But wait not for more than enough; for marriage is the duty of most men ; Grievous indeed must be the burden that shall outweigh innocence and health,

And a well-assorted marriage hath not many cares.

In the day of thy joy consider the poor; thou shalt reap a rich narvest of

blessing;

For these be the pensioners of One who filleth thy cup with pleasures; In the day of thy joy be thankful; He hath well deserved thy praise ; Mean and selfish is the heart that seeketh him only in sorrow.

For her sake, who leaneth on thine arm, court not the notice of the world, And remember that sober privacy is comelier than public display.

If thou marriest, thou art allied unto strangers: see they be not such as shame thee:

If thou marriest, thou leavest thine own; see that it be not done in anger.

Bride and bridegroom, pilgrims of life, henceforward to travel together,
In this the beginning of your journey, neglect not the favour of Heaven:
And at eventide kneel ye together, that your joy be not unhallowed :
Angels that are round you shall be glad, those loving ministers of mercy,
And the richest blessings of your God shall be poured on his favoured
children.

Marriage is a figure and an earnest of holier things unseen,
And reverence well becometh the symbol of dignity and glory,
Keep thy heart pure, lest thou do dishonour to thy state;

Selfishness is base and hateful; but love considereth not itself.

The wicked turneth good into evil, for his mind is warped within him : But the heart of the righteous is chaste; his conscience casteth off sin. If thou wilt be loved, render implicit confidence ;

If thou wouldst not suspect, receive full confidence in turn :

For where trust is not reciprocal, the love that trusted withereth.

Hide not your grief nor your gladness; be open one with the other,
Let bitterness be strange unto your tongues, but sympathy a dweller in
your hearts:

Imparting halveth the evils, while it doubleth the pleasures of life,
But sorrows breed and thicken in the gloomy bosom of Reserve.

Young wife, be not forward, nor forget that modesty becometh thee:
If it be discarded now, who will not hold it feigned before?
But be not as a timid girl,-there is honour due to thine estate;

A matron's modesty is dignified: she blusheth not, neither is she bold.
Be kind to the friends <f thine husband, for the love they have to him:
And gently bear with his infirmities; hast thou no need of his forbearance ?
Be not always in each other's company; it is often good to be alone;
And if there be too much sameness, ye cannot but grow weary of each
other:

Ye have each a soul to be nourished, and a mind to be taught in wisdom,
Therefore, as accountable for time, help one another to improve it.
If ye feel love to decline, track out quickly the secret cause;
Let it not rankle for a day, but confess and bewail it together:
Speedily seek to be reconciled, for love is the life of marriage;
And be ye co-partners in triumph, conquering the peevishness of self.

Let no one have thy confidence, O wife, saving thy husband:
Have not a friend more intimate, O husband, than thy wife.

In the joy of a well-ordered home, be warned that this is not your rest;
For the substance to come may be forgotten in the present beauty of the
shadow.

If ye are blessed with children, ye have a fearful pleasure,

A deeper care and a higher joy, and the range of your existence is widened.

If God in wisdom refuse them, thank him for an unknown mercy:

For how can ye tell if they might be a blessing or a curse?

Yet ye may pray, like Hannah, simply dependent on his will:

Resignation sweeteneth the cup, but impatience dasheth it with vinegar. Now this is the sum of the matter:-if ye will be happy in marriage, Confide, love, and be patient: be faithful, firm, and holy.

OF EDUCATION.

A BABE in a house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love:

A resting-place for innocence on earth; a link between angels and men:
Yet is it a talent of trust, a loan to be rendered back with interest;
A delight, but redolent of care; honey-sweet, but lacking not the bitter.
For character groweth day by day, and all things aid it in unfolding,

And the bent unto good or evil may be given in the hours of infancy:
Scratch the green rind of a sapling, or wantonly twist it in the soil,
The scarred and crooked oak will tell of thee for centuries to come;
Even so mayst thou guide the mind to good, or lead it to the marrings
of evil,

For disposition is builded up by the fashioning of first impressions:
Wherefore, though the voice of Instruction waiteth for the ear of reason,
Yet with his mother's milk the young child drinketh Education.
Patiencce is the first great lesson; he may learn it at the breast;

And the habit of obedience and trust may be grafted on his mind in the

cradle :

Hold the little hands in prayer, teach the weak knees their kneeling;
Let him see thee speaking to thy God; he will not forget it afterward:
When old and gray will he feelingly remember a mother's tender piety,
And the touching recollection of her prayers shall arrest the strong man
in his sin.

