MARRIAGE AND THE SABBATH.-Vestiges of Eden are rare; yet two institutions have survived the wreck and have come down to us, witnesses of that happy and perfect condition in which they originated. These are the marriage relation and the Sabbath. As the bunch of grapes from Eshcol was a visible testimony to Israel of the fertility of Canaan, so do these divine appointments remind us of the felicity of paradise.

The marriage bond lies at the foundation of domestic happiness, is the source of home joys and pure affections, without which the world would be far more blank, and miserable, and wicked than it is. Paradise lingers with us in a measure in the sweet and sacred relations of the family.

The other memorial of Eden is the Sabbath-God's reservation to himself of a share of the time measured out to men by the celestial clock-work-the motions of those heavenly bodies which are for times, and for seasons, and for days, and for years. And while the hallowing of one day in seven was an assertion of God's right and authority, and a memorial of his creative work, it was, at the same time, a rich benefaction conferred upon mankind. With what surpassing loveliness must that first Sabbath have been invested! With what splendor must the sun have issued forth as a bridegroom from the chambers of the east, and how must the primeval earth have rejoiced in his radiance! The rivers and lakes reflect his gladdening beams; the bright-hued flowers open their petals; the birds make the groves echo with their sweet melodies; and the parents of our race, untainted by thought or breath of sin, bow down in loving adoration and glorify their beneficent Parent. No jar or discord mars the full harmony; no sound of strife or wailing; no groan or shriek, nor sob, nor curse vexes the air, but one grand, thrilling, universal chorus of praise and love ascends to the King eternal, immortal, invisible. And even now, what is so redolent of paradise as the calm, bright Sabbath morn, when Nature has just put on her robes of vernal beauty, and the busy world, hushed and peaceful, enjoys a bright respite from care and toil?-Bishop Lee, of Delaware.

OUR WIVES AND DAUGHTERS.-How many husbands treat their wives with constant and tender care for their happiness? How many who do not make it unpleasant for their wives to ask for money? How many who do not shrug their shoulders when a trip to the sea-shore and mountain is mentioned? How many who do not return from their business at night, cross and disagreeable? How many husbands who spring to their feet when there is an opportunity to save a step

for the wife? How many who seek daily and hourly to add to the happiness of the one whose happiness they have declared to be so essential to their own? How many who do not begrudge the expense of servants, who think to take home the little appliances that can make a housewife's work light, who plan for recreations and amusements, who praise the taste and care which make for them so attractive a home? How many husbands could pass the test of interrogatories like these?

The fact is, six men out of ten treat their wives most shamefully. Instead of that tenderness for her which marked the first burst of their interest, they are apt to be sour, petulant, and imperious. They make little else than slaves of their wives. They compel them to ask for money; they feel they must frown down every plan for pleasure, and, least of all, ever think to speak in praise of that which the wife has done for their happiness. The lives of most husbands are one long train of grumbling and fault-finding. They are blind to the happiness of the one whose life is to them a never-failing joy and inspiration. In many cases they are more courteous and pleasant to the wives of their neighbors than to their own.

There never was a man who did too much for the happiness of woman, and never did a man devote his thought and care to the taste of a true woman who did not reap a rich harvest in return. It is because wives are slighted and neglected that homes are so unpleasant. Women lose all heart and drag out sad and unpleasant lives. Men who promised all sorts of good things, turn upon their reiterated vows and crush the hope and heart of a life that might be to them a neverfailing source of joy.-N. Y. Gazette.

EVILS OF GOSSIP.-I have known a country society which withered away all to nothing under the dry-rot of gossip only. Friendships, once as firm as granite, dissolved to jelly, and then run away to water, only because of this; love, that promised a future as enduring as heaven and as stable as truth, evaporated into a morning mist that turned to a day's long tears, only because of this; a father and a son were set foot to foot with the fiery breath of an anger that would never cool again between them, only because of this; and a husband and his young wife, each straining at the heated leash which in the beginning had been the golden bondage of a God-blessed love, sat mournfully by the side of the grave where all their love and all their joy lay buried, and only because of this. I have seen faith transformed to mean doubt, hope give place to grim despair, and charity take on itself the features

of black malevolence, all because of the spell-words of scandal and the magic mutterings of gossip. Great crimes work great wrong, and the deeper tragedies of human life spring from its larger passions; but woeful and most mournful are the uncatalogued tragedies that issue from gossip and detraction; most mournful the shipwreck often made of noble natures and lovely lives by the bitter winds and dead salt waters of slander. So easy to say, yet so hard to disprove-throwing on the innocent all the burden and the strain of demonstrating their innocence, and punishing them as guilty if unable to pluck out the stings they never see, and to silence works they never hear-gossip and slander are the deadliest and cruelest weapons man has ever forged for his brother's heart.-All the Year Round.

DUTIES OF PARENTS-Parents should understand

the little joys and griefs of their children. They should sympathize with them in their sorrows, and hopefully encourage their hearts when they see them despondent. They should not allow their young and tender minds to be harassed with fears, or other excitable subjects, as this is very injurious to their mental and physical health, and often leads unexpectedly to an early death.

They should not censure them when they make mistakes, or fail to accomplish their object at the first trial; but teach them to be patient and persevering, and to try again, and again, if need be, till success crowns their efforts.

When very young, they should be taught to do things thoroughly and orderly, but should not be compelled by the whip to labor too hard for their years. Children need rest, active and healthful play, sometimes, to make them healthy and cheerful. But they should not throw stones or snow balls, or do any thing mischievous or injurious to others.

Such things as children need to know when they grow to be men and women, need to be taught in a pleasant, patient manner than otherwise.

Tender-hearted children require a great deal of sympathy, and they will not grow to be healthful men and women without it. When it is the parents' duty to deny children's requests-as it frequently is their duty-do it without making the denial unpleasant. Give them reasons, or tell them when they grow older they will see cause to thank you for not granting their requests.

When quite young, teach your children to reason, and act from principles of justice to all, however lowly. Take good care of the health of body and mind, and teach them to shun all bad habits, and in future years they will arise up to call you blessed, and protect and aid you in age or helplessness.

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EMERSON ON THE BABY."-Who knows not the beautiful group of babe and mother, sacred in nature, now sacred also in the religious associations of half the globe? Welcome to the parents is the puny struggler, strong in his weakness, his little arms more irresistible than the soldier's, his lips touched with persuasion which Chatham and Pericles in manhood had not. The smallest despot asks so little that all nature and reason are on his side. His ignorance is more charming than all knowledge, and his little sins

more bewitching than any virtue. All day, between his three or four sleeps, he coos like a pigeon, sputters and spurns, and puts on his face of importance; and when he fasts, the little Pharisee fails not to sound his trumpet before him. Out of blocks and thread-spools, cards and checkers, he will build his pyramid with the gravity of Paladin. With an acoustic apparatus of whistle and rattle he explores the laws of sound; but chiefly, like his senior countrymen, the young Ameri can studies new and speedier means of transportation. Mistrusting the cunning of his small legs, he wishes to ride on the necks and shoulders of all flesh. The small enchanter nothing can withstand-no seniority of age, no gravity of character, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandames, grandsires-all fall an easy prey. He conforms to nobody; all conform to him. All caper and make mouths, and babble and chirrup to him. On the strongest shoulders he rides, and pulls the hair of lau

reled heads.

AN ITEM WHICH EVERY MAN SHOULD READ-We have probably all of us met with instances in which a word, heedlessly spoken against the reputation of a female, has been magnified by malicious minds till the cloud has been dark enough to overshadow her whole existence. To those who are accustomed, not necessarily from bad motives, but from thoughtlessness, to speak lightly of ladies, we recommend these "hints" as worthy of consideration:

Never use a lady's name in an improper place, at an improper time, or in a mixed company. Never make assertions about her that you think untrue, or allusions that you feel she herself would blush to hear. When you meet with men who do not scruple to make use of a woman's name in a reckless and unprincipled manner, shun them, for they are the very worst members of the community-men lost to every sense of honor, every feeling of humanity.

Many a good and worthy woman's character has been forever ruined and her heart broken by a lie manufactured by some villain, and repeated where it should not have been, and in the presence of those whose little judgment could not deter them from circulating the foul and bragging report. A slander is soon propagated, and the smallest thing derogatory to a woman's character will fly on the wings of the wind, and magnify as it circulates, till its monstrous weight crushes the poor, unconscious victim. Respect the name of woman, for your mother and sisters are women, and as you would have their fair name untarnished, and their lives unimbittered by the slanderer's bitter tongue, heed the ill that your own words may bring upon the mother. the sister, or the wife of some fellow-creature.

Do N'T HAVE ANY CONFIDENTS.-Beware of intrusting any individual with small annoyances between your husband and yourself. Many seek to gain an ascendency in families by winning the good opinion of young married women. Should any one presume to offer you advice with regard to your husband, or seek to lessen him by insinuations, shun that person as you would a serpent. Many a happy home has been rendered desolate by exciting coolness, or suspicion, or by endeavors to gain importance in an artful and insidi

ous manner.

Taking up a handful as he spoke, he appealed to the company. They all looked at it, and plunged their hands into the barrel, and bit a kernel or so, and then gave it as their universal opinion that there was n't a pea in it.

"I tell you there is," said the old captain, again scouping up a handful; "and I'll bet a dollar on it." The old Boston argument all over the world. They took him up.

"Well," said he, "spell that," pointing to the word "pe-pp-e-r," painted on the side of the barrel. "If it is n't half p's then I'm no judge, that 's all." The bet was paid.

DID N'T KNOW HIS HOME.-Thompson and Rogers, two married bucks of New York, wandering home late one night, stopped at what Thompson supposed was his residence, but which his companion insisted was his own house. Thompson rang the bell lustily, when a window was opened, and a lady inquired what was wanting.

'Well," exclaimed Thompson, "Mrs. T Thompsonbeg your pardon-Mrs. Rogers, won't you just step down to the door and pick out Rogers, T- Thompson wants to go home."

NOT A REVEREND.-On one occasion a good lady had Charles Lamb for a guest at dinner, with several other literary characters. His white neck-tie and serious countenance caused his hostess to imagine that he was a very devout man. So when the guests were seated at the table she said:

Mr. Lamb, will you say grace?"

Lamb trembled, and looked around at the guests. "Is there no c-c-clergyman present?" he asked.

'None, I believe," replied the lady.

"L-1 let us thank God, then," was the meek response as Lamb bowed reverently over his plate.

ECHOES.-A little girl, not six years of age, screamed out to her little brother, who was playing in the mud, 'Bob, you good-for-nothing rascal, come right into the house this minute, or I'll beat you till the skin comes off."

"Why, Angelina, Angelina, dear, what do you mean? Where did you learn such talk?" exclaimed the mortified mother, who stood talking with a friend. Angelina's childish reply was a good commentary upon this manner of speaking to children.

Why, mother, you see we are playing, and he's my little boy, and I'm scolding him iust as you did me this morning. that's all.".

-worms.

THE DOCTOR.-A certain doctor when called to attend children, no matter what might be the symptoms, always prescribed for one and the same malady—wo Being summoned one day to the bedside of a little boy, he gravely sat down, and, having felt the patient's pulse, looked gravely through his spectacles, and said to the mother in a solemn tone, "Worms." To which the mother responded, "I tell ye, doctor, that boy He stumbled over a stick o' ha' n't got a single worm.

wood and broke his leg, and I want you to set it quick." The doctor, not at all nonplused, but still determined to vindicate his theory, put on a very solemn look as he said, "Worms, madam, I assure you-worms in the wood."

ANOTHER DOCTOR.-The patient of a "root and herb" medicine man got the following prescription from him for a bad cold: "Putcher feet in hot wotter,

gotobed and drink a pint of loot." The patient brought the enigma to us in despair. "I can make out the first part well enough," he said. "Put your feet in hot water, go to bed, and drink a pint-that is plain enough. But what is loot?" We were embarrassed at first, but a happy inspiration struck me. L-oo-t, ell-double And that turned out to be the 0-tee, elder-blow tea. explanation.

THE LAWYER-A young lawyer was examining a bankrupt as to how he had spent his money. There were about two thousand pounds unaccounted for, when the attorney put on a severe, scrutinizing face, and exclaimed with much self-complacency:

Now, sir, I want you to tell this court and jury how you used those two thousand pounds." The bankrupt put on a serio-comic face, winked at the audience, and exclaimed:

The lawyers got that!"

The judge and audience were convulsed with laughter, and the counselor was glad to let the bankrupt go.

A GOOD PROFESSION.-It was customary for a certain college professor to inquire of the graduating class what each proposed to be or to do in the world. One would be a doctor, one a lawyer, one a merchant, and so on. "And what do you propose to be, Simon?" "I am going to be a Pithcopal minister," was the answer of the lisping graduate, "for three reasons: First, the prayers are all in print, and I can read them easily; second, the sermons of Pithcopal ministers are short, and them I can steal; and, third, Pithcopal ministers generally marry rich wives."

LIGHTLY DRESSED.-A Quaker gentleman, riding in a carriage with a fashionable lady decked with a profusion of jewelry, heard her complain of the cold. Shivering in her lace bonnet and shawl as light as cobweb, she exclaimed:

What shall I do to get warm?"

"I really do n't know," replied the Quaker, solemnly, "unless thee should put on another breast-pin!"

