to starve and die, could not be in a healthy condition ; and that soul is in much the same state, which expends its energies upon work without doors, and neglects the work within. If each individual Christian performed faithfully his and her share in the home mission-if each cultivated carefully the little garden within his own gates-if each were a faithful steward in the household charge, there would, indeed, be fewer homes that are not homes-there would be fewer flowerless and unwatered gardens-there would be fewer of those arrears of which the Lord, when he comes, will take strict account.

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There is one feeling and desire in the human heart which is universal-all wish to be understood. In ordinary acquaintanceship, how frequently the complaint meets the ear- "We cannot come on together, for he never understands me." The constitution of the one mind is a mystery to the other—the language of the one heart an unknown tongue to the other. It is strange that in the home, and by the household hearth, encircled by one family, where we might expect misapprehension to be unknown, it exists as frequently as in any other place; jars, coldnesses, constraints, and dissensions, all arise from it,—while even sisters, whose hearts God has created to throb in unison, are often obliged to seek elsewhere that appreciation and sympathy which they have not found in each other. Now, there is a serious home sin involved here. Whenever any one complains of not being understood,

it will generally be found to arise from the want of trying to understand. If people would think less of themselves, and be less intensely sympathetic with the intricacies and sensitivenesses of their own hearts, and pay more attention to the peculiarities of others, the evil would probably be greatly obviated. We are aware that many feel rather proud than otherwise of "not being understood," even in their own homes, and consider it a proof of genius and highlywrought sensibilities. We cannot help regarding it, however, as a mark of decided inferiority of mind. True genius is ever easily understood, and true genius ever easily understands. They who are really possessed of true genius, combined with deep and tender feeling, are in possession of treasures not to be locked up in inaccessible coffers, or brought out occasionally to be counted and admired, but to be used every day to gladden and benefit all around. Let them sympathize with others, and others will soon sympathize with them. Let them cast the light of their love upon home hearts, and it will soon so illumine their own, that all who run may read the once mysterious characters.

In home work, home sunshine is a very important element. Many conscientious people strive to perform, and actually do perform, all their home duties faithfully and earnestly, and still there is felt to be somewhere a startling deficiency. They are not seen in their homes as their Saviour would have been, had

he shared a home wherein to lay his head, diffusing light and strength, and consolation. What is specially lacking there, is joyfulness blended with their work. They have not taken the joy of the Lord as their strength, and they have separated the two things which God hath joined together-duty and sunshine.

"A solemn yet a joyful thing is life,

Which, being full of duties, is for this

Of gladness full, and full of lofty hopes."

Even as the sunbeam is composed of millions of minute rays, the home light must be constituted of little tendernesses, kindly looks, sweet laughter, gentle words, loving counsels; it must not be like the torch-blaze of natural excitement, which is easily quenched, but like the serene, chastened light, which burns as safely in the day of the east wind as in the serenest atmosphere. Let each bear the other's burden the while,-let each cultivate the mutual confidence, which is a gift capable of increase and improvement, and soon it will be found that kindliness will spring up on every side, displacing constraint, unsuitability, want of mutual knowledge, even as we have seen sweet violets and primrose buds dispelling the gloom of the grey sea rocks.

The most obvious of all home sins is that of temper. Too often do Christians, who are all sweetness and graciousness in society, appear (to use the simile of Rowland Hill) as if engrafted upon crab trees in

their own homes. The most visible manifestations of this sin in passionate outbreaks, violent words, and fits of sullenness, are so odious in themselves, and cause so much misery to their authors, as well as to their victims, that when a Christian is liable to be possessed by this evil spirit, he is generally on his guard, and watches and mourns because of it. There are various lesser degrees, however, which are often perceptible in those who would be exceedingly, and perchance, justly indignant were they to be designated as ill-tempered. The want of gentleness in tone and look, the needless difficulty and objection thrown in the way of the eager and the energetic,—the undue regard to our own "dignity" (much abused word) when offended, forgetting that

"To err is human,-to forgive divine;"

the maintenance of our own opinions simply because they are our own, and the feeling of irritation at the opposition they encounter; the assumption, however slight, of superiority and self-importance; the undue attachment to our own methods and our own ways; the painful allusion and ill-timed jest; the jealousy of others, and the over exaction of affection, attention, and sympathy, are all off-shoots of the crab tree :and even as we find in nature the finest species of apples, if unpruned and uncultivated, returning to the native crab, so, the heart, unkept and untended, will become even when renewed, bitter in its fruits, and degenerate in its soil.

Great part of the home work, therefore, will consist in a constant watch and ward over this besetting sin, in its dwelling within the heart, as well as its outward avenues. It is not enough to repress the word, if the irritated feeling remains within; it is not enough to smooth the unloving look, if the heart itself be void of love; and this must be done not for our own comfort, because a happy home is desirable, or because it is pleasant to be loved and praised, but because it is part of the work by which God is to be glorified in us. This principle must be carried into every relation of life; without it there is danger, on the one hand, of the work being turned into selfidolatry, or idolatry of others as belonging to ourselves; and, on the other hand, of its being left undone.

The mother is too apt to joy in her little ones as "her own," forgetting that they are bought with a price, and are not hers, but God's. In the instruction she chooses for them,-in the amusements she permits them, in their whole training, excellent as it may be, she is prone to work at her own hands, that she and they may be exalted, or at the best, that they may be preserved from the dangers and difficulties of the way, and secure the salvation of their souls. Too often does she forget that the chiefest motives of her work must be to bring God glory, and so to teach her children, that they in their turn may glorify Him, each spreading wider the