Prosperity crowned steady, faithful, patient toil. The community is free to acknowledge his house and family to be an honor to itself to possess. He is in many respects a useful citizen, one of the bulwarks of our nation. Socially and civilly he is however not of more importance than in that higher department, the religious phase of life. Here humble merit always shines with peculiar lustre. Intrinsic worth is elevated and refined by contact and communion with divine realities. Sham and show, false faces and hypocrisy reveal their vanity and empty nothingness when confronted with the supernatural in the christian faith. Excellence and real worth will seek to unite itself with the truth as it is in Jesus. This man of humble merit is on this account a consistent member of the church. He prays, and labors, and gives for the success of the gospel at home and abroad. Nothing in all this, either shows that it is done from vain-glory or to be seen by men. It is the offering of a simple, unsophisticated heart, prompted by divine love from within. In all his acts he seems to be the plain, honest, earnest man. We may point the world to him and say, Here is a man! A man who does his duty, who is an honor to himself, his family, his town, his nation, his church; and yet he is a man so humble that but few know him. He hardly knows himself. I love to contemplate such men. Wherever we see them they demand our respect. Worth always has its value. Merit and virtue are never too humble to be estimated. When overlooked for a while by men, God still is cognizant of all, and in due time the fruit will follow as reward. Nothing is more sure or eternal than the rewards of real merit Why then is it that virtue has so few followers? Why does not every one become a moral hero? Men and things appear in this world under different aspects, according as they are seen from different stand-points of observation. To the simple outside observer, the "vain show" may all seem well enough. But the varied appearances may change vastly, when the unsophisticated spectator comes to understand the working of "the ropes," and learns how the inside works of the puppet springs are made to effect the outside show. The initiated in the world's false game mock the honest simplicity that sees nothing but the meaning superficialities of outside appearances. Of course we do not now undertake to expose the quackery and humbug now almost universally jubilant. But we do pray that more and more of real merit may be in men, that honest worth may grow up in earnest souls, and we may soon have more real men. The want of this age is men! God made man in His own image. And now man changes that image into a jackass or a parrot, or a hog, or some viler animal. He masks his nature, subverts its high powers, establishes a false center of life, travesties eternal realities, burlesques the divine element of his life, and counterfeits the truth with a lie. This is true of all departments of a man's life to a greater or less degree, whether considered under the force of the social in the family, the political in the State, or the religious in the church. This actual condition is not the normal one, and therefore we may have a right to find fault with it. The remedy for all this is at 1857.] "Don't Care." 79 hand. It is for the active agents in God's moral government to reduce all to harmony in the merits and worth of Jesus Christ, which may be possessed by the vilest and most abandoned. As to the spere of politics, it is generally acknowledged that trickery and demagogism make up its chief capital. It is a dirty cess-pool, we have heard old, worn-out political hacks and broken down stagers say. It is now an open matter that bribery and intrigue is the chief part in the game. Oh, here we want men-real men! Will mothers train us such men! So, too, in the social circle the same want is felt. The shallow show and unfeeling pretensions, the open hypocrisy and fashionable lies, the mockery, the vanity, and the folly of fashionable society are all lamentably apparent. So well established is this point, that all this is attempted to be justified upon the ground that they are understood on their own merits, and so do no actual harm. What a commentary on the unrealness of fashionable life! The religious element of the age, it must be confessed with shame, is in many respects tinctured with the virus. Where humility is an essential virtue and an honest worth eminently a requisite, one might well be surprised to find both of these such rarities. The platform celebrities manufacture themselves and their own ad captandum capital by turning trumpeters to their own fame, and so blow their own horns, till the echoes widening fill the land from Dan to Beersheba. Honest worth and true humility are not always found in the highest places. Humble merit may oftener be found below. In the common walks of life are some of our truest heroes unknown to fame. Soldiers of the Cross on duty in the great conflict, they are known to Him. Let us honor it wherever it is found. Let us cultivate and develop it too in ourselves, and thus recommend it to others. "Learn to labor and to wait;" the time of reward will come. He is a hero who does his duty, be it high or low, prominent or hidden. The better that duty is done, the greater the hero who does it, no matter where he be called to do it. If the servant be found watching when his Lord comes, happy will he be. In due time will come for all true merit reward eternal. "DON'T CARE." How it sounds! Whenever we hear a boy, girl, or any one, making use of the expression, "I don't care!" it forcibly reminds us of the proverb of Solomen: "A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back. Old Don't Care is a murderer foul, And a murderer foul is he- And strangles him there, when least aware, A villain strong is Old Don't Care! MARCH. BY THE EDITOR. THIS month derives its name from Mars, one of the principal gods of the Romans. Mars was supposed to be the son of Jupiter and Juno. He was the god of war, and on that account was held in high honor by the Romans, who loved war. He was also regarded as the father of Romulus, the founder of their eternal city, and this in their estimation added a new laurel to his crown. His worship was celebrated by offering to him the fiercest and most ravenous creatures; the horse, for his vigor; the