Original.

THE SPOILED CHILD.

BY REV. H. M. EATON.

DAVID was a lovely child. Being the oldest he was the idol of the family. He received every possible attention from his parents, and other relatives interested in his welfare. He was denied nothing - every wish was gratified. When young, he was allowed to contend for his rights, until at length he had a high sense of honor. If he demanded a favor of his parents, or any member of the family, and it was not granted, he had but to cry, and his object was secured. His impatience was never checked; his will never subdued. Being allowed to associate with vicious boys, and remain in their company as long as he pleased, he consequently contracted many of their habits, especially that of profane swearing.

His parents would often threaten to punish him, but he feared not their threats. They would make false statements to terrify him, but all to no purpose; and before he arrived to the age of six years, the prevailing opinion was, that David was a spoiled child.' All lamented it, and none more deeply than the afflicted but guilty parents. Before two years more had passed, his parents decided that they could not control him, that he must take his own course and abide the consequences. He was given up, being but eight years of age. But what was the result? As might be expected, he played and associated with wicked boys, until he became a leader among them. His statements could not be relied upon. Even when he spoke the truth, it required the testimony of others to substantiate the correctness of his statement. He strolled from place to place, being constantly idle, and excessively wicked, to the great mortification and grief of his parents. He was rarely seen in the house of God on the Sabbath, or at school during the week. I saw him last, in the winter of 1844. He had then arrived to years of manhood. But what was his condition? Without education, without moral and religious principle, without property, destitute of kind and affectionate friends, and above all, without love for God, or his cause. Truly, 'the child was spoiled.' As the twig was bent the tree is inclined.' But upon whom will the guilt rest? Will it not fall heavily upon those parents who were intrusted with his dis

cipline and education? If they neglected to 'train him up in the way he should go,' will they not have a dread account to settle at the judgment?

Few parents consider that, if their child conquers when two years of age, he will most assuredly rule when a boy of twelve or fifteen. Many children are spoiled before they are six years of age. Spoiled,' did I say? Yes, actually ruined; it may be both for time and eternity. If parents do not control their children when young, they cannot when old.

I would advise every parent, and especially mothers, to discipline and govern their children while young, or 'they will bring down their grey hairs with sorrow to the grave.'

Many are opposed to using the rod' in the government of their children. 'How can I inflict punishment upon my darling child?' says the parent; 'when he is older he will do better.' You are not certain of that. The chances against you are as nine to ten. But what I would urge upon every parent is, to secure obedience in some way. If one measure is not effectual, try another; but do not fail of accomplishing the object. One failure, may prove the child's ruin. You should reason with disobedient children. The rod should not be used until argument and persuasion fail. Make the government and discipline of your children a study; for it is of more consequence to you and them, than silver and gold; the latter may prove their ruin the former, with the blessing of God, will give you honor, and your children happiness. Alfred, Maine, March, 1845.

CONTENTMENT.

HAS not the little bee a draught as sweet

From the bright flower which springs beneath our feet,
As the tall stag, through acres free to stray,

From the broad river rushing on its way?

Canst thou not slake thy burning thirst as well
From a full cap, as where clear waters swell
O'er marble basins, at whose sculptured brink,
With golden chalice, wealth may stoop to drink?

Be thou contented, only, and thou 'It be,

With but thine herbs and brook, more rich than he
Who pineth, mid his luxury and pride,
For some poor trifle to his grasp denied.

A MOTHER'S LOVE. - Out of what materials may not a woman's love, and especially that of a mother's, find sustenance? Other loves may pine away upon the sterile wilderness of life, where there are no flowers to cull, no fruit to gather, and no harvest to be reaped; but the love of a mother can subsist on the bitter roots of unkindness and neglect, and maintain its freshness and vigor by drinking the waters of affliction. · Mrs. Ellis in Home, or The Iron Rule.

LITERARY NOTICES.

SONGS IN THE NIGHT: or Hymns for the Sick and Suffering. Boston: Benjamin Perkins.

This publication is a commendable effort on the part of the compiler, to furnish something of a consolatory and tranquillizing character for the sick.

The hymns are 217 in number, and are judiciously selected. To each is prefixed a passage of Scripture. It is a serious defect that the authors of the hymns, as far as known, were not given.

Sympathy, kindness, and unwearied attention are never better bestowed than upon the sick, whether appreciated by them or not; nothing, therefore, should be omitted to make them as comfortable, in body and mind, as their situation will possibly admit.

