RULES FOR HOME EDUCATION. THE following are worthy of being printed in letters of gold, and being placed in a conspicuous position in every household : 1. From your children's earliest infancy, inculcate the necessity of instant obedience. 2.-Unite firmness with gentleness. Let your children always understand that you mean exactly what you say. 3. Never promise them anything unless you are sure you can give them what you promise. 4.-If you tell a child to do anything, show him how to do it, and see that it is done. 5. Always punish your children for wilfully disobeying you, but never punish in anger. 6. Never let them perceive that they can vex you, or make you lose your self-command. 7.-If they give way to petulance and temper, wait till they are calm, and then gently reason with them on the impropriety of their conduct. 8. Remember that a little present punishment, when the occasion arises, is much more effectual than the threatening of a greater punishment should the fault be renewed. 9.-Never give your children anything because they cry for it. 10. On no account allow them to do at one time what you have forbidden, under the like circumstances, at another, 11.-Teach them that the only sure and easy way to appear good, is to be good. 12. Accustom them to make their little recitals the perfect truth. 13.-Never allow of tale-bearing. 14.-Teach them that self-denial, not self-indulgence, is the appointed and sure method of securing happiO. P. Q. ness. The Expositor. THE LIVING CREATURES. "Round about the throne were four living creatures."-REV. iv. 6. THE "living creatures of the Apocalypse, "in the midst of the throne,' are identical with the seraphim of Isaiah, who "stand upon (mimmagal) the throne," singing the same song of "Holy, holy, holy," to the triune God; and with the "living creatures" of Ezekiel, with whom they coincide in the fulness of eyes of watchfulness, and in possessing the boldness of the "lion," the circumspection of the " man," the laboriousness of the "ox," and the heavenly-mindedness of the "eagle." These "living creatures of Ezekiel are again declared by the prophet himself to be "the cherubim," and these cherubim, under the hand and pen of Moses, are beaten out of the mercy-seat, which is Christ; are embroidered into the substance of "the veil," which St. Paul has declared to be "His flesh;" and "have right" (in Paradise) 66 to the tree of life," when fallen man was expelled from its possession. From one end of the Bible to the other, from Genesis to Revelation, these living creatures, cherubim and seraphim, form a most glorious com pound type and illustration of "what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power," to His spiritual "church," in raising her to sit with Christ upon His throne, "far above all principality and power," and in constituting her ("Jehovah dwelleth within the cherubim ") "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." MODE OF CARRYING CHILDREN. "Ye shall be borne upon her sides."ISA. lxvi. 12. "Thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side."-ISA. lx. 4. POSSIBLY the second of these passages, and without doubt the first, refers to the mode of carrying little children in the East, which is different from that prevailing in Europe. We have all seen a boy trudging to school on an examination morn, with a huge pile of books strapped together, and resting against his side, so as to require but little support from his arm. We must have also admired the dexterity with which swallows manage to rest nearly the entire weight of their bodies against the upright frames of windows. Indian children are taught to cling in a similar manner to the sides of their nurses. An arm put around them is then quite sufficient to prevent them from falling. advantage of this mode is, that it is much less fatiguing than the common practice; its disadvantage, that it imparts to the nurse who is carrying a child an inelegant waddle, from the weight being thrown all on one side. The ILLUSTRATIONS OF SCRIP TURE. THE only human being we saw in this solitary glen was a lonely shepherd sitting on a rock, with his long gun laid across his knees, while his small flock of sheep, with pure white faces, and bodies as black as night, were feeding in a little hollow beside him. In connexion with that sable flock, a remark suggests itself on a passage in the recent work of Mr. Stanley, on "Sinai and Palestine." In that generally admirable work, the accomplished author brings in the sheep to illustrate the language of our Lord's awfully impressive picture of the day of judgment. "The shepherds," he says, "abode with their flocks, at that time at least, within a few miles of Jerusalem; it is possible that even then, when the Mount of Olives must have been much more thickly set with trees and enclosures, such a flock may have wandered up the side of the hill, and suggested to Him, who was sitting then with His disciples over against the temple, the scene of the Shepherd of mankind dividing the parts of the flock, each from each, the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left." A few pages further on, when speaking of this figurative style of our Saviour's teaching, he goes on to observe that we are apt sometimes to carry out, into an infinite series of moral and theological conclusions, the truths which are stated under these