me." Serve me with an undivided heart, and your peace shall be like a river, and your righteousness as the waves of the sea. The example of Mrs. Isabella Graham, (that distinguished and eminent saint,) under similar afflictions, is of more value than all the experience of your wedded love, sweet and endearing as it was. I once had occasion to speak the language of sympathy to a widowed sister. I knew I could not speak from experience, and therefore feared I should only afflict, where I wished so much to comfort. I had recourse to the writings of Mrs. Graham. I said, I shall there find such touching strains of sympathy and grief, as shall assuage the sorrows of my afflicted sister. But I was delighted to find her language was only that of praise. She even blessed God that her earthly schemes of happiness were interrupted. Allow me to cite a passage from her history, with which you are doubtless familiar, but which I trust will comfort you, though often repeated. It is contained in a letter to a young friend. "My dear Miss M, "I am now old, and hope I have done with the world, but have been young, and drank deeply of youth's choicest pleasures. I was blest with the best and most indulgent of parents. I was the wife of a man of sense, sentiment, and sensibility, who was my first love and lover; and that love ripened and improved with years. My children were good and healthy; love, health, peace, and competency blessed our dwelling. I had also, in early life, taken hold of God's covenant. Had I kept close to my covenant God, I should have continued to inherit the earth, and should not have been diminished. The goodness of God, which ought to have been a motive to love, gratitude, and diligence, was misimproved. I enjoyed the gifts, and forgot the Giver-hugged my comforts to death;' but he did not cast me off; my God kept me to my choice, and manifested his own faithfulness and the stablity of his covenant. When light afflictions proved ineffectual, He at last, at one blow, took from me all that made life dear, the very kernel of all my earthly joys, my idol, my beloved husband. Then I no longer halted between two opinions; my God became my all. I leave it as my testimony, that He has been a Father to the fatherless, a husband to the widow, the stranger's shield, and the orphan's stay. Even to hoarhairs, and to old age, he has carried me, and not one good word has failed of all that he has promised. He has done all things well,' and at this day I am richer and happier than I ever was in my life." For the Mother's Magazine. ANECDOTE. A clergyman of this city, at a recent religious meeting, related the following anecdote, illustrative of the power of practical maternal faith. He was at the time, the seaman's chaplain, at a southern port. In the course of duty, he was called to the sick bed of a sailor, apparently at the gates of death, from the effects of his licentiousness. He addressed him af fectionately upon the state of his soul. With a curse, the sick man bid him begone, and not harass his dying bed. The chaplain, however, told him plainly he would speak, and he must hear, for his soul was in jeopardy of eternal death. The man, however, remained sullen and silent, and even pretended to sleep during his faithful address and prayer. Again and again the visit was repeated with similar ill success. One day, however, the sick man made use of an expression, by which the chaplain suspected that he was a Scotchman. To make sure of the fact, the chaplain repeated a verse of that version of the Psalms, still in use among the churches in Scotland : Like pity as a father hath Unto his children dear; Such pity hath the Lord for those His eyes The chords of his heart vibrated to the well-known language. glistened with unusual moisture. The chaplain preferred his advantage. Knowing the universality of religious instruction among the Scotch, he ventured an allusion to his mother. The poor prodigal burst into tears. He admitted himself to be the child of a praying mother, who had often commended him to God. He had left her long before, to become a wanderer on the face of the great deep. No longer did he repel the kind attentions of the chaplain; and his monitor had the satisfaction of seeing him arise from his bed, he verily believes, a child of God. It may be the glorified spirit of his mother, was one of the angels before the throne of God, who rejoiced over his repentance; or, if living, subsequently rejoiced over him that was dead, and is alive again-as lost, but found. ANOTHER. A clergyman, some time since, concluding a sermon to youth, took occasion to press upon parents the duty of parental faith, and illustrated its power in the following manner. ness. "About two-and-twenty years ago, a little circle were met around the apparently dying couch of a male infant; the man of God, who led their devotions, seemed to forget the sickness of the child, in his prayer for his future usefulHe prayed for the child who had been consecrated to God at his birth, as a man, a Christian, and a minister of the Word. The parents laid hold of the horns of the altar, and prayed with him. The child recovered, grew towards manhood, ran far in the ways of folly and sin. One after another of that little circle ascended to heaven; but two at least, and one of them the mother, lived to hear him proclaim the everlasting gospel. It is," said the preacher, "no fiction; that child, that prodigal youth, that preacher, is he who now addresses you." THE MOTHER'S MAGAZINE FOR FEBRUARY, MDCCCXXXIII. THE INTERROGATION. "And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou ?" Gen. iii. 9. This interrogation was made in the cool of the day. It is thought by some that this was the time of Adam and Eve's accustomed evening worship. It must have broken in upon this sacred inclosure like the voice of many waters. Some persons may be deterred from entering their closets at the soft and silent hour of twilight, lest conscious guilt should fasten upon them the commission of crimes. The interrogation," Where is Abel, thy brother?" excites no surprize among mankind. The sin of Cain was of a crimson dye. Ah! might not inquiries be instituted in regard to each of us, by that same Omniscient Being, that would accelerate the motion of our heart's blood? This is a world of sin; temptations cluster around us in every path of life. Though our crimes may be concealed from mortals, until the trump of God shall sound, "Come to judgment," yet possibly their consequences may be less fatal, by our instituting inquiries like the following. May that blessed Spirit which convinces of sin, faithfully apply them to the hearts of all to whom they may be particularly applicable. O wife, where is thy husband? Is he housed in the ark? Is he devoted to the service of Christ? And does any one reply, Am I my husband's keeper? "How knowest thou but that thou mayest save thy husband." With such encouragement, have you done all you could to win this dear companion to the blessed Saviour? Have you wept in secret places for him? Have you denied yourself every thing that came in competition with his soul's salvation? Have