When down the sunset road I fare,
For days like these I scarcely dare
To hope; or that such secret repose
Will brood upon my evening's close
As is my mother's gracious share

At seventy-six.

MARGARET HOLMES Bates.

Good Mothers.

There

Good mothers are very dear to their children. is no mother in the world like our own mother. My friend Sanders from Glasgow says: "The mither's breath is aye sweet." Every woman is a handsome woman to her own son. That man is not worth hanging who does not love his mother. When good women lead their little ones to the Savior, the Lord Jesus blesses not only the children, but their mothers. Happy are they among women who see their sons and their daughters walking in the truth.-SPURGEON.

Industrious Mothers.

Who are the industrious men in all our occupations and professions? Who are they managing the merchandise of the world, building the walls, tinning the roofs, weaving the carpets, making the laws, governing the nations, making the earth to quake, heave, roar and rattle with the tread of gigantic enterprises? Who are they? For the most part they descended from industrious mothers, who, in the old homestead, used to spin their own yarn, weave their own carpets, plait their own

door-mats, flag their own chairs and do their own work. The stalwart men and the influential women of this day, ninety-nine out of every hundred of them, came from such an illustrious ancestry of hard knuckles and homespun.-TALMAGE.

Idle Mothers.

Who are these people in society, light as froth, blown every whither of temptation and fashion-the peddlers of filthy stories, the dancing jacks of political parties, the scum of society, the tavern loungers, the store infesters, the men of low wink and filthy chuckle, brass breast-pins and rotten associations? For the most part, they came from mothers idle and disgusting—the scandalmongers of society, going from house to house, attending to everybody's business but their own, believing in witches and ghosts and in horse-shoes to keep the devil out of the churn, and by a godless life setting their children on the very verge of hell. The mothers of Samuel Johnson, Alfred the Great, Isaac Newton, St. Augustine, Richard Cecil and President Edwards were mainly Christian mothers.-TALMAGE.

A Mother's Power.

Let mothers labor to make home the happiest place in the world. If they are always nagging and grumbling they will lose their hold on their children, and the boys will be tempted to spend their evenings away from home. Home is the best place for boys and men, and a good mother is the soul of home. The smile of a mother's

face has enticed many into the right path, and the fear of bringing a tear into her eye has called off many a man from evil ways. The boy may have a heart of iron, but his mother can hold him like a magnet. The devil never reckons a man to be lost so long as he has a good mother alive. Great is thy power, O woman! See to it that it be used for Him who thought of His mother even in the agonies of death.-SPURGEON.

At Evening.

There she sits, the old Christian mother, ripe for Heaven. Her eyesight is almost gone, but the splendors of the Celestial City kindle up her vision. The gray light of Heaven's morn has struck through the gray locks which are folded back over the wrinkled temples. She stoops very much now under the burden of care she used to carry for her children. She sits at home, too old to find her way to the house of God; but while she sits there all the past comes back, and the children who forty years ago tripped around her arm-chair with their griefs, joys and sorrows-those children are gone now. Some were caught up into a better realm, where they shall never die, and others are out in the broad world, testing the excellency of a Christian mother's discipline. Her last days are full of peace; and calmer and sweeter will her spirit become, until the gates of life shall lift and pass the worn-out pilgrim into eternal springtide and youth, where the limbs never ache nor the eyes grow dim, and the staff of the exhausted and decrepit pilgrim shall become the palm of the immortal athlete. -TALMAGE.

A Mother's Reward.

Oh, the satisfaction of Hannah in seeing Samuel serving at the altar! Of Mother Eunice in seeing her Timothy learned in the Scriptures! That is the mother's recompense to see her children coming up useful in the world, reclaiming the lost, healing the sick, pitying the ignorant, earnest and useful in every sphere. That throws a new light back on the old family Bible whenever she reads it, and that will be ointment to soothe the aching limbs of decrepitude and light up the closing hours of life's day with the glories of an autumnal sunset.TALMAGE,

Reverence for Parents.

Look out for the young man who speaks of his father as the "Governor," the "Squire," or the "Old Chap.” Look out for the young woman who calls her mother her "maternal ancestor," or the "old woman." "The eye that mocketh at his father and refuseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out and the young eagles shall eat it.”—Talmage.

The Influence of a Christian Mother.

One hundred and twenty clergymen were together, and they were telling their experience and their ancestry. Of these one hundred and twenty clergymen, how many of them, do you suppose, assigned as the means of their conversion the influence of a Christian mother? One hundred out of the one hundred and twenty! Philip

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Doddridge was brought to God by the Scripture lesson on the Dutch tiles of a chimney fireplace. The mother thinks she is only rocking a child, but at the same time she may be rocking the fate of nations-rocking the glories of Heaven. The same maternal power' which may lift the child up may press a child down.-TALMAGE.

NATURE.

The First Rose.

The Power that hangs the rainbow in the sky-
Pledge of His constant care—

Dost paint thy beauty of the crimson dye.

He bids thee blossom there.

J. LOTON.

Natural Law in the Spiritual World.

Nothing that happens in the world happens by chance. God is a God of order. Everything is arranged upon definite principles, and never at random. The worldeven the religious world-is governed by law. Character is governed by law. Happiness is governed by law. The Christian experiences are governed by law. Men, forgetting this, expect Rest, Joy, Peace and Faith to drop into their souls from the air like snow or rain. But in point of fact they do not do so; and if they did they would no less have their origin in previous activities and be controlled by natural laws. Rain and snow do drop from the air, but not without a long previous history.