FAMILY GOVERNMENT.-Family government does not consist in watching children with a suspicious eye, frowning at their merry outbursts of innocent hilarity, suppressing their joyous laughter, and moulding them into melancholy little models of patriarchal gravity. And when they have been in fault, it is not to punish them simply on acount of the injury you may have chanced to suffer in consequence of their fault, while the disobedience is suffered to pass without rebuke. Nor is it to overwhelm the little culprit with a flood of angry words; to stun him with a deafening noise; to call him by hard names, which do not express his misdeeds; to load him with epithets which would be extravagant if applied to a fault of tenfold enormity; or to declare with passionate vehemence, that he is the worst child in the neighborhood, and likely to come to the gallows. But it is to watch anxiously the first risings of sin, and kindly to repress them; to counteract the earliest workings of selfishness; to suppress the first beginnings of rebellion against rightful authority; to teach an implicit, unquestioning, and cheerful obedience to the will of the parent, as a preparation for future allegiance to the requirements of civil authority, and for subjection to the will of God the great Ruler and Father; it is to punish a fault because it is a fault, because it is sinful and contrary to the commands of God, without reference to whether it may, or may not, have been productive of immediate injury to the parent or others. It is to reprove with calmness and composure, and not with angry irritation, in a few words fitly chosen, and uttered in low and serious tones, and not with a torrent of abuse; to punish as often as you threaten, and threaten only when you see the absolute necessity of punishment; to say what you mean, and then do as you say. It is, in a word, to govern your family as in the sight of Him who has made you a parent, and given you authority to train up and govern your children for Him; and who will reward your fidelity with such blessings as he bestowed on Abraham, or punish your neglect with such curses as he visited on Eli. HASTE Without haste, and without rest- Heed not flowers that round thee bloom, Ponder well and know the right, Onward, then, with all thy might; NOT-REST NOT. Haste not-years can ne'er atone Goethe. ONE THING HAVE I DESIRED OF THE LORD. It is strange how much more wisely we judge in temporal, than in spiritual things. If we should see a man trying to be a lawyer, a doctor, and a minister, all at once, we should say, without hesitation, "That man will come to nothing; he will not succeed in being any thing." We know very well that a man must stick to and serve one thing, if he hopes to make money, or get fame, or do good. But how seldom do we witness this concentration of purpose and effort in matters of the soul. How often do we see men trying to be at the same time good Christians and men of the world. HOW TO READ THE BIBLE.-An old man once said, "For a long period I puzzled myself about the difficulties of Scripture, until at last I came to the resolution that reading the Bible was like eating fish. When I find a difficulty, I lay it aside and call it a bone. Why should I choke on the bone, when there is so much nutritious meat?" THE SCHOOLMISTRESS, surrounded by the happy group she teaches, reminds us of the importance of our Common Schools, so many of which throughout the land are taught by females. According to the late United States census, there are in our public schools, 3,354,173 children—a mighty army to be trained up for good or evil; we trust and pray and hope and believe, for the former. This vast number of children, now being educated at the public expense, is more than the entire population of this country was when it first engaged in war with Great Britain. They are to be the fathers and mothers of the millions of the coming generations of our people. Place, then, THE BIBLE in our Common Schools. And thus let one of the most important steps be taken for training up all who are in them to be intelligent and useful citizens, good members of the family, and faithful Christians. TRUTH NOT LOST.-Luke Short, when about fifteen years of age, heard a sermon from the celebrated Flavel, and soon after went to America, where he spent the remainder of his life He received no immediate impression from Flavel's sermon, and lived in carelessness and sin till he was a century in age. He was now a sinner a hundred years old ;" and to all appearance, ready to “die accursed.” But sitting one day in a field, he fell into a busy reflection on his past life; and recurring to the events of his youth, he thought of having heard Mr. Flavel preach, and vividly recollected a large portion of his sermon, and the extraordinary earnestness with which it was delivered. Starting as if stung by an adder, he instantly labored under accusings of conscience, and ran from thought to thought till he arrived first at conviction of sin, and next to an apprehension of the divine method of saving the guilty. He soon after joined