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year to the world depends the good and the happiness of millions. In your houses the real prosperity of the nation is determined more than in the Houses of Parliament. In the name of thousands, I say, Have mercy upon us!-and give us sober, industrious, honest men and women.

Are your sons to be employed as workmen? If so, they are of importance to their fellow-workmen and employers. They can form a strength or weakness, a blessing or curse, to both. Let us have sober steady men, whose words and example will be health and comfort to all around them. Give us men to whom we can entrust our money and our property in our shops and counting-houses; and to whom we can entrust our lives when travelling under their guidance by land or sea. But save us, we beseech of you, from the blaspheming infidel, the filthy sensualist, the insane drunkard, the coarse and rude savage, the leader of riots, the contriver of plots, the spouter of nonsense, the preacher of rebellion, the instigator of strikes, and the tryant of all!

Are your daughters to be servants in our houses? Give us such as are sometimes to be found, whom we can trust, respect, and cherish, as valued friends of the family; in whose keeping our goods, our character, our children, are safe. But deliver us, we beseech of you, from the domestic affliction of a dishonest, lying, quarrelling, disobedient, rude, selfish, or unfaithful servant, who, though leaving her place as soon as possible, may only make way for another of the same description!

In the name, too, of many a young tradesman, see that the wife he receives from your fireside may be such an one as can be a companion for an intelligent Christian man, an economical housekeeper for a working man; and be herself the Christian mother of his children; and not a thoughtless, handless, tawdry slattern, who keeps her house like a pig-stye, and her children like pigs-who idles her time in gossipping with her neighbours, or in drinking with them—for such horrors are by no

means rare!-thus driving her husband to ruin and misery, and tempting him to drunkenness or desertion.

Why should I say more on this head, to prove that your boys and girls, who are growing up around you to be men and women, are of immense and incalculable importance to the well-being of society? Have a care, then, how you bring them up!

2. I must come nearer home, and remind you that those little ones are of great importance to yourselves. I am sure you feel this, at all events, to be true. Oh! how important are these! They strengthen your arms for labour, and refresh you when at rest. They rouse you up, and send you out in the early morning, and make you glad to return home at night. That child who climbs your knee, twines its arms around your neck, and kisses your rough cheek, has more power over you than all the police in the city or than all the armies of the world, were they arrayed against you! Its smile holds you fast as no iron chain could do; and its fond caressings will often calm your wild heart, and make yourself a child. It would be nothing, indeed, to the world if that little light was extinguished; but would it not be darkness to your own home and heart? That parent has indeed sunk lower than the beasts that perish, when he is no longer thus influenced by the love of his children. You cannot, then, say-you surely never even thought-that it is nothing to you how your children grow up. You feel that your happiness even now is bound up in what they are. And when they leave the domestic roof, will you not be thankful and proud if they turn out well, and are honoured and respected by the world? Will you not feel their shame and dishonour to be your own? Will their well-doing not be a crown of glory to you in old age; and would not their ill-doing help to bring down your grey hairs with sorrow to the grave? Therefore, apart from any other or higher consideration, for your own sakes have a care how you train them up.

A strong working man once came to me requesting the ordinance of baptism

for his child. He was a smith; he confessed that he had formerly been in the habit of drinking to excess, but that for two years he had lived a strictly sober life. On my asking what led to this change, he replied, after some hesitation: "Indeed, I believe it was the bairns." "The bairns!" I exclaimed, "how was that?"—"Why, sir," said he, "when I came home at night they used to run and meet me, and play about me; and the youngest was a special favourite, and extraordinary fond of me; and one evening when she had her arms about my neck, and was giving me a kiss, the thocht struck me, What a beast I was to be taking drink in this way, if it was for no other reason than the harm I was sure to do to baith the bodies and souls of my ain bairns. I took such shame to myself, that I dropped it since then; and now I hope I have better reasons, even than the good of the family, for keeping sober."

with fervent heat, new systems may be created, and pass away; but your child will live amidst the changes and revolutions of endless ages, which will no more touch or destroy it than the wild hurricane can touch the rainbow which reposes in the sky, though it may rage around its lovely form. When eras that no arithmetic can number have marked the life of your child, an eternity will still be before it, in which it shall live, move, and have its being! What think you, parents, of having such a creature as this under your roof, and under your charge, and that creature your own child? Consider,

