HINTS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD. GIVING INTOXICATING DRINKS | gestures; all is open and above TO CHILDREN. Dr. Orphen, a distinguished physician, addressing 1200 persons in Dublin, said;-"It is my conviction, that those who belong to the temperance body will seldom have occasion for medical men. The diseases of your children will be diminished, and the public health immeasurably improved. In fact, every year adds to my conviction, that if the public would act with common sense, and relinquish those drinking habits which have long domineered over society, they would enjoy such a portion of health as would starve almost all the physicians." SICK ROOMS. Decision and Quietness.-Consult your patient's wants, but consult him as little as possible. Your decision need not be very obvious and positive; you will be most decisive if no one suspects that you are so at all. It is the triumph of supremacy to become unconsciously supreme. Nowhere is this decision more blessed than in a sick room. Where it exists in its genuineness, the sufferer is never contradicted, never coerced; all little victories are assumed. The decisive nurse is never peremptory, never loud. She is distinct, it is true-there is nothing more aggravating to a sick person than a whisper-but she is not loud. Though quiet, however, she never walks tip-toe; she never makes board. Her touch is steady and encouraging. She does not potter. She never looks at you sideways. You never catch her watching. She never slams the door, of course, but she never shuts it slowly, as if she were cracking a nut in the hinge. She never talks behind it. She never peeps. She pokes the fire skilfully with firm judicious penetration. She caresses one kind of patient with genuine sympathy; she talks to another as if he were well. She is never in a hurry. She is worth her weight in gold, and has a healthy prejudice against physic, which, however, she knows at the right time how to conceal. A COMMON SORE THROAT. Dip a handkerchief in water, and tie it round the throat, with plenty of flannel outside. Suck sal prunella balls or cloves. Gargle the throat with barm and water. A CHILD IN CONVULSIONS. Place it at once in a warm bath, not too hot, for five minutes, then wrap it up in warm blankets, and put a warm linseed poultice round the lower part of the body. AWAKING CHILDREN. Never wake them out of sleep. Nature teaches them how long to sleep, and waking them causes them to feel uncomfortable, and therefore cross. BOOKS RECEIVED. A Man is what a Woman makes him.-Waste not, want not (Shaw & Co.).-Scenes from John Hampton's Home.-Friendly Visitor (Partridge & Co.).-Old Jonathan (Collingridge).-Children's Treasury (Book Society).-Sunday School Times (Clarke & Co.).-Tract Magazine. Cottager and Artisan (Religious Tract Society.) THE wise, just, and necessary correction of evil is one of a parent's most solemn duties. We have a serious warning against the neglect of it in the history of Eli (1 Sam. ii.-iv.) The faults of his sons are expressly laid to his charge: "Because they made themselves vile, and he restrained them not ;" and observe the dreadful consequences which followed. It is a cruel tenderness to pass over sins which may prove the ruin of your children (Prov. xiii. 24; xxiii. 13); but, remember, punishment may do a great deal of harm, instead of good, if you do not observe the following cautions: 1. Do not be always correcting your children. Pass over those lesser faults which spring from the thoughtlessness of their age; and keep your punishments for sins, such as lying, swearing, dishonesty, obstinacy, and disobedience. If you punish a child for an accident, or for carelessness, such as breaking a pitcher, or tearing a frock -because it is a loss to yourself-as severely as you would for a lie, he will learn to dread the punishment more than the lie that may screen him from it. 2. Never correct a child in anger. If the parent is in a passion, it may make the child fear him, but he will not respect him; and he will only obey him outwardly, and from fear. VOL. VIII. No. 12. [DECEMBER, 1871. 3. Never use violent or terrifying punishments. Very hard blows have caused the death of children by injuries unknown at the time; and to lock them up in cellars or dark gloomy places has been known to bring on fits, and disorder their senses. 4. Be very cautious in the use of the rod, and never employ it but upon the most serious occasions. A child may be confined in a light place for a fixed time, or kept from going to play, or sent to bed an hour or two sooner than usual. In most cases mild punishments will answer best. For instance, when a child has gone out into the street against your orders, if you snatch him up, and give him a few angry words and hard blows, you will find that the pain is no sooner over than he will forget both the fault and the punishment. But if you have the patience to take him quietly on your knee, tell him seriously of his fault, and that, as disobedience is a thing you cannot pass over, you will put him to bed at five instead of eight, you will find that he will think of this all day, that he will remember it, and be more careful to obey your orders in future. It will have more effect than a thousand hasty blows and angry words. Here, again, think of the perfect example set before us in the Scriptures. It is said, our heavenly Father chasteneth us, "not for His pleasure, but for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness" (Heb. xii. 10.) When we are enabled in this spirit to chastise our children, instead of exciting their anger we shall strengthen their love, and the best effects will follow (Prov, xxix. 15, 17). MORNING. TILL, still with Thee, when purple morning breaketh, When the soul waketh, and life's shadows flee; Shall rise the glorious thought, I am with Thee! -Mrs. H. B. Stowe. DAYS AND YEARS.