MY YOUTH'S BEST FRIEND.

SUCH was the salutation of Mary F, as she tenderly embraced her widowed mother. She had been a loved and only child. They had lived together for many years in blessed and growing confidence; but now the day was come which was to separate them. Mary was affianced to a man of kindred spirit, and was about to venture from under the maternal wing upon new and untried scenes. Her heart was full to overflowing, and she sought relief, where she had ever found it,-on her mother's bosom. That mother was, as usual, ready to receive her. She had risen betimes, and after commending herself and her children to the care of her Heavenly Father, with emotions peculiar to the occasion, she had been penning a few lines to her daughter, ready to put into her hands at the moment of her departure. We subjoin the leading paragrahs :

:

"My own precious Mary,-What shall I say to you, that I have not already said? He who knows my heart, knows that I have sought, however feebly, to train you for His service and glory. You are the child of many prayers, and much may well be ex pected of you; but never forget the Saviour's words,

Without Me, ye can do nothing.' Live, my child, in habitual fellowship with Jesus. Let Him still have the first place in your affections, and recollect that other friends and other objects can only be

to you what He is pleased to make them. Be reasonable and moderate in your expectations, and think more of your obligations to your husband than of his obligations to you. Strive to be contented with such things as you have; and aim to be a pattern of economy, neatness, dilligence, and propriety. Continue to cultivate your mind and be careful to redeem the time. Avoid idle conversation, light reading, and worldly entertainments. Keep within your own sphere, and endeavour to make home attractive by a sweet and cheerful and loving spirit. This is meant to be a state of trial and probation to us, and, therefore, you will have need of patience; but the vicissitudes of life are associated with many mercies, and we must not forget that 'for every night there is a morning.' The experience of nearly threescore years enables me to say, that a child of God has nothing really to fear but sin, and against this he must constantly pray, Lead us not into temptation.' then, my precious one, and may you prove as great a comfort to your beloved husband as you have been to me, and may God grant that we may meet at last. with your sainted father and many who have gone before, an unbroken family in Heaven."

Go,

Such was the calm and Christian language of this devoted mother. She had been permitted to rear a lovely plant, to inhale its early fragrance, and to taste some of its pleasant fruit,-and now she cheerfully transferred her child to another home, where she could better fulfil the duties of riper years. From week to week the mother and daughter corresponded with each other, and visits were often interchanged. The friends of each were the friends of all. Time

swept on, and Mary had become the centre of a large and blooming circle; but neither domestic endearments nor increasing cares caused her for a moment to forget the companion and guide of her youth. As age crept on, and Mary saw with concern the venerable form she loved wasting away, she became eyes to the blind and a staff to the trembling limbs. Often would she bring forth from the recesses of memory poems and hymns which were deposited there in early days, and many a bright gleam was by her affectionate skill caught from the past and thrown across the future. She loved to comment on the Divine faithfulness, and to retrace step by step the path of the now weary pilgrim. Her little ones, too, were all "ministering children," and easily followed in their mother's pleasant track. At length came the closing scene-the last word, the lingering look, the darkened room, the funeral train; but years afterwards, Mary might be seen, in her little closet, gazing with a tearful smile on a well-known miniature, beneath which she had inscribed, with characteristic tenderness, these emphatic words,—

"My Youth's best friend."

E. R.