material forms." "When, for example, we look" "on the white sheep and the black goats of the flocks in Judea, we ought to feel that the division of mankind into various classes, when represented under these figures, necessarily assumes a definitiveness of separation which cannot be applied without modification to the complexities of the actual world." This is one of those expressions in that otherwise delightful and most instructive book that beget a feeling of uneasiness and distrust. Under the application of so elastic a principle of interpretation as this, our Lord's discourse on the day of judgment may mean anything or nothing. Moreover, the sheep in Judea are not all white. They are often as black as the goats, as the flock we passed in the valley of Abû-Gaush sufficiently proves. The whole scope and tenor, moreover, of the discourse on the day of judgment seems obviously to imply that the sheep and the goats are employed in that discourse to illustrate, not parties who are obviously and conspicuously different from one another, but parties who, though really and essentially different, might yet outwardly be, in many respects, so like, as to be easily confounded with one another. The world fails to distinguish them, but the Great Judge of all will not fail infallibly to do so. It seems to me both a far more natural and a far sounder illustration of the kind of scene that may have been in the Saviour's view when He pronounced the discourse in question, which I saw some weeks before on the margin of the Nile valley, beneath the pyramids of Sakhara. An immense flock, brought in from the neighbouring fields, was gathered there at noon. They had been brought together to be milked. The sheep and the goats were all intermingled in one mass; and in colour they were, in many cases, undistinguishable from one another; but the shepherd proceeded to separate the sheep from the goats. A goat was often dragged out from among the sheep, and a sheep from among the goats; and being at length carefully and completely divided, the one from the other, the goats were placed on one side, and the sheep on the other. This is not a fancy, but a fact; and a fact much more accordant, I apprehend, than Mr. Stanley's supposition, with the true teaching of our Lord regarding the great and notable day. The Letter Box. THE IMPORTANCE OF ACCURACY, MY DEAR SON,-I have repeatedly purposed to call your attention to a great defect in your correspondence. It wants that first of all qualitiesaccuracy. I refer to spelling, grammar, and matters of fact. With such an education as you have had, this ought not to be. You use small letters instead of capitals; a grievous fault! You use plural nominatives with singular verbs, and occasionally the reverse, which is disgraceful. You quite overlook the highly important matter of paragraphs. Now, my dearest lad! this ought not to be. It is the result of every day's experience, that steady attention to matters of detail lies at the root of human progress; and that diligence, above all, is the mother of good luck. Accuracy is also of much importance, and an invariable mark of good training in a man. Accuracy in observation, accuracy in speech, accuracy in the transaction of affairs. What is done in business must be well done; for it is better to accom plish perfectly a small amount of work, than to half-do ten times as much. A wise man used to say, 66 'Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner." Too little attention, however, is paid to this highly important quality of accuracy. As a man eminent in practical science lately observed to me, "It is astonishing how few people I have met in the course of my experience who can define a fact accurately." Yet, in business affairs, it is the manner in which even small matters are transacted, that often decide men for or against you. This may, and it very probably will, determine your condition through life. It may lift you up to distinction, or sink you in obscurity. With virtue, capacity, and good conduct in other respects, the person who is habitually inaccurate cannot be trusted; his work has to be gone over again; and he thus causes endless annoyance, vexation, and trouble. Do, I beseech you, think on these points, which so intimately concern your welfare, and rejoice the heart of your loving FATHER. STRONG DRINKS. MY DEAR WILLIAM,-In reply to your question about the Pledge, you must use your own discretion. If it commend itself to your judgment and your conscience, by all means do it. Do it, both for your own sake and that of others. It can do no harm; it may do much good. In the mean time, I would most earnestly commend to you to read and familiarise yourself with temperance literature. You will find about it a freshness, a variety, and an amount of information, of a highly important character, that will quite surprise you. All pledging apart, it is a wonderful store-house of useful knowledge. Here is a sample: - TEMPERANCE FACTS. It is a fact that nine-tenths of the inmates of our poor-houses were brought there directly or indirectly by the use of ardent spirits. It is a fact that three-fourths of all the convicts in prison were hard drinkers previous to the commission of the crimes for which they are imprisoned. It is a fact that the greatest sufferers from disease, and those whose maladies are the most difficult to