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the soul. Laid up for many years: His for the vaster life hereafter, and faces folly is still heightened, when he thus death unprepared.

counts on riches and time, as though they were both his own and at his disposal! Eat, drink, and be merry: The evidences of his great folly still increase. In his view, eating, drinking, and being merry is the great end of life. He altogether loses sight of the future and immortality

VERSE 20. God said: The divine being here interposes, not directly, but by means of a mortal disease, which should suddenly and immediately end his life. Thou fool: Here the word fool is used in its strong and proper sense. He is a fool indeed, who makes his highest interests subordinate to the mere gratification of the flesh. This night thy soul shall be required of thee: Not only shall his life be cut short, but his soul shall be made to reap its folly in the future scene of reward. Whose shall these things be: They will fall into the hands of greedy heirs, who, in such circumstances, are most likely to waste them in sinful folly and dissipation.

VERSE 21. So is he that layeth up treasure for himself; The securing of riches from proper motives, and for right ends, is not here condemned. It is a Christian duty to gain all we can in a lawful way, that we may therewith serve God. It is when riches are sought for what they are in themselves, and for selfish purposes, that the pursuit of them is sinful. Not rich toward God: To be rich toward God is to be rich indeed. These riches may be possessed in the absence of the riches of this world, and the riches of this world are really of true account to us only when they are used in such a way as will make us rich towards God.

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I then inquired where he had got the money. He answered, "I earned it." Feeling then an increased desire for knowing something more about the boy, I asked about himself and and parents. He took a seat and gave me the follow"I am the oldest of five ing narrative: children. Father is a drinking man, and often returns home drunk. ing that father would not abstain from liquor, I resolved to make an effort in brothers and sisters. I got an axe and some way to help my mother and went into a new part of the country to work clearing land, and I have saved money enough to buy forty acres of land there.'

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"Well, my good boy, what are you going to do with the land?"

"I will work on it, build a log house, and when it is all ready, will bring father, mother, brothers and sisters to live with me. The land I want for my mother, which will secure her from want in her old age."

"And what will you do with your father, if he continues to drink ?”’

"O, sir, when we get him on the farm, he will feel at home and be happy, PRACTICAL THOUGHTS:-The tous heart cannot forget worldly lusts and I hope become a sober man," even in the most solemn seasons; would "Young man, God bless you." make the Gospel serve its selfish ends; By this time the Receiver handed perverts the whole of life to worldly ob' him his receipt for his forty acres of jects; forgets from whom all temporal land. As he was leaving the office he blessings flow; refuses to recognize in said, "At last I have a home for my the possession of worldly wealth God's mother."

opportunity to do good; seeks not the best way to use, but to hoard and increase its store; would strive to feed an immortal soul with earthly gain; plans and prepares as if earth were to be its portion forever, and lays up no treasure

THAT, which is called considering what is our duty in a particular case, is very often nothing but endeavoring to explain it away.-Bishop Butler.

The Guardian.

VOL. XXXII.

Editorial Notes.

MAY, 1881.

The GUARDIAN hereby affectionately tenders its greetings to the many Sunday-school scholars who during the late Easter season bowed at God's altar and took upon themselves the solemn vows of their baptism, and the duties of adult church membership. Towards this all true Sunday-school teaching must continually look. Its aim must be to bring every scholar penitently to the feet of Christ. Beautiful are these confirmation services, in which young people, in the hopeful, joyous springtime of life give themselves to Christ. Beautiful to the tearful eyes of pious parents, who during many anxious prayerful years tried to train them for habitual service in our Master's cause. Beautiful and touching to the Sundayschool teacher who has faithfully and long labored to prepare the hearts of scholars for this solemn act of consecration to the Lord. May God bless all these catechumens and help them to keep their hearts and habits unspotted from the world, and make them zealous in good works, fervent and frequent in prayer, serving the Lord.

ENGLAND is but a small country, territorially, as compared with the United States. Its mountains are but hills, its lakes, ponds, and rivers creeks aside of ours. At least if we should on our side use the extravagant comparisons which the typical British swell uses. Of its kind British scenery is unsurpassed, and so is ours of its kind. One day the late Dr. Robert J. Breckenridge had a burly pompous English squire as his traveling companion in a stage coach. After making sundry disparaging remarks about America, the Briton began to dilate over the river Thames. Said he: "Now be candid

NO. 5.

sir, and tell us if you have a river in America to be compared to the Thames." The American tourist turned on him in the following style: "Why, sir, I live on the banks of a river that is formed by the confluence of two others that, coming 1500 miles from opposite directions, meet and form a third, which flows on 1000 miles in another direction till it takes in a fourth that has come 3000 miles from another direction, and a fifth that has come 3000 miles in another direction, and these form one mighty stream which flows down a thousand miles further until, by thirty mouths, it disembogues itself into the sea.

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This was too much for the stately squire, who, as the Kentucky divine puts it, demurely "settled himself in the corner and cut my acquaintance." As Dr. Breckinridge was at that time living at Lexington, Kentucky, our young readers will be able to verify the correctness of his statement by consulting their maps. The following description of America by an enthusiastic Irishman may serve as a supplement to the foregoing: "I am told that you might roll England thru it, an it wouldn't make a dent in the ground; there's fresh water oceans inside ye moight dround auld Ireland in, an' as for Scotland, ye moight stick it in a corner, an' ye'd never be able to find it out, except it moight be by the smell of whiskey."

