shipman, contrary to a mother's counsel, what a change was wrought by the silent power of her unuttered feelings! The vessel in which he was to sail lay opposite his father's house. The little boat to convey him thither had reached the shore. He went to bid his mother a long farewell. He saw her tears, and his heart was moved. "I will not go away and break my mother's heart!" said he. And from that hour he began to live for his country's good. How different might have been our national history had not a mother's love detained him from a scaman's life! How much the nation owes to maternal influence! When he was elected to the chief magistracy of the United States, he repaired immediately to the home of his youth to pay a tribute of love to his remembered mother. The touching scene of that meeting has been the theme of the orator and the poct. The historian records it in lines of glowing cloquence. "His head rested on the shoulder of his parent. That brow on which fame had wreathed the purest laurel, virtue ever gave to created man, relaxed from its lofty bearing. That look, which could have awed a Roman Senate in its Fabrican day, was bent in full tenderness upon the time-worn features of this venerable matron. The great man wept. A thousand recollections crowded upon his mind as memory retraced scenes long past, and carried him back to his paternal mansion, and the days of his youth; and the centre of his attraction was his mother, whose care, instruction, and discipline had prepared him to reach the topmost height of his laudable ambition; yet how were his glories forgotten, while he looked upon her, from whom, wasted by time and malady, he must soon part to meet no more!" This incident alone is sufficient to satisfy the most incredulous, that great and powerful must have been a mother's influence upon his character. We can but feel that he achieved so much for his country, because his mother taught him in the nursery, as she expressed it herself, the lessons of "diligence, obedience, and truth!" We cannot dismiss this subject without pointing to a single example of maternal influence recorded in the sacred Scriptures. In the carly history of the church, there lived a godly family in the city of Lystra, in which the parchments of the Holy Scriptures were piously preserved. A son, loved much because of the ties of nature, and more because he might be trained for Christ, was taught to read and obey the truths which they revealed. From those sacred records the richest lessons were poured into his tender mind. Lodged in his heart, they "Grew with his growth, and strengthened with his strength." Years rolled on, and he became a man. IIis heart burned with christian love. His soul was stirred with the highest and purest aspirations. The words of life were published by his lips. Multitudes thronged around him to hear the news of salvation, and hearing, lived. His influence rolled on like a wave of the sea, and on every hand "the saved and trembling" rose up to call him blessed. Thus toiled the faithful Timothy for God; because through the influence of his "grandmother Lois" and his "mother Eunice," from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures." And what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of all that has been achieved by mothers for the wel fare of our race. We have said enough to show, that the present is an ERA FOR MOTHERS; enough to prove, that with them rests, in a very important sense, the future destiny of mankind. Our work is done; and, in conclusion, we make a brief appeal. MOTHERS OF THIS CHRISTIAN LAND! BAND of three MILLION STRONG! One united effort on your part to mould the rising generation for truth and God, and what wonders will be wrought! How will the country flourish, and earth's moral deserts blossom beneath your faithful toil! O weigh your solemn charge! To give character to a deathless spirit, earth has no greater trust! One deed of sin, one word, one vicious breath, may blight the fondest hopes. Indeed, far less than this may defeat the object of your carthly mission. "The child That shuts within its breast a bloom for heaven, What consequences hang upon a point of time! What hopes and fears throng around a single child! What volumes. crowd an hour! Ye need to use such care, skill, wisdom and toilsome hours as are required to wield the artist's pencil. Ye who train the child to flirt in the halls of fashion, how dare ye trifle with a charge, in whose life the bliss of hundreds may be involved! How dare ye warp so wantonly a mind for the chase of "airy nothings," when it ought to be disciplined to lift from its degradation our fallen humanity! How dare ye assume the responsibility of rearing an immor-tal being to be ignorant of truth and duty, when, by an obligation, weighty and solemn as God would have it, you are commanded to train him for usefulness and glory! How dare ye permit a single one to devote his energies to fashion and earth-born delight, thus growing up to become a useless thing, when your country and the world are suffering forthe want of men of unblemished character and moral might! Your mission to this world is to leave it better than you found it. And how can you make it better by a swifter progress, than by giving to it the young and peerless energies of a well-trained posterity? Ye, whose children are governed and guided by irresponsible domestics, tremble that ye evade so great responsibili- * Willis. tics, as if God had allowed you the choice! "Train up a child," is the mandate from the throne to yourselves, and not to your domestics. The quenchless love of your heart, the musical scale of your voice, the tenderness and sympathy of your soul, were bestowed that you might control and direct with magic power the unfolding energies of the young immortal. O clude not the sacred trust! Both God and nature, our agitated country and the world implore you to leave upon the youthful heart the impress of parental virtue and faithfulness. Mothers! studiously ponder the indications of Providence. Regard all that your eyes rest upon in the vicissitudes of human affairs as truly embraced in the infinite range of the Divine Government. Learn to trace each passing event to the agency of Him whose "throne is in the heavens, and whose kingdom ruleth over all." See God in the scenes of the present crisis, shaking with His lifted arm the old organizations of political power, and the imposing systems of dark idolatry. Feel that the noise and tumult of the present age is but the thunder of His chariot-wheels, as He rides from victory to victory, ushering in the developments of the "latter days." Then, and not till then, will ye feel that this is the era for maternal fidelity. Then will ye apply your hands and your hearts with matchless zeal to render HOME the primary school of the land, in which are disciplined hosts of her faithful and true. And then, with a devotion which never tires, ye will guide the deathless spirit to a life of christian toil on earth, and a sweeter HOME in the skies. CHAPTER XII. THILOSOPHY OF CHARACTER. "The purest treasure mortal times afford Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.” SHAKESPEARE. PHILOSOPHY is the reason of things. Hence, there is philosophy in all things, since there is a reason for the nature and existence of all things in creation, providence, and grace. And yet, though philosophy pertains to all things, it is comparatively little studied and known by mankind. They know that fire is hot, ice is cold, a rose is red, and leaves are green; but how few persons scck for the reason of these phenomena. Some contemplate the orb of day in its radiant circuit only in the estimate of oil, its light will save. Some admire the majestic march of a summer's cloud, filtering water as it goes upon thristy lands and shallow streams, but appreciate the phenomenon only by the inches it raises the water in their exhausted mill-ponds. Some go into cestacies over their crops of corn or cotton, while blind as bats to the development of nature's glorious plan. Some sce beauty in the blossoms that coronate a tree, but only as it prognosticates so many bushels of luscious fruit. This is the compass of their philosophy. While * Delivered before the Boston Mechanics' Apprentices' Library Association, and other Literary Societies. If it differs in style from preceding chapters, it may be accounted for in the fact that it was originally prepared for a Lyceum Lecture. It is inserted here as a development of principles suggested in the Third Chapter. |