THE GOOD WIFE.

THE power of a wife for good or evil is irresistible. Home must be the seat of happiness, or it must be for ever unknown. A good wife is to a man wisdom and courage. A bad one is confusion, weakness, discomfiture, and despair. No condition is hopeless when the wife possesses firmness, decision, and economy. There is no outward prosperity which can counteract indolence, extravagance, and folly at home. No spirit can long endure bad domestic influence. Man is strong, but his heart is not adament. He delights in enterprise and action; but to sustain him, he needs a tranquil mind, and a whole heart. He expends his whole moral force in the conflicts of the world. To recover his equanimity and composure, home must be to him a place of repose, of peace, of cheerfulness, of comfort, and, his soul renews its strength again and goes forth with fresh vigour to encounter the labor and troubles of the world. But, if at home he finds no rest, and is there met with bad temper, sullenness or gloom, or is assailed by discontent, or complaint, or reproaches; the heart breaks, the spirits are crushed, hope vanishes, and the man sinks into despair.

EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.-The education of a child is principally derived from its own observation of the actions, the words, the voice, the looks, of those with whom it lives.

Because it operates as a restraint on sin in those who conduct it, and checks worldly-mindedness.

Because it is an excellent example to children and servants, and has a sensible effect on their principles and conduct.

Because families will grow up in irreligion, and in the neglect of all that is holy and good, where family devotions are not maintained.

Because it is unnatural and impious thing to live without it.

Because experience has proved, that where family religion is devoutly maintained, the greatest amount of happiness is to be found; children are most obedient; servants most faithful; and the various members of the household are bound together by the strongest bonds of affection.

Because it is one of the best means of aiding us in our journey to heaven.

EMULATION.

EMULATION, we are told, is a stimulant; for this reason precisely it ought to be reprobated. Men without heart and without artifice, leave strong spices to those whose taste is weakened: present not to the children of your country any ailments but such as are gentle and simple, like themselves and like you. The fever must not be thrown into their blood, in order to make it circulate: permit it to flow in its natural course; nature has made sufficient provision to this effect at an age of such restlessness and activity. The disquietude of adolescence, the passions of youth, the anxieties of manhood, will one day excite an inflammation but too violent to admit of being cooled by your efforts.

Emulation fills the whole career of life with solicitude, uneasiness, and vain desires; and when old age has slackened all our movements, it continues to stimulate us by unprofitable regret.

Had I any occasion in infancy to surpass my companions in drinking, in eating, in walking, in order to find pleasure in these? Wherefore should it be necessary for me to learn to outstrip them in my studies, in order to acquire a relish for learning? Have I not acquired the faculty of speaking and of reasoning without emulation? Are not the functions of the soul as natural and as agreeable as those of the body? If they sadden our children, it is the fault of our mode of education, and not that of science. It is not from want of appetite on their part. Behold what imitators they are of everything which they see done, and of everything which they hear said! Do you wish, then, to attract children to your exercises; act as nature does in recommending her's; draw them with words of love.

Emulation is the cause of most of the ills of human life. It is the root of ambition; for emulation produces the desire of being the first, and the desire of being the first is the essence of ambition, which ramifies itself conformably to positions, from which issue almost all the miseries of society.

Positive ambition generates the love of applause, of personal and exclusive prerogatives for a man's self or for his corps, of immense property in dignities, in lands, and in employments; in a word, it pro

duces avarice, that calm ambition of gold, in which all the ambitious finish their course. But avarice alone drags in its train, an infinite number of evils, by depriving multitudes of other citizens of the means of subsistence, and produces, by a necessary reaction, robberies, prostitutions, quackery, superstition.

Negative ambition generates, in its turn, jealousy, evil-speaking, calumnies, quarrels, litigation, duels, intolerance. Of all these particular ambitions, a national ambition is composed, which manifests itself in a people by the love of conquest, and in their prince by the love of despotism: from national ambition flow imposts, slavery, tyrannies, and war, a sufficient scourge of itself for the human race.

I was long under the conviction that ambition must be natural to man; but now I consider it as a simple result from our education. We are involved so early in the prejudices of so many whose interest is concerned to communicate them to us, that it becomes extremely difficult to distinguish through the rest of life, what is natural to us and what artificial. In order to form a judgment of the institutions of our societies, we must withdraw to a distance from them.