cure, are those who are addicted to the use of ardent spirits. It is a fact that of all who commit suicide in this country 99-100ths are the immediate or the remote victims of ardent spirits. It is a fact that in all families where the children are dirty, halfnaked, and ill-fed; the rooms filthy, and in disorder; the husband cross, discontented, and peevish, and the wife a slattern, ill-tempered, and quarrelsome, one, if not both the parents, are drinkers of ardent spirits. It is a fact that those who least frequently attend the worship of God in the sanctuary, most of those who by their oaths, blasphemies, and horrible execrations, shock the ears of modest people, are spirit-drinkers. It is a fact that those who are most easily led to ridicule and profane sacred things, and to join in every kind of dissipation and profligacy, are spirit-drinkers. It is a fact that of all that have died of the cholera in Europe and America, seven-tenths were spiritdrinkers, and one-half decidedly intemperate. If these be facts, they are certainly of a startling character. Let them not be set down as mere random assertions, since they are all capable of being brought under the control of statistics and of arithmetic. To instance in a single case, we may cite the opinions of a few, and only a few, of our Judges: Judge Coleridge-"There is scarcely a crime before me that is not, directly or indirectly, caused by strong drink." Judge Gurney-"Every crime has its origin, more or less, in drunken ness." Judge Patteson-"If it were not for this drinking, you (the jury) and I would have nothing to do." Judge Alderson-"Drunkenness is the most fertile source of crime." Judge Wightman-"I find, in every calendar that comes before me, one unfailing source, directly, of most of the crimes that are committed-intemperance." Judge Williams--" Experience has proved that almost all crime, into which juries have to inquire, may be traced, in one way or other, to the habits of drunkenness." I These judicial opinions, taken in conjunction with the foregoing "facts," involve practical considerations of the gravest character. commend them, my dear William, to your serious consideration. The aged, the frail, and the afflicted, and the subjects of divers maladies may, in order to health and life, require the aid of such stimulants, but for such as you, who number millions, they are, and for thirty years to come they will be, wholly unnecessary. So thinks your affectionate friend, P. S. Popery. LUTHER AND LOYOLA. In the early part of the sixteenth century, the Church of Rome held almost undisputed sway over the nations of the earth. She claimed to be Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Holy she certainly was not; Apostolic she certainly was not; but to the epithet Catholic she then had some claim, for her dominion extended from Scandinavia to the Cape of Good Hope, and from China to Peru. This universality of dominion had been acquired through a long series of ages by the most dishonest means, and chiefly by the universal suppression of the Holy Scriptures. The Popes had, one after another, advanced and maintained the most absurd propositions regarding their right to rule over the whole Christian world; and for the doctrines of our blessed Lord and His apostles had substituted the most monstrous dogmas. Rome was, nevertheless, at no period of her history, in the strict sense of the word, Catholic. Just as in the days of the prophet Elijah, whilst idolatry generally prevailed, there were yet "seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which had not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which had not kissed him;" so during the dark ages, when the supremacy of Rome was seldom disputed, there were a few here and a few there who might say with truth, "after the manner which the Pope calls heresy, so worship we the God of our fathers." These faithful few, because they were few, Rome de spised; but as a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, so the pure, primitive, apostolic doctrines of these few Christians soon pervaded the whole mass of mankind, and will continue to spread through the length and breadth of the world, until slowly, secretly, but surely, the whole shall be leavened with Divine truth, and the influence of Rome shall be neutralised for ever. While the Roman pontiffs were slumbering in security, deeming their power irresistible, and confiding in the fidelity of the mendicant monks to maintain their authority, a champion for the truth suddenly and unexpectedly arose from within the cloisters of a Romish convent. He possessed extraordinary talents, a retentive memory, astonishing industry, inflexible perseverance, superior eloquence, consummate erudition, and a greatness of soul that raised him high above the weakness of ordinary humanity. He arose out of the very bosom of the church. He had been a monk; he had officiated at the altar; he had been the servant of the pontiff; he knew, therefore, the evils and the dangers of the monastic life; he understood the secret whereby the priesthood had enslaved the human mind; he was aware of the extent of the Papal claims. An old, musty copy of the sacred Scriptures, covered with the dust of bygone ages, attracted his curiosity; his disciplined, well-cultivated mind soon enabled him to perceive the beauty, the sublimity, |