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DEEPLY impressed with a sense of the vast importance of a mother's duties, and the lasting effect of youthful impressions, I this day resolve to endeavour at all times, by my precepts and example, to inspire my children with just notions of right and wrong, of what is to be avoided and what pursued, of what is sacredly to be desired and what unreservedly deprecated: and as my firm opinion is, that we are formed to glorify God, and that to enjoy him is our highest happiness, I will endeavour, by a life corresponding with this belief, to convince my children, that God's glory is my ultimate aim in all that I do-and the enjoyment of him, my most ardent desire, my unremitted pursuit, and my unspeakable comfort. I will endeavour, by avoiding all superfluous concerns about dress, furniture, worldly accomplishments, &c., not to counteract my precepts, and thus inspire my children with the idea, that what I say I think to be the highest good, I really view but as a secondary consideration; to act uniformly, as if a desire after the one thing needful, was an abiding, influential principle, in all my conduct and pursuits.-May God give me grace to keep these resolutions!

MRS. HUNTINGDON.

THE well educating of their children is so much the duty and concern of Parents, and the welfare and prosperity of the nation so much depend on it, that I would have every one lay it seriously to heart. LOCKE.

THE young and inexperienced are often disappointed and grieved, because they have entertained false views of the office of a mother. They have represented it to themselves as one full of unmixed delights; they have fancied themselves placed in the midst of a fair garden abounding with the sweetest flowers, which will yield undying blossoms, and unfailing odours; which is infested by no serpents, defaced by no thorns, and only here and there they think a weed will spring up, which may be easily rooted out. This is to contemplate only one side of the picture, forgetting that no less in the mental and spiritual than in the natural world, the decree is gone forth, “Cursed is the ground for 'man's' sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life, thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee."

Yes, mothers, you may look upon your children with all possible tenderness, and regard them with that intense love, from which the Lord himself has condescended to draw comparisons, to prove his own love to his church; but, remember that the beings upon whom you doat, 66 are by nature the children of wrath" even as others; that with all their endearments, they are "enemies to God," "born in sin," and derive from yourselves a polluted nature. Look then upon them in this light, not to excite for them less love in your hearts, but to turn that love into its best channels, to turn it into prayers. Look at your offspring as under the curse, but look at them also as under a dispensation of the richest mercy: look at them as those whom the Saviour has invited you to bring to him, saying, "Suffer little children to come to me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." Look at them, as those whose angels may for ever behold the face of their Father who is in heaven. But remember how much responsibility, as to their future happiness or misery, rests with you. They can only see God reflected through you in the earliest years of their childhood; they can only be conscious of the existence of "the invisible God," through the tenderness of a mother's love; of "the just God," through a mother's impartiality ; of the pardoning God, in a mother's forgiveness; of "the long-suffering God," in a mother's pa

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tience; of the holy God, in a mother's purity.— Do you then desire to see your child early love his "Father who is in heaven," he must first have loved his likeness in you; it must be his father's and his mother's God that he will adore. Do you desire to see him early love prayer? let you make it your meat and your drink. Do you want him to delight in the Scriptures? let him I feel that it is from thence his mother has drawn her richest comforts, and her sweetest joys. Do you long to see him love the sanctuary and the sabbath? let him find that on the holy day, and in the holy place, the most joy and gladness have beamed from his parent's countenance, and he will love them too.

Will it be said, that this is too visionary, for that the evil heart of unbelief will not be so won? God's word cannot fail which saith, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Is it asked, Why then does the result so often prove the contrary? It is answered, How seldom do we see such mothers; and if we do here and there, will they tell us that their efforts have been in vain? The truth is, that mothers are content with halfdoing their work, and with leaving polluted nature to do its work likewise; and above all, they little think how much their own character, actions, and feelings, will give the stamp and impress to the minds of their children!

Look then, mothers, at your responsibility! Look at what God has given you to do; but look not at it despondingly, but in the confidence of faith, saying, 'This my burden is too heavy for me to bear in my own strength, I cast it upon him who is able and willing to help me under it. This my child is too precious to be left to my weak efforts to train, "Lord, undertake it for me!" This immortal spirit can be redeemed with no less a price than the blood of the Son of God; O Lamb of God take away its sins and mine!' Thus will your wants give you courage; ❝ out of weakness” you will be "made strong," and "blessed is she that believeth, for there shall be a performance of those things which were spoken to her of the Lord."

M.

In inculcating religion, we are rolling a stone up hill, which must be watched every moment, or it will soon bound down again. Nor can we hope to make any progress in our work, without continued and painful efforts. To those who acknowledge the natural propensity of man to evil, and yet take so little pains to correct it in his education, I cannot refrain from addressing a few expostulations. Do you act in a similar manner with respect to any corporeal deformity to which your children may be subject? Do you not take

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