"Oh, how good many of those sweet and noble things that we learned in the High School have been to me when I have been kept in the house all these long months! What pleasure it has been to think them over and over again!" He was dying, but these things out of his school life he recalled with rare gratification even then. Not mathematics or science or Latin or Greek—and he was foremost in all of these studiesonly this! Is it good to do such work? I think so. Do we as teachers hesitate to begin a work so far reaching and influential because it involves unusual effort? Let us rather think of the end; for, like good St. Christopher, we "labor for eternal life "-for them and for ourselves. In the Heart of Midlothian, when Jeanie Deans makes her touching appeal to Queen Caroline for the life of her sister, she says-and the heart of the world has felt that appeal: "When the hour of death comes, that comes to high and low-lang and late may it be yours!-oh, my lady, then it is not what we have done for ourselves, but what we have done for others, that we think on most pleasantly." From an Address. 285. THE YOUNG SCHOLAR. C. D. WARNER. I should think myself a criminal, if I said anything to chill the enthusiasm of the young scholar, or to dash with any skepticism his longing and his hope. He has chosen the highest. His beautiful faith, and his aspiration, are the light of life. Without his fresh enthusiasm, and his gallant devotion to learning, to art, to culture, the world would be dreary enough. Through him comes the ever-springing inspiration in affairs. Baffled at every turn, and driven defeated from an hundred fields, he carries victory in himself. He belongs to a great and immortal army. Let him not be discouraged at his apparent little influence, even though cvery sally of every young life may seem like a forlorn hope. No man can see the whole of the battle. It must needs be that regiment after regiment, trained, accomplished, gay and high with hope, shall be sent into the field, marching on, into the smoke, into the fire, and be swept away. The battle swallows them, one after the other, and the foe is yet unyielding, and the ever-remorseless trumpet calls for more and more. But not in vain; for some day, and every day, along the line, there is a cry, “They fly, they fly!" And the whole army advances, and the flag is planted on an ancient fortress, where it never waved before. And even if you never see this, better than inglorious camp-following it is to go in with the wasting regiment, to carry the colors up the scope of the enemy's works, though the next moment you fall and find a grave at the foot of the glacis. 286. THE AMERICAN FLAG. When freedom from her mountain height And set the stars of glory there. Who rear'st aloft thy regal form, When strive the warriors of the storm, To guard the banner of the free, Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly, Heave in wild wreaths the battle-shroud, Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall, Flag of the free heart's hope and home! And all thy hues were born in heaven. Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With freedom's soil beneath our feet, And freedom's banner streaming o'er us. 287.-TIRED MOTHERS. MRS. ALBERT SMITH. A little elbow leans upon your knee, Of warm, moist fingers, folding yours so tight; But it is blessedness! A year ago We are so dull and thankless; and too slow The little child that brought me only good. And if, some night when you sit down to rest, This lisping tongue that chatters constantly; I could not blame you for your heartache then! At little children clinging to their gown; If I could find a little muddy boot, Or cap or jacket, on my chamber floor; And hear its patter in my home once more; If I could mend a broken cart to-day, To-morrow make a kite to reach the sky- 288.-WISDOM OF THE AGES. Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. . Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. . Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good.-The Bible. Children are the to-morrow of society (Whately). Good, the more communicated, more abundant grows (Milton). Memory is the scribe of the soul (Aristotle). No canvas ab. sorbs color like the memory (Willmott). Sow good services; sweet remembrances will grow from them (Mme. de Stael). The least and most imperceptible impressions received in our childhood may have consequences very important and of a long duration.- John Locke. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. . Be not wise in thine own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. . The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.-The Bible. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. . Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. . Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.-The Bible. Education commences at the mother's knee, and everything seen, every word spoken within the hearing of the child, may tend toward the formation of character. Let parents bear this ever in mind (Ballou). Whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.- The Bible. What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason; how infinite in faculties; in form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel; in apprehension how like a god; the beauty of the world—the paragon of animals ! (Hamlet). Our brains are seventy-year clocks. The Angel of Life winds them up once for all, then closes the case and gives the key into the hand of the Angel of the Resurrection (Holmes). It chanced-eternal God that chance did guide. In bringing up a child, think of its old age. Children have more need of models than of critics (Foubert). The scenes of childhood are the memories of future years ( Choules). Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined (Pope). The child is father to the man (Wordsworth). A child's eyes, those clear wells of undefiled thought, what on earth can be more beautiful?-Mrs. Norton. : For with thee is the fountain of light in thy light shall we see light. Then shall I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee.. Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. . The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.-The Bible. The first of all virtues is innocence, the next is modesty. If we banish modesty out of the world, she carries away with her half the virtue that is in it (Addison). Virtue and decency are so nearly related that it is difficult to separate them from each other, but in our imagination (Cicero). The only amaranthine flower that blooms on earth is virtue, the only lasting treasure truth (Cowper). Wisdom sits with children round her knees. By steps we ascend to God Milton). A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been blind, or in the wrong, |