duped, and perhaps from four to six hundred dollars safely lodged in the purses of "the Professors." We have been thus circumstantial in giving the history of this humbug, because it is a fine illustration of this most plausible kind of imposition. Humbug is now extensively taking this form-it becomes religious to inveigle the church. It may come with some modification in form, but if closely watched the spirit which we have here traced will always be found to underlie it. Let the churches beware of lending their influence to advance the selfish purposes of itinerant humbugs. THE PERILOUS PASS. BY THE EDITOR. "To pass that period is to die To die as if by stealth!" YOUNG men are not, we think, impressed as they should be, with the solemn fact that while they are young men they lay the foundation for their future life, character and condition. Once in a while, it is true, their is an instance in which the curreut of life is radically changed at a later period; but this is seldom, and must be regarded as only an exception to the general rule. In most cases the life of man takes its direction before he is twenty-five years of age. His character and tendencies may change afterwards, but it is only in the way of modifications on the surface, while the general stream of destiny flows on beneath. This is the case physically. During this period he lays the foundation of a healthy or else an enfeebled constitution. If he leads a temperate, chaste, and regular life, he will preserve his bodily vigor and health. If he yields to profligacy and debauch- . ery, he will poison the fountains of health, and sap the energies of his body, the dreadful consequences of which no future care or repentance can fully counteract and overcome. Let any closely observe the manner of life led by many young men in our towns and cities, and the truth of what we say will at once be illustrated. Various kinds of dissipation waste the energies of physical life by inches. The regular action of the bodily organs is constantly interfered with by indulgence in various stimulants. Restaurants are visited late at night. The stomach is burdened with oysters, sweetmeats, and condiments of all kinds, which only a morbid, gluttonous taste can crave, and for which there is no call except the love of unnatural indulgence. With the bodily organs thus afflicted and distressed, the young man, at late and irregular hours, where he finds not "Tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep," but restlessness, and disordered dreams. The morning comes without refreshment. The duties of the day are performed by forcing the jaded and heavy energies of the body to the task. Thus labor is not healthy exercise, but a dull drag of duty. Night returns and the very restlessness of the body increases the craving for the same kind of unnatural indulgence, and the same scenes are reacted. How can such a course kept up through several years of a young man's life, and that in the formation period, fail to rack his physical system, enfeeble his constitution, and prepare him for an after life of bitterness and sorrow. The experience of hundreds, if they will confess it, proves the truth of this picture. Oh, how direct and searching is the question, "Hath this man ruined, or his parents?" How has he ruined that his physical vigor is gone; by what kind of dissipation and sinful indulgence has he enfeebled his body and destroyed his health? How easily is it seen that where these abuses of physical health are avoided by young men, opposite results will follow. A regular diet, regular habits, a regular life, kept up during the forming period of youth, have vastly to do with the health and comfort of after life. What we have said of the abuse of health and vigor of body is also true of the mind. Such is the intimate connection of body and mind, that what affects the one does also influence the other. The irregular habits of life in which many young men indulge, gradually darken and enfeeble all the faculties of their minds, degrade their intellectual dignity, and only promote the low impulses of mere animal life. Then, too, the time which should be spent in intellectual improvement is devoted to idle folly and sinful dissipation. How can those whose leisure hours are spent thus ever become intelligent? It never can be. Hence, such must fall into a rough, rowdyish habit of life, which will forever unfit them for positions of true honor, influence, and usefulness in society. In this way hundreds of young men, neglecting their intellectual elevation, doom themselves to an after life, if not of positive disgrace, still of dronish and inglorious degradation. The foundation for moral destruction is laid in the same way. Habits of irregular indulgence in scenes of dissipation are sure to lead to moral deformity and ruin. The life of a spendthrift is also a life of sin. He that is content in ignorance, is also content in wickedness; and he that cares not for the health of his body and the cultivation of his mind, can feel no true earnestness in his moral elevation. Hence we find that debauchery, ignorance, and sin are generally companions in the way; and when a young man in this condition passes the period of which we speak, nine cases out of ten his destiny and doom is fixed for life-and, what is more solemn, for eternity! How sad is the sight of such a ruin! Angels may weep over such a young man. He throws away his talents, disappoints the hopes of his friends, misses the true end of life, ruins his character, destroys his peace, prepares for a life of ignominy, a death of gloom, and an eternity of despair. Young man! who art now reading this lesson, enter not thou into the secret shame and wo of such a history. Take care of your body by a temperate and regular life. Cultivate your mind by an earnest pursuit in the pleasant paths of useful knowledge. Seek the higher spiritual life for your soul in Jesus the Saviour. Remember that the way of transgressors is always hard; while the ways of wisdom and piety are ways of pleasantness, and all their paths are peace. THE TREASURES OF THE