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NOTES.

The Church's Duty to Parents.

A SHORT account of the origin of this book may not be without its interest, and may be the best explanation of its object.

When first I entered the ministry, thirty-six years ago, I was placed in charge of the whole of what is now the Orange Free State. As the neighbouring territory of the Transvaal was at that time also without a minister, I had to supply its wants too. With a large population; so widely scattered, each of the separate congregations could only be visited at distant intervals. When services were held there always was a large gathering, with very large numbers of children to be baptized; in the TransvaalI repeatedly baptized a hundred and upwards on each of several consecutive Sabbaths.

In some of the congregations of our Church the custom existed of meeting the patents, when they applied for the baptism of their children, to explain the meaning of the ordinance, and to insist upon earnest preparation for a believing reception of it, as well as for the duties undertaken in it. In the course of these conversations I became deeply impressed with the ignorance prevailing as to the object of the ordinance, and the large extent to which it had become a mere religious ceremony. And I was almost involuntarily led, in connec­tion with every baptism service, to make parental duty the subject of the sermon. I began to realize very painfully of how little value infant baptism could be apart from the parent's believing appre­hension of God's promise, and his faithful fulfil­ment of parental duty.

In the course of my further ministerial labours in my own congregation these convictions were deepened. In the effort to encourage parents to seek religious instruction for their children, it became manifest how much labour in this direc­tion was lost because the foundation which God had meant should be laid, in parental instruction, was wanting. I saw that God would not allow even a faithful minister to usurp the place or do the work destined by Him for the parent. It became plain that, in the threefold cord of home, school, and Church instruction, the home had the first and in some respects the most important place. If the Church would do her work success­fully, she must direct to the training of parents her first and best efforts. Through these she would reach the children far more effectually than by any other methods.

I looked around to see how the Christian Church elsewhere was combating the evil. I heard some voices crying in great earnestness that the children are the Church of the future, and that they ought to have a larger place in her care than hitherto. I saw that Sunday schools, and, later on, children's services, were wakening large interest; that faith in children's conversion and in revival work among them was gaining ground. And yet there appeared to me to be something lacking. I listened to hear whether I could hear a clear and distinct witness in the Church in regard to the parents' place, their inalienable right, their incomparable influence as the ministers of God's grace to the children. I fancied I did not. The truth was acknowledged by all, but little insisted on. In but few cases could I hear of systematic attempts, on the part of the Church, to instruct and encourage parents by the full exposition of their duties and God's promises.

A little thought will convince us that this is a fatal mistake. One of the marks of men who have succeeded in influencing and ruling their fellow­men, and one of the secrets of their success, has ever been the gift of enlisting and inspiring the service of others. This is what the Church must study to do, not only with regard to those who are ordinarily called Christian workers, but specially with that band of God's own workers, the parents there are in every congregation, to whom its children are entrusted. Teach, train, stir up, encourage these to their work, and there is hope, there is more than hope, there is assurance for the future. Let the minister, instead of preaching almost solely to individuals, whether it be conversion or sanctifica­tion, for a season, or at stated intervals, make it his special object to guide the parents of his con­gregation; he will stir and strengthen one of the mightiest agencies in the service of God's kingdom. The work of a parent is one of extreme solemnity and difficulty. It needs great wisdom and patience, much self-control and prayer and faith. As we do not expect a believer to advance in the Christian life without the teaching of the Word, much less must we look for a parent to be able to do his work aright without instruction and encouragement.

