and are weak it will guide and make them strong in the right. But I shall never come again, a schoolgirl. I am standing on the threshold of the great world, from which I would feign turn away and be a child again. I look out across the broad sea and fearing the rocks and hidden shoals whereon so many have stranded, I dread to embark alone on the deep waters. But there are duties calling; there is a work to do which is scarcely yet begun; and there is a vision of a dear, bright home gleaming through these tears, making this parting hour less sad and darksome. I shall take with me the pearls of wisdom gathered here, and oft-times in the days that are coming I shall turn to look upon their purity with an honest satisfaction that they are mine. The influence of this last hour, this warm hand on my head, these tears, this earnest "God bless you," will go forth over all my future life. When the wind of temptation bears heavily against the sail, threatening destruction to the little bark, I shall look back to the shore, and encouraged by the watching eye and waving hand, I shall battle with the storm and ride steadily through the blast. The song has ceased. From the shaded solar, a soft light is shed through the room and over the fair young head that with its wealth of shining, golden curls is lying in my lap. The tears that have fallen bright and round have not disturbed the little sleeper. The gentle breathing and dimpling smile tell me that my sister's dreams are sweet and innocent. Looking on that bright face, my heart goes up in prayer that when she has left the home-roof she too may find such teacher-love to light and gladden her school-life, that sorrow and sin may leave her brow all unclouded and her heart pure; and that, trusting in the power and goodness of the All-Wise One, she may walk in the right way, faithfully fulfilling the mission of her life. THOUGHTS OF THEE. A SONG. BY MAY 8. LATHAM. I've been wandering by the brookside, Fragrant flowers in meek devotion Bent their heads and closed their eyes, Stars began to beam above me, Bluer, deeper grew the skies With the twilight and the silence, Prayerful thoughts were stirred in me, But still closer round my spirit, Clung those earnest thoughts of thee. USES OF RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHIES. BY THOMAS STARR KING. AMONG the important means of cultivating our spiritual nature, the study of the lives of good men ought to be recommended and encouraged. The mind grows by what it contemplates, what it feeds upon, what it proposes and reverences as its ideal. Let a man be surrounded, for a great part of the time, with fine statues that illustrate some sublime religious sentiment, and with paintings that state, through eloquent colors, "the beauty of Holiness;" let religious music elevate his feelings every morning, and refresh and soften them at night; let the most refining influences of nature be part of his education and regular experience, and it would follow of necessity that the tenor of his life would improve, that its grade would rise, and its spirit become more pure. How much deeper and better still would be the influence, if some consecrated niches of memory should hold the forms of a few good men whose lives reveal the beauty of the highest Christian sentiments; if before the imagination could be held steadily, clear as in picture, the career of a great religious soul; and if the music of faith and charity, which the reading of a good man's life leaves around the heart, could be kept ever there! Study of the written lives of good men is valuable, too, because it makes one of the strongest and healthiest passions of our nature a channel of spiritual benefit. The love which all men who read at all have for biographies, may be called a passion, It entertains us more than any other kind of literature, and enlists our sympathies more powerfully. The sentiment of brotherhood is strong in us, so that we love to read and hear of life, as other men have experienced it, and wrestled with it, and colored it. For this reason, too, fiction takes such hold of the human heart, and fascinates it. It mimicks the real fortunes of mankind, casts experience into new forms, and invests it with a strange charm; and thus, by showing us the possibilities of being, enlarges our acquaintance with the powers of the soul and the forces of life. So powerful is biography when made the channel of instruction, that Providence chose it as the main instrument to educate and redeem the race; for the Christian Revelation, to us, is a biography, a record of the fortunes and words and character of Jesus. I need not say how much more efficient Christianity has been, and is, on that account. Addressing us as a life, and not as a philosophical dogma or creed, a life exhibited in contrast with worldliness and degra |