If a child snatches from another what is not his, he is selfish, and very wicked. If a child tries in any way to get what belongs to another, he is selfish, and is as bad as a thief or a robber. Selfishness is caring only for one’s self. It is a very bad thing, and every child should avoid it. A selfish person is never good, or happy, or beloved.
How miserable should we all be, if every person was to care only for himself! Suppose children and grown-up people, were all to be as selfish as cats and dogs. What constant fighting there would be among them!
How dreadful would it be to see brothers and sisters snarling at each other, and pulling each other’s hair, and quarrelling about their food and their playthings! We ought to be thankful that God has given us a higher nature than that of beasts, and enabled us to see and feel the duty of being kind and affectionate to one another.
And as we can see and feel this duty, we ought to be very careful always to observe it.
A Thought.—There are one thousand million people in the world. Each individual has a heart, and that heart beats about seventy times a minute. By means of this beating of the heart, the blood is sent over the body, and life is sustained. How great must that Being be, who can keep one thousand millions of hearts beating seventy times every minute—thus sending the blood through the veins and arteries of one thousand millions of people!
WINTER.
MUSIC COMPOSED FOR MERRY’S MUSEUM, BY G. J. WEBB.
’Tis winter; ’tis winter; the morning is gray: