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THE CHILD RECEIVES IMPRESSIONS

The trials of a mother are constant, unknown, and indescribably great. One of the warriors of the age tells us, that in the evening after a most awful battle, he went out on the field among the dying and the dead; but nothing affected him so much as to find an officer slain, and his faithful dog lying at his breast, under his cloak, and howling in his agony. This has been admired as a beautiful picture of faithful attachment; but it is nothing in comparison with what the eye of God daily witnesses, as it looks down into the family circle, and notices the thousands of mothers hanging over their dying children.

The duties of the mother begin in the morning; they end not with the day; they incessantly call upon her till she reaches the grave. Others may have a respite; others may for a time throw off care, and anxiety, and responsibility. But the mother can never do so. She must be unwearied and faithful when no eye sees her to applaud; must sow her seed when she sees no immediate prospect of a harvest; must expect no return and no reward for her labors for years, and it may be for life. She can adopt no theory which is not to be reduced to immediate and constant practice. How can she have this faith and this perseverance, unless she be in the habit of communion with God? The Bible and prayer must be her strength and her weapons. With these, she can carry her babes through the deserts where fiery serpents beset her path, and they shall not be bitten. Without these, she has all the sorrows, anxieties, and griefs of a mother, without anything of those consolations which God bestows in answer to prayer. Do you wish a wisdom that is profitable to direct, a patience that never forsakes you, a firmness that never leaves you, a faith that always bears you upward and onward, looking for your rewards hereafter?--you must seek these by prayer. Without this, you can neither govern yourself, nor your child, nor persevere.

The child will receive IMPRESSIONS from the daily and hourly example of his mother, which will do more to form his character than any and all the instructions which you may give him. The example before his eyes will, for several of the first years of his life, be his education. Now there are certain impressions which you should be very careful not to make upon your child, if you would train him up on the great scale of spending eternal ages in the service of God.

Be careful and not lead your child to feel that the BODY is the great object for which he lives.

The first impressions which the child necessarily receives will be, that his mother considers the body an object of great concern and importance. The great business of intercourse between

FROM THE EXAMPLE OF HIS MOTHER.

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the child and the mother for a number of years, is to minister to the wants of the body, its food, its cleanliness, its dress. How little does he understand that his body is only the house for the spirit to dwell in, and that in comparison with the soul, it is of no worth! When you teach your child, when you pray with him, be careful and make the right impression as to the comparative worth of the soul and the body. Every child is naturally a sensualist. He would live to gratify the appetites of the body; and the mother, unless she looks well to this subject, and exercises very great care, will make the same impression. I have known many children who, from some defect in their education in this respect, felt that the highest of all gratifications is that of indulging in certain articles of luxury.

A second impression to be avoided is, that you do not lead your child to feel that any earthly distinction is, of itself, of any value.

How is it that the child so early learns that his father is a great man, and therefore he must be caressed and treated with deference; or that his father is a rich man, and therefore he may take airs to himself accordingly; or that his father has a house, or a store, or a farm different and better than others? Who made these impressions on the child? He received them at home, and there estimated their worth by seeing what value his parents placed upon them; and he values them, and is vain of them, just as example has taught him to be. The objection is not that he knows these things to be yours, but that a deeper impression is not made: viz.-that nothing on earth is of any value, except as a means with which to honor God. Let him see by your constant example and conversation, that you feel that nothing but piety, or what may be made to promote picty on earth, is worth naming. The fashion of this world passeth away; the pomp and magnificence of life, the glitter of wealth, and the artificial splendours of time, will soon be gone; and the one great question on which the destiny of the soul for eternity balances, is, Have you served God in your day and generation? A third impression to be avoided is, that you do not let your child we that you have two characters.

it requires no great art to teach a child to be a hypocrite. Let him see his mother impatient, irritable, morose, when nobody but the family are present, and then see her face dressed in smiles when company are present, and she has taught him a lesson which he will never forget. He unconsciously draws the inference that if a mild and pleasant character may be assumed whenever his mother chooses to assume it, so may a religious character; and the impression upon him is, that all your

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THE INCULCATION OF CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES

character is artificial, except your poor, every-day character. The next consequence is, that your religious instructions are mostly lost. Let your patience be exhausted, and your spirit be fretful and impatient, as you put your weary child to bed at night, and the next moment call upon him to join you in acts of devotion, and he knows, without the power of reasoning, that such religion can have but a slight hold on the heart. Above all things, do not so live that your child shall feel that all your character is artificial, except the poorest part of that character; for this will not only teach him to be a hypocrite, but will shortly give him the heart of a little infidel.

One more caution. If you would train up your child for usefulness among men, and for the glory of the skies hereafter, you must have no views which are measured by a scale narrower or shorter than that of eternity.

