The history of Marten and his two little scholars at a Sunday-school

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Chapter I

" God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." — Gen. i. 27.

THERE lived on the top of a high hill in the neighbourhood of Wellington, two boys, whose names were James Dainty and John Wylde. They did not live in the same house, but their little gardens were close together, and their houses not far from each other; so they often played together, for there were not any other houses near to them.

When these boys were very little, there was a Sunday-school opened near them ; and every Sunday a great many boys and girls were sent to the school, and James and John went too. The boys spent the morning, before they went to church, in learning to read ; and in the afternoon, the master made them stand up and repeat the Catechism, or verses out of the Bible, which he or some one else explained to them.

In the evening, just as the master had made them stand up in their places, the clergyman and his little son came into the school; and the clergyman asked the master first one question about the children, and then another. " And who may these two little fellows be?" asked he, as he laid his hands upon the head of James Dainty and John Wvlde; "you have no boys so small as these in the school."

" They are two little neighbours, who are come to school to-day for the first time," answered the master; "but I don't know what to do with them ; for they are so small, and so much behind the rest, that they cannot learn with them in the Catechism or the Bible, so as to understand any thing about it."

"Poor little lambs!" said the clergyman, for he was one who had a great love for little children, " it is a pity that none should feed their souls with the bread of life." Then he turned to his son, and he said to him, "What do you think, Marten? would you undertake to teach these little boys, if I was to put them under your care?"

Then Marten answered, " I will try, papa: but what must I teach them?"

" The first thing you must teach them to-day," said the minister, " must be, who made them; and when they understand this, open your Bible and make them each repeat the twenty-seventh verse of the first chapter of Genesis five times after you."

It was summer time, and very fine weather; so the minister told bis son to take a little bench and put it on some grass under a tree in the master's garden, and sit down upon it, and put the two little boys to stand before him.

Then Marten took the little boys and led them into the garden, and he sat down under the tree. And first, he asked the children their names, and where they lived; but they hung down their heads, and looked frightened. So Marten took out of his pocket two little pictures of a church, which his father had given him the day before, and he said to them, " If you will speak to me, and answer the questions I ask you, I will give you each one of these pictures."

Then the little boys looked up, and did not seem so much frightened. So Marten said to them, " Can you tell me who made you?"

John. I don't know.

James. God made me, Sir.

Marten. That is right: and where does God live?

They could neither of them tell.

Marten. Look up to the pretty blue sky over your head — God lives above the sky, in a beautiful place called heaven. Now, James, can you tell me where God lives?

James. Above the blue sky.

Marten. And what is the place called where God lives?

James. Heaven, Sir.

Marten. And can you tell me, John, who made you?

John. God made me.

Marten. And where does God live?

John. Above the sky.

Marten. What is the place called where God lives?

John. I don't know.

Marten. Tell him, James.

James. It is called heaven, John.

Then John repeated " heaven" after James.

Marten. God is very good, and we ought to love him very much, and thank him for making us: for God made you, and me, and every body else. Can you tell me who did God make besides you and me?

James. Every body, Sir.

Marten. Is not God very good for makiug us?

John. Yes.

3Iarten. What return should we make to God?

James. Love him, Sir.

Then Marten said, " You have answered well." Afterwards he opened his Bible, and made each of the little boys repeat the twenty-seventh verse of the first chapter of Genesis five times after him; and he bade them remember what he had taught them, and gave them their pictures, and sent them home.

Chapter II

"I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety." — Psalm iv. 8.

il_ HE next Sunday morning, James Dainty was called early by his mother; and she made him put on his clean clothes, and wash his face and hands with cold water, before his breakfast. And this did not take him long, because she had washed him thoroughly the night before with warm water and soap: so on Sunday morning he looked so clean and fresh, and his ears and neck were so white and delicate, and his hair so smooth and free from dust, that nobody would have thought he had been driving a jenny-carriage all the week, Mrs. Dainty used to say, " Sunday is the day on which God has chosen in a special manner to visit us poor creatures; and it is a sad way of welcoming his day by lying in bed, and getting up at last with dirty faces and dirty clothes. 1 '

When James was dressed, his mother bade him sit down on a little stool, and eat his bason of milk porridge; and then she wiped his face, and ordered him to go to school, and be a good boy.

