THE GUARDIAN:

A MONTHLY MAGAZINE

Devoted to the Social, Literary and Religious Interests of Young Men and Ladies, and to the Sunday-School Cause.

Rev. B. BAUSMAN, D. D., Editor.

THE GUARDIAN enters upon its XXVIIIth volume, on the first of January 1877. It has a sufficient history to establish its character, and to show its fruits. In its principles, purposes, and general spirit, no changes are proposed. The True, the Beautiful, and the Good are unchangeable-error and sin are always the same. Its editorial management is committed, as heretofore, to the Rev. B. BAUSMAN, D. D., whose name, of itself, the publishers regard as the most satisfactory guarantee of the high tone and general interest which should characterize the family magazine.

THE GUARDIAN continues to be published by the REFORMED CHURCH PUBLICATION BOARD. It compares favorably with other publications of the kind, and has earned for itself a reputation which may well be coveted. The publishers will continue to use a superior quality of paper; and do all in their power, in co-operating with the Editor, to render THE GUARDIAN acceptable to its subscribers.

This Magazine will be mainly devoted, as heretofore, to the highest interests of the young, at the most solemn and interesting period of their life. It will offer its friendly counsels to them in an earnest, though free and cheerful way. It will solemnly seek to warn them against the wrong, and affectionately lure them to the right. The Editor will endeavor to make its contents true, pure, fresh, and healthy as the morning of life. It will particularly urge self-culture and early piety as of the highest importance, and cultivate the home feeling as a sacred element in social purity and peace. It will seek to move in the element of its motto:"Life-Light-Love."

In addition to its usual variety of reading matter, THE GUARDIAN will hereafter appropriate at least ten pages of each number to the interests of the SundaySchool cause. It will aim to serve as an efficient helper of Sunday-School Teachers, and thus meet a want which has long been felt in the Reformed Church.

THE GUARDIAN contains thirty-two pages monthly, making a handsome Volume of three hundred and eighty-four pages at the end of the year.

Pastors who receive this Prospectus are requested to hand it to some active member of the Church or of the Sunday-School, who will procure subscribers for THE GUARDIAN. We respectfully ask all Young Men and Ladies to aid us in increasing our circulation. It will be an easy thing for them to raise a club among their companions. Specimen numbers sent when requested.

TERMS-ONLY $1.50 A YEAR-IN ADVANCE.

The Club-rates for Sunday School Teachers, and the terms for the Lesson Leaves, are as follows:

For 5 copies to one address, for one year. $7 00

10 **20

"30

The Lesson Papers will be sold separately, at 75 cents for 100 copies of a single issue. For any less number, one cent will be charged for each copy. In each case, the money must accompany the orders.

Discontinuances.-To insure a discontinuance, written notice must be sent direct to the publishers before the close of the year, and all arrearages paid. If the notice be received after one or more numbers of a new year have been sent, the subscriber will be charged for the full year thus commenced.

ADDRESS

REFORMED CHURCH PUBLICATION BOARD, Publishers, No. 907 Arch Street, Philadelphia.

SUNDAY SCHOOL CAUSE AND THE SOCIAL, LITERARY,
AND RELIGIOUS INTERESTS

OF

YOUNG MEN AND LADIES.

Rev. B. Bausman, D. D., Editor.

PHILADELPHIA:

REFORMED CHURCH PUBLICATION BOARD,
No. 907 Arch Street.

Rev. D. Gring, Rev. W. Goodrich, J. F. Madeira, L. W. McCoy, M. E. Stonebraker, Rev.

D. Gring, W. J. Peter, Annie C. Addams.

TO OUR PATRONS.

The "Guardian" will hereafter be mailed to subscribers by means of Dick's

patent Mailer. Hence the date to which they have paid will invariably accom-

pany the name. Accordingly, the acknowledgment of monies received will

hereafter be discontinued. Each subscriber can know exactly how his account

stands. Those who are in arrears will please forward the amount due without

delay. Address

REFORMED CHURCH PUBLICATION BOARD,

907 Arch Street, Philadelphia.

VOL. XXVIII.

JUNE, 1877.

NO. 6.

Bismarck's Boyhood and Student Life. moderate intellectual powers but fine

BY THE EDITOR.

Pomevern, from Po Move, Sclavic words, means "beside the sea." Its English equivalent, Pomerania, expresses the same meaning. The Baltic sea bounds it on the north, hence its name. In this north German land has been the home of the Bismarcks for six hundred years-since the twelfth century. Warriors and statesmen, men of blood and men of piety grace the annals of the family. Some noble in name, but ignoble in conduct and life. Not a few men and women rich in pious and heroic deeds.

qualities of heart. His mother was a lady of fine education, esteemed for her beauty and social qualities; "wise, ambitious, and somewhat haughty." She early sought to awaken ambition in her two sons. Before the mind of Otto, she held up the attractions of a diplomatic career. For this she thought he was specially fitted; and this in the end he selected. She was inclined to live in a style beyond the means of her husband. She was fond of fashionable Berlin life; her husband loved the country, especially his Pomeranian home. Although often weary of Berlin, he vielded to her wishes To the end of his life he was fond of hunting, as is his

66

These long family lineages constitute a most perplexing kind of historic read-son Otto; never So happy as when ing; entanglements of names, dates, minute tracings of the ramifications of kinship, to their remotest findings. Withal there is something very honorable in a long and worthy family lineage. Its numerous stories of noble deeds weave wreaths of glory around the homes and hearths of centuries, and incite the descendants to adorn the memory of the fathers with a brave and truth-loving life. To such an inheritance Otto Von Bismarck fell heir. He was born April 1, 1815. He had three brothers and two sisters. As is often the case, the talents of the whole family centred in one child, in Otto. Save a brother and sister, all died young. His parents usually passed the winter months in Berlin. Already in 1821 Otto was put to school here, along with his only surviving elder brother. Here, under various private tutors and professors he laid the foundation of his great learning, and of his ready and perfect use of the English and French languages, besides that of his own tongue. His father was a man of influence, who filled important offices of state. 66 Handsome, personable and cheerful, full of humor and wit," with

returning from an exciting chase with a stag or a brace of hares. She was passionately fond of playing chess, of which she was a complete mistress. How the old gentleman indulged in these sports Otto describes in a letter to his sister, in 1844. We go out in the pouring rain, or at six degrees of frost, accompanied by Ihle, Bellin and Charles, surround an old bush in a sportsmanlike way, silent as the grave, as the wind blows through the cover, where we are all fully convinced-even perhaps my father-that the only game consists of women gathering faggots, and not another living thing. Then Ihle, Charles and a couple of hounds, making the strangest and most prodigious noise, particularly Ihle, burst into the thicket, my father standing perfectly stock still with his rifle just as if he fully expected some beast until Ihle comes out shouting 'hu! la! la! fuss! hey! hey!' in the queerest shrieks. Then my father asks me, in the coolest manner, if I have not seen something; and I reply with a most natural air of astonishment, nothing in the world! Then growling at the rain we start for another bush where Ihle is sure we shall

find, and play the farce over again. This self in my modest household, then numgoes on for three or four hours, without my father, Ihle and Fingal exhibiting the least symptom of being tired."