THE DUTY OF PARENTAL RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.

JEHOVAH said to his ancient people, the Jews, "These words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." This command made it binding on them to instruct their children in the truths of God, and surely no one will say it is less so with us, to whom this injunction is now addressed; to whom Jehovah has so much more perfectly revealed his will, and who have been made the recipients of richer blessings. To us he has made known truths of the most instructive character, which are admirably adapted to engage, to elevate, and guide the youthful mind.

Search all the books that are provided to interest and instruct the young, and amidst the almost innumerable multitude, you will find none that will compare with

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the Word of God. Its biographies of the wise and good are inimitably simple, comprehensive, and beautiful. Its examples of the different results of virtue and vice are strikingly adapted to affect the heart. Its histories are unequalled, and such as cannot be found in any uninspired book. Its moral precepts and narratives enlist the conscience, and illuminate the soul. And its profound doctrines, such as the creation and the fall of man; the character and work of Jesus; the evil and the conse quences of transgression; the necessity for repentance and regeneration; the way of justification by faith, and meetness for heaven; the solemnities of judgment; the immortality of the soul; the eternal punishment of the wicked, and the endless happiness of the righteous;-these are worthy of an angel's powers, and yet they are so presented as to be within the comprehension of a child; and when simply illustrated, and pointedly applied, they will deeply engage and impress the youthful mind.

Whatever is necessary to lead a child to purity and vigour of thought,-to goodness and amiability of temper,-to integrity and disinterestedness of action,-to high and holy aims,-and to happiness and usefulness on earth, with eternal glory in heaven,-is found in the invaluable Word of God. It is the divine storehouse of all that is interesting and precious,-of all that is adapted to mould and sanctify the character of man.

With such a volume, so divinely adapted to renew the soul, nothing could be more reasonable or just than the command for parents to instruct their children in its truths. It is, in fact, an expression of Divine kindness; for, so keen and inquisitive are the perceptions of children,-so quick and tender are their susceptibilities

and so strong and lasting are their impressions, that such instructions will leave an indelible impress on their souls. They cannot, whatever may be the character of their subsequent lives, be entirely forgotten; but they will exert a restraining, if not a governing influence.

Parents, in fulfilling this requirement you bless both your children and yourselves. You fortify their minds against the seductive snares of sin; you surround them with moral barriers, which, through the grace of God, will be impenetrable to all the temptations of Satan; and you prepare them to record, with gratitude, in after days, your lessons, and to utter their fervent blessings on your memories.

A distinguished minister, who has lately been removed from earth to heaven, said, a few years since, respecting the instruc

tions of his mother:-"To this moment I recall the soft, kind manner of a mother, who early left her orphan child for a brighter and more congenial scene. Even now my mind turns to its perplexity, when I thought as a child.' I can renew my objection, and urge my doubt, and still do I seem to hear her gentle voice, to gaze on 'the meek intelligence of those dear eyes,' while she checked the improper sentiment, and relieved the painful apprehension. Her instructions are as deeply traced on the memory as her features, and as easily recalled as her tones. She told me why the Saviour must die, though the Father was pleased to forgive; and from her I learnt the rudiments of that sacred science, which, with all my neglects, I have never, from that hour, refrained to cultivate, or forborne to pursue. It may be weak to say it, but if I can claim any theological taste or store, I owe it all to her. Feeble is the tribute I can pay to her excellence, nor had it been obtruded, but to illustrate the principle of domestic instruction."

