ness.

Whatever may be the thing that you undertake, the law of kindness in the eye and on the lip and in the hand-in things negative and in things positive and affirmative-the law of the household, the law of association must be kindness. That is the summer in which all the evil that is in children will naturally tend to wither early, and all the good that is in them will go forward with root and with stem, bearing abundant fruit. If you would govern your children well day by day, remember God is love. God condemned the world for sin, never converted a soul. God so loved the world that He gave His Son for it, has converted multitudes. It is love that is the Magister; it is love that is the Emperor; it is love that is the God.

Now, in closing, let me say to the young that are moving forward along the appointed paths of life, that gaiety and joyfulness, and entering into the marriage relation, and sending forth the joyful outcry, “Behold a man-child is born into the world," is all well. Do not think that I am out of sympathy with you in this. I will rejoice with your joy. But still there is not any thing so serious in life; there is no step that is so full of weighty responsibility as accepting from the hand of God one of his little ones, which you are to train. For the light and glory of having children in the family is not a mere matter of pride and social pleasure. It is a matter of the greatest moment. And while I would not take away from your joy, I would temper it with a deeper insight. I would give you a sense of what the meaning of this opening into life is, that you may bring to it all your heart, and all your soul, and cry unto God for help in this great work of your life. And let me say still further, that I count the rearing of children in the household to be one of God's opportunities, than which there scarcely can be I do not undervalue other relations in life. other greater. any To be a magistrate, to be a noble, to be a king, where these things are esteemed; to be a genius and an instructor in the community at large -this certainly has its dignity and its nobility. But, after, all, there is no place, it seems to me, that realizes so much of the virtue of Christ's heart, and there is no place that is so much like heaven, and there is no place that will be so crowned with honors, as that family in which the father and mother are striving to rear their children for usefulness in this life, and for immortality in the life which is to come.

You know very well that I do not believe there ought to be any prejudice, nor public sentiment, nor custom, nor law, to prevent a woman speaking in public, if she has a desire to speak, or singing in public if she has a genius for song. I believe that a woman may do anything which she feels called to do, and can do well. But while I honor these things, and stand for the liberty of woman in regard to them, it must not be thought that I consider a woman who

is so clothed with genius more noble on that account. I hold that the woman who sings hymns over the cradle that her child may learn the eternal songs of heaven, is doing a higher work than if she were like Jenny Lind, and sang on the concert stage. I hold that no orator, and no singer, and no artist-worker, is to be compared with the mother who is carving the image of God in the soul of her little child. And no mother need fear that she is obscure; no mother need long to go out of the household, as if it were an obscure place. The Gate of Heaven is inscribed over every humble family; and no Christian mother who is teaching her children in the school-house of her own heart, need crave any higher walk than that. Be content; thank God for the privilege; be faithful to your charge; and you, winged as the angels are, shall lead your young immortal one day higher and higher into the heavenly land, until you pause at the feet of Jesus.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.*

O Lord our God! wilt thou open thine arms and take thy children into the bosom of thy love. As thou hast committed them to the love of their parents, so take both parents and children unto thyself. And teach these parents how to teach their offspring, so that both may find their way, through faith and patience, to the heavenly land. Give them great joy of their children. May they be more precious to them than all other things on earth. May they be willing to spend and to be spent for them. May they not ask that they shall have their reward in this life (yet grant them somewhat of it); but may they look forward and believe in that life which is to come, when they shall be gathered, and all their children with them, group on group, none left behind, none lost, all saved, through the unspeakable mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Grant, we beseech of thee, that parents who are rejoicing in their children may know how to rejoice in the Lord. Grant that those who are heavyhearted over their children may be lightened of their care and of their burden, and so guided of thee that they shall not fail to bring their children with them when they appear in Zion and before God.

We beseech of thee that thou wilt look upon those who have consecrated their children, whether in the public assembly or privately in their own closets. Accept that dedication which they have made of their children; and in so far as it 1 es in them, may they be able to bring up their children so that they shall be honorable and prosperous in this life, and also enter the life that

is to come.

Grant, we pray thee, that we may be more and more rebuked at our want of faith, and our want of fidelity, and our want of earnestness in rearing our children for God. Teach us how to use the world in their behalf without abusing it. Teach us how so to set an example before them that we may be a living Gospel to them.

Bless mothers, through whose sufferings we came into this world, and whose life was given for our life. And bless, we beseech of thee, their soli"Immediately following the baptism of children.

tude, and all the thoughts which they pondered deeply. Bless mothers as they set their children apart in the sanctuary at home, and pray over them and instruct them in the way of the Lord. And grant that they may take comfort by the way, and rejoice in the tasks and the duties which thou hast made incumbent upon them.

And have compassion upon any who are not able to teach their children of Christ; who know thee not themselves; who cannot teach their little ones the way of life because they have not found it for their own feet. Lord Jesus, in the greatness of their care for their children, disclose thyself unto them; and may every parent that is training children for immortality, make sure of the help of God. And may thy love illumine their darkness, and fill them with hope and with courage, and with true wisdom. And we beseech of thee that thou wilt teach us how to refine our life for our children more and more. Make our homes more and more ful. of the heavenly Spirit. Cast out all infirmity, and all rudeness, and all sin, and all clamor, and all things that offend the purity of thine eye, and the sweetness of thine heart. And we pray that Christian households may more and more be those lights that shall guide men from vice to virtue, and from the ways of this world and its wickedness to the ways of Jesus Christ an 1 his virtue and joy.