you been as importunate in prayer for him, as the nature of the case may have demanded? Has he been won by your chaste conversation, coupled with fear? Have you tasted a Saviour's love, and can you be happy while he is not a partaker of your joys and sorrows? Can you be satisfied to worship at the feet of the adorable Saviour, while he is worshipping at the shrine of Mammon? See to it, that the blood of thy beloved husband be not found in thy skirts. Mothers! where are your children? In your eager desire to present your infants to the Saviour, to hear him say "suffer the little children to come unto me," to have this best of Friends lay his hands on them and bless them, have you made your way through obstacles, and by frowning disciples? Your first-born son, who will exert an influence vast as eternity upon your rising family! is he all your fond hopes and wishes can desire for him? Are you not responsible for the influence he will exert, in all the various walks of life? Do you know who his chosen companions are? Do you know how and where he spends his evenings? If at home, has he useful occupation? Are you quite sure he was not among that giddy and riotous throng on the evening of - —, where so many of our youth were collected, scattering about fire brands, arrows, and death, and saying, "'tis all but in sport?" Do you know how and where he spends his Sabbaths? If in the sanctuary, is he in thine own seat, hanging, with enrapturing delight, upon the lips of him who is Christ's ambassador? In that silent midnight hour, when the proclamation shall be made, " Behold the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him,” the solemn inquiry, Where, O where is thy son! may fall upon thine ear with more appalling accents, than even that which fell upon the ear of the unhappy Cain. And where is thy daughter? Like Mary, shall we often find her, sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to the gracious words which fell from his lips? Under thy culturing hand is she preparing to labor successfully in that cause, for the sake of which Jesus laid down his precious life? Is she the affectionate and dutiful daughter? The beloved sister? Shall it hereafter be said, "Happy the man that hath such a wife, happy the child that shall call her mother?" And when death comes, shall it be said of her, "Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all." And where is thy neighbor? Under a sense of your obligations to Him who hath said, "feed the hungry, clothe the naked; freely ye have received, freely give," have you sought out the sons and daughters of penury? Have you done what you could for the supply of their wants? Have you plead their cause with your families and friends? Have you assisted your neighbor in his business? Have you been honest in your dealings and intercourse with him? When the cold storms of adversity have played about his dwelling, and pressed upon his heart, have you soothed his sorrows? Have you pointed him to the richest source of consolation? When his reputation has been assailed, have you searched out the matter, that you might defeat it? or, as the libel has passed, have you given it additional momentum ? And where are the teachers of your children? Have you seen to it that they are worthy of their high vocation, so that you can hold them up as proper examples for imitation? Do you know them to be persons of piety and prayer? Have you weighed the consequences of putting them into unfaithful or unskillful hands? Do you suffer your children to look upon them as hirelings, or as important auxiliaries in executing heaven's commission, "Train up a child in the way he should go ?" And where is your minister? Have you stayed up his hands by your prayers? Have thy tithes been given to him for his support? Has his influence been extended by thine own? Have you defended his reputation as the representative of the immaculate Saviour? Has he been esteemed and loved for his work's sake? Have his faithful messages come to you from the court of heaven, clothed with divine authority? Have your family and your children witnessed their influence on your heart and life? And where are the precious souls for whom Christ died? Do you individually ask, Am I their keeper? Can I be responsible for a world? Yes, dear friend, for a world, just so far as thy influence might have extended, to save them from the wrath to come. Has thy Saviour, the captain of thy salvation, been followed in his self-denying labors, in his untiring zeal to be about his heavenly Father's business? or has thy prayer been, O Lord, revive thy work ; I long to see the green pastures; I long to smell the sweet blossoms; I long to taste the rich fruits of thy blessed Spirit; while you have idly folded your hands; while, in carnal ease you have neglected to warn your families, your friends and neighbors, to flee from the wrath to come; while, with indifference, you have neglected to send his gospel to perishing heathen. Be not deceived, for God will not be mocked. When he shall make inquisition for blood, do you fear any unlawful conspiracy against you? Do not fear it. All your motives and conduct will then be weighed in the impartial balance of the sanctuary. While your own consciences, the law of God, and the blood of his Son, will be the only witnesses that will be cited to appear and to testify at that great decisive day. See to it, that the avenger of blood shall not receive a commission to pursue thee as the murderer of immortal souls, and thou receive a more aggravated doom than even that awarded to him who, from envy, first imbrued his guilty hands in a brother's blood. severe. For the Mother's Magazine. PARENTAL CONSISTENCY. The common axiom, " the world loves consistency," is none the less true, or forcible, from its triteness; and among the multitude who are employed in scanning the inconsistencies of others, children are the most eagle-eyed, and Not that we would charge them with uncharitableness, for we believe that none are misanthropes by birth; nor do they study to be scrutinizing and captious; it is the natural impulse of the mind. God has implanted in their bosom a conscience, a sense of right and wrong, which has not been deadened by incessant clashing with the principles and practices of the world; and they are like a blade, just from the hand of the artificer, that has not lost its lustre, or its edge. We, who have been long in the world, have become inured to the perpetual collision between our consciences and existing evils and sins. When, therefore, we see inconsistency in others, see the conduct and example even of those whom we respect and love, palpably making their instructions and principles a lie, we are not surprized; we have seen it a thousand times before, and say, with a sort of resignation,or rather a feeling of despair, "O, it is human nature ;" or, if we should attempt to raise the harsh voice of censure, there is the misgiving of a guilty heart, effectually to confound and silence us. But not so with children; untaught and unsuspecting, they believe men are what they appear to be. Accustomed to look up to their parents as superla |