Again, an infant is a creature of deep and melancholy interest, because it is the offspring of a fallen race, and comes into being, not only loaded with all the responsibilities that bind an intelligent being to the bar of God, but from the first moment of existence it comes within the influence of a current that is sweeping it to destruction. The soul bears from the first that seed of iniquity which will sprout forth with the first gleam of intelligence. What an awful idea does it afford of the original corruption of human nature that we cannot regard even the fairest and loveliest infant as fitted for the heavenly world without being sprinkled with blood, the most precious blood of the universe!

It is a most humiliating consideration that the child of our love is as certain, if unregenerated, to become a sinner, as the acorn, when it puts forth, is to produce an oak.

How terrible does sin appear, when it compels us to regard the beautiful infant, cradled in the arms of its mother, as by nature an heir of wrath; a creature, whose nature is so far perverted, that its first moral action will be in opposition to the will and law of God.

As one of a doomed and ruined race, of which no individual can be rescued, except by the means of God's appointment which so many reject, it becomes a question of most solemn interest in reference to every child-"What manner of child shall this be?"

Mothers, we wish you to remember that the almighty energies of God alone excepted, there is no power in all the universe so measureless in its influence, so far-reaching in its results, as that of an immortal mind, such as the little forms of your infants hold. You would think it much to have charge of the lightning's bolt, to mark out its path in heaven, to select the object that its touch should wither. You do have control of a far more terrific power-the lightnings of the mind-that flashing on all sides from their burning centre, blaze and scorch from generation to generation. You would shrink from the trust, if God should commit to the guidance of your wisdom the strength of the earthquake

and the volcano-but this would be nothing, compared with the charge of the intelligent soul. The one has a termination, definite bounds have been set to its influence, it is confined to a definite space in the dominions of God. The other power, the mind, with its sleepless energies, overleaps all bounds of space or duration, and sweeps on with an influence that accumulates at each step of its unending course.

We pray you to think of the eternity that is before your infant, mother; and remember, that every hour you are helping to color all this future, to settle and shape the character of events that shall attend your child through all the life to

come.

Is it well to slumber over such amazing responsibilities? Mothers, if you have never given your child to God, never bestowed religious training by precept or example, never taught it to admire the beauties and glories of redemption, never brought it to the family altar, never breathed with it or for it a prayer, and have thus removed it from God, and thrust it away from the kingdom and multiplied the chances against its conversion—are you prepared for the hour when you shall meet your child at the bar of Christ, ruined for eternity? And that destruction shall be revealed to every eye as your own handiwork, and it shall be clearly perceived that from day to day on earth you gave the influences that shaped the soul for hell.

If all the elements of wo on earth, all that the body can endure, and that the soul can know of agony, could be concocted by some infernal spell into one cup of bitterness, and you be compelled to drink it, light and trivial would it be, compared with the horrors of that hour, when a watchful and avenging God shall make inquisition for blood, and in the light of the judgment-day, your own hands shall be seen reeking with the blood of your children.

In being blessed with children you have been made stewards of the crown-jewels of Jehovah, and in their daily training remember that the hour is coming when they will be wanted for the Saviour's crown. What will be your answer

if it shall be found there that you have bound them in a covenant with hell?

Original.

A SOLEMN REFLECTION.

ADDISON, in one of his admirable essays, compares the human mind to the unhewn block of marble which, chipped and dressed by the statuary's chisel, finally emerges an almost breathing image of life and beauty, of symmetry and grace. It were well to consider, however, that the process of developing the human mind is conducted by multiform, miscellaneous, and often conflicting agencies. From the rude, elemental mass, every passer-by snatches a chip, or impresses upon it a lineament. Parents may work upon it-teachers may work upon it. But they work not alone. Friends touch the emerging form-foes touch it—the novelist imparts a feature the servant in the kitchen shapes a part-the fleeciest cloud of heaven gives it a shade or a line-all things work upon it, and trifles light as air contribute to its form and complexion.

It is painfully interesting to observe how the whole tenor and temper of an individual's history is modified by slight events, as the whole expression of a beautiful portrait may be changed by one false touch of the pencil. An unkind act or word may curdle or turn away for life the sensibilities of some quick, generous nature. An impure tale or novel may be read, flung aside, and its very name forgotten; yet, as the small flower absorbs something of nutriment from the casual dew-drop and the shortest breeze, so may the soul unconsciously drink in from its most trivial and most accidental associations with books and men that which shall make or mar its happiness through the longest life. A ingle seed lodged in favorable soil produces the oak that may battle with the blasts of a century; and a single thought

or feeling once generated in the human bosom may cope with all the influence which time shall bring to bear against it.

What a solemn trust is influence, even the smallest degree of it, when its vast possible results are contemplated; and, oh! how unutterably fearful the abuse of such a measure of it, as is commonly wielded by the mothers of our land! As we send out from month to month our Mother's Magazine, laden with our most earnest and anxious counsels on the subject of maternal responsibility, we sometimes fear we shall be thought extravagant in our estimate of that responsi bility; or, that a theme so often urged will at length come to be considered as trite and tiresome. Alas for the parent that shall think so! The more we reflect on the subject, the more we feel that both we and our readers need a most thorough re-awakening to a sense of our duty. Pray, oh, pray, that we and all to whom our monthly monitions come, may have our eyes opened by the Spirit of God to a clear view of the solemnity of living amidst priceless souls, that are every day blessed or cursed by influences that appear to us trivial and PATER.

evanescent.

THE FLIGHT OF TIME.

BY J. G. PERCIVAL

FAINTLY flow, thou falling river,
Like a dream that dies away;
Down the ocean gliding ever,
Keep thy calm unruffled way!
Time with such a silent motion
Floats along on wings of air,
To eternity's dark ocean,
Burying all its treasures there.

Roses bloom, and then they wither;
Cheeks are bright, then fade and die;
Shapes of light are wafted hither-
Then, like visions hurry by;
Quick as clouds at evening driven
O'er the many-colored west,
Years are bearing us to heaven,
Home of happiness and rest.

Original.

WALKING BY FAITH.

Ir is characteristic of Christians that they walk by faith,

in fact Christians only so far as And yet this is a mystery and But are we not all in the con

Is it not ad

not by sight, and they are they thus live and walk. stumbling-block to many. stant practice of living by faith in each other? mitted to be reasonable that we should do so. Indeed, how could we live at all if we did not live by faith-there could be no intercourse, no friendship, no business, no pleasure on earth, if man had no faith in man. All the bonds of human society would become mere chains of sand-the fellowship of human bosoms would cease, and each would retire within himself to pine and die in lonely and loathsome selfishness.

By faith the merchant freights his vessel for distant lands. How does he know there is such a country as that to which she is destined? He has heard of it, but he never saw it. And suppose there is such a country, how does he know the captain and crew of his vessel are capable or trustworthy? And if they are, how does he know the cargo can be sold? And if it can, how does he know the proceeds will ever be returned to him, considering the dangers of the sea, and the possible dishonesty of those through whose hands they may pass?

By faith the farmer breaks up the ground, and sows his seed. How does he know the fowls of heaven will not destroy it? And if they do not, how does he know that it will germinate, or that the rain and sunbeams will descend to quicken it? How can he know a thousand contingencies, upon every one of which his harvest may depend? He cannot walk by sight, he must and does walk by faith.

If we are sick and send for a physician, we are continually called to the exercise of faith in his integrity and skill. By faith we take his medicines, since, for aught we see or know,