It was under the impression of thoughts such as these that I was led, when other ministers took part of the work from me, and I could devote myself to my own congregation, to appoint one Sunday in every month for the celebration of baptism, and to arrange that the whole service-singing, reading, prayer, and preaching­ should have reference to the one thing: God's purpose with the family, and the way in which parents had to fulfil it. It cannot but strike any but the most thoughtless observer what a difference is ordinarily made between the two sacraments instituted by our Saviour. With the Lord's Supper, how much solemnity, what earnest preparation, how much of teaching and preaching and praying to make it profitable. With baptism, on the contrary, what haste, what absence of teaching, what irreverence often where it is performed at the close of a service or in the house. With the Lord's Supper, how much definite promise and expectation of blessing; with baptism, how little. And yet the two sacraments are equally sacred; they equally represent the precious blood and the new covenant of which it is the seal; they equally claim the faith and the surrender of the heart. The attempt on the part of the Church to connect baptism more definitely with the faith and the duty of parents, to let them feel more deeply how it was to their faith that the promise of the covenant for their child was given, and to their faithfulness that its training was committed, would most assuredly bring a blessing.

I soon found that baptism-Sunday was looked forward to with special interest. One might have thought that for ordinary hearers the subject would be less attractive; on the contrary, no sermons were listened to with greater attention. Brethren in the ministry have asked whether the supply of texts was not speedily exhausted: experience has taught here, as in other matters, that when once God's Word is searched with a special object in view, words and histories, which were never noticed before, become luminous with a new meaning. In illustrating the lives and characters of the parents and children of the Bible, in setting forth all God's teachings and dealings with reference to them, abundance of the richest matter was found. In dealing with the special sins of children, or inculcating children's virtues, in setting forth the wondrous nature of the being entrusted to them, and some of the laws by which his conduct is actuated, it was found that often the teaching given for the control of children was the most profitable that could be found for those who wanted help in their own moral self-culture.

It is now more than twenty years since the Original of the present volume was published in Dutch, in meditations for a month, each contain­ing a short summary of some sermon that had been preached on such occasions. Since that time many a new subject has been treated, and I have been led now to prepare a series of fifty-two ­one for each week. I have done this in the hope that some Christian parents, who feel the need of such help, perhaps young parents, may be led once a week, on the Sunday afternoon or evening, or at some other time, to read and meditate and pray together over some of the precious words of God with regard to their calling. In these God has revealed His loving purpose towards our children, and abundantly promises us the grace we need to make us truly and surely a blessing to them.  Such a use of it need not hinder the perusal day by day for those who prefer this. I hope very specially, that to more than one young mother, in that sacred period, when, as she bides her time, and waits to receive her little one from the Lord, and then after its birth is kept in weakness and solitude to think of the precious little life that has been entrusted to her, and prays for grace to do it aright, this little book may be God's messenger to encourage and guide to that entire consecration to God, in which alone a godly education can find its strength.

But it is not only to parents that I would offer this work, but very specially to my brethren in the ministry, in the hope that, where they have not already done it, they may make their duty, and the duty of the pulpit, towards parents matter of earnest prayer and study. They may be sure that the time, and energy, and preaching devoted to parents will bring a double reward. It may be doubted whether God teaches and blesses children more through their parents, or parents through their children. Spiritual efforts for the parents are a blessing to parents and children both. Let us carefully notice how much of the Bible, and of God's dealings with believers, has reference, not to individuals, but to parents for the sake of their children. Let us try and realize how deep, in God's people, the foundations of the kingdom were laid in parental instruction and family religion.

With Israel at the Passover, in the laws of Moses, in the Psalms, how much more mention is made of the teaching of the parents than of the priests. To elevate the standard of thought, and faith, and duty among the parents, is one of the highest tasks a Church can have.

And a Church that believes in infant baptism has in this ordinance the most wonderful oppor­tunity of coming into contact with parents. With each child, baptized publicly, not only its own parents, but the whole assembly of parents, are reminded of God's covenant engagement with them, and theirs with God. What an opportunity (especially if a fixed Sabbath could every month be devoted to it) to let the light of God's Word shine into the home and the family life, to discover shortcomings and unfaithfulness, to teach and to help, and to stir up to faith and prayer.