Grant thy blessing to rest, we pray thee, upon those who are teaching. May those to whom thou hast committed the care of young souls waiting for the seal, not be overburdened with fear and anxiety. May they know how to cast their care upon the Lord, and have such a holy confidence and such a blessed courage, that their children shall catch the inspiration, and overcome their easily besetting sins.

And we pray that thou wilt bless all schools for instruction, both in secular knowledge and in things divine. Bless our Sabbath-schools and Bible-classes, and all Mission-schools, and all those that, to-day, everywhere attempt to press knowledge upon the susceptible mind. Wilt the Lord guide them and

bless them abundantly.

We pray for our whole land. We pray for knowledge, that it may spread, and that virtue may come with it. May temperance and self-denial and all true Christian charity prevail throughout this whole land.

Hasten the time when all nations shall know thee; when all shall be instructed and competent to instruct their offspring. And let the glory of the Lord, so long delayed, at last break forth as the morning, and all the earth see thy salvation.

We ask it for Christ Jesus' sake. Amen.

PRAYER AFTER THE SERMON.

Our Father, we pray that thou wilt grant thy blessing to rest upon the word of instruction which we have endeavored to give. May it do good. May it incite more thought, more prayer, more searching to see if it be in accordance with thy mind and will. Bless parents, and teach them how to be better parents. Bless their children; and in spite of the mistakes which they make, may thy grace triumph over their imperfect teaching. And may our children grow up to adorn life. And may they by faith take hold of the promises of the heavenly land. Bless us when we sing once more; and go with us to our homes; and finally, bring us to our homes above.

We ask it for Chr st's sake. Amen.

WATCHING WITH CHRIST.

"What! could ye not watch with me one hour ?"-Matt. XXVI., 40.

There was a particular place on the Mount of Olives, and in Gethsemane, to which Christ often resorted. It was a sacred place to him. It is said, "For Jesus often repaired thither with his disciples ;" so it would seem that he did not select, every time that he withdrew himself from Jerusalem and went out there, just such a place as happened to suit him; but that he had chosen some nook; that there was some place to which he had become wonted, and which was specially dear to him. For he knew the benefit of association. We leave something of our hearts in every place where joy or sorrow comes to us. Our experience seems to go out to the material objects which are around us, when we have a heart-history; and our feelings seem to become the attributes of those outward objects, and to endow them with life. So our imagination takes hold. And afterward, all the things which were around about us when we were greatly exercised in soul seem to reach forth to us, and to enter into sympathy with us, as if they were living beings. And so the hearth; the door-stone; the old tree, that threw its branches over the house where we were reared as children; the well, into which from day to day many tears, it may be, were dropped, as the mother went to and fro; the brook, that sang to our sighing; the mountain ravine, where we wandered to get rid of busy life; a thousand places that in youth, or in struggling manhood, have been witnesses to our deep emotions-these things become personal to us, and afterwards throw back, in their shadow, something of our own selves upon us, and greet us with a human sympathy. And this is the only consideration of which material things are susceptible. No priestly hand can give virtue to stone or to mortar. No service, and no sprinkling of water thrice holy, can make any place holy. There is but one priest, and that is the human heart, and there is but one thing, and that is human experience, which can strike through material objects and give to them thereafter a sacredness.

Where men have studied long; where the artist has worked long;

SUNDAY MORNING, Nov. 20, 1870. LESSON: COLLOSIANS I. HYMNS (Plymouth Collection): Nos. 284, 769, 1323.

where the heart that has been tried has poured itself forth in prayer; where love has met us; where it has planted its immortal seeds; whereever our deepest and truest life has been unfolded-there we have a consecrated place, a temple "not built with hands"; and thither we are prone to resort as to a home. That is the heart's work.

When birds build their nests, they first gather rude sticks and pliant twigs, and bend them to shape; and then with mud, or glutinous se cretions, they fill up the interstices. On this foundation they lay feath ers and soft grasses and hair. When all is gathered and laid down, they settle themselves into the rounded nest; and, turning about and about, they smooth and finish the nest with their own breast. So it is with men that make homes. It is the bosom that does it finally, and

not the bill nor the claw.

Under these olive trees there was a temple to Christ, compared with which the grand and glittering temple over against it was colder than the stone that it was, and emptier than the stone. Here, in this one place to which he had been accustomed to resort with his disciples, he had poured out tears and prayers, and held communion with them, and meditated his own work, and had communion with the Father, until the place itself was to him as the gate of heaven.

And now, as his last trial was coming, and the darkness was already lowering upon the horizon of the new day, he came back to this place of experience. He did not permit himself to be arrested among the vulgar in the street, who would deride the scene. Nor would he try the hearts of his friends in Bethany with terror and alarm by being arrested in their sacred dwelling. He came back to his own haunt ; to the place whither he had been accustomed to resort. And there, he went through his last inward trial, and passed also, through the scenes of his trial and arrest. He knew the coming hour; and he took with him Peter, James and John, to watch with him.

Now these were the three disciples that had the deepest affection, and the most power of expressing sympathy. For, although Peter was impetuous, he was just as impetuous in affection as in conduct. James and John, brothers, possessed largely the same nature-John the deepest; but in early life James is represented to have been the most meek and sweet-minded. And these three, best adapted to express sympathy, Christ selected to be the witnesses of his last experience.

But why should they watch with him?-for he said, "Tarry here and watch while I go yonder and pray." To watch was to keep awake, simply. What good could they do? They could not avert that inward trial, the shadow of which was already coming upon him. For, as astronomers know when none others think of it, that travelling through the heavens the vast shadow is progressing toward the sun