HARPER'S ILLUMINATED BIBLE has reached the twenty-first number, carrying the text forward to the 7th chapter of Esther. The work is to be embellished with sixteen hundred historical engravings, exclusive of an initial letter to each chapter; more than fourteen hundred of the engravings are from original designs. VOYAGES ROUND THE WORLD. New York City. Harper & Brothers: 1845.

'This volume may be considered a continuation of No. 21, of the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, in which is given a history of the various voyages round the world, prior to the death of the celebrated Capt. Cook.'

The work includes remarks on the social condition of the inhabitants in the recently discovered countries; their progress in the arts, and more especially their advancement in religious knowledge.

For sale by Waite, Peirce, & Co.

THE

Young Lady's Friend.

MARGARET, THE MARTYR OF THE SEA.

A TALE OF SCOTLAND'S COVENANT.

BY REV. SAMUEL I. PRIME.

THE blood of Scotland's noblest sons and fairest daughters was now shed freely for the truth, dearer than life to all the good and brave.

Claverhouse and his troop, like bloodhounds, were tracking to their mountain hiding-places the pious Covenanters, dragging them to the fiery stake, or, more mercifully, blowing out their brains as they kneeled in prayer for their persecutors and murderers. John Brown, of Priesthill, had just been slain: a man of whom the world was not worthy, and whose wife was worthy of such a man. As he took leave of her, with one infant in her arms and another clinging to her knee, he said,

'Now, ISABEL, the day is come that I told you would come when I first asked you to be my wedded wife. Are you willing that I should die?'

'Indeed, JOHN,' said she, with a clear voice, 'I am ready; be thou faithful unto death.'

'That is all I desire,' said he, and he had scarcely kissed his Isabel and her six children, when Claverhouse shot him through the head. As he sunk down the widow caught her dead husband, and holding his shattered head in her lap, wound it up with a handkerchief; and, as the sobbing orphans gathered around the warm corpse in their agony of grief, the monster Claverhouse tauntingly said to her, 'What thinkest thou of thy husband now, woman?'

6

'I aye thought much of him,' said the heroic Isabel, and now MORE THAN EVER!'

Those were the times of which we are writing, and we have mentioned the story of John Brown and his Isabel as another example of the spirit that triumphed in the bosom of Margaret, the Martyr of the Sea.

Gilbert Wilson was a farmer in the parish of Penningham, under the Laird of Castlestewart. Wilson and his wife had both broken away from the Covenant, and, yielding to the love of life and of their three children, had conformed to the laws of the prelacy, which their brethren were resisting unto blood. But the craven parents could not prevail with their children to follow them in the apostasy. Their eldest daughter, Margaret, now in the bloom of eighteen, had drank deep of the spirit of the times, and firm in her adherence to the supremacy of the Saviour, she had instilled the same holy principles into the hearts of her brother Thomas, but two years younger, and Agnes, a sweet sister, now of thirteen. These tender youth were compelled to fly for their lives, and hide like hunted birds, in the wild moors of Galloway. The same cruel laws that made their adherence to the Covenant a crime punishable with death, forbade the parents, under the same penalty, to give them food or shelter; but the God whose ministers are the ravens, and who has said 'when thy father and mother forsake thee, I will take thee up,' supplied their wants in the wilderness and shielded them in the hour of danger. Margaret had a heart that never quailed, and for years she had calmly waited for such times as these. She was not to falter now. Her brother and the fair Agnes clung to her and drew strength from the quiet cheerfulness with which she met the trials of those days and nights of gloom, and their voices mingled sweetly as they sang the songs of Zion in their drear hiding-place.

At last the two sisters ventured to quit their desert solitude, and for a short time they found a home in the house of an aged and pious widow, Mrs. M'Laughlan. Here they were discovered, and Margaret and Agnes, with their kind protector, the widow, were dragged to prison. When they were brought out to trial, nothing could be urged against them, and the thirst of the persecutors for virgin blood would have been disappointed, had they not been asked to take the oath of abjuration, which they steadfastly refused, and so they were condemned to die. According to Hetherington, who refers to Woodrow as his authority, and in whose words we give the remainder of this tale, the specific terms of the sentence were, that they should be tied to stakes fixed within the flood-mark in the water of Blednock, where it meets the sea, and there be drowned by the tide. From this dreadful doom the entreaties of the distracted father prevailed so far as to rescue the innocent girl of thirteen, yet only