of the popular literature, and that could not but work immense mischief even if what is so universally read were a great deal better than it is. We allude to the habit of reading for amusement or excitement. There are multitudes who have no other or higher object in reading. If the book is only "interesting" it suffices. No matter whether it contains a single valuable thought, fact or principle: no matter if it is true or false. It is enough that a morbid love of what is wonderful or amusing is gratified. It helps to "kill time," and satisfies an appetite that is as craving and about as healthful as that of the drunkard for his cups.

It is truly melancholy to see so many minds employed in catering for the risibles and lachrymals of weak men and silly. women, who spend the best part of a lifetime in an imaginary world, living in "castles in the air" and feeding on husks of sentimentality. If there were no duties to be performed in this matter of fact world; and if men had not immortal souls; and if there were no day of final account, it might be well enough, perhaps, to yield one's self to the control of fancy, and surrender the mind to become the plaything of every literary harlequin who chooses to amuse and delight us but we have duties and we have souls, and there will be a judgment-day, and we protest solemnly against the prevalent neglect of all these in the habit of simply reading for amusement. We object,

1. Because it is a wanton and wicked waste of time. 2. Because it enervates and dissipates the mind.

3. Because it unfits the mind for solid and instructive reading. 4. Because it engenders such a false taste, that even the Bible, and serious books, and the preached Gospel become powerless or are only valued in the degree that they excite or amuse.

5. Because eternity is a sober world; and the mind that has given itself up to amusement in this life, will find itself poorly prepared for the realities of another. It will be a sad meeting when the writers and readers of amusing fiction stand before the Judge!

American Messenger.

For the Mother's Magazine.

A MOTHER'S PRIVILEGE.

What is a mother's privilege? It is thy privilege, christian mother, and thou must not neglect it, to train up thy child for heaven. It is your privilege, Oh! ever prize it, to plead for him the promises of a covenant-keeping God. He bids you come; he will not suffer any one to forbid you, when with yearning soul you bear your little one, warmed in your bosom, its heart beating with kindred life against your own, to Him who died for you and your child. This, this is a mother's privilege to win a blessing for the babe you love that shall abide on its spirit through the eternity of its being. As it lies lapped in your guardianship, unconscious of the care that watches its slumbers, you can breathe over faith's heartfelt dedication of your love to your present God. As in gentlest ministry of tenderness you open for it your bosom's fount and give it as it were to drink from your own life, you can bear its name in all the urgency of a mother's love on your humble, holiest prayer! You can bind its soul around your own, inseparable from you and never to be forgotten or neglected while life or hope is yours. To watch its infant passions and check their promptings, to train its infant thoughts, to twine around its infant heart a tie that heaven will kindly own, and that shall wax stronger and stronger beneath a Savior's smile-this, this is a mother's privilege. Make it all your own. Think not it is enough to HOPE, but be sure to KNOW that your child is an heir of heaven. Promises bright with protection, and more precious still, with eternal life, beckon you on every page of God's revelation to labor for a world that needs salvation. Plead them, plead them mightily, and leave him not till he bids you go in peace. Motives break forth in voices from heaven bidding you, "Come in with thy child, come!" and in unearthly warnings from the pit, "Turn him from every path that may bring him here;" and as they pour their tide of influence on your heart, they proclaim that you have a work of faith and labor of love to perform, in which you must not linger, or faint, or grow weary. Strengthen

then that faith by feeding on the word of truth, and drink in, in communion with an all-sufficient Redeemer, the streams of life that may invigorate you to the noblest deed that your immortal spirit can accomplish. You must win that soul, instinct with undying energies, to be a living gem in the Savior's crown. Pride would teach you to ask for greatness, for honors to laurel the brow of your loved one, for what the earth-born delight in and call happiness, to be his portion here: but ask them for a greater boon than any or all of these; you must beg, and passing this narrow bound of time, your prayer must reach out to grasp a prize of which he can only know the worth, as he learns it where eternal ages stamp it never to be forgotten or unenjoyed. As if but one sole request, which must never be let go till it is granted, is your errand there, so make your urgency be felt at the footstool of the throne. A MOTHER'S voice-a MOTHER's heart shall not plead in vain. S. G. E.

PROPER TRAINING OF CHILDREN.

Children should be trained up. If you desire your offspring to serve God on earth and enjoy his favor for ever in heaven, their spiritual welfare must be the object of daily, continual care. Occasional efforts, few and far between, are not likely to be productive of much good. A divine precept is, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." On this important passage Dwight remarks"The word train originally denoted to draw along, by a regular and steady course of exertions; and is hence very naturally used to signify drawing from one action to another, by persuasions, promises, and other efforts continually repeated. In a loose and general sense, therefore, it may easily include all the duties of parents to their children."

This is a very important representation of parental duty. How would you train a tree? Would you not begin the opera

tion while the branches were yet young and pliant; fixing them then in the right direction, and afterwards watching and guiding their growth? Would you not continue the process, by pruning away what was useless or hurtful, and directing every useful shoot till the tree should assume the shape desired, and cover the wall it overspread with verdure and fruit? Thus train a child, thus endeavor to subdue and remove whatever is baneful, and thus guide into the right way his views, his feelings, his desires and affections. Think it not enough occasionally to give a check to what is evil, or an impulse to what is good; but pursue the course now described, from month to month, and from year to year. This is training up a child in the way he should go. How is a young animal training for any particular service? The process commences early, is pursued steadily, and never relinquished till the object contemplated is accomplished. Thus "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

In training up your children, make your arrangements for them in this world, in view of the next. Let eternity be kept in sight. In all your plans for them, contemplate not only their temporal, but their everlasting interest. If you were about to place your child in a situation for one day, and then in another for twenty years, would you, when planning for the day, forget the twenty years? If your plans could embrace both, well; but if not, surely you would never so forget the twenty years as to pursue any measures that would render your child wretched through that time, for the sake of promoting his interests through a single day. If, in case the interests of the two periods were in opposition, you would let the twenty years outweigh the day. And you would esteem it no more than madness to plan for the day, and to forget the twenty years. The difference between a day and twenty years is, however, perfectly insignificant when compared with that between the longest life and eternity. Let eternity, therefore, be brought into all your estimations, plans and arrangements. Never so plan for this world as to undo your child for that which is to come; but, while striving to promote

the temporal good of your offspring, always consider also their eternal happiness. Regard both worlds in your arrangements when you can, but when you cannot, especially regard the eternal world. Let your children know, that in your efforts for their good you act under the influence of these principles. Impress upon their minds that eternity is before them, and those only are truly wise who can secure eternal blessings. Say, "My child, what concerns you most, what I am most anxious about, is not what you are to be, or to possess here, for a little while, but what you are to be and have for ever. You and I are soon to be the inhabitants of another world. There we must abide for ever. That world must be either heaven or hell; and by faith in Christ to reach heaven, and obtain its blessings, is your chief interest and weightiest concern!"-Parental Care; by the author of "Persuasives to Early Piety."

For the Mother's Magazine.

EXTRACT OF THE REPORT OF THE WEST MEDWAY MATERNAL SOCIETY.

""Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours,
“And ask them what report they 've borne to heaven,
"And how they might have borne more welcome news."

Self-examination is an important exercise of the christian in all the various duties of life, and among the first are those which regard the responsible relations subsisting between mothers and children; and in taking a retrospective view of the past, I feel that we have cause for humiliation before God, that we have been so unfaithful to the trust committed to our charge.

An eminent writer on the subject says, "The question which every christian mother deems more important than almost any other is, how may I best promote the moral and spiritual wel