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When a wife has been chosen for her real worth, for her prudence, helpfulness, and piety, her influence will be both potent and permanent. "The heart of her husband will safely trust in her," she will be his faithful counsellor. In all the important concerns of his life he will consult her, and questions of doubtful policy and propriety he will especially submit to her judgment. At home, away from the excitements of business life, and under her calm, clear eye, many specious projects will be abandoned, and many false steps avoided. In the reverses of life, when men are apt to give way to despondency if not to despair, her fortitude in sharing his trials, and her courage in meeting misfortune, will revive his drooping spirits, and nerve him with fresh hope and vigour. Her influence in the supreme moments of his career will be on the side of safety and of happiness. Rarely will her intuition fail. So frequently will her counsel prove wise, that when he does not see eye to eye with her on any question, he will have a secret misgiving that he is wrong. Such influence has been exerted by many a wife, and been acknowledged with gratitude. The man is unwise who, having a prudent wife, does not make her his confidant and counsellor; many men for lack of doing so have suffered grievous loss. The wife who is admitted to this position will, in the majority of instances, amply justify the trust reposed. "She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.”

The influence of woman as a mother can scarcely be overrated. Some of the greatest men have attributed their greatness to their mother, and most men owe more to their mother than their father. A mother's influence begins the soonest and is often felt the longest. Whilst helpless at the breast the infant

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reason, that the look

unconsciously imbibes her spirit and temper, and when older grown, he plays around her knee, her every mood and utterance leaves its impress upon his plastic mind. There are those who maintain, and not without some show of and expression, and even the features of children are changed by the character of those with whom they have exclusive interIf this is so, how great the influence which mothers who nurse and train their children have upon them, and how careful ought they to be as to the character of those whom they engage to tend them. Children moreover are apt imitators. An instinct of their nature leads them insensibly to copy the tones and looks, the words and ways of those around them. Whatever they see their parents do they think must be right. The mother is most with them, and her character and life they observe the most. Her every movement is followed and watched, nothing escapes them. When she has no thought of them, and is wholly unconscious of influencing them for good or evil, they are receiving impressions which will be lasting in their effects for weal or woe. It is impossible to over-estimate the influence of a mother in forming the character of her children. The tones of her voice linger in their ear like the boom of the sea in the ocean-shell, and are given forth by them again. Her homely ways of expressing herself are remembered, and many an utterance is prefaced with the words, "My mother used to say." What she did is indelibly graven on the tablet of memory, and exerts its influence after she has passed into the skies. "When I was a little child," said a good old man, my mother used to bid me kneel down beside her, and place her hand upon my head while she prayed. Ere I was old

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enough to know her worth she died, and I was left too much to Like others, I was inclined to evil passions, but often felt myself checked, and, as it were, drawn back by a soft hand upon my head. When a young man I travelled in foreign lands, and was exposed to many temptations; but when I would have yielded that same hand was upon my head, and I was saved. I seemed to feel its pressure as in the happy days of infancy; and sometimes there came with it a voice in my heart, a voice that must be obeyed: 'Oh! do not this wickedness, my son, nor sin against thy God."" This is but one instance out of many in which the influence of a mother has extended long after her head was laid in the grave. Oh, mothers mighty is your influence over your children, it can scarcely be overrated. You cannot give them grace, God alone can do that, but you can do much to obtain it for them. You can "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord;" and trained in the way they should go, the promise is, "when they are old they shall not depart from it. If faithful to your trust you will win their hearts to the Saviour, guide their steps in the paths of righteousness and truth, and preserve the generation of the godly on the earth. Your influence will extend to generations yet unborn, will last throughout all coming time, and will be perpetuated in eternity.

The Love of Woman.

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