and often successfully to combat superior strength. From this deficiency men frequently become the dupes of artifice and criminal design. The woman who has gained complete ascendency over her husband's affections in general requires nothing but address to possess a proportionate influence over his conduct. Nor let statesmen, or philosophers, or heroes, feel indignant at the assertion. Solomon, the wisest of men, was seduced into the grossest absurdities and the deepest crimes, not by his wife, but his wives, for whom he could not feel the ardour of concentrated affection. It cannot then be surprising if men of inferior order (and who is not?) should be unduly influenced by the individual upon whom they have fixed the whole of their affection, should be first blinded, if such be her unworthy aim, and then led as her passions or caprice may dictate. Accordingly we have beheld with agony fathers whose hearts have been alienated from their own children, the relics of a once beloved wife, by false representations and incessant complaints. Every childish foible has been artfully magnified into a crime; if not obvious necessaries, yet every indulgence has been represented as superfluous and either withheld or reluctantly bestowed. The new family have been suffered to tyrannize over their elder brethren, and, by a strange perversion, they have been viewed as interlopers or encroachers. Ah! my young friend, if your heart, and, what is more, if your principles cannot ensure better conduct from you, give up the father and his children and leave him and them to the mercy of hirelings, who in case of flagrant misconduct may be discovered and can be exchanged.

"But, if this expostulation should come too late to prevent the danger, let your own tender infant plead in behalf of those you are disposed to oppress or neglect. You are fascinated by its smile: they would smile upon you too if they dared or if they discerned any thing in your deportment to encourage them. Once they did smile on their mother; but, alas! her eyes are closed in death, as indeed yours may be, you know not how soon, and the darling of your affection may in its turn have no maternal eye to sympathise either with its sorrows or its joys. But, if its smile prove ineffectual, let its tears prevail. Ah! its sobs you cannot bear; you hush its little sorrows at any price. These weep too, but their tears are disregarded; their moans are magnified into crimes. Yet, if they have any recollection of her they have

lost, theirs are not trivial sorrows; their little hearts may be unable to distinguish the cause of their woes; they only recollect that they were once happy and they feel that they are not happy now. Yet all this may be the case when no just cause of complaint may appear to the superficial observer, when no decided ill-usage may mark your conduct: on the contrary it may assume the appearance of solicitude for their good, of zeal for their welfare; and for their good it may eventually prove to be, though far from your real design: the afflictions of their youth may be blessed by the orphan's friend to the improvement of their characters and may give them a decided advantage over your own family in future life. "But, while they suffer daily from your unkindness, or at least from your indifference, it is probable that they gradually lose ground in the affections of their father. Were he to examine his own heart, he would discover that his love is less fervent than formerly, less fervent than towards his new family, and he might by a judicious investigation of circumstances discover also the cause, and in a degree become proof against the encroaching evil. But, whether or not he may discern the difference, his family will ere long make the discovery, and he might anticipate, with little hazard of mistake, jealousy, strife, and discord, as the natural consequence, thorns that will beset his future path and be too deeply rooted for his utmost care and toil to eradicate. Judge then, my young friend, whether all this can terminate in the happiness of her by whose misconduct it was produced, or contribute, in any degree, to that of her offspring."

Miscellaneous Department.

PRAYER ANSWERED.

IN a seaport town of New England lived a pious mother and six daughters. The mother had been for many years subject to disease and infirmity, when at the age of 60, in an interview with a friend, she one day said, "I have not for many years enjoyed the pleasure of going to the house of God with his people and taking sweet counsel with them; but I have another source of grief greater than this-one that weighs down my spirits day and night, while disease and pain bear my body towards the grave." Her friend tenderly enquired

the cause of this peculiar grief. She replied, "I have six daughters; two are married and live near me, and four are with me; but not one of them gives any evidence of piety. I am alone. I have no one for a Christian companion. Oh that even one of them was pious, that I might walk alone no longer!" such was her language. Yet she seemed submissive to the will of God, whatever it might be, having strong confidence that he would eventually answer her daily prayers and in a way which would best advance his glory.

Not long after the above interview a revival of religion commenced in the town in which she lived. Among the first subjects of this work were four of her daughters. A fifth was soon after added to their number; but the other, the eldest, remained unmoved. One day one of the young converts proposed to her mother and her converted sisters to observe a day of fasting and prayer for the sister who continued so insensible. The agreement was made and a day observed. Of this the subject of their prayers had no knowledge; but on the same day, while engaged in her domestic concerns at home, her mind was solemnly arrested, and she was soon added to the Christian sisterhood. The praying mother lived a few years to enjoy their Christian society. They surrounded her dying bed, received her last blessing, and unitedly commended her spirit to God.

