1858.]

Brothers and Sisters.

3

much unkindness to distress, is a domestic circle, where the parents are surrounded by their children, of which the daughters are being employed in elegant or useful work, and the elder brother some instructive and improving volume, for the benefit or entertainment of the whole. *** Young people seek your happiness in each other's society. What can the brother find in the circle of dissipation, or amongst the votaries of intemperance, to compare with this? What can the sister find in the concert of sweet sounds, that has music for the soul, compared with this domestic harmony? or in the glitter and fashionable confusion, and mazy dance of the ball-room, compared with these pure, calm, sequestered joys, which are to be found at the fireside of a happy family?"

We might speak of those mutual acts of courtesy and gentleness, and unaffected urbanity, which so beautify the household. These graces of manner are the delicate blossoms of the more substantial domestic virtues, the tendrils that gracefully adorn the altars of home, and diffuse the fragrance of love, like Mary's box of ointment. We have often seen in households, otherwise commendable, a coarseness and bluntness of manners, harshness of tone, and even severity in repartee, that have marred the beauty of the home-scene. On the other hand we have witnessed families, where, in addition to the more substantial virtues, were seen the most courteous demeanor, a gentleness of expression, an unstudied refinement of manners, that have invested the fraternal relation with a sort of poetical beauty, and thrown an unearthly charm about the home-circle.

We can only offer these remarks as suggestions upon this point, hoping they will lead brothers and sisters to consider for themselves how much their attention to these gentler graces of social refinement, may contribute to the general beauty and well-being of the household.

How beautiful to behold a brother assuming the office of counsellor to a young sister, and watching each unfolding grace and beauty of character! How beautiful to see an older sister watchful over a brother, encompassing his path as a guardian angel, imparting a refining touch to his coarser nature, and by influences, gentle, but mighty and formative, moulding his character after her highest ideal of the great and good. We cannot fail to recognize in this relation a most beneficent provision for the perfection of individual character, and the culture of the heart in the earlier years of life. Those whom God has so united should seek in every worthy way to be mutual helpers to each other. How may the sister, with her quick perception of the right, and her feminine purity, act as an earnest, but kind and gentle censor of a youthful brother, checking his wayward impulses, and guiding to noble ends his impassioned nature. And how may the brother, with manly judgment and honor, shield a sister from the rude storms of the world, and by considerate counsels and tender interferences, divert her from many of the follies of fashionable life, and blandishments of pleasure. O, what a beneficent and reciprocal power for good is vested in the fraternal relation! What might not sisters do, by the proper exercise of their sisterly influence, to hold back their brothers from sinful excesses, and those snares that beset the path of the young! And what controlling power might a noble brother exert on sisters, in restraining them from the foolishness of a vain and flippant life, indecent costumes, immodest dan

ces, and equivocal friendships! It is easy to perceive, from these suggestions, how manifold and beneficent this relation may become, and was doubtless designed to be, in the education of home.

"Would we know what brother and sister have been to each other, listen to the triumphal song of Miriam, as she braced anew the great heart of the law-giver with timbrel and psalm; or look to the grave of Lazarus, where Mary and Martha stood with Him who was the Resurrection and the Life. Do we ask more modern instances, stand under the open heavens and remember how Caroline Herschel shared the vigils of their illustrious explorer-open the pages of Neander, and think of her whose devotedness made a pleasant home of his otherwise solitary study, and encouraged him in his noble work of tracing out the progress of the divine life throughout all the mazes of theological controversy, and making church history a book of the heart, instead of the disputatious understanding. Do we need more-only conjecture the number of cases nearer at hand in which youth have been counselled and helped on through years of preparation to their calling or profession by a sacrifice that looked not to the world for motive, and asked not of the world reward for its success."

But this culture of fraternal affection and its associated blessings do not terminate with the paternal home. It is in accordance with the divine method that the affections shall grow outward from within; so that the children who have schooled their filial and fraternal feelings at home, are prepared to go out into the wider sphere of humanity, with hearts that throb with a world-wide brotherhood and a divine and heavenly Fatherhood.

Happy the home where the children dwell together in unity and love! Where no feelings of envy or jealousy interrupt the flow of kindly sympathy. Where bothers and sisters are gentle and considerate; and by mutual devotion, seek to strengthen the bonds of fraternal affection. Such homes, like the holy family of Bethany, will attract the favor, and secure the enriching and perpetual benediction of the Saviour.

Let all apply these thoughts. Children, apply them, and be kind in all you do and say. Youth, apply them, and be thoughtful where you are often tempted to be reckless. Elders, apply them, and never allow care or worldliness to chill the better affections of early days. Deep in the heart let the old home live, and its pleasant memories, brightened by kindly offices, open ever into immortal hopes. Old things must pass away, but from the christian they can only pass away by being all made new-new in a spirit, that remembers best when progressing most, and crowns all friendships with charity divine.

"A BEAUTIFUL face, and a form of grace,
Are lovely sights to see;

And gold, and gems, and diadems
More useful still may be;

But beauty and gold, though both be untold,
Are things of a wordly mart.

The wealth that I prize, above ingots or eyes,
Is a heart-a warm young heart."

Where are the rains and the snows,
Where are the joys and the woes
Of the year?

Where are the rainbows and showers,
Where are the dews and the flowers,
Where are the moments and hours,
That were here?

Gone like the songs which the summer birds sing,
Gone like the moanings the Autumn woods bring,
Gone like the guests when the banquet is o'er

And the last fading foot-fall sounds back from the door,
And the joy that is past will return evermore-

Will return evermore!

VII.

Where are the thrills and the throes,
Where are the frowns and the foes
Of the Year?

Where are the weepings and wailings,
Where the assaults and assailings.
Where are the praises and railings.
Where are the faults and the failings,

That were here?

Gone like the green leaves that freshened the wildwood,
Gone like the sweet songs that gladdened our childhood,
Gone like the bubble, that breaks on the stream,
Gone like those pictures which are not, but seem-
When they glide in our fancies at night in a dream--
And return nevermore!

VIII.

As when one waketh from a dream.
Roused by the joyous morn,

I started from my mystic mood,
For other thoughts were born.

I stirred the embers on the hearth,
I fed the fire anew,

More cheerful pictures than before
Upon the wall it threw,

And brighter in my musing heart
The rising visions grew.

IX.

Old Father Time himself was cheered,

And by the hearth's warm glow

Ar twelve years old, my name was far from good. The three years that had already been spent away from home, had made sad iuroads upon my home training; and the friends who should have trained one differently had done much to make me what they now generally agreed in calling me," a very bad boy." My mother had often been told by those who should have comforted her, that my career would yet be ended under the gallows. This I resolved to prove a lie, as well as much more of the same kind of dark prophecy. If my mother suffered agony well nigh enough to break her heart, at the prediction, she should never, I resolved, be heart-broken by its realization. The prejudice was so strong against me that among such friends no good name could be gained, so among strangers it must be sought.

"Good-for-nothing" and positively bad, as they were pleased to represent me far and near, it was not the easiest thing imaginable to secure a place to get a fair trial. To a strict and exacting farmer at last my time was hired. With evil predictions in advance, all seemed to take in for granted that these were true, and my case was nearly helpless and hopeless. Working for a good name under such disadvantages was an