THE LADIES' REPOSITORY. CINCINNATI, MARCH, 1842. CALDWELL-LAKE GEORGE. (SEE ENGRAVING.) Christ's faithful ministers. The second order is made up of the sanctified, or mature saints, who are ever moving on the errands of love, and ministering not only to each other's necessities, but also to the bodily or spiritual wants of any of God's creatures within their reach. The third order consists of the justified, or immature saints, who are employed in the same services as the former, but in a more humble sphere; such as is suited to the weakness of their infant states. These are evangelical hierarchies, which for their office and ministry are indebted to grace. LAKE GEORGE, in the state of New York, is connected with Lake Champlain, and is in some respects, the most remarkable body of water on the continent. Such is its purity, that from the neighboring inhabitants it has received the name of Lake Sacrament. It is said to be chiefly fed by surrounding springs, and it empties its waters into the south end of Lake Champlain, above which it is elevated about one hundred feet. It is of late years much frequented by travelers, loungers, and sportsmen. Many of those who have sailed on its bosom, give very glowing descriptions of its varying and interesting aspects. The shadows of the mountains passing over its clear, glassy waters, and the vary-isters of God" to the people, and may in their office be ing tints and shades thrown upon it by the sunbeams reflected from the scenery of its shores, together with the majestic and enchanting character of that scenery to the eye of him who has a relish for the bold and wild in nature, are said to present a tout ensemble of almost unequaled interest. Caldwell is a small town at the end of the Lake, much frequented by visitors. Original. THE MOTHER AN ANGEL. BY THE EDITOR. "How sweet to gaze upon thy placid brow, My own pet lamb. And then to train thee up MRS. SIGOURNEY. ANGEL is said to be a name of office. It is therefore applied to mortals. The Scriptures, as in the Apocalypse, denominate the ministers of Jesus, angels.* The word as signifies messenger, and may justly be applied to one employed by Providence, in some holy service for the good and happiness of others. For these appointees of Jehovah are ministering messengers. The celestial angels are "spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of salvation." But there are orders of nature as well as of grace. They grow out of our private and public relations. The monarch and the subordinate magistrate are "min called angels. Leaders of armies and subalterns-the commanders of vessels, and all other unusurping authorities, who have a perpetual or temporary official superiority and care over a given number of persons, may, as to their functions, be called angels, for they minister, and angel is a name of that kind of office. The relations of professional and private life are of the same nature. The teacher ministers to the pupil; the physician and the nurse to the patient; the patron or benefactor to the object of his kindness. But I wish to select one other example from private life, which possibly surpasses all others, so far as the privileges and obligations of nature are concerned. I refer to the mother. In a sense peculiarly high and holy, she is an angel to her child. And this by the appointment, the power, the usages, and the fidelity of nature. She is such by the appointment of nature. By this I mean, that from the beginning, nature places the mother in such a relation to the child, that she only can afford the necessary ministrations. Hers are vital functions, in which the very being of the child is involved. How affecting is this consideration to one who has firm confidence in the doctrine of the soul's immortality. And the fact cannot be disputed. Hence the assertion, that by the appointment of nature, (by which I mean the appointment of God,) the mother is an angel to her child. The ministrations of God's invisible, celestial messengers, in behalf of mortals, do not commence so early as hers. The infant passes under the watch and ward of angels from the mother's earlier keeping. The sacred treasure, with its immortal jewelry, is primarily intrusted to her custody; and by a divine constitution of things, all the unwearied energies of her nature are at first spontaneously, and afterwards with the zeal of In heaven the angels are supposed to constitute various hierarchies. The Jews held that the orders were four-those of Michael, of Gabriel, of Uriel, and of Raphael. Of terrestrial angels there are certainly sev-glowing affection, pledged to the execution of her trust. eral orders. The first, or highest order, is composed of *See Revelations, chapter ii. Thus by the appointment of the God of nature, she is an angel-a minister of life and its supports to her child. He sees that in obedience to toil, he receives the allot- || shall he not apprehend his imminent necessity—that ted pittance; he says it is enough for me and my chil- looking for of judgment to come? Yes, there is a principle within the soul of man sufficient, with proper aids and appliances, for his discernment of truth; but now he is vexed and aggrieved, and under a cloud; and now, will not the faithful pastor, the compassionate brother, soothe and help him-for many a sinner arrives at truth by the avenues of nature? The gentle vouchsafings of sympathy can allure in some mood, when the severity of faithfulness and of preaching might appal and repulse. And though the ultimate of faith is not attainable by nature alone, yet its beginnings may be there; and these simple admonitions, if wisely followed out, may be effectual of the more determinate counsels of revealed truth. Who is not softened and subdued, almost to a looking for of grace, by a relief, a sympathy which is sufficient, a help and a rescue in our time of need? And