of wisdom,'-"The fear of God, which passeth all understanding.' However easy, gentle, complying in other respects, where your religious principles,where the testimony of a good conscience,-where your duty to your Creator, are concerned, be firm and resolute; be steadfast and immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.' Thus shall

youth be guarded, and beauty adorned; thus shall society be sweetened, and solitude cheered; thus shall prosperity be sanctified, and adversity soothed; thus shall life, even to old age and decay, be rendered useful and respectable; and thus shall death and the grave be stripped of all their terrors."

68

CHAPTER IV.

HOME.

In assigning HOME as a woman's proper and peculiar station, we are placing her in no ignoble office; we are pointing out to her no mean and uninteresting duties. We limit her energies and powers within a circle, but it is a circle of gold.

M. A. Stodart.

WHEREIN Consists the true glory of a people? Their prosperity does not lie simply in outward abundance. It depends far more on the solid virtues and the Christian graces of the young in their midst. And these qualities appertain not only to our sons, in whom it is often imagined the whole strength at least of nations is concentrated. Our daughters likewise are concerned in the advancement of this high object. One of the sacred writers implores for his countrymen this blessing: "that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace.' They must be " corner stones," lying at the very foundation of the social edifice, and therefore an essential part of its support. And to their power must be added moral beauty. They are to be "polished after the similitude of a palace." It is to home, to our daughters," and through them to the domestic relations in general, that we are pointed for the ele

ments of public prosperity. "Happy is that people' among whom these are assiduously cherished. Happy are they, because a people "whose God is the Lord."

What views are usually taken by the youthful female of her parental home? It has various aspects. To one it appears pre-eminently as the place in which she is to find the necessaries, comforts, and perhaps luxuries of life. The heads of the family are appointed At her feet must brothers and sisters lay the daily tribute of service. She exacts from each inmate all the attention that can be rendered to one born to command. She is, in one word, a household divinity.

to toil for her.

Another regards her home as a scene for display. The furniture, the style, the outline, and the filling up, must be all for the eye of the visitor. If she consent to give her own hand to the work, the main motive is for fireside decorations.

A third is alive to the natural ties which bind her to one and another; but it is chiefly as a matter of sentiment that she contemplates even the nearest and most sacred relations. Has she been absent for a season; how fervent are her salutations on returning to her native spot! Does sickness assail a parent or brother, and life seem exposed; what tears, what wringing of the hands, what uncontrolled wailings, are heard! But the test of true love is not here. It is the personal sacrifices we make for another; the toil, self-denial, watchfulness and patient service we bestow

on him, that reveals the sincerity and depth of our affection.

Still another class are those young women who esteem the great purpose of their home to be the furnishing all possible facilities for their literary instruction. If they attend school constantly, and improve their time there, then have they a claim on all their connexions to wait their bidding, and execute their mandates, in every interval of study. The whole being is thus absorbed in the intellect.

There remains one more view of the fireside, and that is the Moral, Spiritual, Religious one. This we believe to be the grand figure on the canvass of domestic life. Every other should be subservient to this. It should stand forth with a commanding interest, and address us in a tone of authority. Our home may be welcome for the conveniences and comforts it affords. We may take a just pride in its external aspect. Our hearts are allowed to fix some of their affections on its objects. It is right that the young seek earnestly the means of intellectual culture at the hands of parental care. But these are all "lesser lights." They can only borrow and reflect. There must be in the highest heaven a "greater light," even the Sun of Righteousness, or life sinks beneath a darkness that may be felt.

The Scriptures assign this rank to the moral bearings of home. The patriarchs exhibited their fairest virtues in the private relations of life. Judaism was

penetrated with a domestic spirit. The age of the wise man could furnish qualities, of which, in the book of Proverbs, we have an illustrious picture, in the character of a perfect matron and wife. Sarah, Ruth, Hannah, where was the scene of their glory? In Home. Equally does the New Testament exalt the spiritual influence of the domestic relations. Who was the immortal Mary? The mother of Jesus. What gave Martha and the other Mary their renown in the Gospel? They were sisters of Lazarus, and, partly from their fidelity as such, were loved by their Master. She who cast the two mites into the treasury, among the rich the richest, was the more commended because a poor widow. Lydia, not only gave herself by the baptismal seal, unto God, but honoured the cause in her household. Thus does home blend its waters with the river of life. Fidelity to its trusts is an inseparable ingredient in the cup of salvation.

Therefore would we conjure the youthful female to value her domestic bonds as a means of moral culture, and never, under sunny skies or beneath clouds that lower, to lose sight of this use of them. She should carry into the detail of her daily walk, religious principle. Not the slightest act should she perform, which is at war with her spiritual culture. Love, duty, trust, these may enter into the very soul of her being. Let her place them before her, and pursue them steadily, and she shall become the " stone" of her family, "polished" with a divine lustre.

corner