If there is one subject on which systematic Bible teaching is needed, it is this. The training of children is one of the most important and difficult tasks that can be undertaken. The welfare of society and the Church depend upon it. God's Word gives abundant teaching on the subject; but the Church has hardly yet given herself to the systematic effort of teaching and training parents for their holy work. One of our modern philosophers has expressed so well the utter folly of thinking that parents Can perform their duties without preparation, and the need of providing for instruction in parental duties, that I give the passages at length: 1-

1 Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical. By Herbert Spencer.

'We now come to the third great division of human activities-those which have for their end the rearing and discipline of offspring-a division for which no preparation whatever is made. If, by some strange chance, not a vestige of our literature descended to the remote future save a pile of our schoolbooks, we may imagine how puzzled the antiquary would be on finding in them no sign that the learners were ever to be parents. "This must have been the curriculum for their celibates: I find no reference whatever to the bringing up of children. They could not have been so absurd as to omit all training for the gravest of responsibilities." Seriously, is it not an astonishing fact, that though on the treatment of offspring depend their lives or deaths, and their moral welfare or ruin, yet not one word on the instruction of offspring is ever given to those who will by-and-by be parents? If a merchant commence business without any knowledge of arithmetic, we should exclaim at his folly, and look for disastrous consequences. But that parents should begin the difficult task of rearing children, without having ever given a thought to the principles which ought to guide them, excites neither surprise at the action, nor pity for their victims. ... We find the facts to be such as might have been inferred a priori: the training of children -physical, intellectual, moral-is dreadfully de­fective. And in great measure it is so, because parents are devoid of that knowledge by which their training alone can rightly be guided. What is to be expected when one of the most intricate of problems is undertaken by those who have scarcely given a thought to the principles on which its solution depends? For shoemaking or housebuilding a long apprenticeship is needful. Is it then that the unfolding of a human being in body and mind is so comparatively simple a process, that anyone may superintend and regu­late it with no preparation whatever? If not,-if the process is, with one exception, more complex than any in Nature, and the task of ministering to it one of surpassing difficulty,-is it not madness to make no provision for such a task? ...

‘The greatest defect in our programme of education is entirely overlooked. While much is being done in the detailed improvement of our system, the most pressing desideratum has not yet been even recognised as a desideratum.  To prepare the young for the duties of life, is tacitly admitted to be the end which parents and school­masters have in view; yet no care whatever is taken to fit them for the position of parents. While it is seen that for the purpose of gaining a livelihood, an elaborate preparation is needed, it appears to be thought that for the bringing up of children no preparation whatever is needed. While years are spent by a boy in gaining knowledge, of which the chief value is that it constitutes the education of a "gentleman," not an hour is spent in preparation for that gravest of all responsibilities, the management of a family. Is it that this responsibility is but a remote con­tingency? On the contrary, it is sure to devolve on nine out of ten. Is it that the discharge of it is so easy? Certainly not; of all functions which the adult has to fulfil, this is the most difficult. Is it that by self-instruction each may be trusted to fit himself for the office of parent? No; not only is the need for such self-instruction unrecognised, but the complexity of the subject renders it the one of all others in which self-­instruction is least likely to succeed. Whether as bearing on the happiness of parents them­selves, or whether as affecting the character and lives of their remote descendants, we must admit that a knowledge of the right methods of juvenile culture-physical, intellectual, and moral-is a knowledge of extreme importance. The topic should be the final one in the course of instruction passed through by each man and woman. As physical maturity is marked by ability to produce offspring; so mental maturity is marked by the ability to train their offspring. The subject which involves all other subjects, and therefore the subject in which education should culminate, is the Theory and Practice of Education.'

