which had suffered much from neglect, and rebuilt there the family altar, and finally rose to fill a commanding station in wealth, honor, and influence? So it was. And often, in after years, did the happy brother and sisters recall the memory of their sainted mother, and acknowledge with gratitude, that what had seemed so deep an affliction, had proved, both temporally and spiritually, "a blessing in disguise." M. E. A.

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"HERE MY MOTHER KNELT WITH ME."

THE REV. Mr. KNILL, well known to the religious world in connection with Russia, lost both his parents while he was there. His mother was a pious woman, and he relates the following interesting reminiscence of her:

"After spending a large portion of my life in foreign lands, I returned again to visit my native village. Both of my parents died while I was in Russia, and their house is now occupied by my brother. The furniture remains just the same as when I was a boy, and at night I was accommodated with the same bed in which I had often slept before; but my busy thoughts would not let me sleep. I was thinking how God had led me through the journey of life. At last the light of the morning darted through the little window, and then my eye caught the spot where my sainted mother, forty years before, took my hand and said, 'Come, my dear, kneel down with me and I will go to prayer.' This completely overcame me. I seemed to hear the of her voice. I recollected some of her expressions, and I burst into tears, and arose from my bed and fell upon my knees, just on the spot where my mother kneeled, and I thanked God that I had once a praying mother. And oh! if every parent could feel what I felt then, I am sure they would pray with their children, as well as for them."

very tones

I cite this fact, undoubtedly familiar already to the most of those who read it here, to bring up a point not often insisted on, in speaking of the religious training of children; and that is,

the importance of local associations with early instruction and prayer. There is great power in such memories. They are places to which the chains of holy influence are made fast, and they hold the heart long after the child has wandered far from the parental roof, and grown up to the stature of man.

The mother should have a place a holy place it ought to be a pleasant place-where she daily takes each one of her little children, to pray with them, and speak to them of the things of eternity. In after years they will think of that spot, and bless. God for what they felt and heard when there.

Such principles of association are stronger than we are apt to suppose. Even the greatest of men, and those the most immersed in business, and hardened by long contact with the world, are under the power of religious associations, and these sometimes result in their salvation. One of the Presidents of the United States said to me while in office, and in the midst of a gay and brilliant assembly, "I was instructed by a pious mother, and I hope I shall never forget the lessons I received from her lips." Another President went to his mother's room and prepared his inaugural address, under the power of the feelings which the visit awakened in his soul.

Mothers, bind your children's hearts to the home of their childhood; hallow your chamber in their memory by its hours of prayer and holy words of parental love; and when you are dead and buried, the children you have left behind you will cherish the thoughts of it with a sacredness equal almost to that which invests the grave in which you lie. AMBROSE.

FAITH RESTING ON CHRIST ALONE.-The Rev. John Noyes, of Connecticut, died in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and the sixtieth of his ministry. Not long before his death one of his friends said to him, "Father Noyes, if you were assured that you should die to-night, would you be afraid? He sat and pondered. "I feel," said he, "that I am a poor sinner; I have no hope but in Christ's atoning blood. But he is faithful, and almighty, and I have fled to him. I THINK I SHOULD NOT BE AFRAID." F. L. S.

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ANNIVERSARY REPORT OF THE FIRST MATERNAL ASSOCIATION OF NEWARK, N. J.

TIME, with his untiring tread, has brought us again to one of those points of observation from which we are permitted to catch a hasty glance at the past ere we are hurried on into the unknown and impenetrable future. Let the review remind us of that last, long look, which shall give back the history of our lives, when time with us shall be no more, but when the decisions of time shall have sealed our destiny for eternity.

During the year under review, "the pestilence that walketh in darkness, the destruction that wasteth at noonday," has been commissioned to do its fearful work in this community; but the plague entered not our dwellings, because He whose servant it was shielded us from its power.

"He bids his angels pitch their tents
Round where his children dwell;
What ills their heavenly care prevents
No earthly tongue can tell."

