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prayer beyond the wisdom of the cherub's knowledge, or the burning of the seraph's fire. The experienced mercies of a pardoning God are its theme, and the love of the Redeemer causes it to ascend beyond the ranks of angelic thrones, till it comes unheralded into the hallowed presence of the Lord our Righteousness. Protestant Churchman.

NURTURE AND ADMONITION.

THE very idea of the Family has been dignified and exalted by the fact, that God, in his intercourse with men, so often assumes the endearing name of Father, even though he has to deal with so strange and rebellious a race as we are. Is he not thy Father that bought thee?" With that profound grief and tenderness to which the parental bosom is no stranger, he says: "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. That same heart warms with emotion to those who fear and adore: "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him." Here, then, we have the unchangeable perfection of a father's character-the perpetual model of all who bear the sacred name of father in that earthly relation, which involves so many imperative obligations, and draws after it a train of such importart consequences. After God had made man in his own beautiful image, he blessed the happy pair, and said unto them, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." The construction of families was thus commenced under the august benediction of Heaven itself. No promise more cheered the hearts of the patriarchs than that which pledged to them a heaven-blessed posterity. Jacob speaks of his own as the "children whom God hath graciously given thy servant." All Israel was animated with the promise: "And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee." Children are pronounced the "heritage of the Lord." Behold those olive-plants of immortality that cluster around your table. You now feel as if you could not let the winds of heaven sweep over them too roughly. O guard with equal care and anxiety against the approach of the poisonous breath of the tempter. Water those plants with your tears. Fence them round with your prayers. Eradicate the first sprouting of those malignant weeds that would choke the growth of the healthful plant, and substitute deformity and barrenness for beauty and fertility. Remember the ductility of the youthful mind; the enduring strength of early impressions; the undecaying nature of the associations formed in the spring-time of life. Who cannot call to mind the sweet rural walk, the crystal well, the little stream that gurgled along, "kissing each sedge,” and making soft music as it flowed between its green banks: the solemn groves, vocal with the praises of the sweet warbler of the air; the pure invigorating atmosphere of the "country " which "God made; the very dew of the morning brushed away by the light and careless footsteps of youth? Moral recollections, too, are often embalmed with equal freshness and conservativeness in the mind. Your children are now treasuring them, insensibly to yourself, but with a certainty that will hereafter rise to greet you with a grateful reward, or meet you with painful retribution. PROTECTION and PROVISION being among the leading elements of parental obligation, we should guard against the danger of limiting these duties to the natural wants of those dependent on us. It is not ordinarily necessary to exhort parents to take care of the body. Most parents live as if this was their chief business. The necessities of time and life seem to exhaust whatever of thought, care, and provision, they spend on their

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children. They do not rise to the contemplation of the higher wants, the more urgent demands of the soul. Yet what requires more incessant vigilance than forming the mind of a child? Wherever it is, it is always at school, always learning, something. The rich soil beneath our feet, is not so vital, so vegetative, so teeming with the activity of seminal life, as the young, tender, opening mind, instinct with the consciousness of immortality. The mind will as certainly find an educator, as the plant in your parlour will seek the light, or as the heliotrope will turn its face toward the sun. And it will more naturally turn toward the lurid light of infidelty than the clear and holy beams of Christianity. Hence it should be protected. For the want of this moral guardianship, how many buds of promise have been irretrievably blasted! How many first trembling steps in the path of error have been taken, which have led finally to the dungeon of the condemned criminal! Next to the heaven-instructed philanthropist, who rushes to the rescue of the youthful transgressor, and places him in some house of refuge and industry, where he may retrace his steps, and even find the gate of heaven, I know of no greater benefactor to his species than the parent who pre-occupies the mind of his child with good principles, trains it under the influence of Christianity, and gives to society a useful member, perhaps to the world an inestimable blessing. The names of Edwards, Doddridge, Dwight, may serve to indicate how great a gift an humble, retired, individual mother may bestow, not only on her own, but on succeeding generations. In the history of states and nations, the names of Alfred and Washington are richly suggestive, as connected with this subject. Why did they so revere the persons, the presence, the memory, of their mothers? Because of the deep impressions those mothers had made on their minds, and consequently on their characters. There is a sanctity about the companionship of the maternal home, on which the profane must never dare to intrude. What does the business man, incessantly engaged from morning till night, do for the intellectual, moral, and spiritual welfare of his children? What is to become of the children of fathers who are often absent from their families, unless the mothers of these growing ones redouble their diligence, patience, and prayers, for the dear objects of their affection? The mother of Dwight "found time, without neglecting the ordinary cares of her family, to devote herself, with the most assiduous attention, to the instruction of her son, and other numerous children, as they successively claimed her regard." She laboriously fitted herself for this work. That Mary Dwight should give herself to the nurture and education of her children was imperatively necessary, because her husband" was so extensively engaged in mercantile and agricultural pursuits," that he could not attend to this important duty. To her, therefore, belongs the honour of having conferred so brilliant a gift on literature and science; to her, the exalted privilege of being the active instrument, under God, of raising up an eloquent, useful, and successful preacher for his church. What substitute could have been found for her? Divine Providence inaugurated her to this great work. It appeared but an humble employment at the time she was engaged in it, but great was the result, and the brilliant glance of the dark, expressive eye of her "son Timothy" must have animated her amid the toil and weariness of the task, while the highest and noblest motives to maternal fidelity were drawn from a heavenly source. "For this child I prayed," might she say with Hannah, who gave the illustrious Samuel to God and his church, to be a burning and shining light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. "Lent to the Lord," the loan in both cases was returned with compound interest compounded again. Oh! mother while thy bosom beats with strong affection toward thy loved ones, let thy prayers ascend to God, that thou mayest be so faithful to them as not merely to be the happy instrument of saving them, but of making them eminently useful in the world! Thus shall they in joyful succession bring