our teacher, would he be faithful and effectual, must identify himself, not with our weak dren: it is bestowed but day by day to keep us humble, but along with it is given us the grace to be thankful. And the words which sanctify his table are, "Whether more or less it is of thee, O Lord; thou rememberest us; let us not forget Thee for ever." And this humble grace shall find record above, and the lowly of heart shall be entitled to a more honorable seat; verily he shall eat bread in his Master's kingdom. This is the poor pious man; for though the "poor have the Gospel preached to them," yet they do not all accept it. And when the death-angel shall spread his broad wings over that humble chamber, his thirst shall be satisfied, and his fever allayed, in mysterious sense, by that water, of which "he that drinks shall never thirst again "'—even the water of eternal life. The rich man, we say, looks on and is converted from the error of his way-for the beauty of holiness, and even charity by self-denying sacrifice, was manifested in this lowly Christian disci-ness and our sins alone, but with our wants, natural as ple. But such examples are rare, and mostly found in places remote from the thoroughfares and the corrupting influences of life. spiritual. If he withhold himself from our necessity, and only give the gifts which cost him nothing, he loves us not--he doth not even pity us, and we love not him— we disdain his gifts-from purer lips than his will we seek for truth; and so are we hindered in our progress in that better path which should divide us from our anxieties, and win us from our suffering and our sinning-which by grace should blot out the animosities of nature, and especially should admonish us of that obduracy in ourselves which is our greatest hindrance and our greatest crime. But it is of charity we would speak. All unrelieved human want has, if not its resentment, at least its alienating action against such as refuse of succor; and as naturally has it its gratitude of relief; and this shall be commensurate with the depth of heart which we find in the sufferer. And such an one (of worth and weight if gained) shall be most decidedly hindered by the adverse action of withheld relief. It is of necessity, not of craving, we speak, saying, I, with my unregenerate And whatever we have said, we would not attempt, heart, could not have resisted this appeal. And is a nor dare to excuse, on any ground, a withholding from harder person indeed holier than I? Along with the the Church. We would but offer, in extenuation, the averted affections we grant there is an unreasonableness necessities and the waywardness of nature, and its of inference; for a short-coming priesthood cannot im-blindness to those things which are spiritually discernpeach the holiness of truth, nor impair what is essen- ed. And particularly would we commend and place tially immutable and of God. But misery is often in relative view that Gospel charity which acts hand in both unreasonable and wicked; and no argument sus- hand with nature, and afford reciprocal advantage to tains them in withholding themselves from the Church, both. Charity, perhaps, shall win the sinner from the or in not endeavoring to obtain the blessing; but there error of his ways, and shall herself be blessed by that is a direct one for it, even their necessity itself. Yet effectual calling which shall add the seal of many souls to in the unregenerate bosom is sentiment stronger than her ministration. But who is the questioner-an idle reason or thought, and besides it wars in its own cas- and querulous complainer against the allotments of life? tle the fleshly heart of man-unrebuked of the alien No, not such an one; but one well tried by the hindranforces either of discretion or of duty. We hear, too, ces and engrossments of immediate cares--one knowof misanthropy from the same cause. Some are fluent ing the deteriorating influences of imperative necessity, in such talk, and dissertate, and would prevent the pa- even where the purpose and the determination is for a thetic and the picturesque of suffering; and this is the right seeking, and a supreme reverence for the better only way in which they touch the subject at all. But hope, which sustains against the world. We would we think not with them-we think sufferers' comment propose simply the argument of suffering, and the is not so wide of propriety. It is more specific and claim of charity, and would show the bearing and inmore positive. It alienates from a hard brother of fluences of each upon the unregenerate heart as it is. the Church, or turning selfward, it tends to obdurate the heart, which in human gain reposes only in insensibility, and without hatred of its kind is yet uncaring of hope or of safety. And is man, then, a mere creature-a being of sense and of will only? Without moral responsibility has he no monitor within, no conscience to stand betwixt his fellows and himself? And B. AVARICE has ruined more men than prodigality, and the blindest thoughtlessness of expenditure has not destroyed so many fortunes, as the calculating but insatiable lust of accumulation. 