more fit for exertion: he slept, but when he awoke it was to hush a tempest; and the believer in Jesus will try to imitate his example.

Then we

Or do we seek rather a merely human model? are told of one who "seemed born under a decree to do,” that "doing, doing, ever doing, he seemed to abhor idleness more than the Nature of the old philosophy abhorred a vacuum.' It was irksome to that man to spend an idle hour. He accordingly did the work of several men, and his home, guided by such a father, appears to have been one of the most happy of all the Homes of England. A busy family is most likely to be a happy one, for idleness proverbially leaves us at the mercy of the tempter.*

VI. Another maxim for Home is, BE HAPPY AND MAKE HAPPY. Now, happiness does not depend on some great or striking event, but rather upon things which seem small and insignificant, as rain drops from the shower, and at length the flood. A kind deed kindly done, a kind word kindly spoken, nay, a smile or a look, may be all that is needed, and a thing so trivial may spread a radiant sunshine through a Home. All the year may be made a summer by such simple

means.

And how countless the sources of home-happiness if the Word of God be the guide! Are there poor at hand? A single loaf would make both them and us happy. Are there the ignorant to teach? A Bible or a book would shed light. Are the sorrowing near? Then point them to the Man of Sorrows, or tell of the Spirit, the Comforter. Like seed-corn, our happiness is increased by being thus diffused. Like the light,

* More than one man is known who acquired several languages during the time so commonly lost, or worse, in waiting for dinner.

it should spread; like heat, it should radiate; and amid many sorrows, that abode is a happy one where the members aim at such results.

But the world deems such things the cause of sorrow or of bondage, not of happiness-how falsely, the believer need not be told. It was the resolution of President Edwards never to say aught upon the Sabbath that would provoke a laugh; and the world would deem that a Sabbatarian fanaticism. Yet the Home of Edwards was one of the most blessed ever seen on earth; there went forth from it soul after soul prepared through grace to work the work of God; and it is thus that the happiness of Home will spread when it is the happiness of the children of God.

VII. ATTEND TO 66 MINOR MORALS."-By their Petite Morale, the French mean politeness, and that has its place in a Christian Home. The cordial desire to please, a sensitive shrinking from whatever would hurt or offend, and similar things, tend to sweeten all the intercourse of life. Parents should attend to them with care, as the inlets of much home-happiness, and where they are neglected, the Saviour's truth has not free course in a household. If politeness be "morality in little things," and if life be commonly made up of such things, no more is needed to shew how much our happiness depends upon them—the kindliest, purest nature will cultivate this habit with greatest care, and the Word of God contains the principle which should guide us here as in all besides,--it teaches "each to esteem others better than himself."*

NEVER SAY WE

VIII. One maxim more must suffice. MUST DO AS OTHERS DO.-That maxim has brought myriads

* Read an interesting little book, "Things to be Thought of."

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to misery; and parents should dare to be singular, if they would be Christian, or have Christian homes. The dead soul is swept down by the world's current, but the living stems it, and rejoices. Doing as others do in dress, in entertainments, in expenditure, or in pleasure, just perpetuates the reign of folly; and parents who would flee from ruin, and make home truly happy, must resolutely turn such things from their door. Perhaps more of the moral health of Home depends upon this one maxim-Dare to be singular, if to be singular mean to be Christian—than any other that could be named. Paul knew it, and he practised it. The tongue of slander might revile, and those who neglected their own character might be busy with his; but to him, or to any like-minded man, that is a light matter. He appealed from man to God, and then left all over till the judgment-day.

If we

Whatever it may cost, then, God and not man must give law in our abodes, if we wish them to be blessed. evade His Word under any pretext, or if we be scared by the unscriptural opinion of others, we are not following the Lord fully. What is it to any man who fears God, how much he may be censured, if the censure be unchristian? To his faith the believer should add courage to meet all such things; and thus ruling his Home in the fear of God, and not of man, the peace of God would circulate there. That man's Home would become his castle indeed.

Emigration-Waywardness-The Love of Enterprise-Mungo Park-Large CitiesTheir Perils-The Duty of Parents-Deserters from Home-Examples-Samuel Nugent Legh Richmond-James Nisbet-A Sailor.

In an age like ours, when emigration is so rife, and when the ties to Home are often severed by necessity, or the strong current of custom, the time of leaving home has acquired a deeper significance than it had in the days of our fathers. The abode of infancy is often left not merely for the nearest city, but for the uttermost ends of the earth. "Now look on life-be strong," becomes a counsel more and more needed from year to year, for some forsake their father's home only to beg their way to the grave; others to plunge neck-deep into temptation; and only a few to find elsewhere what home might have richly supplied-namely, happiness and God.

Amid all perils, however, it is a part of the very constitution of home, that the young shall there be prepared for leaving it. They must be taught to look abroad over the world, and wisely select a sphere where a father's counsels may be obeyed, and a mother's prayers answered in the blessings of Heaven; where the spells of home may all life long be felt while the heart throbs, rather than the lips utter,

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the ineffaceable impressions left upon youth by the doctrine, the reproof, the correction, and instruction in righteousness imparted under the roof now left perhaps for ever.

The selected home may be in the heathy Hebrides, or in sunny India. It may be among icebergs in Greenland, or in the fertile plains of England. It may be along the deadly coasts of Africa, or in some of our own densely peopled cities. It may be amid the privations of missionary life, or the perils of a soldier's campaigning; but all, or nearly all, must sooner or later contemplate such a separation, or "second weaning." The half of our education consists in preparing us for that event; and few can look back to the day when the door of home was closed behind them as they launched into life, without remembering the deep and mingled feelings of the hour. Some have then felt as if they were wandering into some dense and tangled forest; others as if plunging into a dark abyss; and crowds have wept as they thought of the coldness they must thenceforth encounter.

And many things may tend to precipitate such a separation. The restraints of home are irksome, and it is abandoned for some more congenial sphere. The parental eye is too watchful for the waywardness of youth, to allow it to be easy under such supervision, and home is forsaken, that such restraint may be cast off. Or the love of enterprise stimulates. Mungo Park, leaving his cottage home on the banks of the Yarrow, and hastening away to the land of the Great Zahara, its horrors and its mysteries, represents this class. A stirring soul and an observant eye urge them to seek adventures, and when well-directed, such undomestic spirits have helped to widen the knowledge of mankind. The consecrated enterprise of Moffat, of Livingstone, and Barth, has pioneered the way