As she leads, the broodlings
will follow. Does she sanction card-playing, theatre-going, dancing,
and what are called innocent recreations, or does she set herself
against them, and turn the thoughts of her children to books that
treat of science, of philosophy, and of religion? Upon the answer to
this question the future of children and the young depends. Many a boy
has been checked in a career of shame by a mother's sad look; many
have been encouraged by a mother's smile. God help women to know
how to use their power for home, for woman-kind, for man-kind, for
country, and for God!

"No one has such power over a river as he who stands near its source.
No one has such power over the tree as he who plants and tends it
while yet it is a pliant sapling. And no earthly power is to be
compared with that which, humanly speaking, determines the course
and destiny of an immortal soul. Under God the mother is the first
guardian of the child's eternal interest. It is from the mother, who
moves constantly among her little ones, much more than the father,
whose vocation necessitates his absence from home, and prevents his
being much in their presence, that children receive their bias. Her
gentle hand gives to our ductile natures the impress which we wear
through life; her loving voice awakens in the soul those sweet echoes
which never cease to sound; and her look and manner fill the mind with
images which haunt our memory until our dying day."

"O, Mother! sweetest name on earth;
We lisp it on the knee,
And idolize its sacred worth
In manhood's ministry."

A mother's hand gave us our first welcome, and hers was the last we
grasped in our farewell. She is the nurse of both of our childhoods;
the queen of the home, and the friend of the heart.

"And if I e'er in heaven appear,
A mother's holy prayer,--
A mother's hand and gentle tear,--
That pointed to a Saviour here,
Shall lead the wanderer there."

Woman's mission is religious. Christ recognized her as a helpmeet, as
a comforter, and a companion. Woman ministered to him with delight,
and gladly made a resting-place for him in the quiet retreat of the
home in Bethany. He recognized her faith as an element of strength,
which saves her when properly exercised. The spiritual life of woman
is her glory. We think of the woman who had sinned looking in love and
faith on Jesus, bathing his feet with her tears, and wiping them with
her hair, kissing and