an evangelical church in his vicinity, and to the day of his death, in the one hundred and sixteenth year of his age, gave satisfactory evidence of being a truly converted and believing follower of the Saviour. Mr. Flavel had long before passed to his heavenly rest, and could not, while on earth, have supposed that his living voice would so long continue to yield its echoes as an instrument of doing good to a wandering sinner. Let ministers and private Christians, who labor for the spiritual well-being of their fellow-men, cast their bread upon the waters in full faith that though they lose sight of it themselves, it shall be found after many days. THE OLD HOUSE CLOCK. Oh, the old, old clock, of the household stock, And its chime rang still the sweetest. Yet they lived, though nations altered ; You'll never rise soon in the morning." A friendly voice was that old, old clock, But a cross old voice was that tiresome clock, When the dawn looked grey o'er the misty way, "Tick, tick," it said—“quick, out of bed, You'll never have health, you'll never get wealth, Still hourly the sound goes round and round, While tears are shed for the bright days fled, Its hands still move, though hands we love A MAXIM FOR HOME.-My mother used to say, that "it was disagreeable to be bustling about while father was within; and when he was gone out, the work must be done up." Oh that wives and mothers understood and practised this wisely and well! What different scenes would the laboring man's home present, if they did. How many a man would be saved from the alehouse fireside, where comfort and convenience are studied to seduce him into sin, if wives and mothers would but so order their households that when the father returns, his coming shall be welcomed with cleanliness and peace, and his home shall be made to him the most blessed and grateful place that he can find. DOING NOTHING.-They that do nothing, are in the readiest way to do that which is worse than nothing. ་ LIBERALITY OF MISSIONARY CHURCHES.-The people of Tahiti, and of the neighboring islands, contributed in one year $2,550 to the British and Foreign Bible Society. The London Missionary acknowledged in one year, $88,740, from their mission churches, $20,000 of which was from Southern India, as a contribution to the Jubilee fund; half of the latter sum was contributed by the native church at Nagercoil: $800 was received from one station in Jamai са. The English Baptist Missionary Society report $6,000, contributed in a single year towards the support of their pastors, by the mission churches. Rev. Mr. Davis, pastor of a mission church of Africans at New Amsterdam, says, "During the five years of my pastorate there, that congregation contributed $35,000 to various objects of charity." In 1852-53, $6.000 were contributed to foreign missions by the native churches in the Sandwich Islands. HOW A MISSIONARY SOCIETY IS REGARDED BY FOREIGN BANKERS.-Mr. Hamlin of the Armenian mission wishing to obtain a loan to apply towards the erection of a building for the mission, was asked twelve per cent. interest if the security was the building, but only six per cent. if the security was the obligation of the American Board. On asking the reason for the difference, he was told, "Earthquakes may injure your stone building, and political changes may occur unfavorably to affect its value; but neither of these can reach the American Board of Foreign Missions." "THEY SHALL PERISH, BUT THOU REMAINEST.' What shall perish? Plants that flourish, Blossoms steeped in dewy tears, HEB. 1:11. What shall perish? In their courses All shall perish, but their Maker; THE PROHIBITORY, OR MAINE LAW IN LOWELL.-The following statements are from the most reliable authority. Every case of drunkenness observed by a watchman, or any member of the police, is reported at the police-office, whether a prosecution is instituted, or not. For the two months ending September 22, 1851, there were committed to the watch-house, 110. Reported as being seen drunk, but not arrested, 255; total, 365. Two months, ending September 22, 1852, committed to the watch-house, 41. Reported as being drunk, but not arrested, 66; total, 107. The testimony of the watchmen and other police-officers is uniform, that there is much less disturbance and rowdyism than under the old regime. It is the testimony too of the grocers, that their customers of a large class pay better than formerly. At the time the law went into effect, there were 227 shops and places where intoxicating liquor was sold. Whatever has been sold since, has been sold secretly and clandestinely. There is no place where it is sold publicly or openly. FORMS.-A man may look at a pane of glass, or through it, or both. Let all earthly things be unto thee as glass, to see heaven through. Religious ceremonies should be pure glass, not dyed in the gorgeous crimsons and purple blues and greens of the drapery of saints and saintesses. Coleridge. TO-MORROW.-The day on which idle men work, and fools give up their folly, and sinners repent and believe, and reform their character and life! |