"And, mother," said he, " shall I call for John Wylde?"

" If you will/' answered his mother ; " but mind you don't stay for him, if he is not ready/'

" No, mother," said James.

" Stay a minute," cried James's sister, as she tied up two or three pinks and a rose with a bit of old-man and some sweetbriar, here's a nosegay for you; may be it will smell pleasant and fresh at school." So Mary fastened the nosegay in the buttonhole of his jacket. " And mind," she added, " to be a good lad."

" Thank you, sister," said the little fellow, as he ran out at the door. James was soon at John Wylde's house, and calling out, " John, are you ready to go to school?"

John's mother peeped out her head at the door when she heard her son called. " Why, James, you are not going to school at this time of the morning are you?" said she, " my little lad has not had his breakfast."

" O, James, wait for me; I'll be ready

B directly," cried John, running* to the door in his shirt, his little hands, neck, and face, black with coal-dust. " Come, mother, wash me, and give me my breakfast."

" Come in, you young rogue," cried his mother.

" Will you stay for me, James?" repeated John, laughing, and never minding what his mother said to him, till she pulled him into the house, saying to James, " You had better go forward, my lad."

So James went to school and learned two lessons before John followed him: and the master called him a good boy for being so early.

The same evening, when the children had learned their lessons, Master Marten called his two little boys, and took them to the tree in the master's garden; and there he sat down on the little bench, and bade John and James stand before him. I shall now repeat what Marten said to them.

Marten. Do you remember, John, what I told you last Sunday about God?

John. Yes: you told us, that God made us.

Marten. And what else did I tell you, James?

James. You told us, Sir, that God lives above the sky, in a beautiful place called heaven; and that God is very good; and that we must love him very much.

Marten. You have remembered very well. Now you can answer the questions which I asked you last Sunday, I have got some new ones to ask you. Is it day or night when the sun shines'?

John. Day.

Marten. And what is it when the sun does not shine'?

James. Night, Sir.

JSlarten. Can you see when it is night 1

John. No.

Marten. When the pleasant sun is set, and the dark night comes, and you lie down to sleep, God watches over you just as your mother used to watch over you when you were little babies, and slept in a cradle. If God did not take care of you when you are asleep, you could not live till morning. Do you think you can take care of yourselves when you are asieep?

James. No, Sir.

Marten. Then all good little children should kneel down and ask God to take care of them before they go to sleep. Do you say your prayers every night?

John and James. Yes, Sir.

Marten. But do you say your prayers in a morning; too?

James. Yes, Sir.

Marten. And do you say yours, John 1

John. Sometimes.

Marten. It is very naughty not to say our prayers in a morning. Who did I tell you it is that takes care of us in the night'?

John. God takes care of us.

Marten. And should not you thank God for watching over you all night, when you are asleep ?

John. Yes.

Marten. You know that you cannot take care of yourselves in the night, because it is dark, and you cannot see; but it is quite as true, that you cannot take care of yourselves in the day, though it is light, and the suu shines. If God was not to take care of you in the day, you could not live any more than you could live in the night without his care. Besides, God sends us all the good things we have; he is always doing us good: he sends us our breakfast, and dinner, and our supper, and our houses, and our warm clothes, and our beds, and our kind parents. So every morning, as soon as we awake, we ought to kneel down and thank God for having taken care of us all night, and then we ought to ask him to take care of us, and give us every thing that is good for us ail day. Now, can you tell me why we should sav oiir prayers in a morning'?

John. I don't know.

James. Because God has taken care of us all night.

Marten. Yes, we should thank God for having taken care of us all night. And what should we ask God to do for us all day?

James. We should ask him to take care of us still.

Marten. Why should we ask God to take care of us?

James. Because we cannot take care of ourselves.

