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ing, profitable, edifying; things moral, intellectual and political? Sensible, intelligent, virtuous wives highly appreciate this, especially those pressed with domestic cares and duties, who have very little time for extended reading and investigations. Some husbands are very remiss in this benevolence; other, we are pleased to say, are happily communicative, take especial pains and delight in posting their wives and children, in imparting life and information. At table, during meal-times, and on every suitable occasion, they open their minds freely, cheerfully, give a condensed, succint, bird's eye view of all their book and paper readings, and all the interesting and important facts, gathered variously daily, weekly, monthly.

Thus wives and all present are cheered, gratified, benefited, enabled also to impart the information to others; this general impartation of things, profitable, interesting and edifying produces a salutary effect on the minds and hearts of the husband, deepening and riveting virtuous principles and important facts. "He that watereth shall be watered also himself." Husbands, do you think of this? Will you think of it? This method also produces sociability and companionship between husbands and wives most pleasantly, hopefully and profitably, which would otherwise be lost.--Golden Rule.

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No matter if you haven't a candle to bless yourself with, for what a beautiful light glowing coals make, rendering cloudless, shedding a sunset through the room; just light enough to talk by, not loud, as in the highways; nor rapid, as in the hurrying world; but softly, slowly, whisperingly with pauses between, for the storm without and the thoughts within to fill up with. Then wheel the sofa round by the fire; no matter if the sofa is a settee, uncushioned at that, if so be it is just long enough for two and a half in it. How sweetly the music of silver bells from time to come falls on the listening heart then. How mournfully swell the chimes of "the days that are no more." Under such circumstances, and at such a time, one can get at least sixty-nine and a half nearer "kingdom come" than any other point in this world laid down in "Malte Brun." May be you may smile at this picture; but there is a secret between us, viz.: it is a copy of a picture rudely done, but true as the Pentateuch of an original in every human heart.

"A POWERFUL REMEDY." A rather eccentric, yet eminent, physician was called upon to attend a middle-aged rich lady who had imaginary ills. After many wise inquiries about her symptoms and manner of life, he asked for a piece of paper and wrote down the following prescription: "Do something for somebody." In the gravest manner he handed it to the patient and left. The doctor heard nothing from the lady for a long time. One Christmas morning he was hastily summoned to the cottage of his Irish washerwoman.

"It's not mesself, doctor, it's me wrist that's ailing. Ye see, I was after goin' out, into the darkness for a few bits of wood, when me fut

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WOMAN. He cannot be an unhappy man who has the love of woman to accompany him in every department of life. The world may look dark and cheerless without, enemies may gather in his path, but when he returns to his fireside, and feels the tender love of woman, he forgets his cares and troubles and is a comparatively happy man. He is but half prepared for the journey of life who takes not with him that friend who will forsake him in no emergency, who will divide his sorrows, increase his joys, lift the veil from his heart, and throw sunshine amid the darkest scenes. No, that man cannot be miserable who has such a companion, be he ever so poor, despised, and trodden upon by the world.

DREN.

FINDING FAULT WITH YOUR CHILIt is at times necessary to censure and punish; but very much more may be done by encouraging children when they do well. Be, therefore, more careful to express your approbation of good conduct than your disapprobation of bad. Nothing can more discourage a child than a spirit of incessant fault-finding on the part of its parent; and hardly anything can exert a more injurious influence upon the disposition both of the parent and child. There are two great motives influencing human actions--hope and fear. Both of these are at times necessary. But

who would not prefer to have her child influenced to good conduct by a desire of pleasing, rather than by the fear of offending? If a mother never expresses her gratification when her children do well, and is always censuring them when she sees anything amiss, they are discouraged and unhappy; their dispositions become hardened and soured by this ceaseless fretting; and, at last, finding whether they do well or ill, they linquish all efforts to please, and beare equally found fault with, they recome heedless of reproaches.

