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HINTS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD.

TRUST.

Avoid TRUST as much as possible. It is everybody's loss, including your own. Debt is a load. Let hard winters bring careful summers.

REMEDY FOR MOTHS.

A small piece of paper or linen moistened with spirits of turpentine, and put into a drawer for a single day, two or three times a year, is an effectual preservative against moths.

PURE WATER.

We wonder that travellers do not carry with them a little bottle of permanganate of potass-a few drops of which would speedily purify any water. A friend of ours, who has just returned from India, tells us that he has derived the greatest benefit from its employment. In cases where the water was turbid, and tasting and smelling of decaying organic matter, the addition of a few drops of the solution of the permanganate made it, in a few minutes, as clear and as sweet as spring water.

SCOURING BOARDS.

A good scouring mixture for boards may be made by lime, one part; sand, three parts; soft soap, two parts. Lay a little on the boards with the scrubbing-brush, and rub thoroughly. Rinse with clean water, and rub dry. This will keep the boards of a good colour, and will also keep away vermin.

TO PRESERVE CARPETS.

Carpets are frequently more worn by the influence of the sun and dust than by any fair wear from the feet; many persons are not aware that dirt decays all substances, more particularly woollen.

SUNLIGHT A NECESSITY.

Sun-baths cost nothing, and are the most refreshing, life-giving baths that one can take, whether sick or well. Every housekeeper knows the necessity of giving her woollens the benefit of the sun from time to time, especially after a long absence of the sun. Many will think of the injury their clothes are liable to from dampness, who will never reflect that an occasional exposure of their own bodies to the sunlight is necessary to their own health. The sun-baths cost nothing, and that is a misfortune; for people are still deluded with the idea that those things only can be good or useful which cost money. it not be forgotten that three of God's most beneficent gifts to man, three things the most necessary to good health-sunlight, fresh air, and water-are free to all; you can have them in abundance without money and without price, if you will. If you would enjoy good health, then, see to it that you are supplied with pure air to breathe all the time; that you bathe for an hour or so in the sunlight; and that you quench your thirst with no other fluid than water.-Journal of Health.

GREASE FROM BOOKS.

Let

To remove spots of grease from printed books, the spot should be moistened with a camel-hair pencil dipped in spirits of turpentine; when it is dry, moisten it with a little spirits of wine, which will effectually remove any stain the turpentine may have left.

WHITEWASH.

To make whitewash that will not rub off, add to it a little sugar or molasses.

THE

MOTHERS' TREASURY.

YOU AND YOUR HOUSE.

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"We

E wish to commend to our readers that resolve which Joshua avowed in the presence of assembled Israel, shortly before he was taken from them, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Josh. xxiv. 15). If, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, we can induce you to form that resolve, and to act upon it, no words can describe the blessing it will be to you and your family. What a joy it would be if, looking round on your family circle, you could say, are all one; Jesus is our common hope; our songs of praise go up together as one cloud of sweet incense; and our prayers are the common supplications of all our hearts"! If that were true, would not your home be a little paradise? Sending forth your children to fight for themselves the battle of life, you would be cheered with the happy confidence that they would be kept by a stronger and wiser hand than yours. What a preparation it would be for the sorrows which visit all dwellings, and for the separations which sooner or later must sunder all households! And what a joy, as you looked up to heaven, to be able to say, "I have now a good hope, that not only I shall be admitted there myself, but that all my family will be gathered with me."

"Yes!" you exclaim, "it would be delightful indeed if we were all God's true servants. But is it not almost too much to hope for?" No, we reply; it is not. Whole families have been converted. The writer has in his view two families, the one numbering nine, and the other six sons and daughters, from each of which one has been taken to heaven; whilst all the rest, some of them with large households of their own, are on their way to the kingdom. Be not unbelieving. Hope in God. What He has done for others He may do for you and yours. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. At least resolve on this, that you will seek earnestly and constantly the conversion of all your house. It is in your power to do far more for your children's salvation than any one else. On you pre-eminently it devolves to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

You must teach them. You send them perhaps to the Sundayschool. Probably, too, the week-day school which they attend may have been selected with a view to their religious culture;

but all this does not exonerate you. They should hear from your lips the precious truths of salvation. Opportunities are constantly arising when, if there be no opening for direct instruction, great principles may be indirectly inculcated; but there ought to be special seasons set apart in every household for religious teaching. Do not say you have no gift for such teaching. The power grows with the effort to teach. You will be surprised to find what you can do, if you try. There is a charm in a parent's loving earnestness, too, which will compensate for many deficiencies.