CONSIDERATE-A son of the Emerald Isle, once riding to market with a sack of potatoes before him, discovered that the horse was getting tired, whereupon he dismounted, put the potatoes on his shoulders, and again mounted, saying "it was better that he should carry the praties, as he was fresher than the poor baste."

PURITY OF INTENTION.-We should never rise from our knees in the morning till in our secret prayers we have earnestly asked God to keep through the day our intention pure. If our miserable self-seeking, our vanity, our low aims are to be corrected or cast out, it must be under the direct teaching and aiding of God the Holy Ghost; and that teaching and aid will be given to us if we thus earnestly seek it. Thus shall we be beforehand with the enemy when he comes with his foul breath of temptation to whisper his poisonous suggestions in our ears. He will find us preoccupied by the thought of God, to whose direct glory we have solemnly devoted all the day. But then beyond this, through the day we must often, even in the midst of our busiest occupations, renew this offering of all we do or design to His glory. As much as possible we should pause before we begin any new occupation, and in secret prayer, shot up like an arrow to Him, pray Him to purify our intention in beginning it, and to accept what we offer. We must live more and more in secret intercourse and direct communion with him; we must often retire, at least in thought and aspiration, from business, pleasure, nay, even from outward service itself, into the sacred shrine of his presence; in that presence the most subtile delusions of the tempter stand exposed to our gaze. We see the emptiness of all the rewards of this world and its prince; his enchantments fade away; the bewitching countenance of seeming beauty turns under the light of that eye into the hollowness and corruption of the grave; we see the worm in its loathsomeness where all looked but now enticing; and we hear the soft sounds of flattery turn into the malignant execrations of the pit.-Bishop of Oxford.

THE POWER OF PRAYER.-The Bible account of the power of prayer is the best we have or can have. Jacob prays the angel is conquered; Esau's revenge is changed to fraternal love.

Joseph prays-he is delivered from the prison of Egypt.

Moses prays-Amalek is discomfited; Israel triumphs. Joshua prays-the sun stands still; victory is gained. David prays-Ahitophel goes out and hangs himself. Asa prays-Israel gains a glorious victory. Jehoshaphat prays-God turns away his angel and

The Church prays-the Holy Ghost is poured out. The Church prays again-Peter is delivered by an angel.

Paul and Silas pray-the prison shakes; the door opens; every man's hands are loosed.

CHRIST GIVING.-Our Lord Jesus is ever giving, and does not for a solitary instant withdraw his hand. As long as there is a vessel of grace not yet full to the brim, the oil shall not be staid. He is a sun ever shining; he is manna always falling round the camp; he is a rock in the desert, ever sending out streams of life from his smitten side; the rain of his grace is always dropping; the river of his bounty is ever flowing, and the well-spring of his love is constantly overflowing. As the King can never die, so his grace can never fail. Daily we pluck his fruit, and daily his branches bend down to our hand with a fresh store of mercy. There are seven feast days in his weeks, and as many as are the days, so many are the banquets in his years. Who has ever returned from his door unblessed? Who has ever risen from his table unsatis

fied, or from his bosom unimparadised? His mercies are new every morning, and fresh every evening. Who can know the number of his benefits, or recount the list of his bounties? Every sand which drops from the glass of time is but the tardy follower of a myriad of mercies. The wings of our hours are covered with the silver of his kindness, and with the yellow gold of his affection. The river of time bears from the mountains of eternity the golden sand of his favor. The countless stars are but as the standard-bearers of a more innumerable host of blessings. Who can count the dust of the benefits which he bestows on Jacob, or tell the number of his mercies toward Israel? How shall my soul extol him who daily loadeth us with benefits, and who crowneth us with loving-kindness? O that my praise could be as ceaseless as his bounty! O miserable tongue, how canst thou be silent? Wake up, I pray thee, lest I call thee no more my glory, but my shame. "Awake psaltery and harp; I myself will awake right early."-Spurgeon.

smiles.

flames; scarcely could they be distinguished in the

Isaiah prays-one hundred and eighty-four thousand Assyrians are dead.

Hezekiah prays-the sun dial is turned back; his time is prolonged.

Mordecai prays-Haman is hanged; Israel is free. Nehemiah prays-the King's heart is softened in a

moment.

Ezra prays-the walls of Jerusalem begin to rise.

so early. Suddenly we passed into darkness. Then the lights shone with a strong, steady ray. All through the tunnel they burned brilliantly. How dependent we were upon them! Could it be possible they were the same flames which a few minutes before burned so dimly? Yes, they were the same, only brought into view by the surrounding gloom.

