generations yet unborn, and nations yet uncivilized, will learn to bless; to soften firmness into mercy, and chasten honor into refinement; to exalt generosity into virtue; by a soothing care to allay the anguish of the body, and the far worse anguish of the mind; by her tenderness to disarm passion; by her purity to triumph over sense; to cheer the scholar sinking under his toil; to console the statesman for the ingratitude of a mistaken people; to be compensated for friends that are perfidious--for happiness that has passed away. Such is her vocation.

The couch of the tortured sufferer, the prison of the deserted friend, the cross of the rejected Saviour-these are theatres on which her greatest triumphs have been achieved. Such is her destiny; to visit the forsaken, to tend to the neglected when monarchs abandon, which counsellors betray, when justice prosecutes, when brethren and disciples flee, to remain unshaken and unchanged, and to exhibit in this lower world a type of that love, pure, constant and ineffable, which in another we are taught to believe the test of virtue.-Blackwood's Magazine.

AN OFFERING OF LOVE.

A poor Arab traveling in the desert met with a spring of clear, sparkling water. Used as he was only to brackish wells, such water as this appeared to his simple mind worthy of a monarch, and filling his leathern. bottle from the spring, he determined to go and present it to the caliph himself.

The poor man traveled a long way before he reached the presence of his sovereign, and laid his humble offering at his feet. The caliph did not despise the little gift brought to him with so much trouble. He ordered some of the water to be poured

into a cup, drank it, and thanking the Arab with a smile, ordered him to be presented with a reward. The courtiers around pressed forward, eager to taste of this wonderful water, but to the surprise of all, the caliph forbade them to touch a single drop.

After the poor Arab had quitted the royal presence with a light and joyful heart, the caliph turned to his courtiers, and thus explained his conduct:

"During the travels of the Arab," said he, "the water in his leathern bottle had become impure and distasteful; but it was an offering of love, and as such I received it with pleasure. But I well knew that had I suffered another to partake of it, he would not have concealed his disgust, and therefore I forbade you to touch the draught lest the heart of the poor man should have been wounded."

LUTHER'S DEVOTION,

One of Melancthon's correspodents describes Luther thus: "I cannot enough admire the extraordinary cheerfulness, constancy, faith and hope of the man, in these trying and vexatious times. He constantly feeds these gracious affections by a very diligent study of the word of God. Then, not a day passes in which he does not employ in prayer at least three of his very best hours. Once I happened to hear him at prayer. Oh! what spirit and what faith is there in his expressions. He petitions God with as much reverence as if he was in the divine presence, and yet with as firm a hope and confidence as he would address a father or a friend. I know,' said he, thou art our father and our God, and therefore I am sure thou wilt bring to naught the persecutors of thy children. For shouldst thou fail to

THE DUTIES OF A MOTHER.

By the quiet fireside of a home, the true mother, in the midst of her children, is sowing, as in vases of earth, the seeds of plants that sometimes give to heaven the fragrance of their blossoms, and whose fruit shall be as a rosary of angelic deeds, the noblest offering she can make, through the ever-ascending and expanding souls of her children to her Maker. Every word that she utters goes from heart to heart with a pow

er of which she little dreams. Philosophers tell us in their speculations, that we cannot lift a finger without moving the distant spheres. Solemn s the thought, that every word that falls from her lips, every expression of her countenance, even in the sheltered walk and retirement of home, may leave an indelible impression on young souls around her, and form, as it were, an underlying strain of that education which peoples heaven.

A FAST YOUNG MAN. A fast young man decided to make a formal offer of his hand and heart-all

he was worth. He cautiously pre

faced his declarations with a few questions. Did she love him arell enough to live in a cottage with him? Was she a good cook? Did she think it a wife's duty to make home happy? Would she consult his tastes and wishes concerning her associates and pursuits in life? Could she make her own clothes? etc. The young lady said that before she an swered his questions, she would tell him of some negative virtues she possessed. She never drank, smoked

or chewed; never owed a bill to laundress or tailor; never staid out all night plaging billiards; never lounged on the street corners and ogled giddy girls; never “stood in with the boys for cigars and wine suppers. "Now," said she, rising indignantly, "I am assured that you do all these things, and yet you expect all the virtues in me, while you do not possess any yourself. I can never be your wife;" and she bowed him out and left him on the doorstep a wiser man.-Health Journal.