DANGERS OF WEALTH. Though wealth showers around us its bless

ings, it bears in its train a long list of attending evils. The moderately wealthy vies with the millionaire in useless extravagances; consequently, they who only have thousands at command are aspiring in like manner to outvie their more wealthy neighbors, and become bankrupt. Nobility of mind is overlooked or ignored by the side of nobility of gold. Ignorance and folly dwell in palaces, while merit and worth starve in hovels. The wealth that should dispense blessings, crowning all life with happiness, is spent in frivolities. Some there are who give encouragement to art; there are some who will drop a large moiety into one basket; there are a few who use their wealth well. One

exclaims "I cannot spend my income!" and yet, with miserly feelings, hugs his money to his heart, when the poor and friendless cry out at his very door for relief. Instead of sharing the large loaf, which a kind Providence has committed to his care, with the needy, he lives on, burying the talent lent him in the earth, and, dying, leaves all to be squandered by his descendants.

USELESS ACCOMPLISMENTS. Much time and hard-earned money are fre

quently spent in the accumulation of accomplishments by those who would be far more wisely and properly employed in learning those duties which life, as it is now constituted, demands of the great majority. Let the hours spent upon music by those who have no ear, upon drawing by those who have no eye, and upon the languages by those who never after speak any but their mother tongue, be added together, year after year, and then ask yourselves the question, What is it all for? Why is it that hard-working fathers and care-worn mothers, who have little or nothing to leave their daughters, so unhesitatingly bow to the supposed necessity of this expensive outlay? Is it because they Is it because they think it will add to their permanent comfort, or worth, or improvement? No; but it is because they think it genteel. Now this is all wrong. First make your daughters good housewives: then, if they have any special talent, cultivate that. It is better to do one thing well, than a dozen badly: to excel in a single accomplishment, than pretend to many and fail

in all.

THE BEAUTIFUL. All the world worships beauty. The infant exhibits unmistakable, though inarticulate delight,on perceiving certain motions or sounds, and is attracted by any bright color or dazzling glitter, be it of the costly jewel or gew-gaw, the painted daub, or the marvel of art, flower or star.

The young man, when "she comes whom God sends," finds the whole face of things, more lovely, nay glorified for her sake-beauty-" amid all beauty beautiful," having made for itself a shrine in his heart.

The old man, after gazing in silent wonder on the setting sun, speaks kindly to those merry children who have been gathering buttercups and

on

daisies. His thoughts wander away and dwell with a lingering fondness "the days that are no more;" and as he gives the little ones his blessing, the subdued sweetness which beams from his face tells that a chastened heart is filled with the "beauty of holiness."-Titan.

EMBLEM OF GOD'S POWER. The Thracians had a striking emblem of the almighty power of God. It was a sun with three beams; one shining upon a sea of ice and melting it;

another

upon a a rock and melting it, and the third upon a dead man and putting life into him. And so the gospel is the power of God unto sa!vation to every one that believeth; it melts the coldest heart into love; it brings the hardest heart into a state of uniform obedience to the will of of God, and quickens those who were dead in tresspasses and sins.

A MOOTHER'S LOVE. How pure it is, and oh, how tender and unselfish! The chilhood bereft of a mother is

lonely indeed. No other ear can listen so kindly to the little childish joys or sorrows, or pardon so readily.

We do not fully realize how inestimable is the jewel we possess until we pass from childhood and look back upon our early days. We see spread out before us her many deeds of love and kindness; countless hours of weary watching, repaid perhaps, only by repinings and complaints, yet patiently borne for our sake. Many and many a comfort denied herself, that we might enjoy some luxury; toiling when she sadly needed rest, ever taking upon herself the burden to shield her child. The grave cannot hide her influence from us.

You may talk to me of other loves,
However true, and fond
And self-devoted they may be,
But a mother's goes beyond.

BESSIE.

THE STILL HOUR.

NEITHER the cold nor the fervid, but characters uniformly warm, are formed for friendship.

"IF a man be gracious to strangers, it shows that he is a citizen of the world, and his heart is no island, cut off from other islands, but a continent that joins them."--Lord Bacon.

NATURE, when she plants a vegetable poison, generally provides an antidote; so in the moral world, she causes sympathies to spring by the side of antipathies.

THE gospel requires a heart that is trained to obedience, more than an intellect skilled in logic and worldly wisdom. Obedience opens the way to knowledge. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned.