(2.) Your child must live for ever in bliss or woe. It must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. It must be for ever lost, or for ever saved. It must be with God and Christ, with the angels and saints, loving and beloved, a glorious and majestic being, or for ever wicked and unutterably miserable with Satan, and lost spirits! I am assuming, of course, that it shall here attain that age as shall make it fully responsible to God; for if it dies in infancy, I believe that it is certainly saved through Jesus Christ. But even to be able to entertain such a hope as this, that your babe, though dead, actually lives somewhere with Jesus; or that, if living here, is yet capable of becoming one of God's high and holy family

3. But consider, further, the personal as well as relative importance of these young ones, or their importance to themselves. For you know how one's own state for time and for eternity is of more importance to ourselves than anything else possibly can be. It is this fact which the words of our Lord imply, when He says: "For what shall it profit a man if he will gain the whole world and lose his soul?—and what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" Not anything!-in His home above for ever-may well not the whole universe! To a man himself, his own soul- his own life and happiness, are more valuable than aught else. Now, parents, weigh this matter well. Behold your children, or any one of them, and hear what I have to say about that one child.

(1.) That child must live for ever. Its existence is endless as the life of its Maker. There lies concealed in that frame, clasped a mother's bosom, and so feeble that the evening breeze might seem sufficient to destroy it, a living spark which no created power can ever extinguish ! Cities and empires shall rise and fall during coming centuries; but that infant of yours will survive them all! The world and its works shall be burnt up, and the clements shall melt

deepen upon you a sense of its personal value! Do you ask what this fact has to do with your duty of training up your children? I will tell you. Whether your child-should it be spared some years on earth-shall live for ever in joy or in sorrow, depends upon what it believes and does in this world. It is how it lives here which must determine where and how it shall live hereafter. Is that not a solemn consideration for you ?—and is it not more solemn still, when you further remember, that the character which your child is to possess on this side of the grave, and retain on the other, and on which its destiny hangs, is affected more by what it sees, hears, learns, from you, and in your house, than upon anything else in this world?

4. But I notice, lastly, that your children are of inestimable importance to their Father in heaven. Perhaps you are disposed at first to doubt this; but if you consider it you will see how true it is. God being so great and glorious, you think that probably a child is too small and insignificant a thing to be noticed or cared for by Him. But it is just because God is so great and glorious that He is able to know and consider every person and thing in the universe. "Are not five sparrows sold for a farthing? yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Fear not; ye are of more value than many sparrows!"

It was perhaps this wrong impression of God's greatness which, on one occasion, induced the disciples to prevent mothers bringing their children to the Saviour to obtain His blessing. How could the great Messias, thought they, condescend to attend to such weak and insignificant creatures? But very different were His own feelings! "Suffer little children to come to me and forbid them not!" and accordingly the good Shepherd took the lambs into His arms, and blessed them.

Who gave the heartiest welcome to the King when He entered the temple? Not the priests, nor Sadducees, nor Pharisees, but the children who cried Hosanna! Those who pretended to great wisdom and piety rebuked them, and wished Christ to do the same; but He would not. He received the praises of the young; for God had ordained such to come from the mouths even of babes and sucklings.

Why should this astonish you, parents? "O ye of little faith, wherefore do ye doubt?" For only reflect for a moment upon the relationship in which God stands to those children. They belong to Him, and are His property, not yours. He it is who has given them all the value which they possess. He it is who has created them, and endowed them with such wonderful powers and capacities, in order that, as the very end of their being, they might glorify Him, and enjoy Him for ever. And such immense value does He attach to those His own creatures, that He redeemed them, not

with such corruptible things as silver and gold,-for these could not purchase the least and poorest of them, but with the precious blood of His own Son! And at baptism did He not claim them as His own, revealing Himself as their God,their Father, Saviour, and Sanctifier?

Remember, then, parents, that God has given you this precious property of His in trust; and of each child beneath your roof He says: "Nurse this child for me!" Have a care, then, I again say, how you train them up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."

