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house, or children, God himself declared, should not be purged with sacrifice and offering for ever! Do not understand me to say that in our view, all parents have passed this dreadful boundary of the divine patience, who have neglected suitably to interpose the authority with which God has invested them, to restrain their children from sin; but I do think that in exact proportion as Christian parents-I mean mothers too-substitute advice, persuasion, or feeble disapprobation, in the place of authority, where sin of any kind is the subject, heaven is justly provoked, the Spirit justly grieved, and God's own most holy law dishonored. How, then, can the prayers of such parents be wisely answered? Is it right for us to go to God and ask him to do for us what he commands us to do, and what he holds us inexcusable for not doing? Perhaps the son of one of these pious mothers, (pious they truly are,) is accustomed to take a walk on the Sabbath in the streets of the village, or in some more retired and less obtrusive manner-God has commanded him to rest. He has enjoined on the parent to guard his gates on that holy day, that son, nor daughter, nor servant, nor stranger, pollute his Sabbath by profaning it to business or pleasure. Shall the mother, instead of interdicting this sinful habit, go to her closet and ask her heavenly Father to make her son respect and observe his commands? To the closet it is her privilege to go, but let her do her duty to her child first, and then her prayer will be immediately, not remotely answered. If time permitted, facts confirming this position might be multiplied almost indefinitely, and some really inquiring, anxious minds might be relieved from the painful apprehension, that they have never yet been able to offer the prayer of faith in behalf of their children, and that therefore they are not converted. If what I have suggested serve to enlist some abler pen, and guide those who are willing to do their duty, when it shall become known to them, my highest desires will have been answered. The time which remains to mothers who have children of years and understanding, is emphatically short. To correct, as soon as may be practicable, the mistakes of youth and inexperience, is surely important and that the Magazine may be instrumental in this effect, is the wish of Yours truly, J. L. P.

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For the Mother's Magazine.

REPORT OF THE MATERNAL ASSOCIATION, CONNECTED WITH THE CALVINISTIC CHURCH IN WORCESTER, (MASS.).

THIS association was organized in the year 1829, at which time it consisted of ten mothers and thirty children. It now ; numbers forty-five mothers and one hundred and thirty children. The efforts of its members to aid, by contribution, in the benevolent operations of the day, have been directed to various objects, though confined the last and preceding years to the promotion of infant school education in the west.

A review of the past shows, that the afflictive dispensations of Providence towards us, as a body, have been dealt with a sparing hand. Only one of our number, during the lapse of six years, has been called to lie down in death; and she, reposing with childlike confidence on the promise of God, was enabled to commit her children to his guidance, and acquiesce willingly, nay, joyfully, in her summons to his immediate presence.

So much ingratitude, so much unfaithfulness, so much neglect of the best means of promoting the permanent interests of those for whose welfare we associated, is disclosed in the retrospect, that we wonder we speak not of numerous judgments, as well as "sing of mercy." The voice of God has indeed been heard in solemn tones, as ten of our children have been summoned from our watch and care to the world of spirits. These were of various ages, from the infant who scarcely tasted life's sad cup, and then, as if in loathing of its bitterness, "turned its head and died," to the child whose unfolding intellect gave promise of the perfect flower. But while its parents watched with eager interest its development, forgetting perhaps the Giver in the gift, an unseen hand laid low the cherished one. Shall we mourn that they were thus early sheltered from the howling storms of earth? thus early secured from the withering blight of sin ?

One sweet child had marked a course of daily reading in the Scriptures, which, with the termination of the year, would complete the sacred volume. Before its close he died, and pleasing

evidence was furnished, that he was called to partake of the unsealed fountain of heavenly truth in the Savior's "presence, where there is joy; at his right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore."

Others were just emerging from childhood, before whom youth's gay scenes floated in attractive but unreal vision, while in brilliant perspective were their coming years. Infinite wisdom ordained a different lot, and called them to walk through the dark valley. From the tombs of these departed ones comes a monitory voice, and may the lesson we gather be written as with a "sunbeam" on our hearts, and influence our future efforts for those remaining to us. "Work while the day lasts, for the night cometh," and "there is no wisdom, nor device, nor knowledge, in the grave."

We would bless God that he has given us reason to rejoice in the hope of the salvation of any of these deceased children. It is a solemn reflection, that our prayers for them can be heard no more, and our exertions in their behalf have ceased for ever.

