LIVE IN LOVE. A PAGE FOR THE CHILDREN. LIVE in love. Try to make home a happy place by doing those things that are lovely. There was a little girl who was loved by every one who knew her. She was so mild and kind and gentle, that no one could be with her for a single day without becoming fond of her. When she died, her father preached her funeral sermon; and in that sermon he said, that one day he asked her why it was that everybody loved her. "I don't know," she replied, "unless it is because I love everybody." Ah! that was it. NE gentle word that I may speak, Or one kind loving deed, May, though a trifle poor and weak, And who can tell what good may spring From such a very little thing? Then let me try, each day and hour, To act upon this plan: What little good is in my power, To do it while I can. If to be useful thus I try, GLEANINGS. WHILE ABRAHAM, training up his family for God, shall find“ Him faithful that hath promised" (Gen. xviii. 19, with Heb. x. 23), the Elis and the Davids, good men but bad parents (1 Sam. iii. 13; 1 Kings i. 6), shall know "God's breach of promise" (Numb. xiv. 34).—Bridges. HOME TRAINING OF DR. GUTHRIE.-His mother was a sweet, wise, careful woman, revered and passionately loved by all her children. "It was at her knees,' as Guthrie says, "that he learned to pray, to reverence the Bible as the inspired Word of God, to hold the sanctity of the Sabbath, to prize civil and religious liberty, and to hate oppression." In after life it was her son's delight to have her spend her summers with him in his parish by the sea; and when he removed to Edinburgh, he promised, and kept his promise while she lived, to visit her every two months in her northern home. On the Lord's-day, as Dr. Guthrie wrote in "Sundays Abroad," "conversation about ordinary business was not allowed. No letters were taken from the post-office, nor any but religious books read. No walk was taken but in the garden, and to the church which we attended, regularly, both forenoon and afternoon. In the evening, my father, who had the Shorter Catechism at his fingers' ends, used to put us through our drill in its questions and its theology; and I think I see him still, in his kneebreeches, white woollen stockings, and white cravat, tall, erect, his dark crisp hair dashed with grey, walking up and down the floor of the dining-room, as was his wont, with nine children and three women servants ranged up by the walls, each in turn having to answer a question or repeat a portion of a Psalm. Thus," he adds, "the Sabbath passed away like a flood that fertilizes the land it overflows, leaving a blessing behind it." "BLESSED IS THE MAN TO WHOM THE LORD WILL NOT IMPUTE SIN."-Our sins cannot hinder us, nor withdraw us from prayer; for they are gone, they are no sins, they cannot be hurtful to us. Christ dying for us, as all the Scripture, both of the Old and New Testament, witnesseth, "He hath taken away our sorrows." Like as when I owe unto a man a hundred pounds: the day is expired, he will have his money; I have it not, and for lack of it I am laid in prison. In such distress comes a good friend, and saith, "Sir, be of good cheer, I will pay thy debts ;" and forthwith payeth the whole sum and setteth me at liberty. Such a Friend is our Saviour. He has paid our debts and set us at liberty. Therefore, though our sins condemn us, we have an Advocate with God the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." We have one Advocate, not many; neither saints, nor anybody else, but only Him and no other, neither by the way of mediation, nor by the way of redemption. He only is sufficient, for He only is "the door;" let Him have all the praise. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."-Latimer; died a martyr, A.D. 1555. HINTS FOR THE HOUSEHOLD. It is well remarked that "The best medicines in the world, more efficient in the cure of disease than all potencies of the apothecary's shop, are warmth, rest, cleanliness, and pure air. Some persons make it a virtue to defy disease, to 'keep up' as long as they can move or bend a finger, and they in some cases succeed in braving it through; but in others the powers of life are thereby so completely exhausted, that the system has lost all ability to recuperate, and slow and typhoid fevers set in and carry the patient to a premature grave. Whenever walking or work is an effort, a warm bed and a cool room are the very first indispensable steps to a sure and speedy recovery. Instinct leads all beasts and birds to quietude and rest the very moment disease or wounds assail their systems." And the wisdom that God has given to man should teach him the same lesson, and doubtless would, were it not that by constant stimulants and excitants, in various forms, he keeps himself blinded to his true condition, and rushes madly on; depending on borrowed strength, until capital and credit are alike exhausted, and physical bankruptcy lands its victim in the grave. FIRE BALLS. One bushel of small coal or saw-dust, or both mixed together, two bushels of sand, one and a half bushel of clay, made into balls or bricks, and allowed to set firmly, will supply an excellent fuel, and effect a great saving in coals. WIPE YOUR SHOES. It is surprising how much a little thought and the cultivation of good habits will effect in the comfort and cleanliness of a