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Nothing, I would suppose, requires more patience, forbearance, and command of temper, than the education of children. Those mothers who have undertaken the arduous employment, will find incessant opportunities for the exercise of every Christian grace, and will have daily tests by which they may prove whether the corruptions of their heart are gaining greater or less ascendency. When we consider the benefit likely to arise to a child from the instruction of his Christian mother; when we consider how frequently the toil of elementary tuition is rewarded by seeing the young intellect expand-by watching the impression made by what is for the first time communicated to the anxious listener by hearing questions proposed which are proofs of the first exercise of their reasoning powers; when we listen to the simple and often beautiful observations-the native thoughts that flow from the wondering mind of the infant pupil; when we see the undoubting credence with which our communications are received, and the eagerness with which an increase of knowledge is sought for; shall we shrink from the sometimes delightful task, and commit to other hands, at least for the first few years of their lives, the important charge with which God has entrusted us?

The lessons of humiliation which are daily presented in this way, are too obvious to require being pointed out; but may, if those duties are prayerfully entered upon and continued, become the means of much spiritual advancement. A habit of watchfulness over ourselves may be thus obtained, and benefit must follow, in proportion to the use we make of those valuable opportunities.

Every reproof given is equally applicable to the instructor and pupil; our negligences, our omissions, our slowness, our forgetfulness, are thus forcibly presented to our minds : and with our own deficiencies thus in view, we shall soon learn to feel compassion, rather than impatience, with the frailties of our little ones.

A MOTHER.

Original.

TO MY MOTHER IN HEAVEN.

My mother! though thy spirit soars away from earth so high,
Canst thou not hear thy daughter when she calls thee from the sky?
I'm all alone, my mother, since they laid thee in the tomb;

O might I feel that thou wert near, 'twould cheer me in my gloom.
I will not think upon thy grave, for I know thou art not there;
Thy home is in the sky, where saints and holy angels are.
I have watched the clouds at sunset, till the glory in the west
Has burst on my young spirit like a vision of the blest.

I see thee there, dear mother, looking kindly on thy child-
Art thou not singing to me now, I hear that music wild,
And it makes me very glad to think my mother loves me still.
Oh is it not thy voice, so like the music of a rill?

I'm very sad and lonely here, I weep when none can see-
There are no tears in heaven, and I fain would go to thee.
I know 'tis wrong to wish it, yet I sometimes long to die-
To die, if I might meet my angel mother in the sky.
My soul is stained with sin, yet thou wilt bow before the throne,
And humbly ask the sinner's Friend to make my heart his own;
And pray, my own sweet mother, that my life may be like thine,
My spirit be as gentle and thy peaceful end be mine.
'Tis sad to wait, dear mother, in a darksome world like this,
Till God shall bid thee welcome me in yonder home of bliss;
But I will bless my Father that so oft I hear that strain,
For I know by that low music thou wilt come to me again.

IANTHE.

ETERNAL LIFE THE FRUITS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.

BY REV. CARLOS WILCOX.

To the child himself it must be a thing of infinite importance, that his life should be spent in such a manner as to be followed by a blessed eternity. Every affectionate parent must feel an earnest desire that the life of his child may be so spent; and every benevolent acquaintance must feel something of the same desire. It becomes then a question of deep interest, whether anything in the circumstances of the child,