wolf, for his rapacity and quickness of sight; the dog, for his vigilance; and he delighted in the pye, the cock, and the vulture." A terrible, tearing god was this Mars. Perhaps he was made to preside over this month in order that he may tear up, break to pieces, and scatter the remains of snow, ice, and frost. March often raises floods like mighty armies, that come down upon peaceful plains, towns, and cities, to scatter and ruin, and leave in their track scenes not unlike those in the track of war. The Germans call this month LENZ, which signifies as much as Spring In our latitude, this is the transition month from winter to spring; but the power of winter extends its influence over it in such a degree that whatever springs does so cautiously, feeling that it is not perfectly safe for germs and buds to open up too freely. Still, the warmings of hope are upon the fields and in the gardens, and nature begins to feel the pleasant presentiments of the coming reign of bloom and beauty. Be patient, they will soon be here, the birds and the flowers. Meanwhile let us pray that the warlike Mars, like the receding winter, may lose his power in the earth, and look hopefully for the golden age of the world's summer, when instead of battle-fields, there shall be only fields of peace and plenty, the gladness and the glory of the earth. FAITH. YE who think the truth ye sow Workers on the barren soil, Now the faithful sower grieves; 1857.] Ruinous Faults. 81 RUINOUS FAULTS. BY J. V. E. A FAULT, when applied to things, signifies an erring or missing, a failing, a blunder, a defect, a blemish, or whatever impairs excellence. In morals or deportment, it means any error or defect, or deviation from propriety, a neglect of duty, resulting from inattention or want of prudence. If this definition is true, it is an act of wisdom and prudence on the part of a person to mend, correct, and set aright whatever he may find getting wrong in his business, conduct, life, and manners. Because, a getting wrong in these things, is a getting out of the right, safe, and sure way, and a missing the mark. If we miss the mark of our destiny; if we blunder in our path seriously, and deviate so far from propriety and the road of moral safety, resulting from inattention, want of prudence, or other cause, ruin in morals, mind, or business will follow. The first dangerous fault we notice is a business fault. There appears to be a growing recklessness in this direction. It is time that young men and women in this country be more prudently educated in this important department. It cannot have escaped the observation of persons of thought, that prosperity in our temporal affairs depends greatly on the care we manifest at the start. If a young couple show an infatuation for living in large houses, furnished with the most costly furniture, live in high style, and carry on an extensive business, when their own capital will not admit it, what can they reasonably expect, but bankruptcy sooner or later. Then, to push this unpleasant season off as long as possible, resort is often had to dishonorable shifts, so that with a wreck of business there is a still more important wreck, that of character. Perhaps persons that never had any integrity of heart, might bear such a business tumultuation without its seriously affecting their peace of mind; but not so with others. To fall from palaces to the obscure cot, or from the four-story mansion on the wide, clean street, to the shabby hut on the alley, is certainly very trying to the spirits. All this might have been prevented by a little prudence in the beginning. How many unpleasant recollections, how many pecuniary difficulties might be very easily avoided? Beware, young reader, that you fall not into this business fault. Keep within the bounds of your income and capital from the start, if possible, and your upward tendency, although not at first so speedy, will yet be sure and pleasant. Never desire to make a show of wealth. Never desire to grow rich too fast. "A prudent man foreseeth the evil," "but the simple pass on and are punished." "He that hasteneth to be rich hath an evil eye, and considereth not that poverty shall come upon him." Another ruinous fault in many persons is the disposition they have of living altogether in the sphere of carnal pleasure. This is a fault not found in a few only, but the cause of misery to the greatest number. If The body, the evil nature with them, receives their whole attention. man's existence was bounded by this life, it might then be considered reason to eat, drink, and be merry. But as we are above the brute, in this, that we have an undying soul, it shows a want of mind, or a gross perversion of the spirit, if we live altogether in bacchanalian and novel pleasures. The enjoyments derived from these things are only transitory. Their effect and recollection bring no peace to the mind, but tend to make us still more uneasy and unhappy, and increase our desire for them in the same ratio with the infatuation we engage in them. "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging; and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise." "Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine." Many miseries take their rise in carnal pleasure. Ruin in property, health, mind, morals, and influence, follow as a trail of penalties for such folly. We cannot so well value those things until they are gone. When the mind is enervated, the body debilitated, the soul blackened, and our influence, respectability and property are gone, thousands would be given, if the strong and untarnished days of youth could be restored. What then is wisdom? what is prudence? what is safety? Avoid pride, carnal pleasure, making haste to get rich, and indifference to instruction, reproof, and religion. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: but fools despise wisdom and instruction." "When pride cometh, then cometh shame; but with the lowly is wisdom." He that walketh uprightly walketh surely." "The fear of the Lord prolongeth days; but the years of the wicked shall be shortened." 66 THE PRAIRIE IN SPRING. BY G. W. BUNGAY. This is the prairie broad, and wild, and free, When the meek grass with its green finger points To Him who feeds it, and the myriad flowers Of many hues-grass nestling flowers! strange buds! Bright drop of sky and sunshine turned to song, |