Many will doubt the wisdom or the possibility of the proposal to make the art of educating children part of ordinary education. Education requires practice, exercise in the art that is being taught. When people are parents they can no longer go to school again. There is but one way out of the difficulty. The Church has the solution of the problem in her hands. In God's Word, with its wonderful lessons as to parents and her children, she has a Divine class-book. In the Church gathered at the sacrament of baptism she has her class. In the feeling of parental respon­sibility and affection, in the experience of the difficulty of training the children aright on the consciousness of failure, there is a stimulus to learn, which no class in the mere art of educating children ever can have. Could the Church, with her views of the power of sin and the power of grace, with her faith in God's Word and God's Spirit, but realize the absolute need, the infinite importance, the rich blessing of training her parents for their work, how speedily ways and means for having it done could be found. I am persuaded that a monthly baptismal service would, in course of time, be welcomed by many parents as a boon of unspeakable value.

Where this is not possible, other arrangements might be made. Mothers' meetings already exist in many places: these might be utilized for giv­ing more distinct instruction. And is there not as much need of fathers' meetings? We have Bible-classes for the young: a parents' class, with the pastor leading and teaching, could in some cases be organized, even were it but for a short course. Parents would gradually become con­scious of their high calling, and themselves seek the help they need. If the Church is content, let us not wonder that parents are content too. The misapprehension, by which parents expect from the public teaching of the Church more than from their own training, is a very fatal one, and no effort ought to be spared to dispel it. A writer on this subject has well said: 'What can be more strangely wide of all just apprehension than the immense efficacy imputed by most parents to the Christian ministry, compared with what they take to be the almost insignificant power con­ferred on them in their parental charge and duties? Why, if all preachers could have their hearers for whole months and years in their own "Will, so as to move them by a look, a smile, a frown, and act their own emotions and sentiments over in them at pleasure; if, also, a little further on, they had them in authority to command, direct, regulate their pleasures, their company, and call them to prayer every morning and even­ing,-who could think it impossible, in the use of such a power, to produce almost any result? Should not such a ministry be expected to fashion all who come under it to newness of life? Let no parent, shifting off his duty to his children, think to have his defects made up, and the consequent damages mended afterwards, when they have come to maturity, by the comparatively slender, always doubtful, efficacy of preaching.' 1

1 Christian Nurture. By Horace Bushnell. A most sug­gestive volume. Though he may find thoughts or expressions he may not agree with, every minister, who wishes to realize his duty to the parents of his flock, will find himself well rewarded for the study of this work.

The Church does much of her work through the press: a parent's Manual of Education would supply a real want. We have a great number of handbooks of education and school-management, in which a summary of what a teacher requires to know of is presented; in these parents would find much that is suggestive in some of the chapters. Various religious works exist, with valuable hints on parts of a parent's work. But what is required is a work in the spirit of Christian Science, in which what the science of psychology teaches of the wonderful nature of the being that has to be trained, and what the science of education of the laws under which its powers can best be developed, and what the science of ethics of the principles by which the child's powers can be ruled and guided aright, and what Scripture of the wondrous work that grace will do in sanctifying all this, is presented in popular and practical form.

But, in whatever way the work is to be done, only let it be done. Let the Church, the teacher of the nations, the messenger of God to His people, lift up her voice and secure the aid of the hundreds of thousands of parents that belong to her to train the corning generations for God. Let the ministry hold forth God's Word to dispel the ignorance, to shame the indifference, to banish the unbelief that hinders, and to make the family again what God meant it to be: His first and mightiest means of grace for the maintenance of His kingdom among His people.

Meantime, I trust the present work may be accepted of the Lord and of His people, and be blessed to bring to some parents words of guid­ance and encouragement. All the teaching clusters round the four great central thoughts of God with regard to the family: God, as its Creator, its Redeemer, its Sanctifier, its Covenant God; Faith, as the one condition for bringing parent and child into relation with God, and making both partakers of its covenant - promise and blessing; Parental faithfulness in life and training as the path in which the blessing apprehended by faith is appro­priated and brought down upon the home and the child; the Children, God's property, to be trained for His glory and service.

 

Baptism, Adult and Infant.