SECRET OF ELOQUENCE. I owe my success in life to one single fact, namely: At the age of twenty-seven, I commenced, and continued for years, the process of daily reading and speaking upon the contents of a his

torical or scientific book. These off

hand efforts were made sometimes in a corn field, and others in a forest, and not unfrequently in some distant barn, with the horse and cow for my auditors. It is to this early practice in the great art of all arts that I am indebted for the primary and leading impulses that stimulated me forward, and shaped and moulded my entire subsequent destiny. Improve, then, young gentlemen, the advantages you enjoy. Let not a day pass without exercising your powers of speech. There is no power like that of oratory. Cæsar controlled men by exciting their fears; Cicero by captivating their affections, and swaying their passions. The influence of the one perished with its author; that of the other continues to this day.-Henry Clay.

THE TOAD. The toad is a very It is called the useful little animal. gardener's friend. We ought never to kill a toad for it catches the bugs and insects which destroy the plants. At night, after he has got all he wants to eat, he digs a little hole

and gets into it and stays there till morning and then comes out and gets something to eat. We had shingles put beside the hills of squashes so we could kill the squash bugs; they get under the shingles over night. I had to go around every morning and take a stick and kill the bugs. Once I was going to kill the squash bugs I saw a litttle toad under a shingle, he had dug a little hole and got in it. I let him stay there. Another time when some of the boys and myself were weeding peas, we caught a toad, we picked it up and it made three little noises which sounded as if he said, "let me go," and we let him

go.

WHAT IS HEAT LIGHTNING?—The flashes of lightning, often observed on a summer evening, unaccompanied by thunder, and popularly known as "heat lightning," are merely the light from discharges of electricity from an ordinary thunder cloud beneath the horizon of the observer, reflected from clouds, or perhaps from the air itself, as in the case of twilight. Professor Henry says that Mr. Brooks, one of the directors of the telegraph line between Pittsburg and Philadelphia, on one occasion, to satisfy himself on this point, asked for information from a distant operater during the appearance of flashes of this kind in the distant horizon, and learned that they proceeded from a thunder storm then raging two hundred and fifty miles eastward of his place of observation.

A HAPPY WOMAN. Is she not the very sparkle and sunshine of life? A woman who is happy because she can't help it-whose smiles even the coldest sprinkles of misfortune cannot dampen. Men make a terrible mistake when they marry for beauty, for talents, or for style. The sweetest wives are those who possess the

magic secret of being contented under any circumstances. Rich or poor, high or low, it makes no difference; the bright little fountain of joy bubbles up just as musically in their hearts. Do they live in a log cabin, the fire that leaps up from its humble hearth becomes brighter than the gilded chandeliers in an Alladin palace. Were the stream of life so dark and unpropitious that the sunshine of a happy face falling on the turbid tide would not awaken an answering gleam? Why, these joyous tempered people don't know half the good they do.

The

AN ITALIAN NOBLEMAN. story has reached us of an Italian nobleman who at the altar refused to marry a young English heiress because her bridal dress was trimmed with white doves. Ornithologists assure us that the decided progress already made by the press in creating public sentiment against this cruelty and barbarism has largely increased the song birds at the northern nesting haunts. Any woman who persists in the use of real birds and bird's wings should be socially ostracized. Let her lay aside her prayerbook and learn book and learn mercy and grace, and to be faithful to her natural obligations.-Progressive Age, Minneapo

many plants droop at night as if they were sleepy. A little girl, who had observed this drooping in the leaves of a locust tree that grew before her nursery window, upon being required to go to bed a little earlier than usual, replied, with much acuteness, "O, mother, it is not yet time to go to bed; the locust tree has not yet begun to say its prayers."

CHARITIES should be diffused. Grain will not grow if placed in a heap; it must be scattered.