DEEP. BY MRS. HEMANS. What hidest thou in thy treasure-caves and cells, We ask not such from thee. Yet more, the depths have more! What wealth untold, Won from ten thousand roral Argosies. Sweep o'er thy spoils, thou wild and wrathful main! Earth claims not these again! Yet more, the depths have more! Thy waves have rolled Sand hath filled up the palaces of old, Sea-weed o'ergrown the halls of revelry! Yet more! the billows and the depths have more! Give back the lost and lovely! Those for whom To thee the love of woman hath gone down; Dark flow thy tides o'er manhood's noble head, VOL, VI,--10 SISTERS IN THE FAMILY. BY THE EDITOR. "Oh! tell us not of other love-it cannot surpass that of a sister. What can be purer than her caresses, what can be more heavenly than her smile? The memory of a sister's kindness, and the consciousness of her affection have been a balm to our hearts in every ill. They have cheered us in sickness, and sorrow,, and absence; they have been to us beacons of hope and happiness." ΑΝΟΝ. WE ask the attention of our female readers to some thoughts on the position, relations, and influence of a sister in the family, and the cultivation necessary to qualify her to fill that sphere, in the proper spirit and with the proper character. There are few ties that can be regarded more peculiarly intimate and sacred than those which unite brother and sister, or sister and sister. They are united in the same love of parents-flowers that hang side by side upon the same stem. Their love is warmed in the same bosom of home. It grows up in one from infancy. Its tendrils twine around each other like vines from the same root, and so entwined, grow firm and abiding to the flower and fruit of love. "They that love early become like-minded, and the tempter toucheth them not: They grow up leaning on each other, as the olive and the vine." It is easily seen that the influence of sisters upon brothers, and upon each other, in the family, must be great and lasting. They are, or they ought to be, the vestal lights of the home circle. They are like the flower-plants upon the windows, the freshness, the life, the beauty, and the joy of the household. The love of sisters is the extension and division, but still the continued unity, of a mother's love. Toward brothers they are mediators-softening down a mother's strong love in sweet attenuations, binding their hearts by a freer familiarity. Brothers are bound to parents more by feelings of honor and reverence, to sisters more by the freedom of pure love. To parents they look as above them, to their sisters they cling as around them. To their parents they feel bound by law and love, but to each other by love without the sense of law. Brothers and sisters standing on the same level with each other, their relations admit of no looking down as by authority, nor of looking up as in awe and fear-their relation is one of free affection side by side. The influence of a sister in a family must not be underrated because it may be less tangible than some other forms of influence which promise far more but really confer less. In the very nature of the position and relations of a sister lies the reason why her influence is gradual and silent. It is rather felt than seen. Its fruits belong rather to the future than the present. As, a gentle power it loses itself and yet still lives in the heart, life, and character of the members of the family. As in the natural world, so in the social, silent influences are the most potent, extensive, and lasting. The seen ever has its hidden cause in the unseen. That which rushes, rages, and rolls upon the surface of the world is but the effect of silent and unseen powers. The loveliest flower is the smallest one, and that same flower is prettiest in hue, and sweetest in odor where it is least seen. Those virtues and graces which we most admire and feel are the silent ones-love, hope, faith, meekness, patience, modesty, gentleness. It has been truly said "Stillest streams Oft water fairest meadows, and the bird We observe that persons belonging to a particular nation have a similarity in their appearance, manners and babits; it is just so in families. This shows that there is a general family spirit which molds silently every individual in it. How prominent an item in this general power and spirit is a sister's influence. It is very apparent that sisters exert a softening and subduing influence upon brothers, both in regard to their spirit and manners. Men are called the rougher, sterner sex; and when there are no refining influences exerted upon them from the softer, gentler sex, their rugged tendencies will develop into a fault. The milder graces will be neglected, and bluntness, awkwardness, and rudeness will take their place. How appropriately, therefore, come in here the meek and gentler graces of sisters, silently and unconsciously curbing and molding the sterner features of a brother's spirit, and character, and manners. It is easily noticed that there is an unconscious imitation of manners, habits, and even looks and tones of voice, visible in all families-one influencing and molding the other-thus producing a general similarity. Thus brothers give firmness and strength to the characters of sisters; and sisters give tenderness, grace, refinement and polish to the characters of brothers. Hence, we may yet say, it is regarded fortunate when brothers and sisters are evenly mixed and mingled in a family. Where there are, in a household, sisters alone, the danger is that a mawkish effeminacy of disposition and a prudishness of manner will come to prevail. When there are brothers alone the danger is in the direction of old-fashioned awkwardness of manner, and selfish reserve of spirit-the one tends toward bachelorship, the other the estate of elderly maiden! It may be observed, by such as think closely on this subject, that both these go in droves gener ally; and they are most frequently found in families where the sexes are unevenly balanced. Few elderly ladies have brothers; few bachelors have sisters; or if they have it is perhaps but one, |