BE SURE YOUR SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT.

As Clinton's mother was walking in her garden, she caught a glimpse of her son, with two other boys, smoking cigars. This boy I suppose would be about

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fourteen years of age, and being at a business, he wore an apron. The bad habit of smoking had been strictly forbidden. At first they did not see her. When they did, they tried to run away; but his mother called Clinton, in a loud voice, to stop: so he stood still. He knew he had been doing wrong, and his first impulse was to get rid of the cigar.

What do you suppose he did with it?

It is very strange, but it is true, that people, who are caught doing wrong, never act as they thought they would, if found out. It is as true of grown-up people as of children. It is very easy for persons to make up their minds what they will do if caught in a crime; but, strange to say, they seldom do the thing they planned, and most often do the very thing that proves them guilty.

Clinton might have thrown away his cigar, I suppose, before his mother reached him; but, instead of that, he thrust it under his apron, and pushed it under his belt. He did not do this because he thought it was the best plan, or because he thought at all; it was what is called an impulse.

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Clinny," said his mother," have you a cigar?" "No," said the little boy. One sin always leads to another.

"" Clinton," ," said his mother, solemnly, "is this the truth?"

"No, mother, I haven't got any," persisted be: "Fred and Benny had, though."

Just at that moment a little blue smoke came curling from under Clinton's apron. He turned pale as he saw a hole burning in his apron, and there was the burnt end of a cigar under it.

Ah! Clinton, your sin fonnd you out.

I will not tell you how Clinton was punished; only you may know he did not smoke any more cigars.

"I think he was a very silly fellow to put a lighted cigar under his apron !" some child says; "I would have hid it better than that."

No, you wouldn't. You don't know what you would have done. Unless you have been a great while learning to deceive, and grown cunning, you would not have been any wiser than Clinton.

When a child or man, who is generally honest, commits a sin, and wishes to hide it, the very thing he does to hide it often becomes the means of his being discovered. It is quite remarkable how often this is the case. It is one of God's ways of detecting crime. He has made the mind so, that when the conscience is guilty, it cannot act as when it is clear. It is never safe to say, "I shan't be found out." Yes, you will most likely you will tell of yourself, as Clinton did.

When you want to sin in safety, go where God is not. But since God is in every place, you may be sure your sin will find you out.

ONE OF JESUS'S BEGGARS;

A Brief Account of a Child of the name of Nathaniel Daniel Roberton, who died at Portsea, 1861.

My first visit to him was on the 16th of June. I found him very ill, and asked him how he did. He said, "Very ill, but happy." I said. "Were you ever unhappy?" He said, "Yes." "What made you unhappy?" He said, "My sins." "Well, my dear, and who told you that you were a sinner ?" He said, "My Bible." "Did it make you very unhappy?" "Yes," he said, "for last week I was very ill, and I thought I was going to die, and I was "I cried and afraid to die." "What did you do?"

prayed to the Lord." "And what was your prayer can you tell me?" "Yes." "What?" 66 Save, Lord, or I perish!" "Whose prayer was that?" "Peter's." "Did you receive an answer ?" He said, "Yes." "What was it can you tell me?" "Go in peace, your sins are all forgiven you; and I have been so happy ever since."* "Then you have been in the habit of reading your Bible?" "Yes, ma'am," he said, "I have read it all the day for five months, and when I could not see to read it by daylight, I took it to the fire."

His mother confirmed this. She said he would not speak to any one for hours together, except they interrupted him; and when he went to bed at night he took his Bible with him, and put it under his pillow, that he might read it as soon as it was light.

I asked him who had been to visit him. He said, "No one-you are the first." "Yes, my dear, you have had the best visitor, for the Lord says, I teach to profit."

On my next visit I said, "What induced you first to study the Bible so much?" He said, "To make me good." "Did it show you that you were good?" "No," he said, "but that I was a sinner."

As he had received such a blessing in reading the Word of God, I asked him whether he had recommended it to his brothers and sisters. "Yes," he said, "for Jesus says, 'Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.'" I asked him if it was sufficient to

* We trust the dear child had living faith given him in the Lord Jesus; if so, he is safe. It is not the remarkable occur. rence of words to the mind that will do as a substitute for "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.”—

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think we had eternal life. He said "No." "Is yours eternal life ?" "Yes."

On another occasion I found him very distressed. I asked him if there was any particular chapter or psalm he would like me to read to him. He said he was very fond of the 23rd Psalm. As I read it to him, I asked him whether the Lord led him now to the green pastures and beside the still waters. He said, "No, ma'am; I am very unhappy-I am very wicked." "Well, if you are so wicked, I ought not to have read the 23rd Psalm to you; I ought to have read the 51st." He said, "Oh, yes, ma'am-do, do !" bitterly weeping. He wept bitterly as I read it, saying nearly at every verse, That is my prayer,' and begged of me to pray with him and for him. I had to console him after reading and prayer, and was about to leave him. His mother entered the room. I said to her, "I am very sorry to find your little boy so unhappy ;" and then repeated to her what he had said to me in reference to searching the Scriptures. She said that was true. I asked her if she thought he was convinced he was a sinner, and disturbed on account of it. She said, "Yes," for she several times found him weeping, but she did not know what for. I asked her whether she believed he had found pardon. She said, "Yes; for when he found peace, and was so happy, he told them that the Lord had forgiven him all his sins." Conversation showed how he reproved his brother for sin, and talked to his mother.

I called to see him (August 1st), and found him very weak and in trouble, for he had offended his mother, his illness causing her a great deal of trouble. So she punished him by keeping him upstairs; but she allowed him to come down for me to speak to him. So I read several passages of Scripture, showing him