THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE,

AMOS, OBADIAH, JONAH, MICAH, NAHUM. WITH what a mixture of fear, reverence, and holy joy, should we open the Bible! The book of truth and happiness! God's heart opened to man! It is God, not man, that speaks to us in every page of Scripture. Holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Pet. i. 21). The five prophets we are now to speak of were among the number of these "holy men."

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AMOS was a herdsman, unlearned, and living in the country, among flocks, at Tekoa, a village not far from Bethlehem. Who but the Lord could have enabled this simple, quiet herdsman to speak such things, and fearlessly to rebuke the worship of the golden calf at Bethel (vii. 10), in the days of Jeroboam II.? Find out in every chapter of his prophecy something in his language that is borrowed from rural scenery. In chap. ii. 13, he speaks of our sins being a burden to God; what does he mean by this? Where do you find these words, "Prepare to meet thy God?" and these, "Seek ye me, and ye shall live?" We call Amos the Herdsman Prophet, who warns, invites, prays, and promises.

OBADIAH'S prophecy is the shortest book in the Old Testament. While God chose to tell us much about who Amos was, He tells us not a word about Obadiah personally. Like one of the eagles that travellers see at Petra, soaring high over the rocks, and darting down ward on their prey, so Obadiah boldly and abruptly darts down his prophetic announcement of Edom's ruin. În verses 3, 4, he is alluding to Petra, built so peculiarly; the dwellings and palaces being cut out of rock. Pride, and want of brotherly love, are the sins which he denounces. He speaks of "thieves by night;" does our Lord use any expression like this? What portion of the Lord's prayer are you reminded of by verse 21? Obadiah is the Foreteller of proud Edom's doom.

JONAH, of Gath-hepher, is known to us all. How strange his history! The Lord's message, the ship, the great storm, the great fish, the great city Nineveh, the gourd, the east wind, the sea, the little worm. Where does Christ speak of Jonah as a type? And what does he speak of the men of Nineveh which we should apply to ourselves? Jonah was a man of many infirmities, but so humbled under them, that he honestly tells them all, and does not try to excuse them. Is this your way with your faults? It needs grace to enable us to do this. Read of him again in 2 Kings xiv. 25. He lived soon after Elisha, and was the first prophet sent to the Gentiles. Amos was sent to the Ten Tribes; Obadiah to Edom, or Idumea; and Jonah was sent to the great city of Assyria. We call him, Jonah the Awakener of Nineveh.

MICAH, of Mareshah in Judah, was probably a friend of the prophet Isaiah, along with whom he prophesied. He denounces the sins of Samaria and Jerusalem, and foretells their ruin, but at the same time declares that the Lord has wondrous grace in reserve for Israel in the latter day. It is he who tells that Bethlehem was to be Christ's birthplace, and hence an old writer calls him "The wise men's star" (see Matt. ii. 6). What verses in this prophet are the same as in Isaiah? and what verse about "Zion ploughed as a field," is quoted in Jeremiah? Where does Micah speak of "The Spirit of the Lord?" Learn that song of pardon, chapter vii. 18, 19, 20. Micah is sometimes called "briefer Isaiah," on account of his matter and style resembling Isaiah.

NAHUM, of Elkosh, begins his prophecy by setting forth the name of the Lord, which, like the pillar that guides Israel, has a bright and a dark side. Can you mention the awful things he says about the Lord's name? and then the sweet, attractive things? Nahum was sent to tell the ruin of Nineveh, which had relapsed into idolatry and open sin since Jonah's days. In our time, a great deal has been discovered about Nineveh; its site has been explored; remains of its palaces found; and in these palaces, remarkable sculptures, which prove how faithfully Nahum described the manners and state of that great city. The Word of God is true and accurate to the very letter. This prophet warns Israel, and us also, by the judgments sent on the despisers of God. We call him the Foreteller of Nineveh's doom.

Surely the number and variety of these messengers testify that our God is in earnest with us. See how He speaks to us by "line upon line." And shall we not make His word known to our fellow-men? Shall we not take an interest in Bible Societies? Cyprian, one of the Fathers, was arrested by reading the book of Jonah. Let us pray that all who read these books in their own tongue, may, at the same time, feel what they read, through the teaching and power of the Holy Ghost, who moved these holy men of old to speak and write these prophecies.-Children's Missionary Record of the Free Church of Scotland.

PROCRASTINATION.

NEAR the close of his life, Patrick Henry laid his hand on the Bible, and said to a friend, "Here is a book worth more than all others; yet it is my misfortune never to have read it with proper attention until lately." William Pitt, when he came to die, said, "I fear that I have, like many others, neglected my religious duties too much to have any ground to hope that they can be efficacious on my death-bed."

A FAMISHED WANDERER.

Listen, then," said the teacher. "A wanderer filled his travelling pouch with savoury meats and fruits, as his way would lead him across a wide desert. During the first few days he journeyed through the smiling, fertile fields. But instead of plucking the fruits

which nature here offered for the refreshment of the traveller, he found it more convenient to eat of the provisions which he carried with him. He soon reached the desert. After journeying on for a few days his whole store of food was exhausted. He now began to wail and lament, for nowhere sprouted a blade of grass; everything was covered with burning sand. After suffering for two long days in torments of hunger and thirst, he expired."

It was foolish in him," said the youth, "to forget that he had to cross the desert." "Do you act more wisely?" asked the teacher, in an earnest tone. “You are setting forth on the journey of life-a journey that leads to eternity. Now is the time when you should seek after knowledge, and collect the treasures of wisdom; but the labour affrights you, and you prefer to trifle away the springtime of your years amid useless and childish pleasures. Continue to act thus, and you will yet, upon the journey of life, when wisdom and virtue fail you, fare like that hapless wanderer."-Student and Schoolmate.