JOURNEYS and voyages made in winter are peculiarly trying and perilous. "Pray that your flight be not in winter" was the advice of our Saviour to those who were approaching a period of great tribulation. Those who voyaged the ocean during the past winter passed through great storms, and many perished beneath the waves. During

the spring and summer the sea is more calm, storms are less frequent and less violent, and passengers can spend much of their waking time in the invigorating sea air on deck. As a rule, unless necessity compels one, it is unwise to undertake a sea voyage in winter. Still more unwise is it to put off the great duties we owe to God, till the old age of life's winter. In the spring and summer of youth and manhood's prime, when our course is more calm, clear and unhindered, the voyage heavenward is far more easily made. In spiritual as in natural things, wintry voyages are fraught with danger and death. Start early in life on your homeward voyage, and may the great Pilot give you a safe landing "on the bright eternal shore."

thinking be more rational to train it to hang down the back, as the Chinese have it.

Don't fumble your watch key or chain in company or at any other time, nor drum with the fingers, nor screw or twist a chain about or some other objects on which you can lay your hands. Sit up in a straight natural posture, and do not seek a corner or wall to lean against. We know of some people who cannot sit five minutes anywhere without sliding into a half-reclining posture. Avoid boisterous laughter on the street. Once these little things become a fixed habit it will be hard to abandon them.

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ONE can learn many a useful lesson in walking the street. The character and culture of the people you meet are SOME otherwise worthy people are often indicated by seeming trifles. given to disagreeable habits which are There comes a boy with a smiling face, a discredit to them and an offence to lifts his little hat as he passes me, and I at others. How coarse it looks for a man once think of his pure-minded consideto blow his nose into his hand and then rate mother, who not only teaches him wipe it on his pantaloons, the chair or to pray, but to be a mannerly boy. carpet. What are pocket handker- Then I meet a young fellow scarcely chiefs for? Don't bite your nails; once grown, his one cheek bulging out over formed the habit is difficult to get rid a large quid of tobacco; every few steps of. And so is that of stroking the he spits a mouthful of this nasty liquid beard. We have known some most on the pavement. And I at once wonworthy men for many years, and der where this lazy lounger gets money scarcely ever meet them without from to indulge such a habit, and noticing the continuous patting and whether he has no mother to teach him pulling of this facial adornment. Per- better manners on the street. There I haps we ought to make some allowance have just now tried to pass three young for the youthful aspirant to a mous- ladies at a street crossing. The three tache. How often have we watched keep stiffly abreast and compel me to with sympathetic commiseration the step aside into the mud. How much youth, when the down on his face had nicer it would look if they would pass over barely become visible, pulling and the crossings in single tile, so as to give twisting as for dear life at each side of other people an equal chance to get the mouth where perhaps on older faces over unpleasant places. A certain the hair ought to have appeared. And minister says: "I once walked a short in the more advanced stages of the distance behind a well dressed young moustache how the airy young man, at lady, and thinking as I looked at her his business, in company and at church becoming apparel, 'I wondered if she pulls and twists at the waxed, atten- took as much pains with her heart as uated ends, whilst dozens of eyes are she did with her body.' An old man witnessing his listless yet laborious was coming up the walk with a loaded work. We cannot see that the thing wheelbarrow, and before he reached us pays, even where most successfully he made two attempts to go into the accomplished. Louis Napoleon was a yard of a small house; but the gate was prince in this sort of pig-tail adornment heavy, and would swing back before he at the sides of his mouth. But if a could get through. Wait,' said the decent regard for manly attainments young girl, springing lightly forward, requires a pig-tail at all, it would to our. 'I'll hold the gate open.' And she held

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SOME professedly enlightened people are evermore clamoring against alleged restrictions on the Lord's day. They insist that all places of amusement should be open on this day, that public institutions like museums and galleries of art should invite the people to their halls. Whatever faults the Earl of Beaconsfield may have. he is admitted to be a sagacious statesman, and one of the first literary men of the world. In addressing the House of Lords on a motion for opening museums on Sunday, he said: "Of all divine institutions, the most divine is that which secures a day of rest for man. I hold it to be the most valuable blessing ever conceded to man. It is the cornerstone of civilization, and its removal might even affect the health of the people. It (the opening of museums on Sunday) is a great change, and those who suppose for a moment that it would be limited to the proposal of the noble baron, to open museums, will find they are mistaken."

Mr. Gladstone long ago put himself on record as opposed to opening museums on Sunday.

"

THOMAS GRAY, the celebrated author of the Elegy written in a Country Churchyard," was very much devoted to his mother. She had twelve children. All except Thomas died in their infancy from suffocation produced by fullness of blood. He narrowly escaped a like fate through the courage of his mother, who with her own hands opened a vein when the child was taken with the dreaded disease, and thus saved his life. After his father refused all assistance, she helped him to an education with her scanty means, and for his sake endured many privations. After he had become a noted author, he continued to love his good old mother with the tenderness of a child. He abandoned some of his cherished plans in life, in order that he might be near her and the better minister to her comfort. Never did an

affectionate child more sincerely mourn the loss of a parent than did Thomas Gray at the bier of his mother in 1753. Over her remains he placed the following epitaph.

