this unseemly hour without proper protection against such temptation? Where, I say, does her mother believe her to be that she should be so exposed to the wiles of that vile man?"

And the man's eyes flash angrily, but soon tears for the "stray lamb of the fold" come into them and soften them wonderfully as he says. "Let us thank God, Mary, that ours are safe under our rooftree!" and as they kneel to pray, who can doubt that over that mother's heart there swept a great waver of thankfulness and joy that theirs were indeed at home, as their father had anticipated? When they arose, she told him of the forbidden party and how glad she was that she had listened to the voice that prompted her to keep her children with her.

And this happy family is wrapped in peaceful, innocent slumber, but somewhere, in the same village, when a mother lying with her least ones sleeping near, hears the door open, a daughter comes in and nervously comes to her mother's bed.

Well, I am glad you have come at last. Did you have a good time at the party?" The girl's answer is low,

"Yes, mamma."

"Well, dear, be sure to close the outer door and if it rains don't forget your window. Good-night!" and she thus summarily dismisses the daughter who hesitates to go, the daughter who is sick at heart, who might be drawn into confessing her shame to her mother by careful question and prayerful advice, would repent-even as now she so utterly regrets her first misstep. She dates her misery from that party at which her mother thinks she enjoyed herself! She turns wearily to do her mother's bidding, goes to bed, but only to toss and toss throughout the long, long night while the mother turns to sleep glad of the chance to rest.

In the morning the mother inquires casually about the party, the attendance, the games,

etc., but fails to notice how its mention causes the cheeks of her child to flush, that her glance is averted, that her hands are restless. Ah, no! This mother little dreams that aught of harm came to her daughter between the going down and the rising of the sun.

In the other household we have mentioned, while Bessie helps her mother with the morning work she is quietly but earnestly told of the events of the late evening before; for her mother believes her now to be old enough to know such things that will be for her safety, and she says, with bright tears in her eyes, "Mamma, I am so glad you didn't let me go to that party; for at home, I didn't meet even the temptation and without the temptation I couldn't fall, could I? Let me always stay with you, mamma, for there I'm always safe and away from you, I know not what I may meet!"

Mothers in Zion, beware! Guard well your children; live for them; keep them with you as long as it is possible at all. Watch earnestly for the least shadow of wrong on the fair young faces. Don't hug to yourselves the vain delusion that yours are safe of course. Not one in this world of sin is safe from temptation, and in an unguarded hour the purest my fall.

The incidents here recorded are true and are facts of recent occurrence and they are living facts right here among us. Oh! from the depths of my heart I thank God that as yet I know my little ones are pure, and with God's help it shall be my study, my prayer to the loving Father, that I may have wisdom to keep them so. May he never suffer me to forget that we are in a world of sin and temptation, and that my children are entitled to my most faithful watchcare until they are old enough to become the guardians of their own honor and virtue. M.

ness.

"YES, the Lord will provide," said Grandma Brown in a tone of mature confidence, in reply to a friend who had been expressing murmuring doubts in regard to her own pecuniary wants.

"That is a very pleasing thought," replied the latter, "but as I take notice, I observe many instances that look like the reverse. If we believe that God orders and overrules all things, we cannot think that he blesses all alike, and if he does not what kind of a God is he? Here is Mr. G- our neighbor down here, worth his thousands, and our next door neighbor cannot get even comfortable and decent food and clothing for his family. You know that they often suffer for food and fuel, and because of poverty are denied the advantages of society, while on the other hand, Mr. G's family spend enough unwisely every year to keep two poor families comfortable. Now, how is that? Can you explain it satisfactorily to my mind?"

"Well, I'll give you my views, and it is your privilege to accept or reject," responded the old lady laying her knitting work on her lap, and looking up over her glasses with a peaceful expression, into the face of her caller. "The Lord does provide," she continued, emphasizing the does.

"Rather poor providing, I should think," was the response. "I was in there the other day and they didn't have half enough dishes to set the table, broken dingy dishes and old black tin dippers for those half grown children to drink out of. Some of them were barefoot; others wore old torn shoes, and had holes in their stockings, and everything about

the house has a dull, dingy look, walls and ceiling and all. In many places you can see the bare smoky laths, and several panes of glass are out of the windows and in their place old rags are stuck in. That doesn't look to me as if God provided for them. And there are Mrs. G's children dressed like butterflies with everything adapted to the season, and O, I wish you could see the good victuals they waste-I've worked there you know.