66 THE MOTHER AN ANGEL. And this she is, secondly, by the power of nature; || as the world is, it retains traces enough of its primitive by which I mean, that as, according to the existing constitutional features, to abhor a mother's disaffection economy of nature, none other can, so by the same to, or her neglect of her offspring, as contrary to nature, economy, the mother does minister to the child. She and as indicative of a depth of depravity which no other is abundantly furnished for her office. This is proven act of sin and shame can equal. Thus, while the by all the indications of nature. Her maternal affec- mother stands as the appointee of the God of nature tions, as already hinted, are unfathomable and inex- to guard and cherish the physical and moral being of haustible. She is prepared to meet every demand upon her child, the world spontaneously pays her homage, her patience; every sacrifice of comfort, and ease, and and dare not interrupt her. If she fail to execute the reputation, and health, and at last, of life itself, for the functions of her office, hers is the sin-her unfaithfulsake of her child. There is no such love as hers among ness shall be upon her own head. For that God who mortals-none so deep, so abiding, and so self-sacrific- made her an angel to her child, gave none else a like ing; or if this be disputed, none certainly that runs commission, and even published to the world by the back like hers to the fountain of being, taking its rise, strong voice of nature that of mortals, she alone was as it were, at the throne of God, by whose command made the nurse and guardian of its life and immortaliits streams flow out and become prolific of life on earth ties. Thus by the very usages of nature, or of society and in heaven. under the dictation of nature, the mother is an angel to her child. But the economy of nature empowers the mother to minister not only to the physical, but also to the mental and moral necessities of her child. She is the first prophet whose mission is accredited, and the first whose oracles are heard and revered. See how the smiling babe, reposing on the bosom of maternal tenderness, fixes its gaze of deep attention on the moving eye and lip of its parent. Speechless as it is, it is even now gathering from the expression of her features food for its thought, and examples for its carriage. Her calm or passionate-her meek or haughty behavior, are already impressing its unformed mind and heart, with sentiments which wait for development in the progress of coming years. Her brooding fondness, as she sits day by day cherishing its young and growing life, is nourishing in its immortal affections the dove or the serpent a heaven of holiness, or a hell of poisonous and destructive passions. So true is this, that there are few of the saved or the lost who enjoyed in infancy a mother's protection, but will trace their felicity or despair in a future world to maternal fidelity or unfaithfulness. Such, by nature, is the power of the mother over the nursling of her heart. She is to it an angel of light, or a demon of destruction. Thirdly; she is the same by the usage of nature. That is, in all nations and ages, the same indications of nature exist; and they seem to be universally respected. There was never a people so at war with nature and her dictates, as to disregard her monitions in this particular. Such a thing was not possible; because, if humanity in any age or nation became imbruted, even the beasts are subject to the same law. The dam instinctively feeds and defends its young. Mankind in all ages have paid respect to maternal rights, and regarded its affections and its functions as holy. For early nurture and culture, the child is resigned by common consent to the sympathies and energies of her who alone is believed to have the resources, physical and moral, for so burdensome and wearisome a toil. She is not interrupted or hindered in her work, but contrariwise, is by the silent suffrage of the world, designated as the nominee of nature to the holy office which she fills. Furthermore-fallen and depraved And this she is, lastly, by the fidelity of nature. By this I mean, that such is the state of her affections towards her child, that she would spontaneously and gladly endure the toil, and make the sacrifices necessary to a faithful execution of her trust. Whatever her maternal errors are, they do not generally arise from disaffection, or from a want of love to her offspring. How can they, when that love is the strongest passion of her heart? when she willingly foregoes pleasure and comfort and ease on her child's account? when she stands ready at any moment to expose and sacrifice her life to guard it? Surely with such feelings she would not willfully expose her child in its person or its choicest interests to harm and ruin. No; nature, the parent of those glowing affections in the mother's bosom, which so tenderly embrace, and would so promptly guard her child at every hazard and sacrifice, has imparted to her a spirit of fidelity which we can never sufficiently admire. God has impressed her very constitution with a law which binds her to maternal fidelity, and renders it peculiarly proper to say she is guardian to her child. Why, then, in so many fatal instances do we see the mother's efforts thwarted, and her ardent affections busied in vain, to guide her child so as to secure it from fatal misfortunes? This question is as interesting as the facts which suggest it are sad and distressing. In replying to it, I shall maintain the analogy with which I started, and still view the mother as a ministering messenger to her child. We must reflect then, that there has been a great revolution in heaven. In the beginning all the angels were holy. They were perfectly pure in affection and faithful in obedience. They were employed in the service of their Maker, and their bliss flowed from his approbation and smile. But it was so in the progress of his government, that a portion of them became guilty of defection from the law and the love of their Maker. They rebelled, and were driven from their thrones, and despoiled of their dominions. They were still angels, retaining I suppose, faintly at least, all their original attributes, except moral purity, which gave place to the most malignant passions, and turned their new abode THE MOTHER AN ANGEL. into hell. As angels, they still ministered in the king-|| account. When this world was created and man was formed to tenant it under the smile of God, these fallen angels attempted its ruin. In a measure they succeeded. They brought