IN the Baptist controversy, the opponents of infant baptism consider that Scripture is so clearly on their side, and are so sure that it is only the influence of human custom and authority that holds its supporters in their fetters, that they feel justified in saying that the only reason believers in infant baptism cannot see God's will in Scripture on this point to be what Baptists practise, is their unwillingness to make the sacri­fice which would follow their acceptance of the truth. Even men, who are large-hearted and loving men, find it difficult to explain the hold which infant baptism maintains on the Church of Christ on any other ground.

It would indeed be a terrible thing if the charge were true. Tens of thousands of Chris­tians, professing with intensest longing to know the will of God in Scripture, and yet maintaining that to them it teaches that the baptism of the children is His will, not able to see what their brethren assure them is clear as day, only because they are not willing to do His will! Hardly less terrible is the charge if it be not true; because such judgments, however for a time they may be covered by Christian love, yet at times cannot but spring up and bring forth the bitter fruits of division and estrangement, to the weakening of the body of Christ.

And what answer has infant baptism to give to its opponents? Our book, though not written for the purpose, may be taken in answer. There are truths we believe, and duties we consider bind­ing, for which one clear single chapter-and-verse proof cannot be given. Take our keeping holy the first day of the week, instead of the seventh, as the fourth commandment requires. Because there is no distinct command for the change, we have men who insist that they alone truly obey God's commandment who keep the seventh day. And such servants of the letter utterly refuse to listen to or understand the teaching of the Spirit in Scripture, on which the Church, without any literal command, grounds its keeping holy the Lord's day. It is just so with the question between infant and adult baptism. Though there be no literal command to baptize the little ones, the study of God's Word as a whole makes so clear both the ground on which it rests, and the reasons why no literal command on the subject was needed, that the Holy Spirit leads men, wholly given up to follow Him in teachableness and obedience, to find in God's Word the con­fident assurance that infant baptism is according to His will.

And their judgment then on adult baptism?  ‘Who art thou that judgest another man's ser­vant? To his own master he standeth or falleth?' In the very remarkable chapter from which these words are taken, God has for all time given His Church the principle that ought to guide her in matters in which those who seek to follow the leading of the Word and Spirit differ as to duty. It is a most significant fact that while Paul knew that it was lawful to eat the meat by which some were offended, or to esteem every day alike, he did not interpose his authority, much less the authority of God, to tell the weak brother to give up his ignorant prejudice. Such a decision might have settled that question, but it would have left the Church a great loser; it could ill miss the teaching the chapter conveys, by which, as it is, she has profited all too little. That natural cha­racter and other circumstances may give rise to differences of view; that such diversities may at all times exist, which it is not the will of God to settle by any absolute rule; that, therefore, the judgment of the brother is not ours, but the Lord's; and that the exercise of humility and forbearance, for which the diversity calls, may be a far greater blessing than the uniformity which we think so desirable: these are lessons of the utmost importance, which have their applicability here too.

Our place on the earth is such that we can only see one-half of the starry heavens at a time. And so in the great sphere of Divine truth no mind is large enough to grasp the whole. Every truth in man's hands becomes one-sided. God's way of remedying this defect and its danger is to entrust one aspect of truth to one portion of His Church, while another holds the abuse of it in check by testifying for some different aspect. In this way the dependence of all on each other is to be maintained, and the triumph of love in the midst of difference to be made manifest. So with baptism. Infant baptism, with its discipling and baptizing the nations, has its danger. When the Church becomes lax, and the ministry is not faithful in teaching the word of faith, through which alone a sacrament is effective, infant bap­tism may come to be a form without power. And then adult baptism comes in as a needful protest, to plead for the spiritual character of the rite, and the absolute necessity of a living faith to make it acceptable with God.

But adult baptism, that is, man's teaching concerning it, has its danger too. In the indi­vidualism which cannot understand God's dealing with the family, on the groundwork of the covenant of grace, nor the power of a parent's faith, as according to God's will it embraces the child, nor the free mercy which when it takes a child into the covenant for the parent's sake can give it the seal of the covenant ere it has believed, it would utterly fail of gathering in the nations. And while it holds that it alone witnesses aright for the faith through which the sacrament can have its value, and a spiritual blessing be received, infant baptism claims that it is a still bolder witness for the power of faith, as it teaches, in accordance with all God's revelation, how a parent's faith can accept and keep the blessing for the child too.

