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though they would think no sacrifices too great to make to promote the welfare of their beloved offspring?

Let them stop and think; let them look into their Bibles, and "hear what God the Lord will speak." He has there given them plain directions -He has laid down four simple rules by which they are to go-He has said that consistency, selfdenial, faith, and prayer, are the only means they need employ to accomplish the end they desire to attain, and that these means never fail.

The excellent Mrs. Huntington, from whose Memoirs several extracts have been made in this little work, joined with many pious mothers in appointing a certain hour in every week, which they either unitedly, or at their separate houses, devoted to the purpose of soliciting the blessing of God on their offspring. This they called a Maternal Association, and from it their families no doubt reaped essential benefits, for God "hath not said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain."-Were this plan to be generally adopted, many would be found" asking the way to Zion,” who are now running in “the broad road that leadeth to destruction."

Another means of much usefulness, is that of praying with children singly, not as a stated and formal, but as a solemn and occasional act.

There is one class of persons, to whom some of these remarks may come, with a deeply painful

feeling; a conviction of their truth, when the time is gone by for their application. Those parents especially, who themselves received the knowledge of the truth long after the birth of their children, and who have not been awakened to a sense of the value of their souls, till the sowing time was past. To such we would say, Pray for them the more earnestly; "let the time past of your life suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles;" and though "the flower when offered in the bud" is accepted of God, He will not reject your sacrifice now, because you "sinned ignorantly in unbelief." The very grace which has called you in at the sixth or eleventh hour, should be your encouragement to believe that God has a blessing in store for your children also.

Constant and pressing engagements have delayed the completion of the little volume now presented to the public; the scattered materials of which the Editor has been for a long time gradually accumulating. It was not till a late period that the admirable work of the Rev. Christopher Anderson on the Domestic Constitution, fell into her hands, of copious extracts from which she thankfully availed herself; and cordially recommends the perusal of the entire volume to such parents as desire to see the scheme of a Christian family, here only hinted at, fully drawn out.

M.

SECTION I.

ON MATERNAL INFLUENCE AND

RESPONSIBILITY.

WHAT if God should place in your hand a diamond, and tell you to inscribe on it a sentence, which should be read at the last day, and shewn there as an index of your own thoughts and feelings? What care, what caution would you exercise in the selection! Now this is what God has done; He has placed before you immortal minds, more imperishable than the diamond, on which you are about to inscribe every day, and every hour, by your instructions, by your spirit, or by your example, something which will remain, and be exhibited for or against you at the judgment day. PAYSON.

ON MATERNAL INFLUENCE AND

RESPONSIBILITY.

ON MATERNAL INFLUENCE.

MATERNAL influence must be great, because God has said it shall be so. The parent is not to stand reasoning and calculating. God has said that his character shall have influence. In the exercise of this influence, there are two dangers to be avoided,—excess of severity is one danger. My mother on the contrary would talk to me, and weep as she talked; I flung out of the house with an oath, but wept too when I got into the street. Sympathy is the powerful engine of a mother. I was desperate, but there are soft moments to such desperadoes. God does not at once abandon them to themselves. There are times when the man says, 'I should be glad to return, but I should not like to meet that face,' if he has been treated with severity. Yet excess of laxity is another danger. The case of Eli affords a serious warning

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