Gaze not on beauty too much, lest it blast thee; nor too long, lest it blind thee; nor too near, lest it burn thee: if thou like it, it deceives thee; if thou love it, it disturbs thee; if thou lust after it, it destroys thee; if virtue accompany it, it is the heart's paradise; if vice associate it, it is the soul's purgatory; it is the wise man's bonfire, and the fool's furnace. The Godless youth is infatuated by a fair face, and is lured to his fate by a syren's smile. He takes no counsel of the Lord and is left to follow his own shallow fancies or the instigations of his passions. The time will surely come in his life when he will not so much want a pet as a heroine. In dark and trying days, when the waves of misfortune are breaking over him, and one home comfort, and another, and another is swept away, the piano -the grand instrument-gone to the creditors, the family turned out on the sidewalk by the heartless landlord, then what is the wife good for if her lips that accompanied the piano in song, cannot lift alone the notes, "Jesus, lover of my soul," etc. The strongest arm in this world is not the arm of a blacksmith, nor the arm of a giant: it is the arm of a woman, when God has put into it, through faith and submission to His will, his own moral omnipotence. If there is one beautiful spot on earth, it is the home of the young family consecrated by piety, the abode of the Holy Spirit, above which the hovering angels touch their wings, forming a canopy of protection and sanctity.

There is no moral object so beautiful to me as a conscientious young man. I watch him as I do a star in the heavens; clouds may be before him, but we know

that his light is behind them and will beam again; the blaze of others' popularity may outshine him, but we know that, though unseen, he illuminates his own true sphere. He resists temptation, not without a struggle, for that is not virtue, but he does resist and conquer; he bears the sarcasm of the profligate, and it stings him, for that is a trait of virtue, but heals the wound with his own pure touch. He heeds not the watch word of fashion if it leads to sin; the Atheist, who says not only in his heart, but with his lips, "There is no God!" controls him not; he sees the hand of a creating God, and rejoices in it. Woman is sheltered by fond arms and loving counsel; old age is protected by its experience, and manhood by its strength; but the young man stands amid the temptations of the world like a self-balanced tower. Happy he who seeks and gains the prop and shelter of morality. Onward, then, conscientious youth-raise thy standard and nerve thy self for goodness. If God has given thee intellectual power, awaken in that cause; never let it be said of thee, he helped to swell the tide of sin by pouring his influence into its channels. If thou art feeble in mental strength, throw not that drop into a polluted current. Awake, arise, young man! assume that beautiful garb of virtue! It is difficult to be pure and holy. Put on thy strength, then. Let truth be the lady of thy lovedefend her.

A young man came to an aged professor of a distinguished continental university, with a smiling face, and informed him that the long and fondly cherished desire of his heart was at length fulfilled-his parents

had given their consent to his studying the profession of the law. For some time he continued explaining how he would spare no labor nor expense in perfecting his education. When he paused, the old man, who had been listening to him with great patience and kindness, gently said, "Well! and when you have finished your studies, what do you mean to do then?" "Then I shall take my degree," answered the young man. "And then?" asked the venerable friend. "And then," continued the youth, "I shall have a number of difficult cases, and shall attract notice, and win a great reputation." "And then?" repeated the holy man. "Why, then," replied the youth, "I shall doubtless be promoted to some high office in the State." "And then?" "And then," pursued the young lawyer, "I shall live in.honor and wealth, and look forward to a happy old age." "And then?" repeated the old man. "And then," said the youth, "and then-and then-and then I shall die." Here the venerable listener lifted up his voice, and again asked, with solemnity and emphasis, "And then?" Whereupon the aspiring student made no answer, but cast down his head, and in silence and thoughtfulness retired. The last "And then?" had pierced his heart like a sword, had made an impression which he could not dislodge.

6

To Young Women.

WHAT is womanhood? Is there any more important question for young women to consider than this? It should be the highest ambition of every young woman to possess a true womanhood. Earth presents no higher object of attainment. To be a woman, in the truest and highest sense of the word, is to be the best thing beneath the skies. To be a woman is something more than to live eighteen or twenty years; something more than to grow to the physical stature of women; some thing more than to wear flounces, exhibit dry-goods, sport jewelry, catch the gaze of lewd-eyed men; some thing more than to be a belle, a wife, or a mother. Put all these qualifications together and they do but little toward making a true woman.

A

Beauty and style are not the surest passports to womanhood-some of the noblest specimens of woman hood that the world has ever seen, have presented the plainest and most unprepossessing appearance. woman's worth is to be estimated by the real goodness of her heart, the greatness of her soul, and the purity and sweetness of her character; and a woman with a kindly disposition and well-balanced temper, is both lovely and attractive, be her face ever so plain and her figure ever so homely; she makes the best of wives and the truest of mothers. She has a higher purpose in living than the beautiful, yet vain and supercilious woman, who has no higher ambition than to flaunt her finery on the street, or to gratify her inordinate vanity

by extracting flattery and praise from society, whose compliments are as hollow as they are insincere.

Beauty is a dangerous gift. It is even so. Like wealth it has ruined its thousands. Thousands of the most beautiful women are destitute of common sense and common humanity. No gift from heaven is so general and so widely abused by woman as the gift of beauty. In about nine cases in ten it makes her silly, senseless, thoughtless, giddy, vain, proud, frivolous, selfish, low and mean. I think I have seen more girls spoiled by beauty than by any other one thing. "She is beautiful, and she knows it," is as much as to say she is spoiled. A beautiful girl is very likely to believe she was made to be looked at; and so she sets herself up for a show at every window, in every door, on every corner of the street, in every company at which opportunity offers for an exhibition of herself. And believing and acting thus, she soon becomes good for nothing else, and when she comes to be a middle-aged woman she is that weakest, most sickening of all human things-a faded beauty.

These facts have long since taught sensible men to beware of beautiful women-to sound them carefully before they give them their confidence. Beauty is shallow-only skin-deep; fleeting-only for a few years' reign; dangerous-tempting to vanity and lightness of mind; deceitful-dazzling often to bewilder; weakreigning only to ruin; gross-leading often to sensual pleasure. And yet we say it need not be so. Beauty is lovely and ought to be innocently possessed. It has charms which ought to be used for good purposes. It