Marten. And what should we ask God to give us all day?

James. Our breakfast, and dinner, and supper.

Marten. Yes, we should ask God to give us every thing we want.

Marten then commended James for answering so well, and he tried to make John answer the questions again ; and afterwards he made them both repeat the eighth verse of the fourth Psalm five times after him: and when they had finished repeating it, it was time for them to go home.

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Chapter III

" From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus." — 2 Tim. iii. 15.

JL HE next Sunday morning, when James Dainty was dressed, and was sitting at the door of his parents' clean house eating his breakfast, his father, who was dressed ready for church in his Sunday coat and clean blue woollen stockings, drew, his chair beside the child ; and he reached down a large Bible, which had been given him by his mother, and in which all his children's ages and names were written, and laying the book slowly upon his knees, " My little lad/' said he, " what book is this?"

" Why, father," answered the child, " is it not your great Bible, which grandmother gave you ? "

" True, my lad : but do you know whose book it is? — who wrote it?"

" No, father."

" Why, it is God's book : he gave it to us, and in it he tells us every thins: that we must do in order to get to heaven."

" Does it, father? I should like to read t."

" That is what I send you to school for, ny lad, that you may learn to read the Bible, and know what it means too. When [ was a little one, my poor mother used to ake great delight in teaching me all she mew : and before she died she gave me this )Ook, and she said, ' Son, this book has >een my riches all my life long : it was my Measure when I was a child ; it was my ;uide when I came to woman's estate; and t is all my comfort now. Mind, son, that ou give heed to teach it well to your little nes.'"

"Father," said James, "don't I remember randmother? did not she walk to church /ith that gold-headed stick which stands •y your bed-side? and did not she stop to est very often?"

" Yes, my lad, she walked to church, or

\ might better say, crept there, the very

unday before she died. She loved God's

ouse, and the place where his honour dwell-

th; but she is in God's house above now."

William Dainty wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. "And, father/* said James, " was not our little Bell called after grandmother?"

" Well, I believe she was," replied William; " but that is not to our purpose now. I was going to tell you, that you must take very great pains at school to learn to read, and likewise you must strive to get a Bible, or a Testament, may be, at first, of your own."

" My master says," answered James, " that he thinks, before Christmas, I may get into the Testament; but I sha'n't have a Testament of my own to take home when I do read."

" Why, my lad, don't you bring home tickets every day when you go regular? and are not these tickets to go for books, or handkerchiefs, or some such thing as the minister is so kind as to give you ? Now, I dare say, if you would ask your little master, he would speak for you, that when the prizes are given away, you might have a Testament instead of any thing else."

" I will speak this evening about it," answered James.

" But mind you speak civilly," said William; " and, you know, you are not to be in a hurry, but wait the master's time for the book."

" Yes, father."

" But that is not all, my lad. I was going to say that you young ones have a great privilege, which they had not in my time, of being instructed by their betters. So if you would understand your Bible when you have got it, you must take good heed to what your little master says: for he must know a great deal more than you do, if he minds his father at all; for he takes great delight in teaching him, as I have heard tell, besides the pattern he sets him."

"Father," said Mary, coming up to them, " the clock will strike just now."

"You must be going then, James," said William.

" But not before your face is wiped," added Mary, smiling; "and turn round, and let me brush your coat."

Then little James said good-bye to his father, and thanked his sister for brushing his coat, and away he ran to school. He minded his lessons very well all that day; and as soon as evening service was over, and the children were gone back to school, he made haste to his little master Marten, who was sitting on the bench in the garden, and he took out of his pocket a small bag, in which he kept his tickets, and he said, <( If you please, Sir, I have got three tickets, and my father says, you will be so good as to give me a prize for my tickets. May I have a Testament?"

Marten smiled, and answered, "You must have a great many more tickets before you can have a prize."

" Must I, Sir?" said the child, rather sorrowfully; but after thinking a little while, he added, " But when I do have a prize, Sir, may it be a Testament?"

