and good will to men." It is this influence which has made our land the home of the homeless and poor of all nations, - these people come to live with us because the brotherhood of mankind is the basis of our nationality. In this way, the United States has won the position Rome had forfeited by her injustice, cruelties, and sins, and which she lost when moral truth was exalted above material force. In eighty years, the sway of Gospel Love has wrought out and built up an empire on this new continent, that, for its power to do good, is as far above the empire which the Romans had reached in seven hundred years as heaven is above earth.

This is only the worldly view of Christ's ministry of love in its national influences. The blessings it has brought to individual life, family enjoyments, social happiness, and human improvement, are as much beyond our powers of computation as the round of the universe was beyond the apple that made Newton search for truth. Lord Bacon, in his " Bible Thoughts," says, "The spirit of Jesus is the spirit of a dove. No miracle of His is to be found to have been of judgment or revenge, but all of goodness and mercy, and respecting man's body; for, as touching riches, He did not vouchsafe to any miracle, save only that tribute might be given to Cæsar."

So also, in the words of Christ, the rules and precepts he gave are, in a large measure, intended to regulate life, and its morals and manners, in this world. The gentle

man or lady who will conform their conduct to this perfect pattern of "good will" needs few other rules for the "etiquette of good society." They would need none, were we what we profess to be, a Christian nation. One part of my plan is to set manners of good society."

forth the "customs and There are in the words of

Christ seven precepts for the guidance of life, which Americans should hold as rules of conduct and character. Let us call these the Gospel etiquette of love and duty.

1. "Judge not, that ye be not judged."

2. "Love thy neighbor as thyself."

3. "Do unto others as you would they should do unto you."

4. "Give to him that asketh of thee; and, from him who would borrow of thee, turn not thou away."

5. "A man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh: what therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder."

6. "Suffer little children to come unto me."

7. "Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto God the things that are God's."

In these seven rules are set forth the charter of our national privileges, and the sum of our individual duties. We read, in these precepts of Divine Wisdom, the charities that sustain brotherhood, and the amenities that make

society a pleasure; the sweet and sacred sympathies of married life; the tender loves of home, and the true culture of childhood; the freedom of private judgment, with obedience to established law; the home, the world, the state, and the worship of the true God, are all drawn into the circle of love and peace.

II. HOME.

The first sure symptoms of a mind in health
Is rest of heart, and pleasure felt at home.

Young's Night Thoughts.

Let me live amongst high thoughts, and smiles
As beautiful as love; with grasping hands,
And a heart that flutters with diviner life,
Whene'er my step is heard.

Procter's Mirandola.

H

OME! Where in our language shall we find a word

of four letters that stirs all the sweet pulses of life like this of home,— Our Home?

Perhaps you think of love, the master-passion, as it has been styled, of human nature.

But human love owes its beginning and its perfection to its precursor, - home. Eden, the divinely prepared abode of the first of our race, was planted before woman was created: with ber came love.

The home for the bride was made, and adorned with all the wealth of nature's loveliness, before the Lord God

drew out, from the carbon of man's flesh and bones, the pure diamond of feminine purity and beauty, and light of moral perfectness, which he enshrined in the form of

woman.

This wonderful history of the first home and the first love should be carefully studied by all who wish to apprehend the real glory of human nature, which it is my purpose to set forth in this Home Book.

Pray do not quote from Milton. His "Paradise Lost," in regard to the temptation and fall, is fabulous as the story of Proserpine. So we will take the Book of books.

As the Bible is, I trust, in the homes of all where “manners and morals" are cultivated, there is no need that I should quote, as my readers will prefer to look over the sacred text. Pray examine the first three chapters of Genesis carefully. The particular history of the human creation is in the second chapter. You cannot fail to observe that there were care and preparation in the forming of woman which were not bestowed on man.

Why was this recorded, if not to teach us that the wife was of finer mould, and destined to the more spiritual uses, —the heart of humanity, as her husband was the head? She was the last work of creation. Every step, from matter to man, had been in the ascending scale. Woman was the crown of all. Was this last step downward?

It must have been, unless woman was superior in those qualities which raise human nature above animal life, the link which pressed nearest to the angelic, and drew

more delicate beauty and holier power from the spiritual life.

Does it not mark the better nature of woman, that, after the fall even, when she was placed under the control of her husband, she yet held their immortal destiny in her keeping? For her the gracious words of consolation were spoken; to her the promised Seed was given: not a ray of hope can be found in the destiny of the man, save through the hope given to the woman.

Thus they stood together, when, after their sorrowful "fall," they were driven forth from Eden, and sent, Adam to till the ground, "cursed for his sake" or sin; Eve to become "the mother of all living."

And now they have their own home to make, their own earthly happiness to secure. Can these blessings be attained in any other way than by obedience to the laws of God? In the plan of redemption, as shadowed forth in that sentence of punishment for their first sin of disobedience, the divine Judge seems to have fixed the human duties thus:

Man is the worker or provider, the protector and the law-giver; woman is the preserver, the teacher or inspirer, and the exemplar.

Under these laws, Adam, sole sovereign of earth, chose the little plot of ground that was to be their home, where love, in the guise and graces of Eve, would, by her smiles and gentleness, make his hard tasks pleasant for her sake,