Then

pray unto the Lord that He take away the serpents from us. Moses, who, as I have told you

before, was a good man, and loved

God, prayed for the people. God always hears the prayers of those who love him. He heard the prayer of Moses when he prayed for those wicked people, who were too wicked to pray for themselves.

D. Did God answer his prayer, Mamma, and take away the serpents, that they might not bite them any more?

Mamma. Yes: He told Moses to make a brazen serpent, and set it upon a pole; and He said that every one who was bitten, and who looked at that serpent, should live.

D. And did Moses do so?

Mamma. Yes; for he always did what God told him to do. He made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and fixed the pole upright in the ground in the middle of a wide common; and it came to pass, as God had said,

that every one who had been bitten by the fiery serpents, and who looked at this brazen serpent which Moses had set up, lived.*

* An intelligent parent or teacher will seize the favourable opportunity here presented, of speaking to the child of that great salvation of which this miraculous cure was a type.

LESSON IX.

D.

BALAAM'S ASS.

Mamma, I saw a boy beat

ing a donkey when we were walking in the lane the other day. Was it not very cruel?

very cruel.

Mamma. Yes, my dear, it was People ought always to be kind to poor dumb creatures, and treat them very gently, and not strike or hurt them.

D. The donkey was only eating some thistles that grew by the side of the path; it was not at all in the boy's way.

Mamma. I think he must have been a cruel, naughty boy. If I had seen him, I should have told him how wrong it was to strike the poor creature. There is a

story in the Bible, about a man who beat his ass so many times, that at last God made her speak, and ask why he did so.

D. Oh, Mamma, do tell me