RICHES are a blessing to him who makes them a blessing to others.--

THE object of education is not to make disciples, but thinkers.-John Stuart Mill.

Ir a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows like a shadow and never leaves him.Buddha.

PEOPLE are never made so ridiculous by the qualities they possess as by those which they affect to have.-George Eliot.

IT is more from carelessness about

the truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world.-Johnson.

No Christian can maintain a close walk with God, none can keep alive the hallowed fire of the soul without daily kindling it afresh at the altar. None can grow in knowledge and holiness without stated and regular seasons of prayer.-Abbott.

I CANNOT but think that the world would be better and brighter if our teachers would dwell on the Duty of Happiness as well as on the Happiness of Duty; for we ought to be as cheerful as we can, if only because to be happy ourselves is a most effectual contribution to the happiness of others. Sir John Lubbock.

IRRESOLUTION is a worse vice than rashness. He that shoots best must sometimes miss the mark, but he that shoots not at all can never hit it. Irresolution loosens all the joints of a state; like an ague, it shakes not this nor that limb, but all the body is at once in a fit. The irresolute man is lifted fron one place to another, so hatcheth nothing, but addles all his actions.

IN LIGHTER VEIN.

TIME flies and waits for no man. The only fellow who can beat it is the musician.

office-"Let's scatter seeds of kindTHE best hymn for a candidate for ness for our reaping bye and bye."

"SOLDIERS must be awful dishonest," says Mrs. Partington; for how often we hear of them relieving each other of their watches.

THE small boy who hangs around the parlor and makes faces at his sister's beau should be punished for contempt of court.

"My name? I. B. Smith," said a man at the hotel, whereupon the gentleman addressed remarked with a sweet smile, "So be I."

A LITTLE girl was sitting at a ta. ble opposite a gentleman with a waxed moustache. After gazing at him for several moments, she exclaimed, "My kitty has got smellers

too."

"CAN

you tell me how the word 'saloon 'is spelt?" was asked of a cockney." "Certainly," said the Londoner with a look of triumph. "There's a hess and a hey and a hell and two hoes and a hen."

AN ordinary man will not admit to his girl that money is any consideration with him, but the same chap will walk twelve blocks to get rid of a nickle with a hole in it.

WE were amused with the remark of an old lady who was admiring the beautiful picture called "Saved." "It's no wonder," said she, "that the poor child fainted after pulling that great dog out of the water."

OFFICE OF MANFORD'S MAGA

ZINE.

Chicago, Ill., No. 774 W. Van Buren St., to which all letters should be addressed, for the present.

REV. T. H. TABOR, Editor and Publisher.

THE MAGAZINE.

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A WORD TO OUR READERS, This number of the Magazine completes the volume for 1889, and makes it thirty-three years old. We shall commence our thirty-fourth volume (Providence permitting) with January, 1890. As our patrons are aware that it costs ready money to publish the Magazine, it is not necessary for us to ask them to send in their renewals early. We know that they will do this. This number of the Magazine completes a volume of great value, and we hope to make the coming volume more valuable.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS.

We desire to wish our thousands of devoted readers a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year, for both of these joy inspiring seasons will have passed before we are permitted to speak to them again through the pages of the magazine. And if there is any class of people on the face of the earth, who ought to be full of joy at the return of Christmas, it is those who believe that Jesus will finish sin, make an end of transgression, and bring in everlasting righteousness. Those who believe that his gospel shall indeed be glad tidings of great joy to all people. Those who believe that Christ shall see of the travial of his soul and be satisfied. That every knee shall bow to him, and every tongue confess to God.

And we add in the language of another, "Of all persons in the world who greet this glad holiday season once more, to none can it bring a deeper, holier joy than to mothers. Christmas is the day that has hallowed motherhood; Protestant or Catholic, High Church or Low, we cannot look at the Babe in the manger without beholding her in whose arms He lies, and remembering that Mary pondered all these things in her heart,' and that she was blessed among women.' All over our land may the mothers be pondering these things to-day. May they