others to glory, and ETERNITY shall be the measure of thy usefulness in the dear family which "God hath graciously given thee!" -Mother's Magazine.

MECHANISM OF THE HUMAN BODY.

THERE is scarcely any part of the animal body, or an action which it performs, or an accident that can befall it, or a piece of professional assistance which can be given to it, that does not furnish illustration of some truth of natural philosophy; but we shall here only touch upon as many particulars as will make the understanding of others easy.

The cranium, or skull, is an instance of the arched form, answering the purpose of giving strength. The brain, in its nature, is so tender, or susceptible of injury, that slight local pressure disturbs its action. Hence a solid covering, like the skull, was required, with those parts made stronger and thicker which are most exposed to injury. An architectural dome is constructed to resist one kind of force only, always acting in one direction, namely, gravity; and therefore its strength increases regularly towards the bottom, where the weight and horizontal thrust of the whole are to be resisted; but, in the skull, the tenacity of the substance is many times more than sufficient to resist gravity, and therefore aids the form to resist forces of other kinds, operating in all directions. When we reflect on the strength displayed by the arched film of an egg-shell, we need not wonder at the severity of blows which the cranium can withstand. Through early childhood, the cranium remains, to a certain degree, yielding and elastic; and the falls and blows so frequent during the lessons of walking, &c., are borne with impunity. The mature skull consists of two layers, or tables, with a soft diploe between them, the outer table being very tough, with its parts dove-tailed into each other, as tough wood would be by human artificers; while the inner table is harder, and more brittle (hence called vitreous), with its edges merely lying in contact, because its brittleness would render dove-tailing useless. A very severe partial blow on the skull generally fractures and depresses the part, as a pistol bullet would; while one less severe, but with more extended contact, being slowly resisted by the arched form, often injures the skull by what is correspondent to the horizontal thrust in a bridge, and causes a crack at a distance from the place struck, generally half-way round to the opposite side. Sometimes, in a fall with the head foremost, the skull would escape injury, but for the body, which falls upon it, pressing the end of the spine against its base.

In the lower jaw, we have to remark the greater mechanical advantage, or lever power, with which the muscles act, than in most other parts of animals. The temporal and masseter muscles pull almost directly, or at right angles to the line of the jaw; while in most other cases, as in that of the deltoid muscle lifting the arm, the muscles act very obliquely, and with power diminished in proportion to the obliquity. An object placed between the back teeth is compressed with the whole direct power of the strong muscles of the jaw: hence the human jaw can crush a body which offers great resistance, and the jaws of the lion, tiger, shark, and crocodile, &c., are stronger still.

The teeth rank high among those parts of the animal body which appear almost as if they were severally the fruits of distinct miraculous agencies, so difficult is it to suppose a few simple laws of life capable of producing the variety of form so beautifully adapted to purposes which they exhibit. They constitute an extraordinary set of chisels and wedges, so arranged as to be most efficient for cutting and tearing the food, and with their exterior

enamel, so hard, that in early states of society, teeth were made to answer many purposes for which steel is now used. It seems, however, as if the laws of life, astonishing as they are, had still been inadequate to cause teeth, cased in their hard enamel, to grow as the softer bones grow; and hence has arisen a provision more extraordinary still. A set of small teeth appear soon after birth, and serve the child until six or seven years of age: these then fall out, and are replaced by larger ones, the number being completed only when the man or woman is full grown, by four teeth, called wisdom teeth, because they come so late, which rise to fill up the then spacious jaw.

The spine, or back-bone, has, in its structure, as much of beautiful and varied mechanism as any single part of our wonderful frame. It is the central pillar of support, or great connecting chain of all the other parts; and it has, at the same time, the office of containing within itself, and of protecting from external injury, a prolongation of the brain, called the spinal marrow, more important to animal life than the greater part of the brain itself. We shall see the spine uniting the apparent incompatibilities of great elasticity, great flexibility in all directions, and great strength, both to support a load and to defend its important contents.