I sincerely trust that the study of God's words and thoughts, concerning parents and children, will lead those who hold infant baptism to see the Divine ground on which it rests, its deep spiritual significance for them and their seed, and the need of a living faith, as that without which it may become but a lifeless form.  

 

NOTE A

TWENTY-SECOND DAY.

IT may be helpful to parents, to young mothers especially, to give a short summary of the prin­ciples on which all training rests. Let them meditate carefully and prayerfully on what it implies: they will find that it is a work that cannot be performed without careful thought and earnest purpose. It is only as reflection opens up to them the infinite significance of the holy work of moulding, of really forming and giving shape to, an immortal spirit, that they will feel urged with due fervour and faith to plead the promise: 'If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally; and it shall be given him.'

1. Training is more than teaching. Teaching makes a child know and understand what he is to do; training influences him, and sees that he does it. Teaching deals with his mind; training, with his will.

2. Prevention is better than cure. Not to watch and correct mistakes, but to watch and prevent mistakes, is true training. To lead the child to know that he can obey and do right, that he can do it easily and successfully, and to delight in doing it, is the highest aim of true training.

3. Habits must precede principles.  The body is formed and grows for the first years of life while the mind is to a great extent dormant. Habits influence the person by giving a certain bent and direction, by making the performance of certain acts easy and natural, and thus preparing the way for obedience from principle.

4. The cultivation of the feelings precedes that of the judgment. The early years of childhood are marked by the liveliness of the feelings and the susceptibility of impressions. The parent seeks to create a feeling favourable to the good, to make it attractive and desirable. Without this, habits will have little value; with it, they have a con­necting link by which they enter and grow into the will.

5. Example is better than precept. Not in what we say and teach, but in what we are and do, lies the power of training. Not as we think an ideal to train our children for, but as we live do we train them. Not our wishes or our theory, but our will and our practice, really train. It is by living a thing that we prove that we love it, that we have it, and that we influence the young mind to love it and to have it too.

6. Love that draws is more than law that demands. To train needs a life of self-sacrifice, of love that seeketh not its own, but lives and gives itself for its object. For this God has given the wonderful mother-love: it needs but to be directed into the right channel as the handmaid of God's redeeming love.  Law alone always works sin and wrath. It is love that gives itself with its thought and strength to live for and in the other and breathes its own stronger and better life into the weaker one. Love inspires, and it is inspira­tion is the secret of training.

 

 

NOTE B.

THIRTIETH DAY.

AMONG the first traits of the heavenly spirit in the child is restfulness. The following remarks on cultivating this, even during the two first years of a child's life, are well worthy of a thoughtful perusal.

'We may even from the earliest infancy culti­vate those dispositions which are unfavourable to the growth of dangerous inclinations. Certain habits, which exercise a salutary influence on the moral feelings, may be given to the infant, even before his character distinctly shows itself. Inward tranquillity will calm the restlessness of his wishes; and the kindness bestowed upon him will direct his attention out of himself, and make him feel kindly towards others.

'Inward tranquillity is produced by outward tranquillity: and for this, among other reasons, infants should, as much as possible, be prevented from crying. By a careful attention in this and other things we may keep the minds of the children in a state of habitual tranquillity, an inestimable advantage, easily lost, indeed, but perhaps the quality of all others most necessary to their moral constitution, as yet so weak and vacillating. Their nerves, once agitated, are long in recovering their tone; and both the health and character suffer in consequence. Nor do I dwell on this merely as a means of preventing evil. There is one entire class of qualities, the noblest of any, which will grow and ripen only in the shade of repose; in this class are not only in­cluded our virtues, but also our most valuable acquirements. There is nothing worthy of admira­tion, nothing great in our moral nature, which is not cherished by serenity of mind. Why is it that this disposition, which seems to establish a connection between the soul and heaven, which can exist only when the heart is at peace with itself and all around it, is now so rarely to be met with among us? Whatever the reason may be, we shall always find this happy disposition of mind in young children, unless we ourselves are so unfortunate as to disturb it.

