The variegated flowers, the beautiful and shining shells, which we have together gathered on the shores of earthly vanity, to fill our lap and decorate our garments, now grow dim, and pass away with thee.

Thine eyes have finished weeping over thine own and others' sins. No longer are they turned in piteous longing toward heaven, whence help cometh.

Thou art no longer compelled to submit to the sore mastery of small tyrants, which are prouder than great. Nor dost thou any more walk with the children of folly upon the shallow surface of the earth.

Thy hands, which have ministered to needy saints, and thy feet, which have loved no way like the path to the house of God, are happily bound to their rest. The curtains of a deep and quiet midnight are drawn around thee!

Blessed art thou, my faithful body, blessed art thou! A blast of the storm has cast thee empty upon the shore of life's ocean, where thou shalt be removed for a better voyage.

Now thou art out of the danger of losing thyself inpleasant, but forbidden by-paths, where guilt and the penalty were wont to meet thee.

Enough, thou troubled one, rest thee now a little in the cool bosom of the earth. Content thyself until thy members have turned to dust on the island of death. In a short time, crowned with a radiance of honor, thou shalt come to those quiet pastures of peace, of which all that thou hast seen of the beautiful, is but a faint and distorted shadow.

Thou West, breathe coolness from the green trees toward the spot where this forsaken tenement reposes. Corruption, do thy work gently. And thou, my beloved Cherub, cover it with thy wings, till the morning dawn of immortality shall break in upon it.

So spake the Spirit of my beloved Mother, and vanished!

Her Guardian Angel, with radiant finger, pointed out to her the starry way, and said to the departing Spirit:

Be

I will remain with this forsaken companion of thine, till thou, more beautifully than ever, shalt marry thyself to him again. I will not allow evil or harm to befall him. All his pains have now become peace. hold, I set my pilgrim staff against this cypress, and lay my wings aside, so that I may not depart from him. I will watch by his side, till, in the second harvest, he shall appear renewed in the presence of the Messiah, and shall be counted worthy of becoming His companion in the kingdom

of eternal love.

"THE BIBLE," says an old writer, "is useful to all sorts of persons. A worldling should often read Ecclesiastes; a devout person, the Psalms; an afflicted person, Job; a preacher, Timothy and Titus; a backslider, the Hebrews; a libertine, Peter, James, and Jude; a man that could study Providence, Esther; and those who are engaged in great undertakings, Nehemiah."

"And," remarks another, "of most things it may be said, vanity of vanities, all is vanity; but of the Bible it may be truly said, verity of verities, all is verity.

The Guardian.

VOL. XV.-OCTOBER, 1864.-No. 10.

THE LONELY ORPHANS!

BY THE EDITOR.

IN nothing does the word of God manifest a more deeply sympathetic spirit than in its tender references to that class of persons whose homecircles are broken-the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless. The divine heart seems always to melt over this cluster of sorrowing and suffering ones. Their lonely case touches the divine compassion, and draws forth His warmest and tenderest love.

It is the divine habit in the Scriptures to associate the fatherless and the widow; and what an affecting picture it is! A family without a head. A household in fragments! A home without outward support and defence. A lonely woman, with many, many memories, pleasant, but mournful, coming up out of the vanished past; and still others which travel bitterly to the grave of her chief earthly companion and stay. A cluster of children who feel not the weight of their loss, and who can never know the rich meaning that lies in the word father. How a home changes when, to its stricken inmates, the bright days are in the past, earnest struggles in the present, and the cold realities of a selfish world before them in the future!

Is it to be wondered at, that God should gather such a class of persons near His compassionate heart, and throw around them special guards for their protection? Hear, therefore, what he says: "Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry." (Ex. xxii. 22, 23.) David addresses God thus: "The poor committeth himself unto Thee; Thou art the helper of the fatherless." (Ps. x. 14.) "A Father of the fatherless, and judge of the widows, is God in His holy habitation." (Ps. lxviii. 5.) Solomon warns: "Enter not into the fields of the fatherless; for

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their Redeemer is mighty: He shall plead their cause with Thee." (Prov. xxiii. 10, 11.) "Leave thy fatherless children; I will preserve them alive: and let thy widows trust in me." (Jer. xlix. 11.) God says, by Malachi, "I will be a swift witness against those that oppress the widow and fatherless." (Mal. iii. 5.) St. James says: "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." (James i. 27.)

