youthful impetuosity and recklessness, hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther." Care should be taken that boys have regular employment by day, either of work or study; and let home be made so attractive, if possible, as to retain them there by choice at night. Much may be accomplished in this respect, by cheerful conversation, interesting reading, musical and other innocent entertainments. Prison records disclose the points to be guarded by parental assiduity. Convicts are generally persons whose early education was neglected, whose wills were unsubdued, and whose consciences were unenlightened. They came in contact with bad example, became rash and rebellious, refused to work, ran away, wandered from place to place, joined in street carousals, read corrupting books, visited dram-shops, circuses, bowling alleys and theatres, committed larceny, and finally went in the ways of the strange woman. In these remarks we had almost forgotten to address the class most intimately interested in the subject. A word, therefore, to boys themselves. Those who teach you to disobey your parents and despise the God of heaven, and lead you into vice, and revel with you in forbidden pleasures, will abandon whom they have betrayed, when sin's inevitable disasters begin to overwhelm you. "When at last death gnaws at your bones, and knocks at your heart, when hope and reputation have fled, and long, long ago, all peace of mind shall have taken its departure, even in the last extremity, no offices of kindness may be expected from your enticer." He will not approach to bathe your aching head, cheer your forlorn soul, aid your faltering steps in their descent to the grave, or weep when you are gone. Hope not for consolations from such a source. Better ask fertilization from a burning tide of lava, or protection from the hot thunderbolt. "All the shameless atrocities of the wicked are nothing compared to their heartlessness towards each other when sorrows cluster around. Then, if if the virtuous do not pity and God compassionate, you will find no friend in the wide universe." A MOTHER, having lost in early infancy her lovely twindaughters, expresses the emotions of her heart in view of the event, as follows: DEAR AUNT, : My prevailing feeling is that of submission, though I cannot always restrain the involuntary tear when I think of those sweet ones so recently called into existence, and so speedily consigned to the cold, damp earth. I could not hold them in my arms, I could scarcely imprint one kiss upon their little faces, or realize they were my own before I was called to take the long, last, lingering look, and then resign them to Him who gave, and who, I could but feel, had an equal right to take away, though my fond heart would fain have retained them longer in its embrace. Various were my feelings as I looked upon their little forms all shrouded for the grave, and about to be borne hence to be here no more. The dying groan had ceased, the last struggle was over, a placid serenity had settled upon their still features; their tiny arms were peacefully composed across their breasts, and side by side. they lay all mute and unconscious, waiting to be borne away. I gazed, and could not cease that gaze; for to me it seemed that immortal beauty lingered there. Their souls had never been tarnished by voluntary sin, and they had doubtless sped their flight to Abraham's bosom. Mysterious as the strokes of death often are, they seem especially so in the case of in fants. To us it appears strange, that the buds of brightest promise should be cut off just as their beauties begin to unfold themselves to our view; but it is because we cannot look into the future, cannot penetrate the thick veil that conceals the purposes of Jehovah. Now, dear aunt, you are a mother, and doubtless your heart often bleeds with anguish at the remembrance of your own sweet Edward, when you think of what he was, together with what he might have been, had he lived to maturity. But is there not another place of human development, another theatre of human action? You can never forget the chamber where lay the dying child. The fever flush was upon his cheek, the dewdrops of death chased each other down his brow. How helpless, frail and fading a thing he was, writhing in bitter struggles! Composed to his last, long sleep, the faded rose upon his bosom seemed a fit emblem of himself. Should he be disinterred after the rest of years, his beautiful form would present but a handful of common dust. Centuries have elapsed, em The course of time rolls on. pires have waned, worlds have passed, and time is ended. Fast by the throne of the Eternal stands a mighty angel, wise in the knowledge of uncounted years, rich in the wealth of heaven's unfathomable mines of learning, resplendent in his kingly robes, and still growing in his long, long spirit life of joy. The infant of earth is still in the infancy of his heavenly career. Why, then, do we mourn, when these fragile flowers are removed from chilling winds, to bloom forever mid milder skies and brighter suns than earth affords! DEVOTION. - Prayer is the application of want to Him who alone can relieve it, the confession of sin to Him who alone can pardon it. It is the urgency of poverty, the prostration of humility, the fervency of penitence, the confidence of trust. It is not eloquence, but earnestness; not the definition of helplessness, but the feeling of it; not figures of speech, but compunction of soul. |