Many, in thus seeking pleasures, have found an untimely grave. And where will such be found at the last day!

One privilege I trust you will by no means deny yourself-that of calling your female servants and children together, for the morning and evening sacrifice. Your husband is not a professor of religion; and therefore does not consider this to be his duty. And must your house remain altogether without the domestick altar? Are we not to fear that "God will pour out his fury," not only "on the heathen," but especially "on the families that call not on his name?" And must yours be a family on which he will pour out his fury? By establishing a family altar, and with humble sincerity calling on his name, you may avert the most awful judgments And will you neglect it? Have you given birth to those on whom, for your unfaithfulness, God may pour out his fury! If you have hitherto neglected this duty, neglect it no longer. Your husband, I am persuaded, will not object: Or if he should think you are acting out of your sphere, surely there are many opportunities during the day, in which you may retire to your chamber, or your closet, and there, kneeling with them, implore on your household the blessing of the God of Israel. Obey your husband the more cheerfully in temporal concerns, and redouble your attentions to him, that he may feel, when you do differ from him in matters of conscience, that it is only and altogether from a deep sense of your greater obligations to obey your God. I have known a case where the performance of this duty, became the means of the hopeful conversion of a husband.

You may easily take up this cross while your children are young; but think how hard it will become, if not attended to till they are older. If you engage in this as you ought, you will soon esteem it one of your

dearest privileges: And your children, if at all concerned for their eternal welfare, will cheerfully attend this duty, as one means of their salvation. You teach them that the prayers of the righteous avail much; and will they not gladly hear you pleading with fervour for themselves? I think there are few so hardened as not to desire an interest in the prayers of the saints. As the faithful performance of Sabbath duties has an influence on the life, the whole succeeding week, so the faithful performance of this duty, will have an influence on the conduct through each successive day. Let your children hear you pray, that you may be faithful to them; and that they may be submissive and obedient to you; and certainly it must greatly affect the conduct of both yourself and them. Surely you dare not neglect this dutythis high privilege!

Your heavenly Father has given you a good store of the things of this world: and thus are your obligations increased, to devote much of your time to your children. But were you obliged to labour daily with your own hands for support, your responsibility would still remain. The great Jehovah condescended often to point out this duty. His blessing was promised, as a consequence of Abraham's faithfulness," in commanding his children and his household after him." The children of Israel were strictly required to teach their posterity the ordinances and statutes of the Lord-by the way, when they rose up, and when they lay down. In short, wherever we are, whatever we do, this great work must be first in our thoughts. In the downhill of life, when the comforts of this world are losing their charms and fast fleeing away, the bread which you may have many days since "cast upon the waters," shall then be found again.

My parents, these many years, have slept under the clods of the

valley but a waking hour of my life passes not, when some admonition, some pious maxim, of theirs, does not return, and cast a light to direct me in some intricate path, or to confirm and support me in some dangerous and untried way. Above all, their example encourages me to sow the seed in the morning, and in the evening not to withhold the hand," as I know not "which shall prosper, or whether both may not be alike good." It is not sufficient that we point out the right way, to our children and domesticks-we must follow and see that they pursue it. We must give them line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little."

I trust I need not urge upon you, the necessity of imploring frequently and fervently in your closet, Divine assistance and support, in this arduous work. You must ask for grace to begin, for patience to endure, for wisdom to direct, and for strength to perform, all that is before you. You must ask for submission in your childen; and you must go from your closet, leaning on the Almighty arm, relying on your God, and on his promises, for support. Acting thus, in obedience to his commands, we need not fear to engage in the direction, or the discipline of any one-However tall the youth, or however trying the circumstances, "correct thy son while there is hope."

Again and again, I would entreat you, if you value your own happiness, or if you value the happiness of your children, both in time and in eternity, to establish early your influence and your authority over your sons; or be assured, it never will be established. Diligently form their habits of industry, application, self-denial, and economy; or such habits they will never possess, except by the special grace of God; which you are not to expect, if you neglect the

appointed means. At a later age, your power can never reach their case. Your influence, depend upon it, can never be established, but in their early affections. Therefore allow your dear little Charles, with his arms around your neck, to whisper in your ear all his sorrows, and to tell you all his joys. Be they ever so simple, listen to them with the deepest interest: and you will listen with such an interest, if you consider these as the first sentiments and thoughts of a mind, just beginning to expand for eternity.