" Well," answered Marten, " I will speak* to my papa about it; and I dare say he will let you have one, when you have tickets enough. But why do you want to have a Testament V 7

James. Because father says it is God's book, and it will teach me the way to heaven.

Marten. You have answered right; and I was going this very evening to teach you a verse about the Bible, or the Scriptures, which means just the same as the Bible.

Then Marten turned to John, who had followed James into the garden, and he said, " John, why do we learn to read the Bible?"

John could not tell ; and James answered, " That we may learn about God, Sir."

Marten. Yes; the Bible is the book which teaches us about God. You knoW, the Sunday before last, I tried to make you understand that God made you, and me, and every body else; and last Sunday, I taught you that God is always taking care of us, by night and by day, and that he is always doing us good: and all this we learn in the Bible. Do you remember it?

James. Yes, Sir.

Marten. And what did I tell you that you ought to do for this good God?

James. You told us, Sir, that we ought to love him.

Marten. And if we love him, we ought to try to do every thing that will please him, and that he would like us to do. Do you know, James, what will please God?

James. No, Sir.

Marten. No ; we cannot know what will please God, and what he has ordered us to do, without reading God s word, that is, the Bible.

Then Marten asked John a great many questions about the Bible, which I have not time to put down now; and then he made the little boys repeat five times the fifteenth verse of the third chapter of the Second Epistle to Timothy.

Chapter IV

" The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." — Prov. xv. 3.

<lD AMES and John were walking together the next Sunday afternoon to school; and the weather being tine, they went slowly along, looking first at one thing, and then at another, as children are apt to do. Now their road lay round the master's garden, and in one part of it there hung over the paling a bough of a fine apple tree, and on this bough there were several beautiful apples, of a fine rose colour, smelling very sweet, and quite fit to gather. " O ! what beautiful apples ! " said James ; " I dare say they are quite ripe."

" Let's get them," answered John ; " who'll know 1 "

"Get them!" repeated James, "why it would be very wicked."

John. Father would not beat me, if he was to know.

James. But my father would.

John. But he won't know. Besides^ we won't get them all. There is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven; and we will only get three: I'll have two, and you shall have one, and who will miss them? — and nobody can see us!

James. Yes, God can see us: he can see at all times.

John. How do you know that?

James. Why, father has told me so very often.

John. Well, I don't care; I don't think he sees us now, so III have an apple.

Then John jumped up to reach a little branch, which was rather more out of sight than the other branches, and on it were three fine apples; and he pulled it down, and said, " Look, James! are not these beautiful apples? which will you have?"

Now James was a very wise little boy; for he knew that he loved apples very much, and he thought that if the apples came very near to him, he should not be able to help getting one of them: so when he saw that John was pulling the bough down, he set off and ran to school as hard as he could run.

Whether John stayed to get the apples or not James did not know, for he very soon followed him into the school; and a few c minutes afterwards, Master Marten came in and heard the little boys spell: for he said, he wanted to know how far James was got in his reading, and how long it was likely to be before he would be able to read in the Testament. The boys were very fond of having their lessons heard by Master Marten: for he was not like some little boys, who, when they are hearing other children say their lessons, are very cross, and scold, and order about them as if they were grown men; but he remembered how much trouble it gave his papa and mamma to teach him every day, and so he was very patient with his scholars on a Sunday.

When the little boys had done spelling, it was time for them to go to church ; and when they were come from church, John and James were called to Master Marten, who was sitting on the bench under the tree in the master's garden, and they were both standing before him, before James knew whether John had taken the apples.

As soon as they were all in their places, Marten said, " I am going to talk to you to-day a little more about God. God is a spirit; and though we cannot see him, yet he sees and knows all things, and he can do all things. Do you know, James, what is meant by a spirit \ n

James. No, Sir.

Marten. I am but a little boy, and so I cannot explain these things well: but then, too, you are very little boys, and can understand very little; but I will try to explain it as well as I can. — You, and I, and all other people, can only be in one place at a time. While we are standing in this garden we cannot be in our own houses, can we?

James. No, Sir.

