THE FIRESIDE. our work, death does not neglect his. There is probably not an hour of the day, and not a minute of the hour, when some souls are not passing from these mortal scenes to a dread eternity. PREPARATION FOR DEATH.-Repent-believe on the Lord Jesus Christ-commence a life of obedience to the Divine commands, and you may be able so to say of that dark grave, that "unwindowed cell," which is sunk across your path, as a good man once said of his, with an almost supernatural animation and emphasis, "It is the brightest spot in all my course on earth;" because faith will enable you to view it as the portal to everlasting bliss. THE CHRISTIAN PILGRIMS' PROSPECT.-" This world is not my home. I have made it my resting-place too long. I hear a voice to-day, in accents sweet as angels use, whispering to my lonely heart, Arise and depart hence, for this is not your rest. I am away from my Father's house. I have felt vexations and trials. I have experienced disappointments and losses. I have known the alienation of earthly friends. I am not a stranger to dejected hopes. I know something of conflicts within. But now and then I have a glimpse of the distant promised inheritance, which more than compensates for all. I would fain feel like one who is passing from place to place, and going from object to object, with his eye fixed on some long-wished for abode beyond; while every successive scene brings me nearer the end of my course; and all these earthly vicissitudes endear the hopes of that final rest. O glory! Welcome glory!" The Fireside. MOTHERS OF THE BIBLE AND THEIR SONS. NEARLY twenty times does the sacred historian of the book of Kings hand down the names of mothers, with the record of the good or evil deeds of their sons. Thus: Josiah reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem; and his mother's name was Jedidah; and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.” Or, “His (Abijah's) mother's name was Maachah; and he walked in all the sins of his father." See, also, 1 Kings xi. 26, xv. 2, xxii. 42; 2 Kings viii. 26, xii. 1. We are not usually told what was the character of these mothers, nor how far it was due to their influence that their sons did good or evil; but surely the introduction of their names, in immediate connexion with the good or evil, is sufficiently significant. "His mother's name was Jedidah; and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord." One almost feels as if further information about her were superfluous. "Blessed are those among women," is the thought at once suggested by the words. THE PENNY POST BOX. On the other hand, what memorable notoriety is given to Maachah! She may have been a good woman herself; yet, what volumes are in that handing of her name-only her name-down to posterity along with the misdeeds of her son! And it seems as if the father's bad example might have been more than counteracted, had she but duly exerted her maternal influence; for, "his mother's name was Maachah; and he walked in all the sins of his father!" Christian mother's! watch well your every-day life among your little ones. Think of this being said of a lost soul-"Yes, he did evil all his life; he lived as he was taught at home; and his mother's name -!" was The Penny Post Box. THE CHRISTIAN PIONEER. We have received several letters of commendation of this Magazine, and some pleasing information as to the efforts many are making to extend its circulation. We find again, as we always have done in former years, that no plan succeeds so well as that of showing the Pioneer to others. In this way one active person may secure dozens, or even scores, of new subscribers. May we be permitted to suggest that January is the month, above all others, when this work should be set about and done. Let each of our readers take one of these numbers in his hand and go about among his neighbours, taking down the names of subscribers, and we will warrant him that he will succeed. If the person who seeks for subscribers would kindly engage to get them and deliver them himself, all the better. But it should be fully understood that any person may get any number of any month, of any bookseller, by telling him to send for the Christian Pioneer, published by Simpkin's, London. Here are a few verses which one of our warm-hearted friends has sent us. Now "fifty-six" its course has sped, The "Christian Pioneer." That now the new year has come in, The "Christian Pioneer." FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. It comes each month to aid and bless, The "Christian Pioneer." The "Christian Pioneer." Come order it now in a trice, And have it monthly fresh and nice, The "Christian Pioneer." Its circulation should be high, And so it might if friends would try, Facts, Hints, Gems, and Poetry. Facts. NATIONAL BEVERAGES. ALL Europe has chosen its prevailing beverage. Spain and Italy delight