'I have often thought that we are too much accustomed to keep infants constantly in motion. We ought certainly not to allow them to grow weary,-ennui is the lethargy of the soul; but nothing is more likely to produce this evil than an excess of variety in our methods of amusing them. The more tranquillity a child has enjoyed in infancy, the more he will possess hereafter; and a calm cheerfulness of disposition may be permanent, which gaiety and mirth seldom are. It is for this reason that it is so much more desirable for children to be occupied with things than with people; things are tranquil objects which do not interest them too eagerly. With people their feelings of sympathy or dislike are continually excited.'-From 'Progressive Education,' from the French of Madame Necker de Saussure.

 

NOTE C.

FORTIETH DAY.

THE following extract, from 'LIFE IN JESUS: A MEMOIR OF MRS. MARY WINSLOW BY HER SON,' gives a very touching and instructive illustration of a widowed mother claiming God's covenant on behalf of her children. And in later years, after her death, her son, Dr. B. Winslow, loved to tell how wondrously God had proved Himself faithful in fulfilling His promise to all her children :-

‘She was now a widow with a large family of sons, dependent upon her for their training and settlement in life. "She that is a widow indeed, and desolate, trusteth in God." Such was her present condition. The surges of grief now yielded to a calm, intelligent survey of her posi­tion. She threw herself upon God. The covenant she made with Him when a wife, she now and more solemnly renewed as a widow,-that the Lord should be her God. It was at this important crisis of her history that the following touching incident in her experience occurred.

‘ "I had sent one of my sons, a youth of ten years old, accompanied by a servant, across the river on a matter of business. The appointed hour for his return arrived, but he did not appear. Hour after hour passed away, and nightfall drew on, but he came not. The last steamboat touched the pier, but he was not on board. I walked my room for hours in prayer, and in great agitation of mind. Keenly did I feel my lonely, helpless widowhood. Again and again I sought the Lord. After passing hours in this state of mental anxiety, I sent a brother in search, and soon after, all made their appearance. He had missed his way. The Lord heard a mother's prayer, and brought him in safety to me. After all had retired for the night, I was left alone with God. My mind and heart had been greatly exercised throughout the day. I felt deeply my helplessness and responsible situa­tion. I thought, 'How can I, a helpless woman, care for and train up these children to manhood?' I felt I should sink beneath the overwhelming conviction of my weakness and insufficiency. I paced my room in prayer, tried to take hold of a promise; but all was dark, the present and the future, as midnight. It was late before I retired to rest. In vain I endeavoured to console myself, sleep had forsaken me. Again I lifted up my heart in prayer. I tried to cease from thinking, and to close my eyelids, but in vain. All night I continued in prayer, until just before the dawn of day these words were spoken to my ear and heart, as if an audible voice had uttered them: 'I will be a Father to thy fatherless children.' I knew this voice, and could make no mistake. So powerful was it, I instantly replied aloud, '0 Lord, be Thou the Father of my fatherless, and my God!'  Oh, the solemnity of that hour! I felt God was with me, and my soul was filled with joy and holy reverence. He had condescended to visit my lone room, and fill it with His presence. He had come to comfort His widowed child, and I was comforted. My soul poured out its grateful acknowledgments. I could adore, and praise, and bless His holy name. A solemn, sacred influ­ence pervaded the place. God was with me of a truth. Fatigued with the anxieties of the day, and exhausted with the mental exercises through which I had passed the night, I composed myself to rest. The Lord withdrew, and my weary eyes were closed in refreshing sleep. Years have passed since then, and the Lord has not for one moment forgotten His promise. But I take the promise to extend beyond this poor dying world. Had the Lord given each of my children a world, and they should lose their souls, what would it profit them?  I believe He designs to be their Father to all eternity, and then I shall meet all my children in heaven. How often have I gone and pleaded this promise before Him, and have always found my faith increased. And still my faith holds out: 'For He is faithful that has promised.' "

