ONES AT IT.

"Give us this day our daily bread."

"Brad of our souls! whereon we feed ;

True manna from on high!"

LITTLE folks, do you commit a verse from the Holy Book daily; repeat it likewise at the table spread with heaven's bounties? How many verses will this be in one year? Three hundred and sixtyfive? Yes, young friends, three hundred and sixtyfive precious texts from the Sacred Volume, worth more to you, if hid in the heart, than so many gold eagles. Parents, what think you of this system? The responsibility of its success rests on you.

Says the Psalmist: "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I sin not against thee."

Ir not, who else can it be?

to dear mamma, smilingly?

And what is she presenting Guess ? No, you needn't.

"There's nothing lost. The tiniest flower

That grows within the darkest vale,
And, like the balm affection brings,

"Twill scatter gladness round her head."

This precious little one is now in her fifth year, gentle as a lamb, sweet and smiling. Her mother talks with her frequently about the Lord Jesus-what he has done and is

IS THIS LITTLE MARY?

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now doing to save everybody that will be saved. On these solemn occasions little Mary is wide awake-all eyes and ears. Every syllable is grasped eagerly. Her godly mother has cheering hopes of her being a Christian, for she is kind, loving, affectionate, obedient, often saying "Mamma, you're tired, I know you are-let me please baby awhile, and help you do this and that." She tries to make every one happy as she is, and always ready to do kind acts, and not tell of them; never seeming proud of anything she does. These verses she has committed carefully:

"Not mighty deeds make up the sum

Of happiness below,

But little acts of kindness,

Which any child may show."

The tree is known by its fruit. A good little girl, out of the good treasure of her heart, bringeth forth good things. One day little Mary came to her mother joyfully and said: "Mamma, if Jesus were here, might I run right into his arms, and hug him, as I do you?"

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Why do you ask, dear?" said her mother.

Because, mamma, I feel just as if I wanted to, he is so good."

Then her mother replied, "Yes, my dear, I think you might; for, when he was on earth, he took little children in his arms; and they were just such children, too, as now live in the world. Yes, you can go to him, and speak to him, whenever you wish, just as if you knew he was here by your side. Indeed, he is here; only we cannot see him."

Her mother is quite sure this loving, kind, obedient child is one of those little ones whom Jesus calls "His lambs."

We see what Gospel training will do-what an unspeak able blessing a pious, faithful mother is !-the greatest of all earthly blessings. However unseen may be the results of her labors, those labors never are without blessed results the case of every one of her children.

The influence she exerts is the most excellent known on earth. Children brought up by a godly mother-who knows her duty and does it—who doubts their salvation? She makes the earliest, the deepest, and the most lasting impressions on their hearts. In their minds, religion is associated with all that is kind, winning, and pleasant in home-life. They grow up with reverence for the Bible, the house of God, and the ministers of Christ. They do not remember when first they heard the name of Jesus, or bowed their knees in prayer, or lisped the praises of God. They are instructed to hate and shun vice, and the seductions to it, and to admire and practice virtue. Having been trained up in the way they should go, when they become old they will not depart from it.

How great is their responsibility! God has committed to them the salvation of their own offspring. To secure the faithful discharge of the trust, he has planted in the maternal heart an affection which no toil, care, or sacrifice can exhaust. No mother who studies her responsibility or the interests of her children, can consent to be without the sustaining and guiding influence of Divine grace.

Fashion kills more women than toil and sorrow. Obedience to fashion is a greater transgression of the law of woman's nature, a greater injury to her physical constitution, than the hardships of poverty and neglect.

Not a

This

searching the Scriptures is a daily business. Happy family! a second Paradise!

Here lies the secret of all successful family discipline of rearing the tender thought."

"Oh, give me the pious and happy home,

Where the bond that unites is love,

Where the will of the Holy One is done,

And his blessing sought from above."