in chocolate; France and Germany, Sweden and Turkey, in coffee; Russia, Holland, and England, in tea; while poor Ireland makes a warm drink from the husks of the cocoa, the refuse of the chocolate mills of Italy and Spain. All Asia feels the same want, and in different ways has long gratified it. Coffee, growing in Arabia or the adjoining countries, has followed the banner of the Prophet wherever his false faith has triumphed. Tea, a native of China, has spread over the hill country of the Himalayas, the table-lands of Tartary and Tibet, and the plains of Siberia - has climbed the Altais, overspread all Russia, and is equally despotic in Moscow as in St. Petersburg. In Sumatra, the coffee-leaf yields the favourite tea of the dark-skinned population, while Central Africa boasts of the Abyssinian chaat as the common warm drink of its Ethiopian peoples. Everywhere un-intoxicating and non-narcotic beverages are in general use-among tribes of every colour, beneath every sun, and in every condition of life. Professor Johnston. Hints. TO STRONG AND SOBER YOUNG MEN. FACTS, HINTS, GEMS, AND POETRY. the son of a poor blacksmith, and began his career as the apprentice of a bookbinder. Mr. Lindsay, M.P., the great shipowner, left his home in Ayr with 3s. 6d. in his pocket, to push his fortunes as a shipboy; he worked his passage to Liverpool by assisting in the coal hole of a steamer; and for a part of the time after he arrived, begged during the day, and slept in the sheds and streets at night. Thomas Wright, the Manchester prison philanthropist, was a weekly worker in an iron-foundry for forty-seven years. Hundreds, nay thousands more, might be named, but these may suffice if you are disposed to try. Gems. THE MIGHTIEST POWER in the EVERY FAILING the christian can discover in himself after close examination, should lead him, not to despair, but to a new application to the Lord Jesus for mercy and grace. JESUS CHRIST IS GOD, or he is no Saviour for man. He is God our Saviour-Immanuel, God with us; and all his words, and works, and ways, attest the divinity of his character. THE DIVINITY OF JESUS stamps the sacrifice he made of himself on the cross with infinite value; and hence God is well pleased, and the guilty conscience of man is pacified. Nothing but that blood could give it peace. Poetic Selections. PRIDE AND HUMILITY. universe is love, and hence God YES: there is such a thing on earth used it to subdue a world of rebels. WICKED MEN delight to fix on the faults of christians, but never on their good deeds, just as flies settle on a sore place rather than a sound one. NONE ARE TRANSPLANTED into the garden of God in Paradise, but from the nursery of grace on earth. THE AGED CHRISTIAN.-What can be more truly glorious than the spectacle of advancing age softened, and ripened, and mellowed into sweetness, under the influence of genuine piety. THE YOUNG CHRISTIAN.-And what can be a more lovely spectacle, in the sight of angels themselves, than the young soul expanding, like the flowers of spring, its opening powers towards God and goodness. HUMILITY OF HEART brings us to Christ, teaches us how to follow him, devotes us to his service, and tunes our songs to his praise. FEAR NOT CHRISTIAN, for if the Almighty Redeemer-the Lord Jesus Christ-be thy friend, it is of little matter who may be thy enemy. As holding heads too high; If we its joys would know. Humility and worth, MY OWN FAULTS FIRST. WHAT are another's faults to me? And make it wider still. I've follies of my own, REDEMPTION. WAS not earth's most auspicious hour WORTHY THE LAMB. That every knee to 1hee should bow." THE CHILDREN'S CORNER. The Children's Corner. "AWAY TO SABBATH SCHOOL." "When the morning light drives away the night, And it draws its line near the hour of nine, THERE they go! those happy children, on their way from the school to the house of God. How nice and neat they all look, and I dare say they are all as happy as they look. How much better is this than it once was in our own land. One hundred years ago, you would not have seen even in England a sight like this! Then, all such children were left to run about in the streets, or lanes, or fields, untaught and uncared for. Now millions of them in our happy land are met every sabbath morning by thousands of loving teachers, who not only teach them how to read the book of God, but tell them of the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, who came down from heaven and died on the bitter cross to save us from our sins, and who said, when he was here on earth, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Oh, happy land, where princes in palaces and children in cottages can read the Bible, and have a Bible to read! Long may English children, and soon may children of all nations sing of their sabbath school, "I have been there, and still would go, Not all my pleasure or my play, |