Imatges de pàgina
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WORK BEFORE PLAY.
(CHILDREN'S PAGE.)

OTHER has sent me to

the well,

To fetch a jug of water, And I am very glad to be

A useful little daughter; And that is why I cannot play With you and Mary Ann to-day. "Some afternoon I'll come with you, And make you wreaths and posies

I know a place where blue-bells grow,
And daisies and primroses;
But not to-day, for I must go
And help my mother, dears, you
know.

"She says that I am nearly eight, So I can fill the kettle,

And sweep the room, and clean the grate,

And even scrub a little;
Oh! I'm so very glad to be
A useful little girl, you see.
"So, Johnny, do not ask to-day—

Perhaps I'll come to-morrow,
But you'd not wish me now to stay,
And give my mother sorrow:
When she can spare me, she will
say,

"Now, Susan, you may go and play.'

A NEW YEAR'S TEXT.

It is time to seek the Lord.

Hos. x. 12.

HINTS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD.

HOW TO LIVE LONG.

A venerable minister, who had preached some sixty-seven years in the same place, being asked what was the secret of long life? replied, "Rise early, live temperate, work hard, and keep cheerful." Another who lived to the person great age of a hundred years, said, in reply to the inquiry, "How he lived so long?" "I have always been kind and obliging; never quarrelled with any one; have eaten and drunk only to satisfy hunger and thirst, and have never been idle."

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had to be sold, and new articles bought to correspond with the Soon parlour. we found the house was not good enough for the furniture; we removed into a larger house; and now here I am."

AN EASTERLY WIND.

An infant should never be exposed to an easterly wind, more productive, I believe, of the numerous cases of inflammation of the lungs than any other cause. "Never carry abroad a young infant in an easterly wind, that's a golden maxim.” Its adoption would save the lives of thousands. -Dr. Bull.

HOW TO ENLARGE VEGETABLES.

A vast increase of food may be obtained by wisely carrying out for a time the principles of increase. Take, for instance, a pea. Plant it in very rich ground, and allow it to bear, the first year, say a half-dozen pods only. Save the largest single pea of these; sow it the next year, and retain of the produce three pods only. Sow the largest of them the following year, and retain one pod. Again select the largest, and the next year the sort will have trebled its size and weight. Ever afterwards sow the largest seed, and by these means you will get peas of a size rarely seen. Öther vegetables may be treated in the same way.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

The Cottager, vol. 1870.-Readings for Winter Gatherings (Religious Tract Society).-Home Words (Nisbet & Co.).-Friendly Words to Young Mothers.-Sunshine (Macintosh).-The Life of Christ.-Illustrated Children's Treasury (Book Society).-Every One's Almanac (Partridge & Co.).

*THE MOTHERS' TREASURY VOLUME FOR 1870, IS NOW READY, AND MAY BE ORDERED OF ANY BOOKSELLER.

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"My mother was left a widow with eleven children. My youngest sister, with whom she slept, would often wake up at midnight, and find that mother had left her side, and on her knees was pouring out her soul to God in prayer for their conversion. Before she died she had the happiness of seeing the last of the eleven received into the Church of Christ."

"My mother had fifteen. She prayed and confidently looked for their conversion. Four of her sons became preachers of the gospel. Before her death every one of the fifteen had openly made profession of faith in Christ."

These facts were mentioned to the writer after a sermon treating of parental influence, in which he had told the following story of the mother of the Beechers:

"She prayed during life and in death that her children might be trained up for God. One of her journals contains this simple record,This morning I rose very early to pray for my children; and especially that my sons may be ministers and missionaries of Jesus Christ. For all her children her prayers have been answered. Her five sons became ministers or missionaries. One of them she has welcomed to heaven. Another is now the most powerful and celebrated preacher in America. Her daughter, Mrs. Beecher [FEBRUARY, 1871.

VOL. VIII. No. 2.

Stowe, is, by her writings, not less widely or favourably known. And her sister, albeit less distinguished, is by repute a woman of rare gifts, and a no less decided Christian."