Many and weighty are the responsibilities in which mere existence involves us; but its various connexions and dependencies greatly increase their weight, and multiply their number. God has placed in our hands means for operating on the human mind in its most susceptible stage, with power to make impressions which the finger of time can never efface. Each of those intrusted to our care, possesses an immortal soul, of more value than the congregated wealth of the world. When we reflect, that both by precept and example we are fitting that soul for an abode whose glories transcend mortal conception, to represent which all that is lovely in the visible creation has been employed, or for an abode where estrangement from purity and holiness and the "blackness of darkness" will for ever prevail, our work assumes an importance far exceeding the limits of human calculation. Such a view, however imperfect, cannot but thrill the heart of the Christian mother, while she exclaims, "Who is sufficient for these things? Lord, help."

It is not physical education alone, though in itself important as affecting in no small degree both mind and morals, which

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brings with it such momentous consequences; not the rearing of a fabric subject to decay, nor the adorning of beauty, which must soon "say to corruption, thou art my father, and to the worm, thou art my mother and my sister." Nor the education of mind alone. The vast power which a highly cultivated intellect confers on the individual, is deeply to be feared, when unsanctified in its source, and unholy in all its influences. The fostering of budding genius, the drawing forth from their hidden recesses rich mental treasures, that the one may blossom, and the other sparkle awhile, when no incense of the heart is taught to rise to God, is like placing the sharpened and polished sword in the arm nerved for destruction, that it may deal death around it.

In the language of another, it is ours to "seize on the first flexible links of mind, and attach them to virtue and to God, and thus secure the whole chain through all its golden involutions"-a task which even an angel might desire. But ah, pure and sinless, he could know nothing of a mother's trials. She has to guard against weakness and conflict with temptation in her own heart, and to check the upspringing of the latent germs of vice which lie within the breast of the sweetest infant that ever greeted a parent's eye. Never, never may we for a moment forget, that the power of renovation rests not with us. We may bend the sapling, and give to it a direction which it shall never be able to overcome, but we cannot ensure blossoms and fruit. So we may train the child to habits which shall never wholly lose their influence, but which must owe their lifegiving energy to the grace of God, or they will not yield the genuine fruits of the Spirit. And He has given assurance, that renewing and sanctifying influence shall accompany the labors of those who seek them in the way appointed. The record of the past is on high, and will never be disclosed, in all its minute details, until that day "for which all other days were made." We cannot arrest the train of effects which a single impulse may have caused; but it is abroad, and will tell on the destinies of unborn generations. Are we prepared to meet our past influence, in all its bearings on our children, and through them to remote posterity? Recording Sec'y.

For the Mother's Magazine.

THE CHRISTIAN MOTHER.

BY MRS. PHILLIPS, CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA.

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THE proper education of the young, is a subject which has engaged the attention of the loftiest minds. Locke, the pro found philosopher, deemed it not unworthy of his pen, and he has explained and illustrated it, as well as enforced its necessity, in a treatise, which has formed the basis of many succeeding books since his day. Nor has the subject been left to philosophers alone. Moralists, Christian divines, and even poets, have followed in his track, and, by a variety of methods, endeavored to win men to the consideration of its importance. But it has been reserved to the present day to bring before the public, in a multitude of cheap publications, level to the capacity of the lowest classes, a subject so highly interesting to the well-being of the community in general. We cannot but consider it as an encouraging sign of the times, that it has found its way into tracts and penny publications; and so soon as it shall be felt to be of such paramount importance, as to be studied in the cottage as well as in the mansion, may we hope for a new state of things in the world. But it may be asked, In what does education consist? Is it in teaching the classics or mathematics, or a knowledge of the arts and sciences; or has a parent fully accomplished his duty, when, feeling his own incompetency for the task, he has sought out the best school within his reach, and placed a child under its roof, and liberally remunerated the teacher for training his child in knowledge and virtue? Certainly not; though even this is much beyond what many parents consider to be their duty. Education includes in it a long-continued training of a child; and a regular and steady course of exertions on the part of a parent to form those habits and feelings, which will most conduce to his well-being, in a temporal and spiritual point of view.

Children should not only be instructed in learning, in the common acceptation of the term, and such arts as will fit them

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