the duty of benevolence, by doing something for the comfort of a tender babe still more helpless than itself.

It is of the first importance for a mother to establish in the mind of her child, an entire confidence in herself-in her wisdom, kindness, truth, and irresistible authority.

Truth, sincerity, candor, and ingenuousness are cardinal virtues to be taught to children. Simplic ity is the beauty of a child's character; and he should be taught from the beginning to act upon principle, and not for the sake of being well thought of or rewarded.

Domestic affections should be most assiduously cultivated. When the second baby is born, the first child should, if old enough to understand the matter, be congratulated, and taught to regard it as an acquisition by which his happiness is to be increased, and in whose welfare he is to take an interest, in conjunction with his parents. The child who is taught affectionate obedience to parents, and justice and kindness toward his little equals round the domestic hearth, is being trained to fill with propriety the station and relations of future life.

Out of the babe grows the child; from the child, the youth; from the youth, the man; and from the man, the immortal—and that immortal will be an heir of glory or a child of perdition. Let this be remembered from the beginning, and ever acted upon.

Discipline in a family is what the public admin

istration of justice is to a state; where it is wanting, there may be very good laws, but they will remain a dead letter, and the reign of crime and confusion be the certain consequence.

Religion should not be regarded as one science among many, the inculcation of which is a part of good education, but it must be the vital principle diffusing itself through all instruction, all rules, all authority, all discipline, all example. At what age is it proper, it may be asked, to begin teaching children religion? Their father and mother are, if true and consistent Christians, religion embodied and alive. And as soon as they begin to know their parents, they begin to know something about. religion. A very young child is quite aware that his parents speak to ONE whom they do not see, and inquiring thoughts are awakened in his mind, before he can express them in words.*

And now, then, to sum up all, consider a mother's charge an immortal creature; a mother's dutyto train him up for God, heaven, and eternity; a mother's dignity-to educate the family of the Almighty Creator of the universe; a mother's diffi

*Some of these maxims are taken from a work of the late Mrs. Copley, published by the Tract Society, and entitled, "The Young Mother; or, Affectionate Advice to an Unmarried Daughter." A work which is most earnestly recommended to all young mothers, or who have the prospect of becoming such, as containing more sound, practical, and valuable advice on the physical, intellectual, and moral training of young children, than any book I am acquainted with.

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culty to train a fallen, sinful creature to holiness and virtue; a mother's privilege-the promise of Divine grace to assist her in her momentous duties; a mother's relief-to bear the burden of her cares to God in prayer; and a mother's hope to meet her child in glory everlasting, and spend eternal ages of delight with him before the throne of God and the Lamb.

But are mothers only to engage in this work of educating their children for God? No. Fathers, I speak to you, for the Bible speaks to you: "Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." I have addressed this sermon to your wives, because on them first devolves the duty of training the infant mind; not, however, to exonerate you from, but to engage them in this blessed work, and prepare the children for your hands. Not that they will ever, or should ever, give up their assiduities or withdraw their influence. No. A mother's power is, perhaps, as great when judiciously exerted over the adult, as over the infant child. But you, when the children are growing up, must join your solicitude and labors with hers. They are your children as well as hers. God will require their souls at your hands as well as hers. Are you exercising your authority, giving your instructions, pouring out your prayers, affording your example, for the salvation of your children? Is it your wish, your ambition, your endeavor, your supplication, that they may be religious men, or only rich ones?

Are you pouring your influence into the same channel as your holy wife? Are you helping or hindering her in her pious solicitude for the spiritual and eternal welfare of your joint offspring? Happy, happy couple! where there is sympathy of feeling, and similarity of sentiment in the most momentous concern that can engage the attention of man, of angels, or of God-religion. Where the husband and the wife are of one mind and one heart, not only in reference to themselves, but in regard also to their children, and both are engaged in training them up for everlasting glory; I can liken such a couple, in their benevolent efforts for their children's welfare, only to the two angels who were sent down from heaven to the rescue of Lot, and who, with holy and beneficent violence, took him by the hand to pluck him from the burning city, and conducted him to the place of safety prepared by the mercy of Almighty God.

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APPENDIX.

SINCE this sermon was composed and partly printed, I have received the following letter:

"DEAR MR. JAMES-In your next sermon to Young Women, will you kindly give some advice to common-place mothers, who, not gifted with extraordinary affection, or extraordinary patience, are apt to be sadly worried with the incessant and multifarious claims of a large little family; especially where a limited income imposes unremitting toil to arrange for ordinary domestic comfort; and the numerous inmates of a small house almost preclude the refreshment of solitary closet intercourse with that Heavenly Father who rewardeth openly. As a class, we would gladly be instructed how to avoid, or, at least, to surmount the impatience and irritation so frequently engendered by the perplexities of the nursery and the school-room; the hasty speech, the angry action, which must be not only a hindrance to maternal influence, but perhaps even a hindrance to the efficacy of a mother's prayers.

"Excuse the liberty I take in thus writing to you, and with many thanks for your past valuable hints, "Believe me, dear sir, yours very respectfully,

November, 1852.

"A COMMON-PLACE MOTHER.”

This letter claims and awakens my tenderest sympathy for the class of mothers to whom it appertains; I mean women without the advantages of wealth, the accommodations of a nursery, and the help of servants to lighten the load of maternal cares, and to assist in the performance of maternal duties; women who must ever be in the midst of the perpetually-recurring trials of temper to which the