Such facts-and they are only specimens of many which might be adduced-speak volumes as to the power of parental influence, and the effect of the Divine blessing granted in answer to parental prayers, and make us peculiarly anxious that those whom we now address should realize their responsibility in this matter, and be made to feel how much, under God, the salvation of their children is dependent on themselves.

Unless we altogether mistake the teaching of Scripture, it is not left doubtful whether, when parents have done their best to train their children rightly, God will bless them or not. Grace indeed is not hereditary, nor does it run in the blood; but if there be anything in which Christians can confidently ask the Divine blessing, it is surely on the religious training of their children. It accords with all the holiest instincts of our nature, instincts of God's own implanting, that we should eagerly seek their salvation. It accords with the promises of the Divine word, that, through our labours and in answer to our prayers, we should confidently expect it. It accords with the spiritual view of the family relation and parental influence, that the children should be as the parents have been, not precisely, but in all the essential features of their character. The promise made to Abraham-"I will establish my covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee"-cannot be regarded as designed for Abraham alone. Although the actual promise was given only to him, its principle is surely applicable to all the faithful. Addressed to him in person, it shadows forth the manner of God's dealings with His people; for the Eternal changes not with time and circumstances, and is no respecter of persons. Moreover, there is in the words already quoted the principle distinctly affirmed—“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Words like these should not be treated as idle words, or as not concerning us. They have a message for us as for others, and that message warrants us confidently to expect the salvation of our children, provided we "train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." We may expect-O delightful spectacle to see the members of our families, under the Divine blessing, growing up a godly seed, taking the place of their parents in the Church below, finally gathered with their fathers in the Church above. We may expect this, for God is faithful. We may expect this, for He Himself is a Father, and has implanted in us those paternal yearnings which make us solicitous about the welfare of our offspring. We may expect it, for, under Himself, God has placed the destiny of our children very much in our own hands; and if we but do our duty by them, in humble dependence on the

Divine blessing, it will be our happiness to know that, whatever worldly good they may miss, their earthly life shall be consecrated to God's service, and that when the vicissitudes of life are past→→

"When, soon or late, they reach that coast,

O'er life's rough ocean driven,

‚—no wanderer lost,—

They all shall meet,

A family in heaven."

[From an Address to Parents, by Dr. Landels: S. S. Union.]

MY MOTHER LOOKED SAD.

PATE one autumn I returned from the forest with a beautiful brown rabbit imprisoned in my box-trap. I conveyed it home with an exulting heart, in the buoyancy of unreflecting boyhood, expecting congratulation and the expression of congenial joy from my loving and beloved mother, in announcing the welcome tidings of my success. Rare pleasure would she share with me upon exhibiting my innocent captive. I loved my mother's smile; but as I hastened to relate my achievement, how great was my disappointment! My mother looked sad. My mother looked sad. "My son, I wish you had a taste for higher and better pursuits," was her only reply. Volumes were contained in these few words. They indeed damped my spirits, and sent pain to my heart; but they were words of wisdom and love. They awakened the sober, salutary thought, that time was not given me for selfish gratification or unprofitable amusement, but for mental and moral culture, and for the great ends worthy of a rational, immortal being. They struck deep into my memory and my conscience, and often they revived, in a sober hour, in future years, to check wayward inclinations, and to reprove and restrain me when solicited by temptation to devote time to ignoble objects. What thanks shall I render to God for such a mother! Many a child would have been cheered with smiles and gratulatory words, fanning the growing passion for the trap and the gun. And what might have been the moral influence of such treatment from my own fond mother in that momentous period of life? I tremble at what might have been the result. Self-indulgence I imagined to be the source of happiness; and in this delusive, ruinous sentiment I might have been confirmed, to my utter undoing.

That scene is fresh before me; my mother at her foot-spinningwheel the trap introduced, despite the sobering words just spoken -the prisoner released in my inconsiderateness to play in the room, as if this must gratify her whom I so much loved, no less than myself. Poor victim! Few were his terrified leaps, ere he rushed into the open, blazing fire upon the hearth, whence he was taken with the tongs by my distressed mother, and despatched in haste to end his pains. Then, too, I was sad; for I had brought to a

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