rtality; but this one alone is rendered an immortal child;
for death has arrested it with his kindly harshness, and blessed it into
an eternal image of youth and innocence." The mother teaches us the one
grand lesson of

UNALTERABLE FIDELITY.

"Nothing is more noble," says Cicero, "nothing more venerable." One of
the most beautiful tributes to an aged mother was written by Lamartine.
"The loss of a mother," he says "is always severely felt. Even though
her health may incapacitate her from taking an active part in the care
of her family, still she is a sweet rallying-point, around which
affection and obedience, and a thousand endeavors to please,
concentrate; and dreary is the blank when such a point is withdrawn! It
is like that lonely star before us; neither its heat nor light are
anything to us in themselves; yet the shepherd would feel his heart sad
if he missed it when he lifts his eye to the brow of the mountain over
which it rises when the sun descends."

THERE ARE MEN WHO FORGET THE CLAIMS

their mothers have upon them. Of such ungrateful wretches, though
clothed in outward excellences, the pen can write nothing too harsh in
justice. As old Dr. South says, "the greatest favors are to such a one
but the motion of a ship upon the waves; they leave no trace, no sign
behind them. All kindness descend as showers of rain or rivers of fresh
water falling into the main sea; the sea swallows them all, but is not
all changed or sweetened by them. If you look backward and trace him up
to his original, you will find that he was born so; and if you look
forward enough, it is a thousand to one that you will find that

HE ALSO DIES SO.

The thread that nature spins is seldom broken off by anything but death.
I do not by this limit the operation of God's grace, for that may do
wonders." Be glad, if you are ungrateful, that a wise man has given you
so good counsel to pray--and pray as you do when you think yourself in
extreme peril!

IF YOUR MOTHER IS YET YOUNG,

you have many years of her great friendship before you. Try and pattern
after her boundless affection. Let it melt into your heart and make it
warmer. If "age has snowed white hairs" upon her head, treasure her the
more fondly during the few swift years she will be left to you. Soon she
will go to her reward, and you will be without the only friend of man
whose love seems to be inalienable--whose esteem he cannot barter away,
either in greed or in vice.