If the hurry of business prevents you, at the moment, from attending to his story, call him, as soon as you have leisure; know what he would say; converse freely with him, on every subject he may wish to introduce. Think of the advantage this will give you, in teaching him the difference between right and wrong; in forming a proper bias in his understanding, to whatever is virtuous; and on the great importance of his having for his confidant, one so much superior to himself in years and in judgment. There is a language in which you may converse with children, that can but lisp, and only begin to apprehend the import of words. Study this language; for be assured it may conduce in a very high degree to fix you in their affections and esteem; and consequently to promote your own and their future peace and comfort.

Infringe not on the innocent enjoyments of your children-but see that they be innocent. Endeavour even to improve the pleasures of your children, by every proper method. And when they are restrained from improper company, or pleasures, let them be assured that you seek their happiness, and not the gratification of your own caprice. When you can do it with propriety, give them your reasons for your denials; and thus teach them to confide in your judgment, and to submit without repining.

When you ride or walk, let your Charles be one of the party. He will then become more willing to remain at home; and even now, may form a lasting attachment for his own fire-side. You will find many good opportunities while out, to give him some interesting lessons on a variety of objects, which will arrest his attention. A good mother cannot but feel her own enjoyments enhanced, when they are participated in by her children, and are rendered profitable to them. You know, my dear Mary, I never prosecuted a journey without some, or all of you, as my companions. These family tours were very delightful; and when your improve, ment was added to other considerations, we ever felt the time and the expense well applied.

I would not by any means recommend to you a line of conduct, which my own practice has not sanctioned, and my own experience proved to be useful. And I am thus authorized to charge you, never to leave your children at home, when you prosecute a journey. Say not, they will destroy all your pleasures; for a mother has no right to pleasures, which can be thus destroyed. If the circumstances of the case are such that at least a part of them cannot go, then remain at home with them. Do you say that they may be troublesome to your friends? Then visit these friends the more seldom.

The lives, no less than the morals of children, are endangered, in the absence of their parents. I have known more than one instance, within the circle of my acquaint ance, where a mother, having reach ed her home after a long absence, found that her darling child flew not to meet her glad return, and to receive the kiss of parental affection-His lips were sealed in death, and the clods of the valley had covered him forever from her view, Some cases I have also known, when disease had taken deep root,

and the mother returned but to perform the last sad offices to an expiring child. The bounds of life, it is true, are set, "that they cannot be passed." Still, as God has appointed means for preserving life, it is our indispensable duty to make use of these means. And a mother's affectionate, unremitting care, may go far in preventing disease, and in restoring health.

Such sad catastrophes as I have just alluded to, I know are rare; but it is not rare to see children, in the absence of their parents, rushing headlong into vice and immorality-often with the connivance of unfaithful servants. O, leave them not to themselves, even for a night, unless in some great and imperious exigencies. Then, at the call of duty, leave them-not alone-not with confidence in servants onlybut leave them with your God. Go in the confidence of faith-leaving them as helpless orphans in his hands: And if then you see them no more, submit to his righteous providence.

(To be continued.)

TRAVELS IN EUROPE FOR HEALTH IN 1820. BY AN AMERICAN CLERGYMAN, OF THE SYNOD OF PHILADELPHIA.

(Continued from p. 24.)

The environs of Montpelier contain some very fine garden grounds, which supply the city with vegetables. Being generally without enclosures, I have derived no small pleasure from sauntering through them, without ever being challenged for intrusion. My attention has been particularly attracted to a simple contrivance, for giving to these gardens the necessary supply of water. Every garden of moderate size has a well in it; into which a large wheel, furnished with an abundance of earthen pots, attached to

its circumference as buckets, dips, and which in its revolutions, lifts the water and empties it into a trough, whence it passes to the beds nicely adjusted to receive it, for the purpose of irrigation. This wheel, by means of a very simple geering, is turned by a mule; and it is really astonishing to see the quantity of water it will throw up. It makes a current that I am satisfied may be estimated at thirty or forty gallons per minute. This climate must be very dry, since in the month of May the watering of gardens is so uníversal. Yet I have found, since I have been here, a great prevalence of cloudy weather, and of threatening appearances of rain, which ne vertheless have passed off, without any. It is very common, especially in the after part of the day, to see dark clouds rising in the west, whose appearance, to one accustomed to the American climate, seems to threaten torrents of rain, and yet they produce only a hurricane of wind and the sweeping of the dust from the dry surface of the earth, in quantities most annoying to the unhappy wight who is caught out in this dry storm, as I have sometimes been. The drought, the wind, and dust combined, must certainly be regarded as a serious calamity in this climate; if they prevail through the summer season, as I have experienced them since I have been here.

