Distressed as the anxious parent was at this direct transgression of her commands, so recently expressed, she felt nevertheless that her first care was to provide against the effects of her child's disobedient conduct. Having taken her, therefore, to her room, and put dry stockings and shoes on her feet, she entered upon the more arduous duty of convincing the naughty Maria of the extreme impropriety of her behaviour. She had first thought that this was a case in which a moderate application of the rod might beneficially assist the accompanying admonition. But inclined as the tender mother always was to the side of leniency, though not to that degree of weakness which is divested of firmness, she resolved to try the more congenial influence of moral discipline. She recollected, also, that she had it in her power to accomplish her purpose more effectually by excluding her daughter from participating in the amusements of a juvenile party, which was invited to assemble at the cottage on the following day.

As Mrs. Gracelove, whenever she found it needful to reprove her children for serious faults, had always, with equal piety and judgment, drawn her admonitory lessons, and exhibited her examples from the pages of sacred Scripture, so she pursued the same wise course on the present occasion. Knowing that Maria had seen, in the various illustrations of the Bible, the representation of Jonah being swallowed by the whale, Mrs. Gracelove made this instructive history the subject of her lecture. She pointed out to her daughter, in simple but expressive language, the awful consequences of disobedience as exemplified in the person of the rebellious prophet. She first told her that, in the instance of Jonah, the crime was aggravated to an extreme degree from the circumstance that it was God himself who had condescended. directly to reveal his will to his faithless servant. But it was

never to be forgotten, that the same gracious Being who thus signally punished the transgressions of a positive command, immediately emanating from his own Divine Spirit, had supported the authority of an earthly parent; inasmuch as He had said, "Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

Aware that no better opportunity would present itself, for the purpose of impressing on her child's mind the religious moral deducible from this solemn record of a prophet's disobedience, the conscientious parent opened out to her the circumstances which peculiarly constituted his grievous sin. Indeed, as the Book of Jonah is very short, consisting but of four chapters, she made her daughter read the whole of it to her, and was thus better able to explain and enforce its awful contents. Mrs. Gracelove, addressing her child, said, "She would now perceive that God, having commanded his servant to go to Nineveh, a great and populous city, and to cry against it on account of the wickedness that prevailed within it, Jonah, in direct violation of the divine injunction, determined not to proceed there. As the sacred historian relates it, Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.' *

"You see, Maria," continued the prudent and affectionate mother," how utterly vain it is, as well as wicked, to attempt to escape from the Almighty. His omnipresent eye is ever upon us,—it is about our path, and about our bed, and spieth out all our ways.' Open your Bible, my dear," she said, "to the 139th Psalm, and read that affecting and most sublime description of the universal presence of the * Jonah i. 3.

great Jehovah. 'Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea: even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea the darkness hideth not from Thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to Thee.' *

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"The subsequent history," observed Mrs. Gracelove, "of Jonah's awful transgression, and which was written for our learning, proves most emphatically the truth of the verses you have just read. Though Jonah fled to Tarshish, as he vainly thought, from the presence of the Lord,' yet the allseeing eye of God watched his rebellious movements, and fearfully punished his disobedient servant. The ship, on board of which he had gone as a place of security, and as a means of escape, proved the very place of his destruction. For the Lord raised a mighty tempest in the sea,' in consequence of which the vessel was in the most imminent danger of being lost; and, as was the custom in those days, the affrighted sailors' cast lots' that they might know for whose cause this evil came upon them. So they cast lots and the lot fell upon Jonah. So they took up Jonah and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging. Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord, and made vows. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.'

"Thus you perceive, my dear, but very naughty child,

* Psalm cxxxix. 7-12.

what a dreadful fate followed the disobedience of the prophet. Nay, so powerfully did conscience at length operate on his terrified mind, that he was compelled to become his own accuser: for you have just read, in the twelfth verse of the first chapter, the confession he made to the sailors, in the following words" And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. This was no less than the Spirit of God speaking by the voice of the prophet; for, as you have seen, the moment the offender was cast forth the sea became calm, and the ship was in safety.

"I wish now to call your attention, Maria," proceeded her mamma," to the mercy as well as to the judgments of the Almighty; and to impress on your mind the profound efficacy of sincere and fervent prayer, when offered up in penitence and true faith. When Jonah, after having been thus swallowed up by the great fish which the Lord had prepared,' prayed unto God from the depths of the sea-from the dreadful prison in which he was now confined, the belly of the fish-the Lord, in his infinite and long suffering compassion, most graciously heard him. His cry of affliction was regarded, and his prayer of faith granted by Him who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he turn from his wickedness and live.' And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah on the dry land.'

"And now, my child," said the pious and judicious mother, "let me make the application of what you have now read and heard to your own case. Though your offence, I admit, is by no means so great as was that of Jonah, for the reason I have mentioned, yet still is it an offence, and of the same character-an offence both to God and man. In the fifth commandment, as you well know, your Maker

strictly enjoins obedience to parents, as the condition of your being permitted to live. And as He removed Jonah, by a fearful judgment, from the face of the earth, for the space of three days and three nights, and would most probably have continued the judgment against him for ever, had he not repented of his sin and prayed unto the Lord his God;' so is there much reason to fear, my dear Maria, that unless you repent of the disobedience you have committed this morning, God will visit your offence for the violation of his fifth commandment. The case of the people of Nineveh affords, also, an additional ground of hope, that all who repent of their sins, and pray for mercy, will receive a gracious pardon. For it is recorded of them, that God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil that He had said that He would do unto them; and He did it not.' *

"And now my dear, but offending child," said her loving parent, "kneel down, and beg pardon of God for the disobedience of which you have been guilty."

The poor child, who had at first manifested some degree of irritability at the discovery that had been made of her undutiful conduct, as well as of sullenness, during a portion of the long lecture that had been delivered to her, but who had become gradually softened by the affectionate and convincing admonitions of her tender parent, accompanied as they had been by the serious warnings enforced by the history of Jonah, -now burst into tears, and falling on her knees, hid her weeping face in the lap of her mother.

Her sobs, for some time, interrupted her speech. Her little heart was full to overflowing; for she knew the habitual kindness and parental indulgence of her dear mamma towards her, and was deeply affected by the tenderness of her reproof.

* Jonah iii. 10.

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