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God has thus given her all the power, that she may govern and guide them as she pleases. We have endeavoured to show, by the preceding illustrations, that the fundamental principle of government is, When you do give a command, invariably enforce its obedience. And God has given every mother the power. He has placed in your hands a helpless babe, entirely dependent upon you, so that, if it disobeys you, all you have to do is to cut off its sources of enjoyment, or inflict bodily pain so steadily and so invariably, that disobedience and suffering shall be indissolubly connected in the mind of the child. What more power can a parent ask for than God has already given? And if we fail to use this power for the purposes for which it was bestowed, the sin is ours, and upon us and upon our children the consequences must rest.—Christian Treasury.

LEARNING TO WALK.

LITTLE feet, so easy now to guide,

What rugged paths,-what dangers all unknown
Lie stretched before you in that desert wide

That ye must tread alone!

Watched over by a mother's love and cares,
Guarded from every peril and distress,
What should ye reck of toil and subtle snares
In the world's wilderness ?

Ah! while we guide these feeble steps aright,
And open wide our arms to take him in,

We pray Thee, Father, Lord of Life and Light,
To keep our child from sin.

Lead him beside still waters, gracious Lord,

And through green pastures where Thy flocks may feed ;

Be near him in his weakness, and afford

Thine aid in time of need.

Shield him at noontide, when the fervid glow
Shines all too fiercely on the mountain crest;
Show him the vales where Thy sweet lilies grow,
And bid him pause and rest.

Guard him at nightfall from those evil things
That haunt the pilgrim in his desert sleep;
And let Thine angels with their silver wings
A watch around him keep.

And so his feet shall reach the goal at last,

And stand secure within the jasper wall,
Welcomed by seraph song and trumpet blast
And endless festival.

So shall he tread with joy the golden street,

Crowned as with light, and robed in spotless grace;
So shall his strain of praise be clear and sweet,

In Thine own dwelling-place.

SARAH DOUDNEY.

THE GOSPEL UPSIDE DOWN.

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ID

you ever hear of the GOSPEL TURNED UPSIDE DOWN? I'll tell you what I mean. Gospel is glad tidings; the gospel of the grace of God is glad tidings of the free gift, or grace, of the loving God. In fact, the best meaning is found in Scripture, where we read, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John iii. 16). This is indeed. glad tidings of grace. A Saviour freely given; a salvation freely wrought; a finished work; a complete righteousness, that he that believeth may be freely saved. Without work-without moneywithout price. Yet, in the minds of many men, this gospel is turned upside down!

Suppose I met a beggar in the street-a poor helpless one, with no money-in need of a penny to buy bread. What would you think if I said to that one "Give me a halfpenny, and then I'll supply your wants?" Would that be charity? No. It would be very like charity turned upside down. We are in God's sight just like the poor beggar. We have no goodness, no merit, nothing at all. We want everything. This is a hard truth to receive, for most men think they have some good in them, but God's word speaks very plainly, and says, "All have sinned." "There is none righteous, no, not one." If these words mean anything, they mean that you are a sinner, and nothing but a sinner, in the sight of God. Now what does God say to poor helpless sinners? Many think that He says, "Amend your lives; do good works; try your best to please me, and then I'll be merciful and save you." Many call this the gospel; but it is just like the charity of the man who would ask the beggar for a halfpenny. It is the gospel turned upside down; in reality, no gospel at all, no glad tidings of grace, but the very opposite.

How different is God's loving message! Search His word, and you will there see that although He in His holiness hates sin, He loved and pitied us when we were lost sinners, and sent His Son Jesus Christ to seek and to save that which was lost. He came and laid down His life for us-died the just for the unjust-bore our sins in His own body on the tree-finished the work of our salvation-was buried and rose again-and ascended to the right hand of God in heaven, where He ever lives "Mighty to save." This is what really meets our case as helpless sinners; this is grace; this is glad tidings indeed; and if you as a lost sinner believe this message, and through faith receive Jesus as your Saviour, you shall not perish, but have everlasting life (John iv. 10, 14; vii. 37). But are good works of no account before God? Yes; but they are the result, or the working out, of our own salvation after we

have got it through faith in Jesus. The saved man will be a holy man. He is "created unto good works," but these are not the price with which we are to purchase salvation. God is a Sovereign, not a trader. He gives, but doesn't sell. He gave freely His own Son to die for sinners, and gives freely eternal life through Him, to all who believe (Isa. lv. 1; Rev. xxii. 17).

