Father, whose eye is always upon us, and whose ear is ever open to our cry, and whose arm can reach and save us to the ends of the earth. What, then, if you are written orphan-if no noble-hearted father is left to smooth down your flaxen locks as his soul rises up in fervent benedictions on your head— what though you are without a mother's sleepless care, and there is no longer a bosom on which your aching head can lean with perfect confidence-no heart into which you can any longer pour your many grievances and the sad tale of all your youthful sorrows-yet you have a Father in heaven, whose heart is infinitely more kind than that of any earthly parent. Trust in Him. He ever liveth to bless. He will never disappoint you nor forsake you. And, my young readers, if God has raised you up friends away from home-tender and faithful guardians of your character and happiness, as He did for Esther in the land of her people's captivity, then be careful to own God's goodness. Such friends are sent of God. Learn, also, to be merciful as God is merciful. Do good to all men; but especially to widows and orphans in their affliction. There is no species of benevolence that repays with so much interest to the benefit of mankind as the care and education of orphans. God seems to take peculiar pleasure in making orphans a blessing to mankind, as an encouragement to us to show them kindness, and to commit our children, as orphans, to Him, if He sees best to take us from them.

5. And this suggests another thought, namely, that it is by doing good that we build the most enduring monuments in the world. The tomb of Moses, says

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some one, is not known to this day, but travelers and pilgrims, from every land and for many generations, have thanked God for water, as they have quenched their thirst at Jacob's Well. Nor is it without significance that the splendid pile of hewn stone and marble, and gold and silk, ivory and cedar, erected by king Solomon, for the service of Jehovah, was burnt, and has, long since, been in utter, undistinguishable ruins, while his reservoirs and fountains and aqueducts are almost as perfect as they ever were. The golden house of Nero is a mass of ruins, and cabbage and garlic and onions are growing over the ruins of the palace of the Cæsars, but the aqueduct of Claudius still pours its limpid streams into the eternal city. The fountains of Tadmor in the wilderness still sparkle as freshly as when Zenobia was queen, but her Palace and the Temple of the Sun have fallen, and are known only in story and by a mound of rubbish. The marble floors and columns of Shushan and Persepolis are known as ruins, the dwelling-places of unclean beasts and birds; but the lessons of virtue and holiness, which Mordecai taught the orphan Jewess, have never lost their power. The harvest of benevolent doing is perpetual. It is not only a personal and immediate blessing to the doer himself, but every good deed is immortal. A good deed is so great a blessing that it is to be sought after and performed, because of the present happiness it bestows; how much more, then, since it is to live forever? The example of the patriarchs, the sufferings of martyrs for truth and liberty, and the principles enunciated and lived out by the great and good before us cannot die.

6. Here then is encouragement to teachers, parents and guardians. Mordecai toiling and patiently teaching Hadassah her catechism-does he know what destiny awaits her? By no means. He is only doing his

present duty, hoping for the divine blessing. While he is diligently laboring and praying that he may do his whole duty to his cousin-ward, he has no revelation telling him she shall become the Queen of Persia. No, not a syllable like it. But he toils on, trusting the God of Jacob for the future. And just so it must be still. The importance of early education, it is impossible to estimate too highly. The infant in the nurses' arms has faculties which an angel cannot comprehend, and which eternity alone can unfold. That infant may sway listening Senates, or thunder home truth from the pulpit into the hearts of thousands, or wield the pen or the sceptre that is to govern millions; or that little girl may occupy a place as wife or mother that shall send forth an influence ever widening and traveling onward to the last day of the world. The workers, the thinkers, the orators, the writers, the statesmen, the heroes of the ages of the future, are these infants now carried about by our nurses; and as they are educated so will they be a blessing or a curse. I observe that many writers and speakers often dwell on the dangers to be apprehended to our institutions from foreigners, and especially from the Jesuits; now I will tell you a secret-tell you of a power in our midst much greater than that of all the followers of Loyola in the world. I mean the young women who are our nurses, helps or servants. They are chiefly from Ireland and Germany, and the most of them are conscientious and honest Catho

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lics, and it is my solemn conviction that there is more power in their hands than in all the Jesuit schools in America. I do not mean that anything is to be apprehended under our laws, from what they will say or do to the children, or in the families where they live as domestics. As a general rule, I do not believe there is anything wrong here; but I do mean, that the rhymes and tales the nurse tells our little ones, are to live forever. And I mean also that these women are to be the wives and mothers of thousands of citizens, in whose hands are to rest the destinies of the institutions of this country. It is confessedly from them the increase of the power of the Catholic Church in America is chiefly to be expected. These women are industrious and healthy. They generally make good, honest, hard-working economical wives, and it is no uncommon thing for their sons to be the men of money and influence in their day; and we need hardly say, that the sons are defenders of the faith of the mothers. It is the mother that moulds the man, the elector and the statesman. These mothers have more power over our institutions than all the armies of the Napoleons of Europe can ever wield. England's "Iron Duke" once said on visiting, in his old age, the place where he was educated, "the battle of Waterloo was fought in Eton School." He meant that the military discipline of thought, the manliness of character, the knowledge and virtue, that he acquired in his school-boy days, enabled him to fight successfully the battle of Waterloo against the conqueror of the continent. And he was right. The general makes the soldier, and the boy is father to the man-general. It is so-it has always been so-and it will continue to be

so. The mind of the child is immortal, and yet it is plastic in the hands of the mother; and truth taught to the youthful mind, lodged in the infant soul, prepares it for the bosom of God. And as parents and teachers, and the guardians of youth-as members of society, there is no escape from responsibility as to the proper education of the young.

And finally, let me while we are yet musing over the tomb of the Hebrew orphan, whom God made a queen, say to all young people: Confide in your parents. Esther as Sultana, obeyed Mordecai, as when she was brought up with him. Your parents' love is sincere. No one can love you with an affection so disinterested as your father or mother. Many a daughter has dug the grave of all her earthly happiness, by receiving the addresses of a young man contrary to the wish of her parents. The pale and melancholy features, the hastening to the grave of the broken-hearted, a stranger and neglected, have, alas! too often told the sad story of a lovely and confiding one that married contrary to the wishes of her parents, and exchanged thereby sympathizing friends, able and judicious counsellors, and kind and devoted nurses in sickness, for a selfish, unfeeling companion, who sought only his own vanity or pleasure. Young woman, if you have an intelligent and godly father, never forget his counsels. He knows the world; he knows the hearts of men, and his advice is free from selfishness. Dishonor not his gray hairs by disobeying him. Young man, if you have an intelligent and pious mother on earth, you yet have a treasure worth more than all the mines of the mountains. A mother's love, even if all other things seem lost to