The head may be said to rest on the elastic column of the spine, as the body of a carriage rests upon its springs. Between each two of the twentyfour vertebræ, or distinct bones, of which the spine consists, there is a soft, elastic intervertebral substance, about half as bulky as a vertebra, yielding readily to any sudden jar; and the spine, moreover, is waved or bent a little, like an italic f, as seen when it is viewed sideways; and, for this reason, also, it yields to any sudden pressure, operating from either end. The bending might seem a defect in a column intended to support weight; but the disposition of the muscles around is such as to leave all the elasticity of the bend and a roomy thorax, without any diminution of strength. The spine may be compared to a chain, because it consists of twenty-four distinct pieces, joined by smooth rubbing surfaces, so as to allow of motion in all directions; and a little motion, comparatively, between each two adjoining pieces, becomes a great extent of motion in the whole line. The articulating surfaces are so many, and so exactly fitted to each other, and are connected by such number and strength of ligaments, that the combination of pieces is really a stronger column than a single bone of the same size would be.

The strength of the spine, as a whole, is shown in a man's easily carrying upon his head a weight heavier than himself, while each separate vertebra is a strong irregular ring, or double arch, surrounding the spinal marrow. The spine increases in size towards the bottom, in the justest proportion, as it has more weight to bear.

Attached to twelve vertebræ, in the middle of the back, are the ribs, or bony stretchers of the cavity of the chest, constituting a structure which solves, in the most perfect manner, the difficult mechanical problem of making a cavity with solid exterior, which shall yet be capable of dilating and contracting itself. Each pair of corresponding ribs may be considered as forming a hoop, which hangs obliquely down from the place of attachment behind; and so that, when the fore part of all the hoops is lifted by the muscles, the cavity of the chest is enlarged.

We have to remark the double connexion of the rib behind, first to the bodies of two adjoining vertebræ, and then to a process or projection from the lower, thus effecting a very steady joint, and yet leaving the necessary freedom of motion; and we see the fore part of the rib to be of flexible cartilage, which allows the degree of motion required there, without the complexity of a joint, and admirably guards, by its elasticity, against the effects of sudden blows or shocks.

The muscles, which have their origin on the ribs, and their insertion into the bones of the arm, afford us an example of action and reaction being equal and contrary. When the ribs are fixed, these muscles move the arm; and, when the arm is fixed, by resting on a chair or other object, they move the ribs. This is seen in fits of asthma and of difficulty of breathing.

The shoulder-joint is remarkable for combining great extent of motion with great strength. The round head of the shoulder-bone rests upon a shallow cavity in the shoulder-blade, that it may run freely in all ways; and the danger of dislocation from this shallowness is guarded against by two strong bony projections above and behind. To increase the range of motion to the greatest possible degree, the bone called the shoulder-blade, which contains the socket of the arm, slides about itself upon the convex exterior of the chest having its motion limited only by a connexion through the collar-bone, or clavicle, with the sternum.

The scapula, or blade-bone, is extraordinary as an illustration of the mechanical rules for combining lightness with strength. It has the strength of the arch, from being a little concave, and its substance is chiefly collected in its borders and spines, with thin plates between, as the strength of a wheel is collected in its rim, and spokes, and nave.

The bones of the arms, considered as levers, have the muscles which move them attached very near to the fulcra, and very obliquely so that, from working through a short distance comparatively with the resistances overcome at the extremities, the muscles require to be of great strength. It has been calculated that the muscles of the shoulder-joint, in the exertion of lifting a man upon the hand, pull with a force of two thousand pounds. The os humeri, or bone of the upper arm, is not perfectly cylindrical; but, like most of the other bones which are called cylindrical, it has ridges to give strength.

The elbow-joint is a correct hinge, and so strongly secured, that it is rarely dislocated without fracture.

The fore-arm consists of two bones, with a strong membrane between them. Its great breadth, from this structure, affords abundant space for the origin of the many muscles that go to move the hand and fingers; and the very peculiar mode of connexion of the two bones, give man that most useful faculty of turning the hand round, into what are called the positions of pronation and supination, exemplified in the action of twisting, or of turning a gimlet.

The many small bones forming the wrist, have a signal effect of deadening, in regard to the parts above, the shocks or blows which the hand receives. The annular ligament is a strong band passing round the joint, and keeping all the tendons which pass from the muscles above to the fingers, close to the joint. It answers the purpose of so many fixed pulleys for directing the tendons: without it, they would all, on action, start out like bow-strings, producing deformity and weakness.

The human hand is so admirable from its numerous mechanical and sensitive capabilities, that an opinion at one time commonly prevailed, that man's superior reason depended on his possessing such an instructor and such a servant. Now, although reason, with hoofs instead of fingers, could never have raised man much above the brutes, and probably could not have secured the continued existence of the species, still the hand is no more than a fit instrument of the godlike mind which directs it.

The pelvis or strong irregular ring of bone, on the upper hedge of which the spine rests, and from the sides of which the legs spring, forms the centre of the skeleton. A broad bone was wanted here to connect the centre column of the spine with the lateral columns of the legs; and a circle was the lightest and the strongest. If we attempt still further to

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