within the reach of human agency, can render it highly probable that such will be his future course, and what can render it most probable. It cannot be rendered very probable, merely by such circumstances as wealth or poverty, exalted rank or humble, secular learning or the want of it. Concerning the degree of probability that may be inferred from an education strictly religious, there is a difference of opinion among men of different moral principles and feelings. By such an education I mean not one conducted with unkind and unreasonable rigidness, but one conducted faithfully and affectionately upon principles purely Christian, in distinction from that education, which is sometimes called religious because it is received in a religious community, and under the general influence of the institutions of the Gospel. The infidels who have attempted to sunder all the ties of moral obligation that bind man to his fellow and to Heaven, and thus restore the human family to what they call the innocent simplicity and happy freedom of a state of nature, are quite consistent in calling it blind and hard-hearted bigotry to instruct a child in any religion as true, before he is capable of weighing for himself the arguments for and against it. They are altogether consistent in representing it as unjust to the child himself, and to the community of which he is to be a member, not to permit him to grow up with his mind free from all bias in favor of any religion, that when he comes to maturity, he may choose his own, or reject all, according to the decisions of his unfettered reason. They would fain represent it as impossible for a man to believe sincerely, or to know that he believes upon evidence, what he has been taught from childhood to regard as unquestionable truth. And they venture to affirm, that to be instructed in the doctrines and duties of Christianity in childhood, furnishes no more ground to hope that the future life will be virtuous and happy, than not to be thus instructed. In proof of this assertion they adduce instances, in which the children of Christian parents have broken through all the restraints of a religious education, and rushed onward to the rank of leaders in the way of iniquity

and death. It cannot be denied that such instances may be found. It must even be granted that when men become openly vicious in such circumstances, they may sometimes go faster and farther in their career, in consequence of the restraints through which they have broken. But are not such instances comparatively few? Are they not mere exceptions to the general course of things?-exceptions that only exhibit the natural strength of human depravity? Besides, they are far from being in any degree the proper effects of a religious education itself, though they may now and then be rendered worse by circumstances sometimes attending it, such as severity or irritability in the temper of parents, or want of consistency and uniformity in their government. It remains after all a general truth, that childen educated on Christian principles are more likely than others to be truly virtuous and happy in after life. This cannot be denied without denying the connection between cause and effect, and leaving us entirely in doubt respecting the path of duty. It cannot be denied, without turning back the natural course of things in the moral world, almost as much as to turn backward the descending streams. It can be denied only by taking the ground, that the great doctrines, and moral precepts, and pervading spirit of Christianity, are not eminently fitted in their nature, to purify and elevate the character. But this ground is never taken by an enlightened infidel. The ground commonly taken is, that a course of particular instruction in these doctrines and precepts in childhood, while the tastes and passions are not under the direction of reason, is calculated to produce opposition or disgust toward them; and this opi nion is embraced by some professed believers in revelation, whose views of natural depravity afford them no adequate cause for such opposition or disgust, whenever it is manifested. In every other subject but religion, and in every kind of religion but the true one, the influence of early education and habit is acknowledged to be great and lasting.

""Tis education forms the common mind;

Just as the twig is bent the tree 's inclined."

This sentiment is universally adopted and acted upon, in the various departments of secular learning and employment. And it must be universally acknowledged that the children of Hindoo parents and those of Mohammedan parents, uniformly become in the natural course of things, by the influence of early instruction and habit, the confirmed disciples of their respective religions. And must early instruction and habit go for nothing in Christianity? It is true that they are less likely to be successful, upon natural principles alone, because the doctrines of the Christian system do not, like those of other religious systems, leave the motives and affections of the heart untouched, or only fall in with the natural course of our evil propensities. But is there not some other ground, on which a Christian education might become equally successful? Though men are never made Christians in heart, merely by a course of early instruction and discipline, independently of the special influences of the Holy Spirit, are they not frequently made so by such a course in connection with these influences? And would they not uniformly be if the instruction and discipline in question were not more or less neglected? Is there not fulness and firmness enough in the promise of God, to furnish ground for such an opinion? Can anything be plainer than the language, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it?" Has not God promised to bless the means of grace, when they are faithfully used? Has he not by a particular covenant given such a promise to faithful parents in relation to their children? May they not plead that covenant with success before the mercy-seat, whenever they perform all their parental duties? And when they are unsuccessful in their plea, is it not because they have broken their part of this covenant, by not performing their whole duty? True it is, that no parent does in fact perform without the least failure his whole duty to his children, and therefore God never bestows the blessings of this covenant on account of any claim founded on such performance. Here is always room, and room enough, for the mercy of God; but this mercy is exer

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