Sacred, inspired declarations like these, furnish sufficient reason and motive to the Church to turn its tender attention toward this class of our fellow-beings. We say The Church, because it is to her hands that He has committed this ministry of mercy. To what other care could He safely have intrusted the lonely orphan?

The fact is too generally overlooked, that a very large part of our Saviour's ministry was directed to acts and works of mercy. He came to heal the souls of men from the malady of sin, but He did not overlook the bodily and temporal needs of the unfortunate and distressed.

It is surprising to notice how large a portion of His ministry pertains to the earthly, bodily sufferings of men. How many of His miracles are wrought to cure some temporary, earthly sorrow! He always treated with special tenderness the outcast, the friendless, and the forsaken. His ministry entered into the common, every-day griefs of the lowly and lonely. His whole life bears testimony, that He came not only to take away the sins of men, but also to heal the woes of all classes and grades of society.

He healed the daughter of the Canaanitish woman, who was no doubt a widow. He raised the only son of the widow of Nain from the dead; and what a withering warning does He give to those who neglect the forlorn, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus!

When we consider what a weighty mission and work our Saviour had on hand for the salvation of the world, we may well ask why He took up so much of His precious time and attention in mere acts of human sympathy? But we cannot be at a loss to see the deep philosophy which underlies this beautiful feature of our Saviour's ministry. It all lies in this: He approached the souls of men through their bodies. By His sympathy with them in their earthly loneliness and sorrow, He commended to them that grace which can also heal the soul. He brought the neglected outcasts of the world's cold selfishness near His own warm heart, and cheered them by His sympathizing love. Thus He awakened hope and cheer in the hearts of the desolate; and those who had received so much help from Him, were constrained to trust in Him for more. They saw that He who could say, "Rise up and walk," could with the same ease say, "Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven thee."

Thus His entire life and ministry is a true and full commentary on the text from which he preached His first sermon in His native town of Nazareth, to the companions of His own blessed childhood and youth: When He opened the book, he found the place where it was written." Yes, He found the place where it was written. He knew where it was. He wished to find it; for in it the prophet, (Is. lxi. 1, 2,) seven hundred years before, had gloriously portrayed the spirit and character of His blessed mission. "He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach

deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." (St. Luke iv. 17, 18.)

On the spirit of this text His whole life was an impressive and consistent sermon. For He went about "teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, and all manner of diseases among the people." (St. Matt. iv. 23.)

Is it not plain that the Church must in this, as in all other respects, possess the spirit of its glorious Head? It must practise after the example of His wisdom, and in the same prominent way carry forward His work of mercy and love. It must carry light and hope into desolate families, must befriend all classes of the distressed, and be a true mother to the orphans in their loneliness.

If the Church is not to attend to this interest, into what hands is it to be placed? Shall it be intrusted to the State?

Experience proves that the State is inadequate to the sacred work. It has not the tenderness necessary. Nor has it the needed resources. For more is needed than money. The life, the grace, the cheer of Christianity are needed. It has been found, in the different States of Europe, where the Church is bound to the State, that with all the expenses incurred in this department, the results desired are not realized. The education imparted to poor children, whether in orphans' asylums, or in houses of refuge, is too secular, and carries with it no true power. Every thing is mechanically done, and in the same cool spirit as a military drill. The needs of the unfortunate are attended to in an official spirit, and not with the personal sympathies which their condition is calculated to awaken in a Christian heart that labors with a love for the work, and in the true spirit of mercy and love.

