Cities

and religion in the country than we do in the town. and towns, especially those great hives of sin and misery in the Old World, are proverbial for their wickedness of every kind, as well as for their want of attention to the duties of home. But in town and country some good husbands in other respects are sadly delinquent in this matter. While they provide well for their families, their leisure hours are devoted to places of amusement and to the society of their friends and associates, while the wife is left at home, fearing that the heart of her husband has been alienated from her, and suffering all the pangs of solitude and neglect. It may be seen occasionally, too, that some who spend much of their time in religious meetings, and are very zealous for the church generally, go to the house of God alone, and sometimes in the company of other ladies, while their wives are left at home, as though they had no part nor lot in the matter." *

LITTLE THINGS.

By kind words, neatness in dress, cleanliness in his person, abstinence from all indulgences that are hurtful to himself or offensive to his wife, and a thousand other things too numerous to be named, the model husband will so conduct himself that after twenty, or even fifty, years spent in wedlock he will be still more the lover than ever before. And if the happy pair should be allowed, in the providence of God, to spend the evening of their lives together, they will cling more and more closely together, and show the world the sublime spectacle of a love that bids defiance to the changes of time.

"They sin who tell us love can die.
With life all other passions fly,
All others are but vanity.

In heaven ambition can not dwell,

Nor avarice in the vaults of hell;
Earthly these passions as of earth,

They perish where they had their birth;
But love is indestructible!

*Rev. John Bayley.

Its holy flame forever burneth,

From heaven it came, to heaven returneth;
Too oft on earth a troubled guest,

At times deceived, at times oppressed;
It here is tried and purified,

Then hath in heaven its perfect rest.

It soweth here with toil and care,

But the harvest-time of love is there!"—Southey.

JOHN ANDERSON MY Jo.

John Anderson my jo, John,

When we were first acquent,
Your locks were like the raven,

Your bonnie brow was brent;
But now your brow is bald, John,
Your locks are like the snaw;
But blessings on your frosty pow,
John Anderson my jo.

John Anderson my jo, John,

We clamb the hill thegither;
And monie a canty day, John,
We've had wi' ane anither:
Now we maun totter down, John,
But hand in hand we'll go,
And sleep thegither at the foot,
John Anderson my jo.-Burns.

XX.

The Model life.

Blessed is the man that hath a virtuous wife, for the number of his days shall be double.

A virtuous woman rejoiceth her husband, and he shall fulfill the years of his life in peace.

Children and the building of a city continue a man's name; but a blameless wife is counted above them both.-Ecclesiasticus.

S

Oh, blest with temper whose unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day;
She who ne'er answers till her husband cools,
Or if she rules him, never shows she rules;
Charms by accepting, by submitting sways;
Yet has her humor most when she obeys.--Pope.

A HUSBAND'S OPINION.

IR JAMES MACKINTOSH, in a letter to a friend, thus beautifully describes the character of his deceased wife. A finer picture of the true woman, as companion, friend, and guardian angel in human guise, can hardly be found in literature. The model wife can not be better introduced than in her person.

Fair young reader, shou'd you have the good fortune to become the wife of a worthy man, will you not emulate her example, and thus become a perpetual fountain of joy and peace to your husband, and a blessing inestimable to your children?

"Allow me, in justice to her memory, to tell you what she was, and what I owed her. I was guided in my choice only by the blind affection of my youth. I found an intelligent companion and a tender friend, a prudent monitress, the most faithful of wives, and a mother as tender as children ever had the misfortune to lose. I met a woman who, by the tender management of my weaknesses, gradually corrected the most

pernicious of them. She became prudent from affection; and though of the most generous nature, she was taught frugality and economy by her love for me. During the most critical period of my life she preserved order in my affairs, from the care of which she relieved me. She gently reclaimed me from dissipation; she propped my weak and irresolute nature; she urged my indolence to all the exertions that have been useful or creditable to me, and she was perpetually at hand to admonish my heedlessness and improvidence. To her I owe whatever I am; to her, whatever I shall be. In her solicitude for my interest, she never for a moment forgot my feelings or my character. Even in her occasional resentment, for which I but too often gave her cause (would to God I could recall those moments!), she had no sullenness nor acrimony. Her feelings were warm and impetuous, but she was placable, tender, and constant. Such was she whom I have lost; and I have lost her when her excellent natural sense was rapidly improving, and after eight years of struggle and distress had bound us fast to each other, when a knowledge of her worth had refined my youthful love into friendship, before age had deprived it of much of its original ardor,-I lost her, alas! (the choice of my youth and the partner of my misfortunes) at a moment when I had a prospect of her sharing my better days.

"The philosophy which I have learned only teaches me that virtue and friendship are the greatest of human blessings, and that their loss is irreparable. It aggravates my calamity, instead of consoling me under it. My wounded heart seeks another consolation. Governed by these feelings, which have in every age and region of the world actuated the human mind, I seek relief, and I find it in the soothing hope and consolatory opinion, that a benevolent wisdom inflicts the chastisement, as well as bestows the enjoyment, of human life; that superintending goodness will one day enlighten the darkness which surrounds our nature and hangs over our prospects; that this dreary and wretched life is not the whole of man; that an animal so sagacious and provident, and capable of such proficiency in science and virtue, is not like the beasts

that perish; that there is a dwelling-place prepared for the spirits of the just; and that the ways of God will yet be vindicated to man. The sentiments of religion, which were implanted in my mind in my early youth, and which were revived by the awful scenes which I have seen passing before my eyes in the world, are, I trust, deeply rooted in my heart by this great calamity."

THE WIFE'S INFLUENCE.

Rev. George W. Burnap has some excellent thoughts on the marriage relation, and his views of the mission and influence of the wife are so true and so happily expressed that we can not forbear to quote the following passages:

"The good wife! How much of this world's happiness and prosperity is contained in the compass of these two short words! Her influence is immense. The power of a wife, for good or for evil, is altogether irresistible. Home must be the seat of happiness, or it must be forever unknown. A good wife is to a man wisdom, and courage, and strength, and hope, and endurance. A bad one is confusion, weakness, discomfiture, despair. No condition is hopeless when the wife possesses firmness, decision, energy, economy. There is no outward. prosperity which can counteract indolence, folly, and extrav agance at home. No spirit can long resist bad domestic influences. Man is strong, but his heart is not adamant. He delights in enterprise and action, but to sustain him he needs a tranquil mind and a whole heart. He expends his whole moral force in the conflicts of the world. His feelings are daily lacerated to the utmost point of endurance by perpetual collision, irritation, and disappointment. To recover his equanimity and composure, home must be to him a place of repose, of peace, of cheerfulness, of comfort; and his soul renews its strength, and again goes forth with fresh vigor to encounter the labors and troubles of the world. But if at home he find no rest, and there is met by a bad temper, sullenness, or gloom, or is assailed by discontent, complaint, and reproaches, the heart breaks, the spirits are crushed, hope vanishes, and the man sinks into total despair.