But though we and ours have been defended from the arrows that were flying so thickly around us, that there seemed indeed but a step between us and death, and we are here so many of us together to erect another monument of praise, saying, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us," yet when we look around, even upon this little circle, we meet not the attentive, beaming eye of all who sat with us at our last anniversary. Even from this hallowed inclosure, the messenger has summoned one away to the land of spirits. Not to the aged and infirm, to whom life's history seems but as a dream when it is past, was he sent, but to one from whose cheek the rose had not yet begun to fade, and from whose bright eye, hope, smiling, spoke. As in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, she exchanged the active employments of earth for the better services of heaven. In the evening she kneeled, a suppliant on the footstool, to plead for herself, her husband, and her child; and when the morrow's sun had scarce passed the meridian, her spirit was winging its way

to join that blessed company before the throne. You will each recall the name, the countenance, the voice, of our youthful and beloved sister, Mrs. JANE FISHER. You miss her warm greeting to-day. You wept over her lifeless remains-lovely even in death-and you will drop another tear as her vacant seat reminds you that here you will see her face no more.

"How many fall as sudden, not as safe!"

There is yet another dwelling which death has more recently entered; and the stroke which he was commissioned to inflict, severed again the tenderest tie that here binds heart to heart. It took the husband, the father away, and wrote one of our earliest and most endeared members, a widow. But the “Judge of the widow" has remembered her, in her loneliness and grief, and has enabled her to say, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him."

From two of our families a venerable and beloved grandparent has been taken; but their precepts and example still live, and their prayers are laid up as a memorial before God.

"Children of parents passed into the skies ;"

let us seek to catch their falling mantle.

But while we record our bereavements, let us not forget our thank-offerings. How many have been the thoughts of that love, that has not only spared us to our children and our children to us, but also crowned our lives with mercies " new every morning, fresh every evening;" protecting our bodies from pain, our minds from derangement, our dwellings from poverty; that has watched over our beloved ones when far distant from us, on the land and on the sea, and, in some instances, permitted us to greet them again in their childhood's home; that has healed the diseases of others who seemed ready to die, and put a new song into their mouths, even praise to our God! Yes, we have here to record--and let it not be with trembling accents, but with a full chorus of praise that He on whom we wait has not altogether disappointed the expectations of his people. From among the lambs of this flock it hath pleased him to gather seven into his visible fold during the past year; and three of the number were selected from the motherless and

orphan group. Yes, the prayers offered by lips long since sealed in silence, were not forgotten; the tears that had been shed, were found numbered before God.

Two motherless and two orphan children have been adopted by members of this Association, and their names are enrolled on our list. One mother has been added to our number, making our circle just as large as it was one year ago. But as age and infirmity often prevent the attendance of those whose presence we can least afford to spare, let us seek to bring yet others in, that our prayers and our faith may still more abound. "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty."

There is yet another subject of congratulation which it would illy become us to pass over in silence. It is, that our Zion has lengthened her cords and strengthened her stakes by an addition of new churches and pastors to her communion; and that some of us, who have long been destitute of a pastor, have received from the Head of the Church this precious gift. The Gospel ministry is not of man's appointment. What son of Adam, knowing his own weakness, would become a self-constituted watchman for souls? If devoted pastors have been given to us, well does it become us to take heed to their instructions, to sustain them by our affectionate co-operation and prayer, and to bring our children as much as possible under their influence. "My word," says Jehovah, "shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him."

And now, beloved in the Lord, let us each ask herself, and ponder seriously the inquiry-what shall be the result to us, to our families, to our churches, and to this community, of these our multiplied blessings? Let no one of us be tempted to say, "I am too insignificant to exert an influence beyond my own little circle." It is not more true that we cannot breathe without changing the elements of the air which surrounds us, than it is that we cannot live without imparting character to the moral atmosphere where we have our being. By remaining silent when we ought to speak-by speaking unadvisedly where we should