I cannot conclude this address to parents of the working classes, without saying a few words to employers. Masters of public works, masters and mistresses of private families!-I have appealed to these parents in your name, begging them to furnish you with good and faithful servants; and you know well how much your comfort and prosperity depend upon the supply which they may afford to such demands. But let me remind you that duties are reciprocal, that if you require those in your service to consider your comfort and advantage, it becomes you equally to consider theirs, actuated by that Christian principle which should be common to both-the principle of "loving our neighbour, and pleasing him for his good to edification." If you treat those in your service as mere machines, mere helps to your personal aggrandizement or convenience; if you acknowledge no obligation to make any sacrifices of your ease or wealth to make them better or happier,-why should you expect them to be actuated by different motives towards you? If such motives as, "Each man for himself"" look after number one"-" what will pay "-are to be inscribed on the banners of employerswhy not on those of the employed, yourselves being judges? I know well that heads of works and heads of houses are often loud in their cry about the "ingratitude and selfishness" of those who serve them. But let those who complain be sure that such real unselfish kindness has been shewn by themselves as ought

let this honest discharge of duty begin and be more general in this Christian land with the employers, and it will very speedily tell too on the employed, to an extent that the most sanguine could hardly venture to hope for. The law of love must be allowed to have its share in regulating labour as well as the law of mere money-profit. There is a demand and supply by hearts required, as well as by pockets. "Live and let live," was surely not intended for the body more than for the soul!

ILLUSTRATIONS OF PERSEVERANCE,

SOBRIETY, AND HONESTY.

N.

AT the annual festival in Glasgow (held March 16) of the employees of Mr. Napier, the well-known and much-esteemed engineer, one of the speakers, Mr. Robb, stated the following interesting facts:

to have excited corresponding feelings | by their own conduct towards them. Only in those who were its objects. Very true, it is alleged, "the working classes are extremely suspicious." Whether this may arise from ignorance, and conscious weakness when opposed to those in whose power they more or less are, or may be the legitimate effect of many lessons taught them in the school of a hard and worldly selfishness, I know not. I admit, however, that they often do attribute what was prompted by benevolence in their employers, to mean and unworthy motives. But in the vast majority of cases this is an error of judgment rather than of heart; and if a course of wise, frank, considerate, and generous treatment of them is pursued, it will soon be perceived, and duly appreciated by the workman or servant. And what a blessed effect it would have upon home education, if employers manifested a personal Christian interest in those who serve them,-if they acted towards them as beings of flesh and blood, with minds and hearts, with social and domestic affections, like their own! Why, then, should not masters and mistresses at home have more friendly, thoughtful, Christian intercourse with their servants, so as to gain their hearts, and to help them to good? Why should not masters of works try to become better acquainted with their workmen as fellow-help him? No; he carefully saved his men? Would it be too condescending in them to visit them in their houses? Why not? Do they imagine that this would lower their dignity, or weaken their influence, or occupy too much time? And could they not do more to make those houses fit for the home education of human beings? Could not more be done for affording a practical training to boys, but especially to girls, so as to fit them to become respectable men and women? Could not more be done to relieve and cheer up those thrown out of work by sickness or bad trade? There are heads of public works who do all this, and verily they have their reward in the affection and respect of their men, shewn often in very trying circumstances; and there are masters and mistresses who thank God for the Christian servants whom they have gained as friends, chiefly

"I shall give you a few illustrations of working men who, being true to themnumber of years ago I was acquainted selves, were true to every one beside. A with a young man; he was a farm servant; he was so because his selfish father would not teach him a trade; he would not keep him for the wages of an apprenbe a tradesman. Did he ask any one to tice. Well, the youth resolved he would

penny-fee until he had acquired as much as, with his apprentice wages, would keep him independent of his father. He applied himself diligently to his work; bound himself to an engineering firm; was true to his employer; spent his evenings, not in singing-saloons or free-andeasys; no, but in the drawing and other schools. What was the result? Immedihis employer found him a situation in a ately on the expiry of his apprenticeship large steamboat; and in a very short time he was first engineer, in receipt of the highest pay. He was true to his mother, more than true to his fathertrue and useful to his brother, and is now the true and happy husband of a true wife. Take another instance-it occurred when I was an apprentice. In the immediate vicinity of our shop there was a public-house-some of you may rememberit, it had a very peculiar sign-a negro the word 'freedom' underneath. Well, man holding up his broken fetters, with in this freedom' the men in our shop

