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MOTHER.

Louisa, dear, an humble mind
'Tis beautiful to see;

And you shall never hear a word
To check that mind from me;
But ah! remember, pride may dwell
Beneath the woodbine shade;
And discontent, a sullen guest,
The cottage heart invade.

CAROLINE.

I will be gay and courtly,

And dance away the hours,
Music, and sport, and joy, shall dwell,
Beneath my fairy bowers;
No heart shall ache with sadness
Within my laughing hall,

But the note of joy and gladness
Re-echo to my call.

MOTHER.

Oh, children! sad it makes my soul
To hear your painful strain;
I cannot bear to chill your youth
With images of pain.

Yet humbly take what God bestows,
And, like his own fair flowers,
Look up in sunshine with a smile,
And gently bend in showers.

THE CHRISTIAN MOTHER.

A PIOUS mother had the happiness of seeing her children in early life brought to a knowledge of the truth, walking in the fear of the Lord,

and becoming ornaments in the christian church. A minister thinking that there might be something peculiar in her mode of giving religious instruction, which rendered it so effectual, visited her, and inquired how she discharged the duties of a mother in educating her children? She replied, that she did not know that she had been more faithful in the religious instruction of her children than any christian mother should be, but added, "I believe I never gave my children the breast without praying in my heart, that I might nurse a child for the Lord; as I washed them I raised my heart to God, that he would wash them in that blood which cleanseth from all sin; as I clothed them in the morning, I asked my heavenly Father to clothe them with the robe of Christ's righteousness; as I provided them food, I prayed that God would feed their souls with the bread of heaven, and give them to drink the water of life. When I prepared them for the house of God, I prayed that their bodies might be fit temples for the Holy Ghost to dwell in; when they left me for the week-day school, I followed their infant footsteps with a prayer, that their path through life might be like that of the just which shineth more and more unto the perfect day; and as I committed them to rest at night, the silent breathing of my soul has been, that their Heavenly Father would take them to his embrace, and fold them in his gracious arms."

Reader, be exhorted to use the same patient persevering, believing prayer, and not only pray for, but with your children, let them see and hear you wrestle with God on their behalf, till Christ is formed in their heart the hope of glory. To prayer join instruction, as directed Deuteronomy vi. 6—9, and to these instructions, add watchfulness over your own spirit and conduct, that your prayers for them may not be hindered by your irritable, worldly, selfish, censorious spirit. Children more readily imitate what you do, than practise what you say, and make more use of their eyes and ears, than of their understanding and reason. Pray then earnestly, instruct diligently, and walk circumspectly and uprightly; be instant in season and out of season, and verily your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord.

TEACHING CHILDREN TO LIE.

My nearest neighbour, when I resided in Connecticut, was a man moving in the ordinary walks of life, and was a prudent, careful, honest, and industrious husbandman. Being at a certain time on some occasion at his sonin-law's, one of the boys of the family wished to go home with his grandfather; it not being convenient at the time, the grandfather told the boy that he could not very well carry him at that time; but, he added, "Next time grand

father comes he'll carry you home with him." The boy was pacified. The old gentleman not thinking any more, (as, alas! many careless and faulty parents do,) of what he had said to the boy, was several times at the house without fulfilling his engagement; and, perhaps, without once having it come again into his mind. But the boy was not so forgetful. He recollected well the promise of his grandfather. In process of time the grandfather took the boy behind him on his horse, and was conveying him to his paternal abode. On the way the boy began to remonstrate with his grandfather on the subject, by saying, "When grandfather was at our house one time, he said the next time he came he would carry me home-and grandfather did not." Why," says the old gentleman, "you don't think your grandfather would lie, do you?" "I don't know," says the boy, "What does grandfather call it " This confounded the old gentleman, and he knew not what reply to make. This anecdote has convinced me more than almost any thing I ever heard, of the importance of regarding strictly and conscientiously what we say to children. Especially it has shown me the evil of trifling with children, and making them unmeaning promises or declarations which have attached to them no truth or signification. And it is my deliberate and fixed opinion, that oftentimes parents by disregarding, forgetting and neg

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lecting to fulfil what they declare unto children in promises or threatenings, are chargeable with the pernicious evil of teaching their children to lie; and then perhaps inflicting punishment upon them for the crime. This is hard-this is cruel-this is an evil of a monstrous size, prevalent and triumphant to an alarming degree, and which ought speedily and effectually to be corrected. Watch, then, and remember to make good what you say to children. Do not threaten them with what you have no business to execute-such as cutting off their ears, taking off their skin, and so on. In this way you weaken your own hands; render the truth doubtful, and train up your child for falsehood and crime. Whatever else you neglect, yet by no means neglect to teach them by precept and example, an inviolable regard to the truth.

LOVE TO THE BIBLE.

[The natives of the island of Madagascar having been forbidden, by an edict of their government, to read or keep in possession their newly-translated Scriptures, many of the islanders, rather than give them up to be destroyed, buried their Bibles during the day, and at night assembled in groups to dig up the precious treasure, and read the sacred word which shows the way of salvation.]

BEHOLD, and mark, yon solemn sun,

On Afric's distant isle,

Where sacred truth's renewing beam
Had made the desert smile;

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