remind you of the thankful contentedness with which you ought to wait
on the Lord."

"Yes, mamma," William said, "but there is no harm, you know, in
opening the mouth _wide_."

"No, William, certainly no _harm_, for it is a _duty_.
'Open thy mouth wide,' is an injunction of God, but it is immediately
subjoined and strictly said, 'and I will fill it.' Therefore bear in
mind the double instruction. Neither take the filling on yourself,
nor be ready to swallow every crude and unwholesome morsel which the
ignorant or the wicked would present to you. Do you remember a
certain day last week when something happened?"

William looked anxious to recollect what his mamma alluded to, and
in less than a minute he shook his head, and said, "Ah, mamma, that
is too bad, you mean when Mrs. Arnot called, and you were out."

"Yes I do, William; you all opened your mouths wide, and _she_
filled them. Her sweet things did not prove _convenient_ food.
You see, therefore, we should learn to discriminate between a
heavenly Father's provision, and that of a stranger, whose busy
interference may cost you your life. I was not many minutes away from
my little nest, when a stranger came, and, by mistaken kindness made
you all ill.

"Frances, have you never read that scripture: 'Put a knife to thy
throat, if thou be a man given to appetite.'"

Frances cried, and, sobbing, said, "I do not know what it means?"