Besides, more money is expended for carrying on the official machinery, than is used to provide for the actual wants of the poor. Think of the system in England. Under the central commission for the care of the poor, there are 590 secretaries, 415 chaplains, 2,680 physicians, 2,256 superintendents, 1,238 overseers of work-shops, male and female, 284 male school-teachers, 483 female teachers, 346 directors in institutions, 171 nurses and waiters, 20 overseers of work, 444 receivers of poor money, 200 miscellaneous employees. In all, 9,283. What an army of officials, living on what the poor should have! This is part of a new and improved system introduced in 1834; and yet in 1860 it is confessed that there has been, with all this, no real improvement on the previous condition of the poor and lonely in England.

An inquiry into other attempts by the State on the continent, will show similar unsatisfactory results. In our own country, it is known that the results in our State Institutions do not at all correspond with the immense expenses by them incurred. Voluntary institutions, under the management of Churches or Christian men, accomplish greater results with perhaps one-fourth of the funds.

If the State be thus notoriously unfit for the sacred work, shall it be left entirely to the care which individuals and Christian or humane families may bestow upon it? Shall orphans be left to fall incidentally into any hands, and drift about in the stream of society? If so, then why not leave any other sacred interest, in the same way, to take care of itself? Experience proves the truth of the proverb, "What is every body's business,

is nobody's business." Experience also proves, that in every remedial and reformatory benevolent work, if it is to be well and fully done, combination and co-operation are necessary.

To save the work from precarious and mere spasmodic efforts, and to give it permanent and steady success, it must be undertaken and carried forward by the Church. To it, therefore, has Christ said, by saying it to His disciples, "The poor ye have always with you."

It is a happy sign that, during the last century, but more especially during the last several decades, more than ever before, has the Church been stirred up to care for friendless and fatherless children. The Orphan House at Halle, started by Franke in the first part of the last century, is well known, and has been a blessing to thousands of fatherless children. An Orphans' Home, established by Falk in Weimar, for the orphan children whose fathers fell in the wars of Napoleon from 1806 to 1815, is a legitimate fruit of the re-awakening of the Church, about the same time, from the cold slumbers of rationalism. That institution is still in a flourishing condition.

Das Rauhe"-the Rough House, established by Dr. Wichern in 1838, near Hamburg, has already raised and educated 600 orphans and friendless children, and has always about 120 under its care. Two Orphans' Homes were established in Silesia in 1847, to provide for the orphans of parents that died from the "Hunger typhus," a fearful disease occasioned by a famine, which prevailed about that time. These institutions have had 700 orphan children under their care, and they are still flourishing. There is also one in Düsselthal, originated by Count de Recke Valmarstein about 1830, or later, which has raised and educated about 700 children. Zeller, at Beugen in Switzerland, commenced a Home of this kind about twelve or fifteen years ago, which is always filled with children.

Specially celebrated is the Institution of Dr. Fliedner, at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine. He operates especially through Deaconesses, pious females whom he prepares for the work. He has established a number of branch institutions—one of which is in Jerusalem, another in Beirut, for the children of those Christians of Syria, who were so barbarously massacred in 1857. He has also one in Berlin, Prussia, and others elsewhere. The Lutheran Church has also established several of these institutions in Russia-at Dorpat, Reval and Petersburg, in which there are in all about 200 children. There is also a splendid institution of this character in France, located at Mettray; and another at Metray in Belgium: these have cared for over 1000 children. Müller-the man who never collects funds, but depends for a supply on faith and prayer, and has always as much sent as he needs-Muller, in England, has in his institution always over 800 children under his care.

In this country, the Lutheran Church has several institutions, conducted by the aid of Deaconesses, after the type of Dr. Fliedner-one at Rochester, near Pittsburg, for girls, and another at Zelienople, for boys, originated by Dr. Passavant, and conducted under his care; others at Baltimore, Md., Germantown, Pa., and Toledo, Ohio, in all, caring for about 300 children. The Kirchenverein of the West have one at St. Louis. The Lutheran Synod of Missouri provides for all its own orphans in private families. The Episcopal Church has also a number of institutions of this kind. The Reformed Church, though the subject had been earnestly agitated