'From the moment God sealed upon her heart this special and remarkable promise, causing her to rest on His own veracity as the pledge of its fulfilment, she became animated as by a new and mighty impulse. Her natural spirits, unstrung by grief, and her mental powers, paralyzed by anxiety, now acquired fresh tone and energy. An over­whelming pressure of despondency and care seemed suddenly and entirely to be lifted from off her mind. Strengthened with might in the inner man, she cast her care on God; and, girding her­self afresh for the arduous duties to which He now summoned her, with a calmness of judgment, a firmness of resolution, and a reliance of faith, equal to the dignity of her position, she cheerfully met and vigorously discharged all its claims. The promise thus given proved a sheet-anchor to her soul in many a subsequent hour of storm and cloud. And when at times-for such there were -the sentence of death seemed written upon it, her faith in God never faltered; giving to that promise, as she herself tells us, its widest range of meaning, she rose above the temporal blessing it involved, and claimed, as the only limit of its fulfilment, a Divine inheritance, a spiritual birth­right, an eternal home for her orphan ones. She knew that she had to do with a Being, all whose resources of power, wisdom, and love were as boundless as His own infinity; who was not only a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering, but also a prayer-exceeding God; and who in the bestowment of His blessings upon His people never gave less, but always more, than He had promised or than they had asked. She reasoned-and it was the logical reasoning of true faith-that if God, in the lone hours of that night of weeping and of prayer, had engaged to be a father to her father­less children, that engagement bound Him to them as their heavenly Father. To this broad interpretation of the pledge she held Him, with a grasp which never for an instant relaxed. And when she died, it was in the firm, unfaltering faith of that promise. Not having received its com­plete fulfilment, but viewing it afar off, she was persuaded of it, embraced it, and closed her eyes with an undimmed, unshaken assurance that it would be even as God had said, and that she would meet again all the children He had given her-AN UNDIVIDED FAMILY IN HEAVEN.'

NOTE D.

THE MOTHER'S TRUST.

BY MRS. CAROLINE L. GOODENOUGH, MISSIONARY OF THE A.B.C.F.M.

Beneath the blood-stained lintel

I, with my children stand;

A messenger of evil

Is passing through the land;

There is no other refuge

From the destroyer's face,

Beneath the blood-stained lintel

Shall be our hiding place.

 

The Lamb of God has suffered,

Our sins and griefs He bore;

By faith the blood is sprinkled

Above our dwelling's door.

The foe who seeks to enter

Doth fear that sacred sign,

To-night the blood-stained lintel

Shall shelter me and mine.

 

My Saviour, for my dear ones

I claim Thy promise true;

The lamb is ‘for the household'-

The children's Saviour, too.

On earth the little children

Once felt Thy touch divine;

Beneath the blood-stained lintel

They blessing give to mine.

 

O Thou, who gave them, guard

Them-

Those wayward little feet-

The wilderness before them,

The ills of life to meet.

My mother-love is helpless,

I trust them to Thy care;

Beneath the blood-stained lintel,

Oh, keep them ever there!

 

The faith I rest upon Thee

Thou wilt not disappoint;

With wisdom, Lord, to train them

My shrinking heart anoint.

Without my children, Father,

I cannot see Thy face;

I plead the blood-stained lintel,

Thy covenant of grace.

 

Oh, wonderful Redeemer,

Who suffered for our sake,

When o'er the guilty nations

The judgment storm shall break.

With joy from that safe shelter

May we then meet Thine eye,

Beneath the blood-stained lintel,

My children, Lord, and I!