Marten. But our thoughts can be in a great many places all at the same time, cannot they?

James. I don't know, Sir.

Marten. Why, can't you think of God, and of your father, and of your master's apple tree, all in the same moment?

John and James turned quite red, and did not answer till Marten repeated the question. Then James answered, " Yes, Sir."

Marten. Well, then, something like your being able to think of a great many places or things at once, so is a spirit able to be in a great many places at once. God is a spirit: he has not got a body like us, and so we cannot see him; but he is in every place at once. He sees every thing you do, and hears every thing you say, and knows every thing you think of: and if he is pleased with you, he can give you every good thing; and if he is not pleased with you, he can strike you to hell.

Then Marten stopped, and asked John and James a great many questions about what he had been saying, to see if they understood it: and then he turned towards John, and looking very gravely at him for a few minutes, he said, "John, who saw you this evening, when you reached down the bough of the master's apple tree, and when you plucked three apples, and ate one of them, and put th€ other two in your pocket?"

John coloured, and trembled, and hung down his head; and James coloured too, and felt ashamed that he had stopped even for a minute, to look at the apples.

Marten. God saw you, John, and he ordered it so that I should see you too, for I was following you at a little distance ; and what you did was displeasing to God, and he marked it down in his book, just as you will see me mark it down in my book ; and some day or other he will call you to account for it, as my papa will too in a little time.

Then Marten took out of his pocket a little pocket-book, and a pencil; and he put down what John had done, and said he should shew it his papa: for he must not punish him himself, only he took out of his pocket the two apples, one of which was bitten, and returned them to the master. Then he talked a great deal to John about the wickedness of stealing, and where thieves go when they die; and then, having made both the boys repeat the third verse of the fifteenth chapter of Proverbs, he sent them away for the present.

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Chapter V

"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." — Matt. xxii. 37.

JL THINK we have all seen enough of little John Wylde, to know that he was not so wise or so good as James Dainty, and that he had not, like James, kind parents who would try to make him good, and who would punish him when he was naughty. So John was not ashamed to tell his father the next Saturday night, that he had gathered one of his master's apples, and he was afraid there would be a noise about it on Sunday; and he begged his parents not to send him to school the next day, for he said, " May be, if I don't go to school on Sunday, they will have forgot all about the apple against I go again,"

"Poor little lad!" said Johns mother, " it is a pity to punish thee for such a small matter; it is but a child's fault to take an apple/'

His father made no answer, but went on smoking a pipe he had in his mouth.

So on Sunday morning, as soon as John's mother awoke, she said to her husband, "As our little lad is at home to-day, suppose we borrow William Dainty's mule, and go to see brother, and take him those few early potatoes which he sent to ask us for last week."

" Well, do as you will," answered Tom Wylde; "but may be Dainty won't let his muie go, he is so over and above particular."

" Leave that to me," answered his wife.

" But mind, mother/' said John, " you don't go to borrow it till James is gone to school, or else he'll tell the parson."

John's father and mother were scarcely dressed and got down stairs, when James came running to the' door, and tapping smartly at it, cried out, " John, John, are you ready?"

" Go forward, my little lad," answered John's mother, "and John will soon be after you."

John's mother would have gone into a violent passion with any person who called her a liar, yet she did not mind telling a lie, whenever it suited her convenience, if, as she said, it was to do nobody any harm.

And now, when she had eaten her breakfast, and made herself a little clean and tidy, she went over to Mrs. Dainty's house. Mrs. Dainty had just finished dressing her three little ones, and had put on her clean gown and apron, and was sitting with the youngest child on her lap, waiting till the bell should ring for church. Their little dinner was got ready on the Saturday; so she never stayed at home to cook on the Sunday morning, but warmed up the dinner when she came home from church. And her husband was not like some men, who give more trouble than ordinary on a Sunday, let God be served or not. " Good morning, Mary," said John Wylde's mother, as she came into the house.

" And good morning to you, Sally," answered Mrs. Dainty.

" I am come to ask a little bit of a favour of you," said Mrs. Wylde.