have to mourn over a debased and ruined child. Thousands have realized the sad result and have gone mourning to the grave. Original Poetry. A MOTHER'S PRAYER. Great source of all my comforts here, My solace when in care, In mercy lend a gracious ear For the dear gifts thy hand has given Those loans of love to rear for heaven, I will not ask that they may grow I will not ask thee to bestow All this I leave, for thou know'st best The sparrow is a daily test Thy hand will ever feed. But I will ask unbounded store, That whether they be rich or poor They may be truly thine. Yes, thine alone, thine every day, E'en from this very hour, Thine when this life shall fade away, Thine, Lord, for evermore. 3 Entelligence Department, MATERNAL SOCIETIES. New York City Maternal Association.-At the 20th anniversary of this Society, held 28th Feb. 1838, it was stated that the Society commenced with only seven mothers from four different churches, and that now it embraces twenty-eight distinct Societies, which have been formed in the different churches in the city, varying in the number of their members from twelve to sixty-seven, making in all about twelve hundred mothers. LONDON to be equal to New York, with seven times her population, should have 196 associations, and 8,400 members, and it is questionable whether there be twenty associations: we know of only ten, with less than 200 members. MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS have recently been formed in Shrewsbury, Caernarvon, Bangor, and Holyhead. The Dublin Maternal Society, which sprang out of a female prayer meeting commenced in 1828, has at present from thirty to forty members, who find their meetings very profitable. A Branch Association has lately been formed in connection with this Society in Dublin. FEMALE MISSIONS. IRISH FEMALE MISSION.-This Society has been recently formed. It has two female agents already employed. The Society is divided into the following departments: Fallen Women's Department, with a committee of seven ladies, drawn chiefly from the committee of four penitentiaries in Dublin. They have appointed a sub-committee to meet twice a week to give counsel to all such women as desire to forsake their sinful course. Maternal Department, with a committee of nine ladies, embracing the directress and secretary of the Dublin Maternal Society and the directress of the branch association recently organized. The design of this department is to carry to mothers in the middle and lower ranks of life such information as may assist in regulating their household and training their offspring. The parties presiding at these maternal meetings are married ladies, whose piety, experience, and general competency, fit them in the judgment of the committee for such an office. Young Women's Department, with a committee of nine ladies. The design of this department is to occupy the minds and leisure time of young women of good character profitably, that thus they may be preserved from the snares laid for them and be so trained as to become a blessing to their generation. The means taken for their improvement are,-convening them weekly in small companies for instruction, and lending them suitable tracts and books to read. It is proposed to establish a series of public lectures on useful subjects for the benefit of young women. The following amongst other means are taken to promote their usefulness: engaging those who are qualified in Sabbath school teaching, in tract distributing, in visiting sick and infirm females, in teaching women and girls to read and the latter to sew, &c. Girls' Department, with a committee of eight ladies. This department is intended as an auxiliary to the family and Sabbath school, for the purpose of imparting such information as may be of practical benefit in passing through life. Library and Tract Department, with a committee of two ladies, for the purpose of regulating all that relates to the books and tracts of the Mission. FEMALES' HOMES. The Dublin Protestant Servants' Home and Registry, and the Dublin Females' Home and Registry for all denominations, have been recently formed. Admission into the former is confined to Protestants: the latter is open to all. The rules of both, with the forenamed exception, are those of the Central Servants' Home and Registry in London, with which they correspond. The Dublin Providence Home has been recently established for the purpose of receiving virtuous females, from fourteen to thirty-five years of age, who having lost one or both parents, or from other providential circumstances, are without employment and without support, giving them temporary homes with employment, and ultimately providing them with situations, thus rescuing them from the strong temptations under which so many have fallen and entered upon a course of vice for the sake of bread. Surely prevention is better than cure! Would that such asylums were greatly and speedily multiplied; they would go far towards rendering our Penitentiaries unnecessary, and prevent a large amount of suffering. The London Female Mission have had some most satisfactory results from this department of their labours, and doubt not that the Dub lin committee will speedily share with them in the joy of seeing many a deserving and industrious female made comfortable and happy, and placed in a situation to obtain an honest living. Miscellaneous Department. THE LITTLE LAMPS. WHETHER in a dream or a reverie, it is needless to say I beheld in my thoughts, upon my bed, the following vision: I looked and I saw five lamps burning upon the table. A shining one said to me," Keep these lamps in readiness, until I come for them." As there were so many, I was kept busily employed, trimming this one, supplying that one, and screening the other from the wind. Yet it was a pleasant task, and I was glad to see that they were all bright when the messenger returned. Then I looked at what had hitherto escaped my attention, and saw that on each of them there was a name written, which were the names of the children of my own family! O! that I may remember the vision, and carefully tend these little lamps, that they may be brightly burning when the Master shall call for them. AMERICAN JOURNAL. LETTER-WRITERS. SOME there are, whose labours might be spared. They fill the first page with apologies for not having answered me earlier: this is worse than their silence. The next thing is, to echo every circumstance I have related for their amusement; and their sentences, one after the other, set out with, "Your account of "-" How delighted you must have been when”—“ I envy the journey you had from"-" As you observe, the climate must be"-and so on, to the end of the chapter; and this they call answering me! Then follow loving remembrances from all the family, severally and collectively. And they finish with another apology, far more reasonable than the first, for having "troubled me with so much nonsense." There are others who fly off into the opposite extreme. To execute something worthy of being sent across the channel, and of the postage, they tease their brains for a fit subject, ponder on the best things that may be said upon it, and send you, not a letter, but an intolerable essay. -New York Mirror. THE FEMALES' ADVOCATE. THE ADVENT OF CHRIST AN INCENTIVE TO THAT was an auspicious day that ushered into this fallen world the Lord of heaven! Well might the angelic host shout forth in lofty strains, when deity assumed humanity, "Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good-will amongst men." Angels alone were conscious of the amazing condescension of Jesus, and their eyes gazed with rapture upon the scene! Though the morning stars sang together, and the Almighty Creator of the universe lay in a manger wrapt in swaddling bands, yet man, guilty and fallen man, was ignorant of his redemption, which lay in embryo in this child of promise. Good old Simeon, receiving a ray of heavenly illumination, and looking with prophetic vision through the vista of future ages, clasped the holy child in his arms, and elevating his heart to heaven, said, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people: a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." A mantle of impenetrable darkness shrouded the minds of all men, and acts of rebellion and moral' N |