How like God's promises, I thought. When the sun of prosperity shines upon us, we may greatly under

value them. But when adversity and affliction inclose us with thick shades of night our faith bursts into a strong and steady flame, and chases away the darkness and gloom of despair. We feel how weak and feeble we are. We can not take one step without the light which comes from above to guide our wandering feet. Our souls rest upon God's promises as our only hope. Without them we should be in deepest night. Let us have true and living faith, and we may rest secure that when we need its cheering ray it will not desert but become a burning and shining light to guide us on our journey to the promised haven of rest.— American Messenger.

us,

BEGIN THE DAY WITH GOD.-There are many toiling ones whose time is not at their own command. But there is not one who can not hold eonverse with God. His ear can hear amid the clang and roar of machinery, or the hum of hundreds of voices. The heart can go up to him no matter what the surroundings. Wherever Abraham pitched his tent, there he raised up an altar to the Lord. So, wherever the Christian heart is, there is also an acceptable altar from which the incense of prayer and praise may ascend.

Yet there are few who may not, if they will, find time and place for private communion with God before entering on the morning's duties.

Luther, in his busiest seasons, felt that praying-time was never lost. When remarkably pressed with labors, he would say, "I have so much to do that I can not get on without three hours a day praying."

Sir Matthew Hale also bears testimony: "If I omit praying and reading God's Word in the morning, nothing goes well all day." How many of us may find here the cause of many of our failures, and consequent discontent and loss of happiness!

THE SLEEP OF THE SOUL.-The dreary thought of sleeping after death till the day of judgment-the idea that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob became insensible at death, and that the last thing which Jacob, for example, knew was Joseph's kiss, and the next thing he will know will be the archangel's trump, the interval of many thousand years being a perfect blank in his existence is so unlike the benevolent order of God's providence in nature and grace, that it can not gain much credence with believers in the simple representations of the Bible. What a mockery Elijah's translation seems upon that theory! Whither was he translated? Did the chariot of fire, and the horses of fire, convey him to a dreamless sleep of a thousand years? Was that pomp, that emblazonry, all that fiery pageant, a deception signifying nothing but that the greatest of earthly prophets was to begin a stupid slumber, which, this day, under a heaven with not one redeemed soul in it, and in a world where there is every thing to be done for God and men, holds him and every other dead saint in a useless suspension of their consciousness, and indeed, for so many ages, annihilation?-Watson.

DO THY LITTLE.-A certain king would build a cathedral, and that the credit of it might be all his own, he forbade any from contributing to its erection in the least degree. A tablet was placed in the side

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of the building, and on it his name was carved as the builder. But that night he saw, in a dream, an angel, who came down and erased his name, and the name of a poor widow appeared in its stead. This was three times repeated, when the enraged king summoned the woman before him, and demanded, What have you been doing? and why have you broken my commandment?" The trembling woman replied, "I loved the Lord, and longed to do something for his name, and for the building up of his church. I was forbidden to touch it in any way; so, in my poverty, I brought a wisp of hay for the horses that drew the stones." And the king saw that he had labored for his own glory, but the widow for the glory of God, and he commanded that her name should be inscribed upon the tablet.

LIGHT. The first creature of God, in the work of the days, was the light of the sense; the last was the light of reason; and his Sabbath work ever since is the illumination of his Spirit. First, he breathed light upon the face of the matter, or chaos; then he breathed light into the face of man; and still he breathes and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The poet that beautified the sect, that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well, "It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and the adventures thereof below; but no pleasure is comparable to the standing on the vantage ground of truth-a hill not to be commanded and where the air is always clear and serene-and to see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and tempests, in the vale below; so always that this prospect be with piety, and not with swelling or pride." Certainly, it is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.-Lord Bacon.

THE BIBLE IN THE HEART.-The heart of the Christian should resemble that famous picture of King Charles the First, which had the whole book of Psalms written in the lines of the face and the hair of the head." So, by the hand of our own diligent study, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, should that book, with all other books of Scripture, be written in the heart-the picture-the image rather-nay, the living image of the great King who won, not lost, his crown through death

Let us seek to transcribe on this inner tablet at least one verse every day-one verse, whether of doctrine, or warning, or promise, till the time shall come when, as often as we look in upon the records of memory and the characters of affection, our glance shall meet some enlightening, reclaiming, supporting word of the Father. How many a saint has known the blessedness of this familiarity with Bible truths in Bible language-bringing them vividly before the eye of the mind, when the outward eye had waxed dim by reason of age, and could no longer read what it would have been tenfold anguish to forget then!

RECONCILIATION.-There is a whole sermon in the saying of the Persian: "In all thy quarrels leave open the door of reconciliation." We should never forget it.