HOMES OF REST-GENERAL FUND.

It is desired to collect, by degrees, a Homes of Rest Fund, to secure admission for our Members to Convalescent Homes where payment is required. We think many of our Members may like to help their sister Members by subscribing small sums for this object. The smallest donations, from ONE PENNY upwards, will be received with pleasure, and may be forwarded to HON. LADY (B. C.) GREY, Fairmile House, Cobham, Surrey.

They will be acknowledged each month in the Magazine. The following are gratefully acknowledged :

DONATIONS TO HOMES OF REST-
GENERAL FUND.

Erratum. October Friendly Leaves. Homes of Rest General Fund. Mrs. Lawrie, Witham, Essex, for ros. read 17.

GRANTS MADE.

Mrs. Stubbs, Hereford Diocesan Fund
Hon. Mrs. John Grey, Durham Diocesan
Fund

HOMES OF REST NOW OPEN: MALVERN HOME OF REST.- 75. per week.

G. F. S. HOME OF REST.-Weymouth, 75. and Ɛs. per week. Address, Hon. Secretary, 11 Belvedere, Weymouth.

Lady Grey has an order for Eastbourne Convalescent Hospital, and two for Walton.

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Hon. Mrs. John Grey, Houghton-le-Spring

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HAPPY THOUGHTS.-Lady Grey feels sure that the Newport, Southsea, and Hastings Branches, which led the way in th scribing specially to give the benefit of sea air to some sick sister, will be glad to welcome a further development of their Happy Thought. Another sea-side Branch has resolved upon working during the winter to raise a fund to enable them to give three weeks' change to some Member needing sea air when summer comes round again. Lady Grey mentions this kind project at once, because she thinks that many of the winter meetings at sewing classes would be brightened and inspirited by having a definite object in view, and by hoping to see the actual result of their work.

When small sums are sent in Postage Stamps, PENNY Stamps are much preferred to those of higher value.

All Communications for the Homes of Rest page to be sent by the 10th of the month to the Hon, Lady Grey, Fairmile House, Cobham, Surrey.

Thoughts on the Marriage Service.

BY THE EDITOR.

VI.-GOD'S GRACIOUS GIFT.

.. That they may live together so long in godly love and honesty, that they may see their children christianly and virtuously brought up.'-Solemnization of Matrimony.

E have spoken of the holiness of marriage and of the solemnly pledged troth that binds together the Christian man and woman in the Lord. Our thought to-day is of the sacredness of motherhood. A subject so holy and so beautiful that, like the pure whiteness of some choice and lovely flower, we seem scarcely to dare to touch it. And yet, is motherhood so held in reverence by the world in general? Alas! alas! that we should often see it so lightly thought of, and its sanctity so constantly profaned.

Just think for a moment of that beautiful expression in the Marriage Service-God's gracious gift. As the newly-wedded pair kneel together at God's altar, the prayer goes up to the great Father in heaven, that He will grant them the blessing of children, to be the joy of their home and to be brought up to His praise and glory.

Have you ever noticed how this idea of taking each child as a gift from God's hand is constantly present in the Old Testament Scriptures? I have gotten a man from the Lord,' was the cry of Eve when the touch of her new-born babe first comforted her for the Paradise she had lost. The name of Joseph uttered the same thought. Samuel -- asked of God'-was lent to the Lord as a thank-offering for the gift so long withheld. So, too, when Jacob meets his brother Esau, it is thus that he describes his family: The children which God hath graciously

given to thy servant ;' while in later years one of those very children echoes back his father's words when he brings his two sons to his father's death-bed, 'They are my sons whom God hath given me in this place.'

But that which gives the deepest sacredness to motherhood must ever be the thought that our Blessed Lord owned this, and this only, human tie. He had but one earthly parent, and that was a mother. Yes, it is at Bethlehem that we learn the true dignity of motherhood. The Holy Child Jesus has made all childhood sacred for

us:

'Now to bless each earthly home,

Christ the Lord of Life has come.'

Our Lord Himself, too, seems to have loved to connect His own life and teaching in some special way with little children; taking them up in His tender arms and making them one with Him, as it were, as if what was done to them were done to Himself and to His Father in heaven. What a touching scene that must have been, when, as St. Mark tells us, Jesus took a child and set him in the midst, and when He had taken him in His arms, He said to His disciples, 'Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me; and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me but him that sent me.' He tells us too, how in heaven their angels (that is, we must suppose, those who are charged with watching over them) do always behold the face of their Father. May it be, perhaps, on account of their innocence and of the special love which Jesus bears them, that their watchers are allowed to be nearer to the God of purity and truth?

Dear girls, do not forget this, you who now in your maiden days-as nurses, or elder

sisters, or teachers-have the charge of little children; do not forget it, if God should give you this gracious gift to gladden your married home. Every child that is God's gift is dear to Jesus. Take this child and nurse it for me,' is His message to every Christian mother and every Christian nurse. He asks you to love it for His sake as well as your own ; He tells you that it has an angel to watch over it who is always near the Father's throne; He did not say this of the children in Judea only, when He lived on earth, but of all children then and now,--children of all ranks, high and low, rich and poor,-all equally precious in His sight, and all to be treated with reverence for His sake. • Take heed, then, that ye offend not one of these little ones.' Ah! how much will those have to answer for who, either wilfully or through neglect, first teach evil to a little child, first soil its innocency, first wake the evil passions slumbering within, first make it cease to be a pattern to others of simple-minded humility.

But mark next how the words of the Marriage Service look forward into the future, while at the same time, as ever, they join together the wife and husband in one duty and one life-work for God,- that they may live together so long in godly love and honesty, that they may see their children christianly and virtuously brought up.'

We all know how strong is the natural instinct of mother-love even in the lower animals, and very true and beautiful it often is with them. Aye, many a time the mother bird or beast will put some human mothers to shame in her self-sacrificing love and care for her young ones. But that which distinguishes

between the human affection and the animal instinct is this,-that the moment infancy is

past, the animal ceases to care for her offspring at all, whereas with human parents the tie once formed is never, or should never be, broken.

You will notice too, how in this prayer the cause and effect are linked in one, the living together in godly love and honesty and the christian and virtuous bringing up of the children. Christianly brought up. That means like Christ,—each child a Christian, an anointed one' (as we said before), set apart from the evil world in the shelter o its home, there to be taught and trained for His service, bearing His name, consecrated to be one day both 'king and priest' unto Him. Virtuously. Yes, brought up in the strength of purity, brought up to fight against a sinful nature, to love and to practise all things that are true, and honest, and lovely, and of good report, remembering that Christian virtue is no matter of weak sentiment or outward observance, but needing, on the contrary, an exertion of strength,* a warfare; requiring force and fortitude and self-control, and the offering up of the will, the devotion of the life, with every power of soul and body and spirit, to the service of Him whose name is Truth.

'Christianly and virtuously brought up to Thy praise and honour. O wondrous gift of God! O wondrous thought that earthly parents should be permitted to bring forth beings in whom God deigns to enshrine His own sacred gift of life, whom He designs to make temples of His Spirit and heirs c His kingdom; and that earthly parents should be entrusted, too, with their training for that kingdom, as though some mighty monarch should send his children

* The meaning of the word virtue is really strength, power, courage.