Parents, go and do likewise. Say not you do not possess the knowledge, for in the Bible you have vast stores of heavenly wisdom. Say not you are unprepared for it, for attention will soon fit you for its appropriate discharge. Say not that they are religiously instructed in the Sabbath school, for this will never relieve you of the obligation to meet their spiritual wants. Say not that you have not time, for this is even more important than working for their daily bread. This respects their duty both to God and man. It concerns their bodies and their souls. It relates to their present and eternal interests. It will, with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, secure to them the favor of Jehovah, and invest them with invaluable and eternal wealth. If you have not yet commenced the discharge of this hallowed duty, begin to-day. If you have never studied the precious Bible for this purpose, be persuaded, by the love you bear your offspring, and the solicitude you feel for their welfare, to begin now. They need the bread of life, and God has commanded you to feed them with it. Oh, do not withhold from them this indispensable boon. Do not, with the means of spiritual nourishment in your hands, let them sink to everlasting death. Be not the instruments of their ruin. Gather them around you, and read to them lessons of holy truth. Speak to them, with affection and earnestness, of the will of God. Urge them to obey it. Commend them in solemn prayer to him, and you will soon find the exercise a blessing to yourselves and to them.

THE HUMANE NEGRO.

AN observer narrates: "Not many years ago, I saw an honest negro, as he was walking towards Deptford, at the rate of about five miles an hour, stop short, in passing an old sailor of a different complexion, with but one arm, and two wooden legs. It was my fortune to observe this worthy savage take three half-pence and a farthing, his little all, out of the side-pocket of his trowsers, wrap them up in a bit of an old handbill, force them into the weeping sailor's retiring hand, with both his, wipe his eyes with the corner of his blue patched jacket, and walk away so happy and so fast, that I was obliged to put my horse to its speed to get up with the honest African, in order to shake him by the hand." The negro's feelings were quick to notice another's misery, they were generous, they were delicate-he stopped short at the sight of the sailor-he gave his little all-he wrapped it up in a bit of an old hand-bill, and forced it into the sailor's hand, and walked hastily away -and he was happy, so happy! O there is, in such humaneness of heart, as he displayed, a luxury rich and mellow as the delicious summer-fruits of his own sunny clime! But what is mere humaneness compared to the tender benevolence and the holy love to man which are incited and sustained by the influence of faith in the Redeemer? These are the true civilization of the human species, who by nature, are all barbarians, ‘living in enmity,' 'hateful and hating one another;' and who, in the just and highest sense, become adorned with whatever is 'virtuous' and 'lovely,' and of good report,' only when they ask the grace of a spiritual life at the throne of 'the just God and the Saviour.'

A GREAT AND A LITTLE MIND.

THE difference between a great mind's and a little mind's use of history is this:-The latter would consider, for instance, what Luther did, taught or sanctioned; the former, what Luther-a Luther-would now do, teach and sanction.-If you would be well with a great mind, leave him with a favourable impression of you;-if with a little mind, leave him with a favourable opinion of himself.

ANGER. As a preventative of anger, banish all tale-bearers and slanderers from your conversation, for it is these blow the devil's bellows to rouse up the flames of rage and fury, by first abusing your ears and then your credulity, and after that steal away your patience; and all this perhaps, for a lie. To prevent anger, be not too inquisitive into the affairs of others, mistakes of your friends; for this is going or what people say of yourself, or into the out to gather sticks, to kindle a fire to burn your own house.-Old Divine.

WHO can tell the value of a smile? It costs the giver nothing, but is beyond price to the erring and relenting, the sad and cheerless, the lost and forsaken. It disarms malice, subdues temper, turns hatred to love, revenge to kindness, and paves the darkest paths with gems of sunlight. A smile on the brow betrays a kind heart, a pleasant friend, an affectionate brother, a dutiful son, a happy husband. It adds a charm to beauty, it decorates the face of the deformed, and makes a lovely woman resemble an angel in paradise.

AN excellent mother, in writing to one of her sons on the birth of his eldest child says, Give him an education that his life may be useful; teach him religion that his death may be happy.'

SIR ISAAC NEWTON, in the true spirit of humility, spoke of himself, at the close of his life, as a child who spent time in gathering pebbles on the shore, while the great ocean lay untraversed.'

It is said that Mozart just before he died exclaimed, "Now I begin to see what might be done in music!'

RELIGION is the best armour that a man can have; but it is the worst cloke.

WE walk upon the verge of two worlds: at our feet lies the very grave that awaits

us.

THERE is no friend so true, so kind, so real and so good, as woman.

WISE men are instructed by reason; men of less understanding by experience; the most ignorant by necessity; and the beast by nature.

A wise book is a true friend,-its author a public benefactor.