ONE NEGLECTED CHILD.

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HE power for good or evil that resides in a little child is beyond all human calculation. A child rightly trained may be a world-wide blessing, with an influence reaching onward to eternal years. But a neglected or misdirected child may live to blight and blast mankind, and leave influences of evil which shall roll on in increasing volume till they plunge into the gulf of eternal perdition.

A remarkable instance was related by Dr. Harris, of New York, at a recent meeting of the Charities Aid Association. In a small village in a county on the Upper Hudson, some seventy years ago, a young girl named "Margaret" was sent adrift on the casual charity of the inhabitants. She became the mother of a long race of criminals and paupers, and her progeny has cursed the county ever since. The county records show two hundred of her descendants who have been criminals. In one single generation of her unhappy line there were twenty children; of these, three died in infancy, and seventeen survived to maturity. Of the seventeen, nine served in the State prison for high crimes an aggregate term of fifty years, while the others were frequent inmates of jails and penitentiaries and almshouses. Of the nine hundred descendants, through six generations, from this unhappy girl who was left on the village streets and abandoned in her childhood, a great number have been idiots, imbeciles, drunkards, paupers, and prostitutes; but two hundred of the more vigorous are on record as criminals. This neglected little child has thus cost the county authorities, in the effects she has transmitted, hundreds of thousands of dollars in the expense and care of criminals and paupers, besides the untold damage she has inflicted on property and public morals.

Who can tell how many of those people who saw this helpless child sent adrift on the world have been wronged, robbed, contaminated, or ruined by her descendants? Those respectable people who neglect the poor and helpless, and make no effort to reclaim the vicious and train the wayward, but wrap themselves up in comfort, with the Cain-like plea, "Am I my brother's

keeper?" will do well to consider what a harvest of murderers, thieves, incendiaries, and harlots they are allowing to grow up around them to plague themselves and ruin their offspring. None of us liveth to himself. The interests and destinies of humanity are interlinked. We must save the lost, or as they go down to wretchedness and ruin they may drag after them those that are nearest and dearest to our hearts.

There, go now, and try and save one neglected child. Seal up a fountain of grief, and woe, and cursing, and open a fountain of joy, and peace, and blessing, and "know that he that converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and HIDE A MULTITUDE OF SINS."

THE SAILOR AND THE PSALM.

CHAPLAIN to seamen at an American port was called, in the course of his duty, to visit a sailor who appeared to be near death. He spoke kindly to the man upon the state of his soul, and directed him to cast himself on Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners. With an oath, the sick man bade him begone. The chaplain then told him that he must be faithful to him, for if he died impenitent he would be lost for ever. The man was now sullen and silent, and pretended to fall asleep. The visit was repeated more than once, with similar ill success. At length the chaplain, suspecting that the sailor was a native of North Britain, repeated a verse of the old version of the Psalms still in use in Scotland:

"Such pity as a father hath

Unto his children dear,

Like pity shows the Lord to such
As worship Him in fear."

Tears started into the sailor's eyes as he listened to these words. The chaplain asked him if he had not had a pious mother. The man broke into tears of grief. Yes, his mother had, in years gone by, taught him these words, and had also knelt by his side in prayer to God. Since then he had been a wanderer by sea and land; but the memory of her faith and love moved his heart. The appeals now made to him were blessed by the Spirit of God in bringing this prodigal to Christ with sincere faith, and with true penitence for his sins. His life was spared, and he lived to prove the reality of his conversion.

Mothers, fathers, what recollections will your children have of your example and instructions, when you have been long laid in the grave?

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"His life is neither tossed in boisterous seas

Of troublous worlds, nor lost in slothful ease:

Pleased and full blessed he lives, when he his God can please."

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