would, at that time, have had difficulty in borrowing one pound; while the known honesty of principle of the other was the 'open sesame!' to his friend's entire purse. I have given you those three incidents with the view of exhibiting to you what I look upon as the three great essentials of success,—namely, quiet perseverance, strict sobriety, and stern honesty. The working man who daily practises these three simple virtues will certainly reach a comfortable position, and may attain one of fortune and honourable distinction-may stand in proud equality with the most exalted of the land. There is no lack of evidence to illustrate this. Take one or two examples: Sir Joseph Paxton, who reared the Crystal Palace, was a working gardener. Mr. Dargan, who did more for Irish industry than all her nobility put together, was the son of a peasant farmer. Mr. Andrews, the late mayor of Southampton, who did honour to Britain in his noble reception of the Hungarian patriot, was a working blacksmith; and Mr. Peto, the Queen's last-made baronet, learned a trade. Among ourselves we have our Dunns, our Bairds, and our Campbellsall architects of their own fortunes; and last, though not least, we have your own worthy employer, who, beginning life a humble mechanic, stands now at the head of the greatest engineering establishment in the world, and is the worthy and hospitable occupant of a fair palace on one of Scotland's sweetest lakes,-and that, too, with the best wishes of all who labour under his sway. I know the response you will give to the sentiment I now utter: Long life, health, wealth, and happiness to your worthy employer, Mr. Napier."

had credit. During every week a pretty
large score was run up for drink, which
made an impression on every man's pay
on Saturday. This went on for some
time, till one Monday morning, as we
sat round the stove during the breakfast
hour, one of my shopmates said, 'This
drinking is confounded nonsense; for my
part I mean to give it up.' In this he
was true to his word and true to himself,
and that young man is now worth several
thousand pounds; is very true to his
worthy parents; and is a true and digni-
fied member of society. One other inci-
dent: About fifteen years ago two appren-
tice boys were employed cleaning out a
warehouse in this city. The youngest of
the two boys, in cleaning out below the
desk, where the floor was much affected
by dry rot, came upon several large
mushrooms; on turning up one of which
a bright shilling was discovered, as if
growing right in the centre of it. The
boy's fancy was rather tickled at what
appeared to him a natural curiosity.
He immediately went into the workshop
and exhibited the mushroom and shilling.
Having done so he went to his employer,
and throwing down the shilling, said, 'I
found it under the desk.' Returning to
the workshop, the elder apprentice asked,
'Where is the shilling?' The answer was,
'I gave it to the cork.' 'You must be a
fool,' said the other; 'did you not find
it? Yes,' said the boy; 'I found it where
the Highlandman found the tongs.' He
added, "He would as soon have thought of
stealing a shilling as keeping that one.'
Another of the apprentices now joined
the two, and to him the youth who
believed in keeping the shilling told how
stupid his neighbour had been in giving
up the shilling, which he said should have
been divided. The third apprentice thus
appealed to, said: "The youth perhaps
believes that "honesty is the best policy."
Some twelve years after the occurrence
of this incident, the boy who found the
shilling having become a man, was car-
rying on a large business, where a con-
siderable capital was required. He was
in want of money. He knew his old
shopmate, who had witnessed the shilling-
finding, had money to spare. He called
upon him-it was early in the morning.
The party called on was still in bed. He
asked the caller what he wanted so early.
The brief answer was, 'Money.' How
much?'-'As much as you can spare.'
Without saying another word, the old
shopmate wrote a bank check for six
hundred-and-fifty pounds, and handing
it to the youth, said, 'You can give me a
receipt for it at your leisure.' The youth
who believed in keeping the shilling, the Bible."

"People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy after."-Goldsmith.

"We never know the true value of friends. While they live, we are too sensitive to their faults; when we have lost them, we only see their virtues."Guesses at Truth.

ON THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.

"It was a fine conception, that of curdling up the common sense of mankind into pleasing and portable form—of driving the flocks of loose wandering thoughts into the penfolds of proverbs. They shew the same principles and passions to have operated in every age, proving the unity of man. Solomon's proverbs are every nation's laws,-proverbial, because based on simple truth."-Gilfillan's "Burds of"

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