reading in the Cottage Home, and at the Mothers' Meeting.

A place may perhaps be found for these Readings in the Parochial Library.

The author is encouraged to hope that the same divine blessing which has rested on his publication "Words of Consolation and Counsel for the Tried and Sorrowful," may in like manner rest on these "Homely Readings on Homely Subjects."

LONDON, 1866.

HOMELY READINGS.

NO. I.

“There's no place like Home.”

How natural are the yearnings and longings after home! "I long to see home," says the sailor from the mast-head, when the ship rocks to and fro, from the violence of the storm. "I am going home," thinks the labourer, as he leaves the fields at eventide, tired with the work of the day. "I must hurry home!" says the mother, whose heart is with the baby in its cradle. "Oh! how I wish I was at home!" says the school-boy, disconsolate over his hopeless task. So true is it, "there's no place like home."

B

"The first sure symptoms of a mind in health Are rest of heart, and pleasure felt at home."

A Christian's home should be the abode of warm and loving hearts. The families at Nazareth and at Bethany enjoyed an almost celestial happiness. Their homes were hallowed by the sacred presence of Jesus, for where He is, a divine influence sanctifies the abode. Just as the lamps in the Jewish Temple shed a lustre over the worshippers, so the presence of Jesus hallows domestic life,the altar is reared, the Bible is read, and the home becomes a Bethel-a heaven begun below; for

"His presence makes our paradise,

And where He dwells is heaven."

Our Home! What images are brought before us by that word! The houseless stranger listens with tearful eye to the story of home joys, and sighs for by-gone days. There is the gathering