The country, in every direction around Montpelier, whenever you pass beyond the application of the manure which the city furnishes, is generally poor. On the side next to the Mediterranean, it is very level, and a great deal of land is lying waste, overgrown with bushes; land too, quite as capable of cultivation, as much that is under it. On the other side of the city from the sea, the country soon becomes very hilly, and the hills are very rocky and barren. The vine is the principal article of cultivation; and I have been astonished, to see it

growing out of a soil, that showed on the surface scarcely any thing but pebbles and gravel. This pebbly soil produces the best wine, though deficient in quantity. I am informed, that no vegetable is so much affected in its juices, from the nature of the soil on which it grows, as the vine. Almost every vineyard produces its own variety of wine; and this, as much from the nature of its soil, as the kinds of vine with which it is planted. In this region of country, they reckon upwards of sixty different varieties of wine. In making it, a very great deal depends on the process of fermentation; and the proper method of conducting it, is quite an art and mystery, of difficult acquirement. This belongs to the wine dealers, who purchase the wines from the press, and manage the fermentation themselves. I am inclined to think that in Pennsylvania, a leading obstacle to success in the cultivation of grapes, will be found in the wetness of the climate. In this country, the grape is said to be a very uncertain article of cultivation-so much so, that a full crop does not generally occur oftener than once in four years: and nothing more certainly destroys it than a wet season: and I think it highly probable, that what is esteemed a wet season here, would be accounted with you one of great drought. The vine seems to be the gift of Providence to dry and poor countries. Besides the wine, it is the source of considerable profit, in this region, from the manufacture of verdigris, of which it is the principal ingredient. The process by which the verdigris is obtained is very simple. The husks of the grape that remain after the wine is expressed, are thrown into open vessels, and thin plates of copper are inserted into them. In the course of some time, the action of the acid on the refuse of the grapes, generates the verdigris on the outside of the copper, which being

scraped off, the plates are put back, to undergo the same process.

As a production of agriculture, the vine appears to be little favourable towards increasing the fertility of the soil. The land of a vineyard must be frequently tilled, so as to keep down every other vegetation. The vine itself is an exhauster, though perhaps not a severe one; and it furnishes almost nothing in the way of manure; so that a wine country never can be a very fertile country; and the great mass of its population must, of course, be poor. Abundant evidence is furnished, that this is really the situation of a great part of the inhabitants of this region, both in town and country. The habitations of the country people, are generally very mean; and a number of villages, which I have visited, at the distance of from two to six miles from the city, are really wretched. No doubt, the long wars which have succeeded the revolution, have had a most unhappy effect on agriculture, as well as every thing else, which constitutes the real prosperity of the country. One effect of these depopulating wars, which is most deplorable while it is most evident, is, the deficiency of male population. I was not long in the place, before I was struck with the excess of women, every where manifest. In the streets, at the market, in the fields, at the labours of husbandry, in the churches, it appears to me, two-thirds of all that are to be seen are women. My observation is corroborated by that of others, with whom I have conversed on the subject.

How dreadful are the calamities of war, even the most successful, to a country? In addition to the miseries of the camp, and the horrors of the field of battle, what floods of anguish must inundate the whole country, entering into almost every house, and producing the wailings of bereavement, for a lost husband, a lost son, a lost brother, a lost friend or neighbour: and certainly,

not the least evil, is the afflicting and demoralizing state of things produced, when a material disparity is created in the number of the sexes: and when we reflect, that the only effectual remedy for war, with all the other evils which spread misery through our world, is the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is emphatically the gospel of peacehow ought it to stimulate the efforts of every individual, who has any effort within his reach, to spread this gospel to the ends of the earth? What a criminal thing, moreover, is it, to indulge apathy and indolence, in a matter of such infinite moment to the welfare of man? We cry aloud against Bonaparte, and the whole race of despots, who make war their pastime and their glory; and surely their guilt exceeds calculation-Yet they are legitimate subjects of the supplication, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And is there not reason to apprehend, that their guilt is not greater in the eyes of HIM, "with whom actions are weighed," than that of the lukewarm professor and possessor of the gospel, who knows its blessed doctrines, and neglects to teach them to those who know them not?

who withholds his mite towards imparting its high and holy privileges to those who are perishing, not temporally only, but eternally, for want of them? I think at this moment, if I had an opportunity of addressing my countrywomen, the mothers and sisters of America, to the utmost of my feeble ability would I press upon them, how much they owe to the gospel, for that elevation in society, which they certainly enjoy, above the daughters of France: and the obligations thence resulting, to throw all the weight of their influence, their efforts, and their liberality, into the gospel scale; that their daughters and granddaughters, and their sex generally throughout the world, may in due time inherit, not merely