Then, again, what valuable helps exist in the shape of books for children-books written in a style well calculated to attract and win! If you were to do no more than read to them such books, with the word of God, you would do them no slight service. Make them familiar with the beautiful narratives both of the Old Testament and the New. Tell them especially "that sweet story of old, when Jesus was here among men;" tell them of His love and power, of His condescension to the little ones, and of the welcome which He is ever ready to give them. Tell them what the Bible says of their sinful nature and of their guilt; how they need a new heart and forgiveness; and how both may be obtained through Jesus. You may thus fortify them against the assaults of infidelity; you may lay the foundation of a superstructure of firm and holy principle; and you may train them for useful service for God. Nay more, even whilst they are yet children, you may have the joy of seeing them walking with you in the way to heaven. Timothy, taught by his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice, knew from a child the Holy Scriptures. Doddridge traced his love of the Bible to the lessons which his mother gave him from the Dutch tiles on the chimney-piece, painted over with Scripture subjects; and numbers are now remembering, with gratitude which will never die, the lessons they learned at their mother's knee. Let there be family worship. Pray for your children; take them also privately with you one by one on special occasions, and whilst you impress on them such counsels as they may need, pray with them, but pray with them as a family. You are the pastor of your family, and this is a very important part of your pastoral duty. Let no morning or evening pass without family worship. Try to make your prayers simple, varied, appropriate. Let them be, as far as possible, such as your children can adopt. It does not need that they be models of beautiful composition, or that they be scrupulously correct in every expression; and least of all does it need that they be long. If you feel that you cannot command your thoughts or find language to clothe them, use a form of family prayer. Depend upon it, the influence of your neglect in the minds of your children is very evil; and be as sure that the influence for good of the right performance of this duty will be most salutary. But do not, we implore you, neglect it longer.

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You are invested with parental authority, that you may exercise over your household a wise, firm discipline. God said, with great approval of Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." On the contrary, it is brought as a solemn charge against Eli, that "his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. Evil tempers must be checked, and a control must be exercised over speech, habits, companionships, reading-in short over the whole conduct. It is a disastrous day for a parent when he suffers his authority to be set at nought, and a still more disastrous day for the child. If there were a plant in your garden which you were very anxious to see brought to perfection, you would not only supply it with proper nutriment, and water it, but, if it were needful, you would fence it round and prune it, till at length it needed the greater part of that care no longer. Even yet more anxiously should those precious plants which God has given you to train up in your households be pruned by a careful discipline, and kept, as far as you can keep them, from all evil.

Let everything else be sustained, as far as possible, by a uniform consistency. All inconsistency is marked. Children are keen observers. The best teachings and the most careful discipline may be rendered unavailing by conduct not in keeping with the profession. On the other hand, many a child has been more powerfully affected for good by the right example of his parents than by all his teaching.

Be not discouraged, you have many exceeding great and precious promises. Dwell especially on that in Isaiah xliv. 3-6: "I will pour My Spirit on thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring; and they shall spring up as among the grass, and as willows by the water-courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's, and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel." You may have the joy of seeing your children early renewed by that mighty Spirit. If not, still pray and still hope. In coming years, you may hear that they have sought their father's God. And even though this should not be your joy on earth, let it be alike your prayer and your hope that you may meet them in heaven.

THE HOPE OF THE CHURCH.-Let every pastor who desponds over the effect of his ministry on the world-hardened minds turn to the lambs of the flock. Pentecost will begin for him there. Let our Sunday-school teachers seek immediately and explicitly, not the entertainment or the instruction of their charge, but their conversion; and the question of the spiritual state of the Church, the sanctity of home life, the peace and order of society, and the supply of Christian ministers and Christian missionaries, are all answered in words of hope and promise.-A. L. Stone, D.D.

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"At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder."-Prov xxiii. 32.

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