LITTLE BELLA'S FOUR TEXTS.

"MAMMA," said Bella, a little girl of six years old, one evening to her mother, "I have four texts-one for the morning, and one for the middle of the day, and one for the evening, and one for when I go to bed; shall I say them to you?"

"Do, my love," replied her mother.

"My morning one," said Bella, “is ‘Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners;' and my middle of the day one is, 'Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest;' and my evening one is, 'Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out;' and my one for when I go to bed is, 'God is love.""

"And very good and appropriate I think they are," said her mother; "for when you say in the morning, Jesus Christ came to save sinners, you may think-Well, I am a sinner, so He came to save me; how I should love Him for that; and how I must try to obey Him all day. Then, by the middle of the day, perhaps you have been naughty and feel sorry

And heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ in the evening, however naughty or foolish you may have been, you can still remember the promise, 'Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.' And then, when bedtime comes, and you look back on all that has happened during the day, and how kind God has been to you in many ways, you can say with all your heart, 'God is love.""

"Yes, mamma," answered Bella eagerly; "that's it! when I say my morning text, and think, Jesus came to save me, I will love and try to obey him; and in the middle of the day I will say, Come unto me,' and I will go to Jesus and ask him to wash me in his blood, and then I will feel him taking me in his arms, and I will say, I will do anything mamma wants me to do, and I will be good; and in the evening, when I say, 'Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out,' I will think Jesus won't say, Go away! I want a better little girl than you; and at night, when I go to bed, I will remember all these things, and I will say, 'God is love.'

THE "GUEST'S" BIBLE QUESTIONS FOR THE YOUNG.

Whom does Christ liken to a 66 man who built his house upon a rock?"

What contrast does He give to this? What woman had her house upon the wall of Jericho?

What man, who afterward became a king, once enquired "for the seer's house?"

In what land was there once "not a house where was not one dead?"

In whose house did the ark of God once abide three months?

What apostle once lodged in a house by the sea-side?

Whose sons fled out of a house naked and wounded?

Whose house joined hard to the synagogue at Corinth?

Who said, "This is none other than the house of God?"

Where did Paul dwell two years in his own "hired house?"

Who mortgaged their lands and houses to buy corn?

At whose request were they restored? What are said to be the houses of the stork? In whose house was Samuel buried? What does the apostle say of " our earthly house of this tabernacle?" Where does Christ say are "many mansions?"

Do you hope one of them is for you?

No. 4.]

I

Ir is easy to know the knock of a beggar at one's door. Low, timid, hesitating, it seems to say, "I have no claim on the kindness of this house; I may be told I come too often; may be treated as a troublesome and unworthy mendicant; the door may be flung in my face by some surly servant." How different on his return from school, the loud knocking, the bounding step, the joyous rush of the child into his father's presence, and, as he climbs his knee, and flings his arm around his neck, the bold face and ready tongue with which he reminds his father of some promised favour! Now, why are God's people bold? Glory to God in the highest! To a Father in God, to an Elder Brother in Christ, faith conducts our steps in prayer; therefore in an hour of need, faith, bold of spirit, raises her suppliant hands, and cries up to God, "O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, and come down!" I think I see the sneer curling on the sceptic's lips as he says: "How absurd! What presumption! as if it were not below the dignity of Divinity to come at king's or peasant's, prince's or pauper's call. Should the purposes of the Eternal be shaped by your petitions? Creature of a day and of the dust! what are you, that the universe should be steered, its helm moved this or that way, for your sake?" Well, no doubt the language is bold; yet with God-a Father, our Father, my Father-in Christ, I feel I can be bold and confident in prayer. I know a father's heart. Have I not seen the quiver of a father's lip, the tear start in his eye, and felt his heart in the grasp of his hand, when I have expressed some good hope of a fallen child? Have I not seen a mother, when her infant was tottering in the path of mettled coursers, with foam spotting their necks, and fire flying from their feet, dash like a hawk across the path, and pluck him from instant death? Have I not seen a mother, who sat at the coffin head, pale, dumb, tearless, rigid, terrible in grief, spring from

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her chair, seize the coffin which we were carrying away, and with shrieks fit to pierce a heart of stone, struggle to retain her dead?

If we, that are but worms of the earth, will peril life for our children, and, when they are mouldering into dust, cannot think of our dead, nor visit their cold and lonesome grave, but our breasts are wrung, and wounds bleed afresh, can we adequately conceive or measure, far less exaggerate, even with our fancy at its highest strain, the paternal love of God? Talk not of what you suppose to be the dignity of Divinity. Talk of the calm, lofty, dignified demeanour which becomes a king, who sees his child borne off on the stream that sweeps his palace wall. The king is at once sunk in the father. Divesting himself of his trappings-casting sceptre, robe of gold, and jewelled crown aside-he at once rushes forth to leap into the boiling flood.

Child of God! pray on. God's people are more dear to Him than our children can be to us. He regards them with more complacency than all the shining orbs of that starry firmament. They were bought at a price higher than would purchase the dead matter of ten thousand worlds. He cares more for His humblest, weakest child, than for all the crowned heads and great ones of earth, and takes a deeper interest in the daily fortunes of a pious cottage than in the fall and rise of kingdoms.

Child of God! pray on. By prayer thy hand can touch the stars, thy arm stretch up to heaven. Nor let thy holy boldness be dashed by the thought that prayer has no power to bend these skies, and bring down thy God. When I pull on the rope which fastens my frail and little boat to a distant and mighty ship, if my strength cannot draw its vast bulk to me, I draw myself to it-to ride in safety under the protection of its guns, to enjoy in want the fulness of its stores. And it equally serves my purpose, and sup