GOODRICK'S INFLUENCE OF MOTHERS.

A LADY.

THE word "lady" is an abbreviation of the Saxon laff-day, which signifies bread-giver. The mistress of a manor, at a time when affluent families resided constantly at their country mansions, was accustomed once a-week, or oftener, to distribute among the poor a certain quantity of bread. She bestowed the boon with her own hand, and made the hearts of the needy glad by the soft words and the gentle amenities which accompanied her benevolence. The widow and the orphan "rose up, and called her blessed." The destitute and the afflicted recounted her praises. All classes of the poor embalmed her in their affections as the laffday-the giver of bread and dispenser of comfort-a sort of ministering angel in a world of sorrow. Who is a lady now? Is it she who spends her days in self-indulgence and her nights in the dissipations of folly? Is it she who rivals the gaiety of the butterfly, but

hates the industrious hum of " the busy bee?" Is it she who wastes on gaudy finery what would make many a widow's heart sing for joy, and who, when the rags of the orphan flutter before her in the wind, sighs for a place of refuge, as if a pestilence were in the breeze? This may be "a woman of fashion." She may be an admired and an admiring follower of the gay world. But, in the ancient and most just sense of the word, she is not-alas! she is not-" a lady." She who is a lady indeed excites no one's envy, and is admired, esteemed, and beloved by many; she stands on the pedestal of personal excellence, and looks round on the men and women beneath her as her brethren and sisters, "formed of one blood," in the great family of the Creator; she is " kind," she is "pitiful," she is "courteous" to all; "she stretcheth out her hand to the poor, yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy; she openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness; "-this is the true laff-day, whom hundreds or thousands vie with one another in raising to grander distinction and to far nobler celebrity than was ever won by mere rank, or wealth, or title; and if she have grace and wisdom to distribute among hungry souls "the bread of life "to tell the poor of the love of Christ and to draw the hearts of the needy to "the Father of mercies and God of all comfort"-then is she an "elect lady,”—one of those choicest of all women, who shall be ever distinguished, and "had in everlasting remembrance."

THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER.

EASTERN MARRIAGE CEREMONY.

THE following account of a marriage ceremony is from "Ward's Views of the History of the Hindoos." In almost every particular the ceremony remains unchanged since the days of our Saviour. By a comparison of this with the account of the marriage ceremony recorded in Matt. xxv. we cannot but perceive how faithful a description our Lord has there given of Oriental manners; nor can we avoid the inference that "none but one familiar with such scenes could have written or described it."

Matt. xxv. 10.-" And the door was shut."

"At a marriage, the procession of which I saw some years ago, the bridegroom came from a distance, and the bride lived at Serampore, to which place the bridegroom was to come by

water.

After waiting two or three hours, at length, near midnight, it was announced, as if in the very words of scripture, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him." All the persons employed now lighted their lamps, and ran with them in their hands to fill up their stations in the procession; some of them had lost their lights, and were unprepared, but it was then too late to seek them, and the cavalcade moved forward to the house of the bride, at which place the company entered a large and splendidly illuminated area, before the house, covered with an awning, where a great multitude of friends, dressed in their best apparel, were seated upon mats. The bridegroom was carried in the arms of a friend, and placed in a superb seat in the midst of the company, where he sat a short time, and then went into the house, the door of which was immediately shut and guarded by Sepoys. I and others expostulated with the door-keepers, but in vain. Never was I so struck with our Lord's beautiful parable as at this moment :-and the door was shut."

Entelligence Department.

New York Female Benevolent Society.

We have just received the fourth annual report of this society, and are glad to perceive that much attention is awakened in the city of New York on behalf of those females who are 66 ignorant and out of the way." The object of the society is the promotion of MORAL PURITY, in a way both corrective and preventive.-A competent agent is employed, as in the London Female Mission, to advise and assist females who show signs of repentance, and an asylum has been opened in which "nearly forty neglected and guilty females have been resident during the year." Of these the report thus speaks :-" Some few have disappointed our hopes and left the institution; some have given satisfactory evidence of reformation, and have been restored to their friends or placed in respectable families; one has closed her earthly career; the greater part however remain in the asylum." The report contains many interesting facts, proving beyond disputation that the efforts of the Christian church to reform and save the miserable wanderers of our streets are not so visionary or hopeless as many persons conceive. We think the following case will afford both delight and encouragement to our friends, and therefore we transcribe it:

"H—. H—, has been honourably discharged for the pur