creating the earth, and then looking down with delight on the work of his hands, whilst crowds of hovering angels sing for joy. Here you have a picture of the primeval paradise-the heaven upon earth-in which the first human pair dwelt in holy happiness, yet not alone, for angels were their companions, and God their daily visitant. Here, and here only, are you told how, tempted by the lying serpent, they disobeyed the holy commandment, were excluded from Eden, and became subject to pain and sorrow and death. Here you have the names of the first fathers of the world, how they lived for nearly 1000 years; and how there were giants in the earth in those days. Here you read that the violence of men brought on them the most awful display of Divine judgment ever recorded, in the destruction of nearly all the human race by a flood. And here you are introduced to the great father of the Jewish nation, and from him you may trace the history

of that wonderful people, from the brick-kilns of Egypt and the settlement in Palestine, to the time when angel-songs announced the advent of the Son of God.

And here, too, you have the most interesting scenes ever pictured. A great philosopher and poet of modern days often turned away from severe studies that he might refresh his jaded spirits by reading the simple tales of pastoral life recorded in the book of Genesis. And what more lovely than those scenes? Poets have sung of arcadian days, when men were shepherds and women shepherdesses; but they have never pictured scenes of such inimitable simplicity and loveliness as those of Rebekah at the well of Nahor, or the seven daughters of Jethro in the land of Midian.

Boys love to read lives-lives of heroes, patriots, statesmen, scholars, navigators, travellers, and such like distinguished characters. You may read them; but when you have read

them all, you will find none to equal the biographies of the bible. The sketches which follow are only of the early days of those of whose boyhood we have some glimpses in holy scripture. But read the whole of the lives of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Joseph, of Moses, of Joshua, of Samuel, of David, of Solomon, of Daniel, and many others chronicled in the sacred records; and I venture to affirm, that you cannot find in the whole range of history such interesting and instructive biographies as these.

And boys love poetry. It is to be regretted, however, that the poetry of the bible is printed in our English version like the prose, and broken into verses. And yet, notwithstanding this, where shall we go to find more magnificent descriptions than those in Job, sublimer songs of praise than the psalms of David, wiser maxims than those of Solomon, more glorious anticipations of the future happiness of the

world than in Isaiah, more plaintive lamentations than those of Jeremiah, more strange and wondrous images than are pictured by Ezekiel, more splendid visions than those seen by Daniel, or a more terrible display of the Divine Majesty than that given by Nahum. These

were the "Bards of the Bible;" and their compositions as much surpass the poetry of the most distinguished of profane poets, as the light of the sun surpasses the most bright and powerful light ever invented by man. The Bible is the Book for Boys.

IT IS THE MOST INSTRUCTIVE.

It is one thing to be interested, and another to be instructed. Interest vanishes, but instruction remains. When you get instruction you get something you may keep, and which will ever be of use. The bible is the best book in the world for giving instruction. No man or boy can sit down and read any part of it, if the

eyes of his mind be wide open, without, when he gets up, feeling wiser and better than when he sat down to read it. Every narrative, and every biography, is ripe with instruction. What glorious examples does it afford of faith in God, as in Abraham-of unspotted purity, as in Joseph-of majestic dignity, as in Mosesof dauntless courage, as in Joshua-of inflexible integrity, as in Samuel-of sincere friendship, as in Jonathan and David-and of the fear of God rising high above all other fear, as in the three noble Hebrew youths of Daniel.

Even the very failings of some of these are faithfully recorded, and stand as instructive beacons to warn you; whilst the sins of the wicked are seen to go beforehand to bring down judgment on their guilty heads. Who, when reading of the first murderer, of the men of Sodom, of imperious Pharaoh, of vindictive Saul, and of those kings of Judah or Israel who did evil in the sight of the Lord-who, man or