loving Saviour to whom they were to "look,"--of that wonderful life
which, opening in the lowly manger of Bethlehem, and growing quietly
to maturity in the green valleys of Nazareth, reached its full
development in those unparalleled three years of "going about doing
good," healing, teaching, warning, rebuking, comforting; not
disdaining to stop and bless the little children, and at last dying to
atone for our sins.

She explained to them, that although withdrawn from our earthly sight,
He was as really near to them now as He had been to those Jewish
children eighteen hundred years ago; that their lowest whisper could
reach Him; that if they would but ask Him, He would be their truest
Friend, ever at their side to help them to do right and resist
temptation, to comfort them in sorrow and sweeten their joy. Her
earnest tone and manner, even more than her words, impressed the
children, and fixed even Nelly Connor's bright hazel eyes in a
wondering gaze. It was very new and strange to her to hear about the
mysterious, invisible Friend who was so loving and kind; the idea of a
_friend_ of any kind being novel to the lonely, motherless child, more
accustomed to harsh, unsparing reproof than to any other language.
Miss Preston, glad to see at least that her interest was excited, was
fain to leave the germs of truth to take root and develope in her
mind, under the silent influence of the divine Husbandman.

"Now, my dear children," she said in conclusion, "whenever you are
tempted to be careless or unfaithful in duty, to think that _it
doesn't matter because no one will know_, remember that your _Saviour
knows_,--that whatever the duty before you may be, you have to do it
'as to the Lord, and not unto men.' Whenever you are tempted to get
tired of trying to do right and resist temptation, or when you may