IDLENESS is the mother of mischief; the moment a horse has done eating his oats, he turns to and gnaws down his manger. Substitute labor for oats, and virtue for manger, and what is true of horses is equally

true of men.

WE are firm believers in the maxim that, for all right judgment of any man or thing, it is useful, nay essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad ones. Thomas Carlyle.

PAIN itself is not without its alleviations. It may be violent and frequent, but it is seldom both violent and long continued; and its pauses and intermissions become positive pleasures. It has the power of shedding a satisfaction over intervals of ease, which, I believe, few enjoyments exceed.

IN LIGHTER VEIN.

A LITTLE girl calling with her mother at a new house, where the

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BETSY, an old colored cook, was moaning around the kitchen the other day, when her mistress asked her if she was ill. "No ma'm, not don't feel ambition 'nough to get out, 'zactly," said Betsy, but the fac' is I of my own way."

"PERHAPS did not know that I you had corns," said a good-natured man, as a stranger set his carpet-bag down on the end of his toes, in a crowded car. "Much obliged to your for the information, stranger," said the car"but I think pet-bag man, you cultivate too much ground!"

DURING a discussion of religious

topics young Brown said: "I tell you that, if the other animals do not exist after death, neither will man.

There is no difference between man and a beast." And good old Jones mildly replied: "If anybody could convince me of that, it would be you,

Brown."

"Do you realize, sir," said the long-haired passenger, "that there is one who sees and hears all we do, who can solve our inmost thoughts, and before whom we are but crushed and bruised worms?" "Give us your hand, stranger," replied the other, "I know just how you feel. I'm married myself."

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT.

OFFICE OF MANFORD'S MAGA

ZINE.

Chicago, Ill., No. 774 W. Van Buren St., to which all letters should be addressed, for the present.

REV. T. H. TABOR, Editor and Publisher.

THE MAGAZINE.

TERMS OF THE MAGAZINE are the same

as usual, $1.50 per annum. NO DISCONTINUANCES until all arrearages are settled.

THIRTY-THIRD VOLUME.

With this number of our MAGAZINE we begin our thirty-third volume. Our MAGAZINE, therefore, has been issued monthly for more than the third of a century, and still we have many names on our list of subscribers, who have taken it all these years. Men and women to whom the MAGAZINE has become a household necessity from its long acquaintance and use. They sometimes say to us when we go to their homes-we read the first number of your MAGAZINE that was issued, and we have read the last. Their words of commendation come to us in almost every mail. And but for this, we hardly know how we could go on with our work.

For it is a great responsibility to spread a table month after month, at which so many hungry souls will sit and gather direction and strength for the coming days of joy or sorrow. We are fully aware that we speak to all ages and conditions in life-to those upon whose path the first rays of the morning sun are just beginning to shine, and to those who are passing down life's western slope, towards the Valley of Shadows.

For thirty-four years we have occupied the position of a pastor in the West-but we never had so large a parish or spoke to so large a congregation as we do now, through the pages of the MAGAZINE. And we never felt our responsibilty more sensibly. If a pastor's words are unwise, they are soon forgotten, but the printed page is preserved and remains to do good or evil after the hand that wrote them has turned to dust. The Lord give us wisdom and understanding for our work.

DARK DAYS.

The days grow dark and sad when severe sickness comes to the home, howhowever rich and beautiful in its appointments and surrounding. But to the poor, and especially to the poor minister of the Gospel, who has lived a life of sacrifice, that he might preach the Gospel of Christ to men, the darkness becomes so deep that it can be felt.

The editor of this MAGAZINE and his wife, have been passing through such days of darkness, during the past month and a half. The editor's wife was taken very sick in the early morning of the 10th of December, and for more than two weeks, her life was in great doubt. But through the treatment and constant attention of skillful physicians, and the blessing of a kind Providence, she is now convalescent. The delay in the appearance of the MAGAZINE was unavoidable in consequence of this sickness.

Many friends have shown us great kindness during our days of darkness and trial, for which we are truly grateful. Some of these friends we know, others we do not, for they were so cautious that

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