It is a universal law in the moral as well as in the natural world, that the water can never rise higher than its fountain. He who feels that it is enough for him to move in a very narrow circle, will not be likely to fill one that is very wide, or to have his influence extensively felt. Just as the Indian boy, who has been taught that it is enough if he be able to manage a canoe, will never be likely to be fitted to take command of a ship. And the mother who feels that the great object for which she lives, and for which her child is to live, is to have its body fed, and clothed, and sheltered, and to have him a creature of this world, will never so train him up that the immortal spirit will be likely to make eternity the great object for which he lives. But what would you think of a teacher who should take your children, and whose highest aim was to prepare them for a single half day's exhibition during the year! This single exhibition constitutes, in his view, the whole and the great object of education! Would he be the man to educate your child? You say, No! But the little exhibition which a mortal can make here is not an hour compared with that eternity which is before him. What though your child appeared admirably at the exhibition, and drew many eyes upon him, yet if wholly unfitted for the trials, the business, and the duties of life, you have paid too dear for the exhibition; and though your child may walk upon the high places of the earth, or even wear so dazzling a thing as a crown, it is but the bubble of a moment. The day of the soul's exist ence is yet to come-a day, remember, to be spent according to its training and character formed here.

I now hasten to the last question proposed,—

Why should the mother do all this?

The burden imposed upon the mother, if I am correct, is

WILL HASTEN THE SALVATION OF THE EARTH.

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immense; and who hath required this at her hand? I reply, there are three special reasons why she should cheerfully take all this trouble and faithfulness upon herself.

1. It will hasten the salvation of the earth.

Who has not reviewed the few past years with fear, and who can look forward without forebodings? Can you look at this age, and see the great mass of mind, moved, agitated, and troubled, without fearing that shortly the agonised cry of nations, forsaken by God, will rend the heavens? The foundation of society already shakes, and nothing but the raising up of genera tions, who, from their very cradles, shall have the fear of God planted in their hearts, can anchor this, or any other nation, so that there shall not be a shipwreck of hopes. Arms cannot do it: wise men cannot do it: nothing but Christian principles, planted in early life, can do it. No: paper constitutions, and printed laws, and learned judges, are all a mockery, under a free government, unless the mothers in the land do the work before their children leave their fireside.

We want self-governing men, for they only can do that work without which the earth must continue to groan in bondage. Political institutions and literary institutions are of no avail. Standing armies are straw, when arrayed against the excited passions of a free people. The republics of South America have been fields of blood, scenes of anarchy and despotism-a burlesque upon the name of republics; and the reason is, they have no religion there. The brute force of arms cannot now hold men; they must govern themselves, or be slaves. But they can never govern themselves till they fear God and keep his commandments. We cannot save civil liberty even-to say nothing of giving the gospel to every creature under heavenwithout men-men who were nurtured amid prayer, devoted to God, and to the salvation of men from their infancy. We need whole generations of missionaries, who shall rise up, clothed with salvation, and pour the streams of mercy, which flow from the throne of God, over all the earth.

Mothers! we want your sons to stand in these pulpits which we shall soon vacate. Yours, to be pillars in these churchesyours, to go to the isles of the ocean-yours, to labor and die on the burning sands of Africa-yours, to carry light into the dark heart of India-and yours, to go to the snows of the North. Yes! there will, I trust, mothers read these pages, whose sons and daughters ought to rise up for God, and cry, "Here are we, send us!" Train them up to this service-to the holy service of being agents in redeeming MIND, immortal, imperishabie MIND, from sin and Satan! Train them up for the work

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RECOLLECTION OF AN AFFECTING SCENE

of plucking brands from burning, and quenching them in the blood of Jesus, and seeing them become stars in the kingdom of God! Thus you can, and you will hasten the jubilee of the earth; and though your eyes will soon close in death, yet from the foot of the throne above, you shall welcome those whom you and your children have led to Jesus. They shall come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and shout, "Grace, grace!"

Train up your child to live and act for eternity, because, 2. This will place you high among the sons of light.

You remember that the poor widow gave her two mites, and it was more than all that the rich could do. The cup of coid water offered to Christ shall be rewarded.

But what are such offerings? Who can bring an offering so rich, so costly, as the mother who brings her child to the service of God? She makes a sacrifice which no money can purchase, which no tongue can describe; and she shall have a reward proportionate to the gift. Oh, what streams of joy and blessedness will for ever flow into the heart of the faithful mother! Christ will own her as his mother, and her sons and daughters as his brothers and sisters! Was she unknown on earth, and was the fire which she ever kept burning on the altar of her heart unseen by man? But her reward shall be sure-she shall enter into the joy of her Lord.

Train up your child for eternity, then, once more, because, 3. This will place your child high in glory hereafter.

In this life we can never know how many spirits of just men made perfect now reign in heaven, in consequence of the faithfulness of their mothers. Those now on earth, living by faith, and who "keep the sayings of this book," the most devoted men living, are those who have been led to Christ by a mother's love and faithfulness. You can hardly be aware how deep may be the impression which you may make on the mind of your child, even in a very few moments of time. For one, I can truly say, I have never met with any loss so great as that of losing the care and instructions of my mother during my childhood, in consequence of her having lost her reason. But I can recollect, that when a very little child, I was standing at the open window, at the close of a lovely summer's day. The large red sun was just sinking away behind the western hills; the sky was gold and purple commingled; the winds were sleeping, and a soft solemn stillness seemed to hang over the carth. I was watching the sun as he sent his yellow rays through the trees, and felt a kind of awe, though I knew not wherefore. Just then my mother came to me. She was raving