Beside her Friend & Sister

Here sleep the Remains of
DOROTHY GRAY,

Widow; the careful tender Mother
Of Many Children; one of whom alone
Had the Misfortune to survive her.
She died March AI, MDCCLIII
Aged LXXII.

"that Gray

A certain writer says seldom mentioned his mother without a sigh." After his death her wearing apparel was found carefully laid up in his apartment just as she had left it. He sacredly preserved the relics and carefully gave them away by will. Thirteen years after her death he said: "It seems to have been but yesterday, and every day I live it sinks deeper and deeper into my heart."

A CERTAIN man, eminent for his piety, said that when he was a child his mother used to bid him kneel beside her and place her hand upon his head while she prayed. Before he was old enough to know her worth, she died. He was inclined to evil pleasures, but whenever tempted he always felt himself checked, and as it were, drawn back by the soft hand on his head. When young he traveled in foreign lands, and often when greatly tempted to yield to evil the recollection of the soft hand always checked him. appeared to feel its pressure as in the days of my happy infancy, and sometimes there came with it a voice in my heart-a voice that must be obeyedO, do not this wickedness, my son, against thy God.'""

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SIN always sours, divides and destroys what it touches. The pure, unselfish, self sacrificing love of Christ though found in His humblest followers always heals, sanctifies, sweetens, unites and saves. Some years ago a young German student in Copenhagen passing along one of the canals of the city, saw a little girl falling into the deep water.

The affrighted crowd were loud in their pity, but none tried to save her. The student at once leaped into the canal and as the people on shore took the rescued child from his uplifted hand, his exhausted body sank in death. He was a stranger to all, to the little girl, too. He died to save her. Never did a private person receive such a funeral in Denmark. Nearly all the people of the city, with the King and his family at their head followed his remains to one of the prettiest spots in their largest cemetery. With his own hand the King laid the highest Order of the Kingdom upon the hero's coffin. The grave of the humble unknown student of civil engineering is marked with a costly monument erected by the King and his grateful subjects in memory of the man who gave his life to save that of a little girl. Before that the Danes hated the Germans. The sacrificial death of the young German has healed their hatred. One of their number said: "The self-forgetting love of this German, which counted not his own life dear, this love has endeared to us all the Germans in Copenhagen. Since the day on which we followed his body to our cemetery, thousands have become inwardly reconciled to the people of the German land." How this incident reminds us of another One who gave His life for us, that we through Him might live forever.

Mary Magdalene.

BY THE EDITOR.

history, is the only town in view. All its ancient towns have been wholly swept away, with not a relic or ruin wherewith to identify their beauty.

On the western coast, a short distance south of the supposed site of Capernaum, are a few crumbling peasant huts, pens scarcely fit for human habitation. Near by are the ruins of a tower, probably the remains of an ancient castle-tower, affording an outlook across the sea. A solitary thorn tree lifts its top above these filthy abodes, and a small stream of fresh water purls towards the sea. The Arabs call this place El Mejdel, and our Bible calls it Magdala. Our Saviour is reported to have made but one visit to this place, on His return from the opposite side of the sea, where He had performed the miracle of feeding four thousand men. But although we are not told of it, it is probable that He visited it more than once in traveling from place to place up and down the coast. Here lived a certain woman named Mary. To distinguish her from the other Marys who had ministered to Christ, she is called Mary of Magdala, or, as translated into English, Mary Magdalene. Most likely this was her native place. Who her parents and relatives were we are not told. Geikie in his "Life of Christ" fills up the picture of her healing, with extracts from a poetic writer, in this wise :

"The landing-place for boats at Capernaum was at the south side of the town. Hither, one evening, came Jesus in a boat from across the sea, four of His earliest disciples serving as oarsmen. The sun was just setting. The soft evening wind had risen to cool His brow, and the waters, sparkling in the moonlight, rose and fell round the boat and gently rocked it. As it touched the shore there were few people about, but a boat from Magdala lay near, with a sick person in it, whom it had taken her mother's utmost strength to hold and keep from uttering loud cries of distress. She had been brought in the hope of finding Jesus, that He might cure her.

In the days of Christ the Sea of Galilee was a great centre of commercial and social life. Its shores were dotted with crowded cities, and teemed with a busy population. Indeed, the whole district of Galilee must have been densely crowded. A certain writer says that it had two hundred and four cities, each of which numbered over fifteen thousand inhabitants. It is said to have averaged fifteen hundred people to the square "The mother had recognized Him at inile. Seen from the hill of beatitudes, the first glance, for no one could mistake the present desolation around the Gali- Him, and forthwith cried out with a lean Lake presents a marked and sad heart-rending voice, 'O, Jesus, our contrast to its ancient appearance. The helper and teacher, Thou messenger of small city of Tiberias, unknown to Bible | the All-Merciful, help my poor child!

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