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The simple tunes, and the sweet young voices, fell like dew on her dried-up heart, and greatly aided the genial influence of her neighbour's example. The rod silently disappeared from the table. If Peggy were disposed to be idle, it was only necessary to say, "When you have finished your work, you may go and ask whether Mrs. Fairweather wants any errands done." How the fingers flew !

When spring came, Mrs. Fairweather busied herself with planting roses and vines. Miss Turnpenny readily consented that Peggy should help her, and even refused to take any pay from such a good neighbour. But she maintained her own opinion, that it was a mere waste of time to cultivate flowers. The cheerful philosopher never disputed the point, but she would sometimes say,— "I have no room to plant this rose-bush. Neighbour Turnpenny, would you be willing to let me plant it on your side of the yard? It will take very little room, and will need no care." Thus, by degrees, the crabbed maiden found herself surrounded by flowers; and she even declared of her own accord that they did look pretty.

One day, when Mrs. Lane called upon Mrs. Fairweather, she found the old weed-grown yard bright and blooming; Tab, quite fat and sleek, was asleep in the sunshine, with her paw on Pink's neck; and little Peggy was singing at her work, as blithe as a bird.

"How cheerful you look here," said Mrs. Lane.

"And so you have really taken the house for another year. Pray, how do you manage to get on with the neighbour-in-law?"

"I find her a very kind, obliging neighbour," replied Mrs. Fairweather.

"Well, this is a miracle!" exclaimed Mrs. Lane. "Nobody but you could have undertaken to thaw Aunt Hetty's heart."

"That is probably the reason why it never was thawed," rejoined her friend. "I always told you that not having enough of sunshine was what ailed the world. Make people happy, and there will not be half the quarrelling, or a tenth part of the wickedness, there is."

From this gospel of love, preached and practised, nobody derived so much benefit as little Peggy. Her nature, which was fast growing crooked and knotty, under the malign influence of constraint and fear, straightened up, budded and blossomed in the genial atmosphere of cheerful kindness.

Her affections and faculties were kept in such pleasant exercise, lightness of heart made her almost handsome. The young music-teacher thought her more than almost handsome; for her affectionate soul shone more beamingly on him than on others, and love makes all things beautiful.

When the orphan removed to her pleasant little cottage on her wedding-day, she threw her arms around

the blessed missionary of sunshine, and said,-"Ah! thou dear, good aunt-it is thou who hast made my life Fairweather!"

Such an example is better than a thousand moral precepts in showing how true is the old proverb, that "virtue has its own reward." Whenever a neighbourhood is disturbed with jars, a family vexed with quarrels, a master irritated by undutiful servants or assistants, be sure that some portion of the blame rests also with the sufferers. Forbearance, patience, charity, and love, all have their rewards. We can never safely forget the great lesson, implied in a simple question of Christ's. After narrating the beautiful Samaritan, designed to teach us

parable of the good

that all men are our neighbours and our brethren, he asks: "Who was neighbour to him that fell among the thieves?"

X.

The Loving Kindness of God to Man.

"All that in angel-breasts can flow-
Compared, O Lord of Hosts! with thine-
Eternal-fathomless-divine!

That love whose praise, with quenchless fire,
Inflames the blest seraphic choir;

Where perfect rapture reigns above,
And love is all-for Thou art love!"

DALE.

HE preceding chapters have been directed to illustrate, in a variety of ways, the mighty

and all-subduing powers of love, as the only effectual governing principle by which man can be controlled, subdued, reformed, and restored to the Divine image in which he was first created. We have seen, from many examples, that human kindness can awaken charity, overrule domestic happiness, change enemies to friends, restore the lost and depraved to hope and to virtue, and even illuminate once more the long-darkened mind of the insane with the influences

of human sympathy and the light of reason. Engaged in such work, man once more seems, in some degree, to resemble the original sinless creation of God, when Adam, made in his own image, stood in his original purity in the garden of Eden. But while we look on the noble fruits of benevolence and philanthropy, we must not overlook the great Philanthropist-he who so loved man, that he unclothed himself of the divine to assume the human nature, and humbled himself to walk our earth, a man of sorrows, and the rejected of his people. Jesus Christ is our great exemplar in every duty of benevolence and love. He who was one with God in the divine nature, took upon him the form of his own creatures, that he might bear the punishment to which they had become liable, and redeem the lost ones to himself as his own sons. What manifestation of human love can compare with this, or what philanthropy resemble his who went about continually doing good!

An eminent divine, Dr. Love, has thus pictured one scene of benevolence inspired and exalted by the presence of Christ :- "Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury. Happy, had they known their happiness, were those people who presented their offerings under the immediate eye of our divine Lord! Fatigued with his holy labours, wearied with the obstinate strugglings of that hypocrisy which refused his healing hand, he

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