down the honor of our race, and laid it in the dust. This they accomplished by making man the agent of his own undoing--by leading him through treacherous persuasion to rebel, like themselves, against their Maker. Our rebellion produced in us the same moral effect which had followed in them their treachery to God. Our affections, which till then were pure as the light of heaven, and benevolent as the purposes of its throne, became earthly, sensual and devilish. From that sad hour, grace, which came to our fallen world through the death of Jesus, has operated to check these diabolical human passions, and over all willing and waiting hearts gains a perfect moral conquest, by which the subdued are made holy, and are employed once more as angels of light, in ministering to the needy of God's creatures. Others remain the servants of Satan, and in league with fallen, invisible spirits, are constantly inflicting evil and misery. 67 He blinds people to the consequences of their He sweetens the poisoned dish, which he puts into the hand of the mother; and she finding it pleasant to her own, ministers it with fatal zeal to the taste of her child. Of all evil angels on earth, (I had well nigh said in hel!,) none are so injurious to the virtue and happiness of mankind as these fond, but infanticidal mothers. If their evil agency but killed the body, it were bad enough; but alas! it destroys the soul. It nourishes an existence which many a child will deprecate as a curse for ever. And they themselves will be witnesses. An impious mother, moved by the instigation of the devil, can do more than all the world beside to make her child a demon. And she does it. She may never dream of such a thing, but she guides her little one to perdition. She is its pioneer to the pit. She is its angel, but alas! she is a fallen angel. Ordained by Providence to train its young affections for the pure felicities of heaven, she betrays her sacred trust, and fashions the soul which owed to her its very being for the unutterable agonies of despair. How? Like Satan in paradise, she chooses for it prohibited delights-fruits which God pronounced poisonous to the soul. First she gives it an example of indulgence. When that fails, she whispers to it encouragement to partake. When it turns to flee under the strivings of God's Spirit, she allures it back by soothing, deceitful words. With tones as treacherous as ever waked the echoes of the infernal dungeons, she guides the reluctant hand of her child, who plucks, eats, and is damned for ever. Well may she be called a FALLEN ANGEL. It follows, then, that there are two sorts of angels, good and evil, in the invisible and in the visible world. In the invisible they are separated, occupying different habitations called heaven and hell; but here they are distinguished simply by their feelings and conduct, and not by outward appearance or classification. The good and evil angels in human form sustain, in common, the various public and private relations which belong to this world, such as result from constitutional compacts and civil governments, and from the more intimate alli-child, averting the evil and invoking the good. With ances of domestic life. Every human being is in his relations an angel of light or an angel of darkness. The magistrate, the teacher, the physician, the patron, the neighbor, the friend, the member of a domestic circle over which he exerts any power, are all good or evil angels, to shed a pure or corrupt influence in a limited sphere. With regard to the evil it may be observed, that Satan chiefly carries on his work of destruction in human souls by setting depraved mortals to ruin one another. He can appear to advantage in the form of man, because we do not instinctively dread or suspect our own species. And when he can approach us through those who are, as Eve was by Adam, especially loved and confided in,|| he is most sure of conquest. Now none are so fully confided in as the mother. Childhood is credulous, and its confidence is easily won even by strangers; but towards a mother that confidence is spontaneous and universal, approving all her acts and words, be they right or wrong. And so far as affection would warrant this confidence, it is not misplaced, since scarcely a mother can be found who does not desire the happiness of her child, and purpose to promote it. But Satan does not destroy in his agents the natural affections. He rather strives to turn them to his own The pious mother is an angel of light. She vigilantly watches every influence which approaches her the pure and steady affections of devotion, she pleads in prayer for the new-born spirit which God has appointed her to guard and cherish. Her voice of devotion whispers to the fondling the name of Jesus, and the unwearied energies of her devotion lead the little one up the cross-bearing steeps of religion towards the throne and the bosom of God. Will angels be ashamed of that sister spirit? Will Jesus refuse to confess her in their presence? Will God be displeased to hear his well beloved Son say to her, “Come, ye blessed of my Father?" Heaven is the proper home of such an one. Her sanctified spirit will be native to the regions which glow in the light of that holiness whose intense effulgence circles and pervades them for ever. Well may we exclaim, THE MOTHER!! O the sig nificancy of that word! It suggests to the reflecting mind a scene more sublime than exists in the circle of creation. Connect it and its influences with probation, eternity, heaven and hell, and you will concede what I affirm. As to the faithful matron, who is the instrument of salvation to her child, angels might envy her. As to the godless mother, who is the instrument of her child's undoing, fiends themselves might fly her presence, accounting her too flagrantly vile to be received into the society of reprobate spirits. |