"I can't help thinking he's a little partial to some-but there, you were going to tell me your views-but I didn't happen to be one of them."

"Well I will my friend," slowly answered Grandma Brown, "provided you will give me the time and bear patiently with me. 'Tis a subject that I've meditated much on, for, before study and observation established my views, I thought much as you do. I am glad you mentioned the subject. I want to express my views, and I hope they will not injure anyone, if they do not benefit.

"First, don't think that I wish to condemn any person, only the act, for we, with the whole human family, have erred in judgment. This neighbor Poor, or poor neighbor, that you speak of, earns more money every year than my husband did and they have no more children than we had, and not as much sickness. were never destitute of food or clothing, and never had old clothes stuck in our windows; I never would have that. I've bought glass and set in, and I would have used a shingle before rags.

We

"The Lord does provide. He has put enough good things in the world to abundantly supply every man, woman

and child on the earth, and many destitute families are provided with means to be comfortable and respectable, but the parents, one or both, have not, because of a lack of a proper amount of pride and ambition, tried to be comfortable and respectable. We will admit that there are exceptions to this general rule, such as cases of protracted illness among those who depend on manual labor for support, but they will rally above it as soon as health returns."

"Now Grammy Brown, how could you help it if you were destitute," whiningly interrogated the other.

"How could I help it? Why I would take care of what my husband earned and make it as pleasing and profitable to him as possible," was the spirited reply, "I know I should, because I did, and it gives me pleasure to think of it since he passed away, as well as when he was with me. Don't call me egotistic, because your question called out the words.

"But as regards Mr. Poor, the Lord has provided for him far better than he has for himself and family. He has blessed him with health and strength, and opportunities for labor, inasmuch as he has sought for them, more than any other man of ordinary business tact in this place, so who is to be censured, he or the Lord?

"We must not expect God to put up the fences, or to drive the crows from the

corn.

"If a man will spend his money for tobacco and cigars, or for other things that are only a little more dangerous, and his family suffers in consequence, is God to be blamed, or is the man the one to receive the punishment that such a course will bring? If a woman will sit down and read trashy literature, or spend her time spinning street yarns regardless of home duties, is God to be censured because her closets are filthy, her stove rusty, her children dirty and ragged, or because there are tatters on their garments?

"Nine tenths of all the poverty and suffering in the world, is caused by the lack of industry or economy, or both. Some men will "

"But if God does not give one wisdom and ability, surely he is not accountable," broke in the other.

"The man in question has ability, or he could not command the wages he does,

that is he has ability for some kinds of work. All are not expected to do the same kinds of work skillfully, but some one kind, and others, other kinds, according to strength and culture. But, as I was about to say, some men will sit in stores or barrooms and let their families suffer for the necessaries of life and then complain of bad luck, and perhaps blame their wives, or fret because the children need shoes, while on the other hand, many women who have good homes, and a plenty to do with will fret and fume because some of their friends have more than they, and instead of making their houses homes, they make them such that the husband and father seeks pleasures elsewhere, and in consequence family disaster follows. A house divided against itself cannot stand.' Thus the just are obliged to suffer with the unjust.

"If there is one unjust act above another, it is the act of neglecting one's duty to his own family. 'He that does not provide for his own household is worse than an infidel and has denied the faith.'

"We wish there was a law that required every man and woman, whether young or old, rich or poor, to have all the qualifications to make domestic life a success or to remain single. If such was the case, we think that even in twenty-five years there would be a great change for the better. Then we could say, Our world is blessed now, and our God is not a partial God, but provides for all through the very channel he ordained. Do you see?"

"Well I don't know but 'tis so," was the reply.

"The same principles that are manifested in this case, have shown themselves in thousands of instances, and always will give a similar showing up when demonstrated, just as surely as twice four are eight, or that two is contained four times in eight. Every principle in all of God's plans works as correctly as the principles of mathematics.

"If a pupil will not inform himself and work in a manner to obtain the true answer he will get the false, but is the author of the arithmetic the one to be censured because he did not make it in a manner to meet the pupil's errors?

"So God is the author of all the principles upon which the worlds move, and all