"No, I rather think not: he has not been there much lately: You had better speak to him-you have the chief management of him-I never interfere with you." He did not observe the sigh which escaped from the bosom of his wife.

On Saturday afternoon, the boys were going to a distant hill, for blackberries. Edgar wished to go, but his mother refused her permission, for two reasons: first, on account of the character of some of the boys who were going; and secondly, because a stream was to be forded in going, and the late rain had rendered it dangerous. Mrs. M. sent Edgar to the store for some article, and while he was there, the boys came in, on their way to the hill. "Are you going with them ?" said Mr. M. to his son.

"I wish to go very much indeed."

"You must ask your mother; she has charge of you." “I haven't time—they are going now.

"Well, take good care of yourself, if you go." Of course Edgar joined the company.

"Where is Edgar?" said Mrs. M., as her husband came home at evening; "I sent him to the store about one o'clock, and I have not seen him since."

"Oh, I gave him leave to go with the boys after blackberries. I referred him to you, but there was not time for him to come and ask you."

"He had asked me, and I had refused him permission."

"He did not say anything about that to me."

"Would it not be well, when he comes to you, to ask him if he had previously applied to me?"

"It would, if I could think of it; but I have so many things to think of."

"My dear, I give you full authority over him. I will second everything which you may do; but I am so overwhelmed with business that I cannot attend to him."

It

It was late in the evening before Edgar came home. Strange as it may seem, he met his mother without embarrassment. was owing to the fact that she had never complained when he had acted under the authority of his father.

Years rolled on, and Edgar approached to manhood. "I do not see," said one, "that it makes much difference what kind of bringing up boys have. There is Edgar Marsh-his mother is one of the best women in the world, and took the greatest pains with him, and his father is a fine man, and yet he is one of the most unruly young men in the place."

Original.

A SUBJECT OF PRAYER FOR MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS.

BY THE WIFE OF A HOME MISSIONARY.

SUBJECTS of Prayer! How vast the number! One who has power with God, whose soul oft rises to heaven, when he draws nigh to the mercy-seat, frequently meets with a difficulty from this very source. Many of those for whom it is his duty to pray, rush before the mind; each, as it were, claiming his first petition. The sick, the distressed, the bereaved, the sufferers in mind and body, the lone widow and the weeping orphan, the oppressed of every land, the exile, the wanderer and hardened, the rich and the poor, the hungry and naked, the tempest-tossed mariner and the lone prisoner, the stranger in a strange land—all demand a place.

Is there not a large class who have failed to be remembered in the prayers of God's people, as their position at present demands? Undoubtedly the Emigrants to California have been borne on the heart, in the closet, and occasionally mentioned in the sanctuary, but a movement so vast, and involving such momentous results, calls for special, and, if we may be allowed the expression, organized prayer.

It seems peculiarly appropriate that they should be made the subjects of most fervent supplications in the maternal meetings. They are sons. Some of us are the mothers of those wanderers from home. Many of them have mothers who never pray, whose hearts have never gone up to the hearer of prayer for themselves

or their children. Some perchance are lone orphans, whose praying mothers have long since gone to their reward. Then shall they not be borne to the throne of grace? New England mothers have their sons there. How many in the great valley of the West, but a few short months since, dropped the gushing tear upon the faces of their sons in the flush of manhood, who left their own valley for that of the Sacramento! They have gone from under the sweet influences of home. They are no longer under the restraints of a mother's piety, or a sister's kindness. Then should not mothers pray that they may be kept from the contaminations of vice; pray that their graces may abound, even as they journey with gay, thoughtless, prayerless gold-seekers?

Alas! how many never reach the long-anticipated spot! How many are called to give up their spirits without hearing one Christian word, or one feeble petition in their behalf! How lonely and desolate must be their resting-places, scattered here and there at long distances on the road-side! Their traveling companions deposit their bodies in silence, cover them with the green turf, and pass on. They have no palaces for their dead; no mourners are seen moving up and down the cemeteries, or weeping beneath the marble obelisk. Ah! no-their graves are lonely and isolated, upon the highway, on the boundless prairie; no cypress or willow lends its shade as a sceming relief. Sad though this may be, peradventure it is well for them thus to lie down and die alone, before their unsophisticated hearts become adulterated by too close intimacy with the golden mammon.

What dangers and temptations await those who escape death by the way! When they reach the end of their journey, gold! gold! is their cry; gold they are determined to have; every nerve is strained; the moments of the day fly too fast; the hours of the night are passed in projecting schemes, and laying plans, to possess that perishable substance, the love of which is the root of all evil. Then is it not fit to meet in concert and pray for their deliverance from multiplied temptations, snares, and dangers; pray that gold may not be their all-absorbing thought; but that they may be led to lay up durable riches, "where neither

moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal?"

Mothers who have sons in those regions, have the privilege of drawing nigh in secret to the Disposer of all events; but if they could speak out the deep feelings of their souls, would they not entreat their sisters in Christ, unitedly, to raise their hearts in behalf of those who are exposed to unusual trials and temptations, and whom the great adversary of souls is marking for his victims? Should we not listen to this appeal, and present their case pointedly and directly in our meetings, at stated times, say at least once in three months? There is a concert of prayer for the heathen, concerts for the seamen, the Sabbath school, for colleges; and may we not, as mothers, in an unobtrusive manner, agree to spend at least a third of our meetings, or such other portion as would be deemed advisable by different maternal societies, in behalf of those thousands* who have wandered far, far away, to the land"where there is gold?"

Morris, Illinois, November, 1849.

Original.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION.

[THE following Questions are selected from a manuscript prepared by THOMAS HASTINGS, Esq., designed to accompany a new edition of the Mother's Hymn Book. The entire series numbers 153 questions, on the physical, mental, moral, and religious training of children. We select three from under each of the above. heads. They will furnish profitable topics of discussion for maternal meetings.]

PHYSICAL TRAINING.

Can the unrestrained indulgence of appetite, in children, fail to lay the foundation of future disease?

In what respect may the garments of children be supposed to affect their health, or improve or impair their physical constitution?

What are some of the best methods of exercise for children of either sex, in infancy and juvenile years

* About one thousand adventurers land at the port of San Francisco every week.-Home Missionary.

MENTAL TRAINING.

How can a child be trained to independence of thought, without lessening his docility?

How far can a teacher be aided by parental co-operation? Where a love of study does not exist, how can it be easily superinduced?

MORAL TRAINING.

Is self-discipline necessary to those who would govern well? On what occasions, for what purposes, and in what spirit, should we speak of the faults of others in the presence of our children?

How far, and in what way, should we apprise our children of the fascinations of vice?

RELIGIOUS TRAINING.

How shall children be made to feel the difference between real worship and the mere recital of psalms and hymns?

What methods are best adapted to lead a child to view itself as a lost sinner?

How should the conviction or knowledge of our entire dependence on God affect us in our labors for the conversion of our children?

WHICH IS BEST?

WHICH is best?-To build a light-house that shall save many vessels from being wrecked, or a life-boat that shall rescue a few wretches from the wrecks that occur for want of a light-house?

Which is best?-To pay for the policeman or the schoolmaster ?-for the prison or the school?

Which is best?-To prevent crime, or to punish it?

Which is best?—To train up the boy in the fear of God, or punish the man for breaking human laws?

Which is best?-To feed, educate, and save a heedless, neglected, hungry child, or to feed, educate, and harden the same child when he becomes an old rogue?

These questions are settled, little by little, every day, in every community in the United States.