Select not to nurse thy darling one that may taint his innocence,
For example is a constant monitor, and good seed will die among the tares.
The arts of a strange servant have spoiled a gentle disposition:
Mother, let him learn of thy lips, and be nourished at thy breast.
Character is mainly moulded by the cast of the minds that surround it :
Let then the playmates of thy little one be not other than thy judgment

shall approve;

For a child is in a new world, and learneth somewhat every moment,

His eye is quick to observe, his memory storeth in secret,

His ear is greedy of knowledge, and his mind is plastic as soft wax. Beware then that he heareth what is good, that he feedeth not on evil

maxims,

For the seeds of first instructions are dropped into the deepest furrows. That which immemorial use hath sanctioned, seemeth to be right and true; Therefore, let him never have to recollect the time when good things were strangers to his thought.

Strive not to centre in thyself, fond mother, all his love;

Nay, do not thou so selfishly, but enlarge his heart for others;

Use him to sympathy betimes, that he learn to be sad with the afflicted; And check not a child in his merriment,-should not his morning be sunny? Give him not all his desire, so shalt thou strengthen him in hope;

Neither stop with indulgence the fountain of his tears, so shall he fear thy firmness.

Above all things graft on him subjection, yea, in the veriest trifle ; Courtesy to all, reverence to some, and to thee unanswering obedience.

Read thou first, and well approve, the books thou givest to thy child ; But remember the weakness of his thought, and that wisdom for him must be diluted;

In the honied waters of infant tales, let him taste the strong wine of truth: Pathetic stories soften the heart; but legends of terror breed midnight

misery;

Fairy fictions cram the mind with folly, and knowledge of evil tempteth to like evil :

Be not loth to curb imagination, nor be fearful that truths will depress it; And for evil, he will learn it soon enough; be not thou the devil's envoy. Induce not precocity of intellect, for so shouldst thou nourish vanity; Neither can a plant, forced in the hot-bed, stand against the frozen breath of winter.

The mind is made wealthy by ideas, but the multitude of words is a clogging weight :

Therefore be understood in thy teaching, and instruct to the measure of

capacity.

Analogy is milk for babes, but abstract truths are strong meat;

Precepts and rules are repulsive to a child, but happy illustration winneth

him:

In vain shalt thou preach of industry and prudence, till he learn of the bee and the ant;

Dimly will he think of his soul, till the acorn and chrysalis have taught

him;

He will fear God in thunder, and worship his loveliness in flowers;
And parables shall charm his heart, while doctrines seem dead mystery;
Faith shall he learn of the husbandman casting good corn into the soil;
And if thou train him to trust thee, he will not withhold his reliance from
the Lord.

Fearest thou the dark, poor child? I would not have thee left to thy terrors;

Darkness is the semblance of evil, and nature regardeth it with dread: Yet know thy father's God is with thee still, to guard thee:

It is a simple lesson of dependence, let thy tost mind anchor upon Him. Did a sudden noise affright thee? lo, this or that hath caused it: Things undefined are full of dread, and stagger stouter nerves.

The seeds of misery and madness have been sowed in the nights of in

fancy :

Therefore be careful that ghastly fears be not the night companions of thy child.

Lo, thou art a land-mark on a hill; thy little ones copy thee in all things.
Let, then, thy religion be perfect: so shalt thou be honoured in thy house.
Be instructed in all wisdom, and communicate that thou knowest,
Otherwise thy learning is hidden, and thus thou seemest unwise.
A sluggard hath no respect; an epicure commandeth not reverence;
Meanness is always despicable, and folly provoketh contempt.
Those parents are best honoured whose characters best deserve it;
Show me a shild undutiful, I shall know where to look for a foolish father.
Never hath a father done his duty, and lived to be despised of his son.
But how can that son reverence an example he dare not follow ?
Should he imitate thee in thine evil? his scorn is thy rebuke.
Nay, but bring him up aright, in obedience to God and to thee;

Begin betimes, lest thou fail of his fear; and with judgment, that thou lose not his love:

Herein use good discretion, and govern not all alike,

Yet, perhaps, the fault will be in thee, if kindness prove not all-sufficient. By kindness, the wolf and the zebra become docile as the spaniel and the horse:

The kite feedeth with the starling, under the law of kindness:

That law shall tame the fiercest, bring down the battlements of pride,
Cherish the weak, control the strong, and win the fearful spirit.

Be obeyed when thou commandest; but command not often:

Let thy carriage be the gentleness of love, not the stern front of tyranny.
Make not one child a warning to another; but chide the offender apart :
For self-conceit and wounded pride rankle like poisons in the soul.
A mild rebuke in the season of calmness, is better than a rod in the heat

of passion,

Nevertheless spare not, if thy word hath passed for punishment;

Let not thy child see thee humbled, nor learn to think thee false;

Suffer none to reprove thee before him, and reprove not thine own pur

poses by change;

Yet speedily turn thou again, and reward him where thou canst,

For kind encouragement in good cutteth at the roots of evil.