HINTS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD. APPLE DUMPLINGS. Apples intended for dumplings should not have the core taken out of them, as the pips impart a delicate flavour to the dumpling. Apple and suet dumplings are lighter when boiled in a net than in a cloth. Scum the pot well. A PIE WITHOUT MEAT. Three pounds of potatoes, two good-sized turnips, half a pound of onions cut in slices, two ounces of tapioca, as much dripping or butter, baked under a crust, with pepper and salt, make a very savoury and satisfying dish. If the potatoes and onions are previously boiled it will be an improvement. ANOTHER. Scald and blanch some broadbeans; cut young carrots, turnips, parsnips, mushrooms, peas, onions, lettuces, parsley, celery, or any : of them make the whole into a nice stew, with dripping or butter and tapioca, as above. Bake a crust over a dish, a little lining round the edge, and a cup turned up to keep it from sinking. When baked open the lid and pour in the stew. HOW TO TREAT BABY. Never let your baby wear anything that presses it. Make your clothes with strings, and then your baby may kick and sprawl about just as much as it likes, without the fear of a pin-point running into its delicate little body, and doing it real mischief. If you take good advice, too, you will cover up your children's chest and arms. In such a changeable climate as ours, it is very necessary to prevent a child getting any sudden check or chill. What is wanted is warm, not heavy clothing; and above all, clothing so made that it shall not press on any part of the body whatever. When people allow pressure on the chest or the bowels of a child, they do not know the mischief that they are doing to the delicate parts within. food cannot digest-the blood cannot circulate the lungs cannot open and shut to let the air pass through, and the child becomes fractious, feverish, ill. The Then again, be careful not to keep your child's head too warm. It is bad for it. Do not lay it down on a very soft pillow; it will make the blood come to the circulation as equal as you can head too fast. Try and make the over the whole body, and mind that your baby's feet have soft, warm socks, whenever the weather is damp and cold. FOR NURSERY DINNERS. Stir new milk into mashed potatoes till the mixture is as thin as double cream. Boil this with a little butter, pepper, and salt, for ten minutes. BOOKS RECEIVED. The Food Journal (Johnston & Sons). The Christian (Morgan & Chase). The Mother's Text Book (Book Society). Family Friend (Partridge & Co.). Sunday at Home (Religious Tract Society). The Parables Illustrated; A Plea for Children's Services (Morgan & Chase). Family Treasury (Nelson & Sons). FAITH takes hold of the strength and power of God, and looks to Him alone. You were looking to your little feeble band of three, although you were within the number Christ has promised to bless. (Matt. xviii. 20). In a country place in America, a few Christian females engaged to meet to pray for a blessing on their families; but after a while, it declined, and continued to do so, until only two came. "Shall we give up?" was the question. They thought of God's faithfulness to His promise-of His power and goodness, and resolved to go on. They met, these two only, again and again. They pleaded the promise, and encouraged each other by their prayers. At last the answer came. God tried their faith; Jesus interceded, and it had not failed. Some who had left them returned, others followed; the place of prayer was soon filled. The Lord poured out His Spirit on them; and they prayed in earnest until the blessing was given. The Church felt the holy influence; their children at home began to inquire what they must do to be saved; the mothers directed them to Jesus, and prayed on. God in very deed bowed the heavens, and came down in their midst to bless them. Many of their unconverted children and husbands were led to submit to Christ; and the whole Church shared in this remarkable revival. VOL. VII. No. 6. [JUNE, 1870. Who would not love Him, whose ear bends down to listen to our requests, saying to us-What is thy petition, and what is thy request? Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. Oh! let us draw largely upon this treasure-house of blessing. The oftener we come, the more welcome. Why does the Lord try us, but that we may try Him, and prove that He is able and willing to do all that He has promised? We often ask with so much unbelief in our hearts, the wonder is that He condescends to hear or answer us at all.-Mrs. Winslow. "BE CAREFUL FOR NOTHING." B Philippians iv. 6. E careful for nothing, whatever betide Fear not, timid child, but keep close to My side; Be careful for nothing;-no want shall be thine, Thou'lt find from My fulness thy need all supplied. Be careful for nothing; art burdened and sad ? Be careful for nothing: I know all thy need, Be careful for nothing; I hold in My hand Be careful for nothing; when storms are all o'er, Be careful for nothing; not even for Death, pray, Be careful for nothing; but watch, praise, and N Greenland, when a stranger knocks at the door, he asks, "Is God in this house?" And if they answer, "Yes," he enters. Reader, this little messenger knocks at your door, with the Greenland salutation,-Is GoD IN THIS HOUSE? Were you, like Abraham, entertaining an angel unawares, what would be the report he would take back to heaven? Would he find you commanding your children and your household, and teaching them the way of the Lord? Would he find an altar in your dwelling? Do you worship God with your children? If not, then God is not in your house. A prayerless family is a godless family. It is worse. It is a family on which Jehovah frowns (Jer. x. 25). Two Reasons for Family Worship.-1. The godly householders mentioned in Scripture practised it. Would you desire to be like Abraham, the friend of God? Wherever he pitched his tent, he builded an altar, and called on the name of the Lord (Gen. xii. 7, 8; xiii. 4, 8); and Jehovah declared concerning him, "I know Abraham that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord" (Gen. xviii. 19). Would you resemble David, the man after God's own heart? At the close of a busy day we find him going home to bless his household (1 Chron. xvi. 43). Do you envy Cornelius whose prayers were heard, and who was so anxious for the salvation of his family, that he got together his kinsmen and near friends, that they might be ready to hear the apostle when he arrived, and share with himself the benefit (Acts x. 2, 24, 31, 33)? I scarcely know the situation in life in which a willing family might not contrive to pray together. I have known of family worship amongst the reapers in a barn. It used to be common in the fishing boats upon the friths and lakes of Scotland. I have heard of its being observed in the depth of a coal-pit. If you live in a scoffing, ungodly neighbourhood, so much the better. Abraham built his altar while heathen Canaanites looked on. He lifted up a testimony for God, and God honoured him, so that Abimelech, his neighbour, was constrained to say, "God is with thee in all that thou doest" (Gen. xxi. 22). 2. Wherever religion revives, family worship abounds. When the Spirit is poured out on the house of David, "the land shall mourn, every family apart" (Zech. x. 12). I can remember no instance of a great revival of which this was not an attendant sign. Listen to the account which Mr. Baxter gives of Kidderminster during his ministry. "When I came thither first, there was about one family in a street that worshipped God and called on His name, and when I came away, there were some streets where there was not above one family in the side of a street who did not so; and that did not, by professing serious godliness, give us some hopes of their sincerity." When the Spirit is poured upon us, our cities will all present a similar aspect. Two Advantages of Family Worship.-1. It would make your home much happier. It has been said with much truth, "Family prayer is the oil which removes friction, and causes all the complicated wheels of the family to move smoothly and noiselessly." It is one way, and the very best, for bringing all the members of a family together, and for promoting that harmony of feeling so essential to domestic enjoyment. Some families are held together by hardly any bond, except that they lodge under the same roof, and assemble round the same board. They are selfish and sullen; cross words, peevish answers, and angry recriminations, make up all their intercourse. The customary meal is despatched in a gloomy silence, or embittered by fretful words. I have known families so little at home with one another that it was quite a relief when any casual visitor dropped in to break the irksomeness of their own society. I have seen brothers and sisters so illassorted in the families in which God had planted them together, |