house. In the one little item of wiping the shoes on the mat, how few there are that do it, and fewer do it thoroughly. They will pass over it, walk beside it, but from want of habit, never use it; and yet, what a deal of dirt it saves in the house. A dirty day, what footmarks there are at every step, to the dismay and discomfort of the tidy housewife. How it ruffles the temper and discourages the heart to find, after a hard hour's labour, some careless one has disfigured the kitchen or the THE MOTHERS' TREASURY. THE CHILDREN OF THE GODLY. ROMISES everywhere occur in the Scriptures that God would bless the posterity of His people, and that the children of the pious should partake of His favour. See Exod. xx. 6: "Showing mercy unto thousands (i.e., thousands of generations) of them that love Me, and keep My commandments." Compare Deut. iv. 37; v. 29; vii. 9; Ps. lxxxix. 29, 36; Jer. xxxii. 39, 40. There is no promise of the Bible that is more full of consolation to the pious, or that has been more strikingly fulfilled than this. And though it is true that not all the children of holy parents become truly pious; though there are instances where they are signally wicked and abandoned, yet it is also true that rich spiritual blessings are imparted to the posterity of those who serve God and keep His commandments. The following facts are well known to all who have ever made any observation on this subject:-The great majority of those who become truly religious are the descendants of those who were themselves the friends of God. Those who now compose the Christian Churches are not those generally who have been taken from the ways of open vice and profligacy; from the ranks of infidelity; or from the immediate descendants of scoffers, drunkards, and blasphemers. Such men usually tread, for a few generations at least, in the footsteps of their fathers. The Church is composed mainly of the descendants of those who have been true Christians, and who trained their children to walk in the ways of pure religion. It is a fact that comparatively a large proportion of the descendants of the pious themselves for many generations become true Christians. I know it is often thought to be otherwise, and especially it is often said that the children of clergymen are less virtuous and religious than others. But it should be remembered that such cases are more prominent than others, and especially that the profane and the wicked have a malicious pleasure in making them the subject of remark. The son of a drunkard will be intemperate without attracting notice-for such a result is expected; the son of an infidel will be an infidel; the son of a scoffer will be a scoffer, without being the subject of special observation. But when the son of an eminent Christian treads the path of open profligacy, it at once excites remark, because such is not the usual course, and is not usually expected; and because a wicked world has pleasure in marking the case, and calumniating religion through such a prominent instance of imperfection and sin. But such is not the common result of religious training. A very large proportion of all the piety in the United States has been derived from the "Pilgrims" who landed on the rock of Plymouth; and God has blessed their descendants in New England and elsewhere with numerous revivals of religion. I am acquainted with the descendants of John Rogers, the first martyr in Queen Mary's reign, of the tenth and eleventh generations. With a single exception, the oldest son in the family has been a clergyman-some of them eminently distinguished for learning and piety; and there are few families now in the land, a greater proportion of whom are pious, than of that. This, indeed, is the great law by which religion and virtue are perpetuated in the world that God is faithful to His covenant, and that He blesses the efforts of His friends to train up generations for His service (Ps. lxxviii. 4-6). All pious parents should repose on this promise of a faithful God. They may and should believe that it is His design to perpetuate religion in the families of those who truly serve and obey Him. They should be faithful in imparting religious truth; faithful in prayer, and in a meek, holy, pure, and benevolent example; they should so live that their children may safely tread in their footsteps; they should look to God for His blessing on their efforts, and their efforts will not be in vain. They shall see their children walk in the ways of virtue; and when they die, they may leave the world with unwavering confidence that God will not suffer His faithfulness to fail; that He will not break His covenant, nor alter the thing that is gone out of His lips. A MOTHER'S WORDS. YOUTH of some eighteen or nineteen years of age sat at an open window,-a look of painful perplexity on his face, caused apparently by a letter he held in his hand. After sitting thus for some minutes, he muttered to himself, "Yes; I must go. If I don't, Brown and Smith will be laughing at me, and calling me righteous overmuch; and, after all, there's no great harm in it, for I'll go to church in the morning, and it's only to be a sail down the river, and spend the day in the country." Still, he pressed his hand on his forehead for an instant; then, rising hastily, he said, "There is no use bothering about it; I must go." |