-O swiftly gliding time! how soon wilt thou be done! O winged days and years! how quickly will you all be run out! Then the judgment, and the sentence, and the recompense, and the unending eternity. O man! make haste to live while thou livest, lest thou die for ever. THE ADVANTAGES OF SUNDAY CLOSING. OME years ago, Thomas Clark, a worthy Christian man, went into a fashionable hair-dresser's shop in the West end of London. On entering into conversation with the owner of the shop, H. H, he found that he was in the habit of keeping it open on the Sabbath-day. He laboured to convince him of the sinfulness of so doing; quoting the commandment, "Remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy;" saying that there always seemed to him a peculiar emphasis in the word "Remember, "-that we were not to forget, but to remember the Sabbath-day, to keep it holy. The man said it was one of his busiest days; he had to wait on the nobility as much on that day as on any other, and that he should lose their custom if he closed his shop then; he had a wife and four children, and could not afford to do so. Thomas Clark spoke to him of the bad example he was setting his children, and asked him if he wished them to grow up regardless of the Sabbath. On taking leave, he took his hand, saying, solemnly, that in all probability he should not see him again in this world; for he feared that if he continued in his present course he would be suddenly cut off. The man started, and inquired his reason for saying so. To this he replied by quoting the text,He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" (Prov. xxix. 1). Some months afterwards, Thomas Clark had again occasion to go to London, and having a little time to spare, called on the hair-dresser, H. H; and, on entering, he was surprised to see the walls of the shop nearly covered with placards, stating that after such a day the shop will be closed on Sundays. Of course he was rejoiced to see that the man had been enabled to come to this decision, and endeavoured to encourage him to carry it out. The next time he called, the shopkeeper welcomed him warmly, saying he could not find words to express his gratitude to him; that his business had doubled since he closed his shop on the Sunday, and that now they enjoyed such happy Sundays. Some part of the family attended a place of worship twice a day, and he felt altogether a different man. One of the customers he was particularly afraid of losing by this change was a nobleman, to whose house he went regularly on the Sunday morning at eight o'clock; but he ventured to tell him what he proposed doing, giving his reasons. The nobleman took what he said kindly, and arranged for him to come late on Saturday evenings instead. His aim ever since has been to induce his brother tradesmen to do the same, and in many instances he has been successful. He always gives Thomas Clark a welcome, and on one occasion sent him a handsome present in token of his gratitude. May not the foregoing account be an encouragement, in this, as well as in other ways, to seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness; relying upon the promise, that all things needful shall be added (Matt. vi. 33)? TRUST IN THE LORD, AND DO GOOD; SO SHALT THOU DWELL IN THE LAND, AND VERILY THOU SHALT BE FED." HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS, HERE is nothing that smooths the rugged pathway more effectually than thorough self-dependence. The woman who in early life resolves so to familiarise herself with the duties of her household, that, in the event of a reverse of fortune, she knows and feels that she is able to do that, which under prosperous circumstances would be performed by others, is the possessor of a consciousness of self-power that will bear her bravely up, when others who are ignorant of these duties sink in almost hopeless despair. Were it possible to arrive at a correct estimate upon the subject, it would be proven that a very large proportion of the worriments, perplexities, and discords of wedded life, are traceable to want of familiarity on the part of wives with household duties. Unable themselves to direct, they are necessarily compelled to depend upon others, and mainly upon those who have least interest in doing things well, or seeing that they are done as they should be. A woman thus circumstanced is an object of pity. However honest her intentions, and however earnest her desire to please and gratify her husband, she finds in many cases that this is impossible; her best efforts are generally failures; and sinking beneath her own weakness, she gives up in despair. Every girl has it in her power to arrest this calamity,-for a calamity it must be regarded. All that is necessary is the determined resolve that, whatever her position in life, she will acquaint herself with household duties. Having thus resolved, let her set apart certain hours of each day for the acquisition of such knowledge, and prove that she is in earnest by her supervision of matters, or by her personal assistance in the kitchen, the sewing-room, the bed-chamber, in fact everywhere in the house where her presence or services can be profitably engaged. There is nothing dishonourable or degrading in this; on the contrary, it is ennobling and dignifying. One of the proudest ornaments of society, in our estimation, is a woman who "looketh well to the ways of her household" (Prov. xxxi. 27). WHAT IS YOUR LIFE?-The celebrated John Foster compares human life to a reservoir, from which we constantly draw, but into which no fresh streams can enter. How nearly exhausted it is we do not know. It is diminishing every day and every hour. With thee, reader, it may be nearly dry. Read Ps. xc. 12. |