Agnes scarcely knew whether to look vexed or amused. "I was a stupid little girl to fancy that they would move," said she; "mine is a very pretty watch, but it is only good to be looked at," and she laid it down on the table with an air of disappointment. "Ah, my child," said Lydia White, gently drawing her little daughter towards her; "is not the watch without springs like that of which we were yesterday speaking, good conduct without a good motive? The most precious part of a real watch is that part which is unseen; and in like manner, it is the hidden motive for any good act which alone can give it true value." "But ought we never to care how our conduct appears?" asked the child. "Yes, my Agnes," replied her mother, "for those who have been bought with a price, even the precious blood of God's dear Son, are called to glorify their heavenly Master both with their bodies and their souls. We are called so to live that the world may say, 'There must be power in religion, for none are so honest, so true, so kind as those who are servants of God.'" "I don't quite understand," said Agnes. "Look again, dear child, at my watch, it may help to make the subject clearer. You know that the watch is a good one, you know that the mainspring is right." Agnes nodded her head. "How is it that you know?" asked her mother. "The hands always point to the right place," replied Agnes; "they go just the same as the church clock." "But suppose that we pull off the hands," said the widow. "O mother, that would be a pity,—you never would do such a thing! If the hands were off, you might, wind up the watch, and the watch might go, but it would be of no use to others." "Nor would it, do honour to its maker, my child. Now turn front the watch to the subject which I am trying to explain by its means. If the motive of love to God be like the mainspring to a Christian, the cause of all his good actions, his outward conduct is like the hands whose steady movements show that the mainspring is within. If they are constantly right, we believe that the hidden wheels are right, we know that the watch has been wisely made, carefully regulated, daily wound up. So when the Christian quietly goes on his circle of duties, ever seeking, by the help of God's grace, to do the will of his Lord,—he shows to the world a living example of the power and truth of religion; he does good not for the look of the thing, but because the love of Christ constraineth him to act as conscience directs. "And then others, seeing the good example, may be led to follow it," observed Agnes, upon whose mind the meaning of her mother was now dawning.