interested in the subject of inheritances. I was particularly anxious to know what my father's inheritance was; so one day, after thinking about the matter a good while very seriously, I ventured to ask him, and this was his reply: "My inheritance? Will tell you what it was, two good hands and an honest purpose to make the best use in my power of my hands and of the time God gave me, 

Though it is many years since, I can remember distinctly the tones of my father's voice as he spoke, with both of his hands uplifted to give emphasis to his words.

Many a boy does not receive a large inheritance of money or lands; but every one has a pair of good hands, which are better than thousands of money. And the good purpose to make the best use of them is in every boy's power. Remember this wise injunction, " Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might."





SYMPATHY.

AN eminent clergyman sat in his study, busily engaged in preparing his Sunday sermon, when his little boy toddled into the room, and holding up his pinched finger, said, with an expression of suffering, "Look, pa, how I hurt it!" The father, interrupted in the middle of a sentence, glanced hastily at him, and with the slightest tone of impatience, said, "I can't help it, sonny." The little fellow's eyes grew bigger, and as he turned to go out, he said in a low voice, "Yes, but you might have said, 'Oh!'" Alas! How many of us" children of a larger growth" have gone away hugging our hurt, with a sadder hurt in our hearts for lack of one little sympathizing word. To most of us, in the great trials of life, sympathy comes freely enough; but for the small aches and hurts, the daily smarts and bruises, how many a heart hungers in vain for the most meager dole. "It is such a briery world!" 

as a little girl said the other day, while making her way through a blackberry thicket. The briers meet us at every turn, and there is nothing like sympathy to ease their pricks and stings.




SELF-CULTURE.

THE great means of self-culture, that which includes all the rest, is to fasten on this culture as our great end; to determine deliberately and solemnly, that we will make the most and the best of the powers which God has given us. Without this resolute purpose, the best means are worth little, and with it the poorest become mighty. You may see thousands, with every opportunity of improvement which wealth can gather teachers, libraries, and apparatus bringing nothing to pass, and others, with few helps, doing wonders; and simply because the latter are in earnest, and the former are not. A man in earnest finds means, or, if he cannot find, creates them. A vigorous purpose makes much out of little, breathes power into weak instruments, disarms difficulties, and even turns them into assistances. Every condition has means of progress, if we have spirit 

enough to use them. 




Channing.