Claudius Buchanan, and the Rev. Thomas Scott, was himself brought to Christ by means of truth which had been taught him in early life by a Praying Mother.

I recently read of a whole family of children in America, who were all in a remarkable manner brought under the influence of the Gospel and of the Holy Spirit. But these children had received the caresses, and been brought up under the care and instruction, of a Praying Mother.

A few years ago, the Students of a Theological Seminary felt interested in the inquiry, what proportion of their number had been favoured with godly parents. And it was ascertained, that out of one hundred and twenty students, who were preparing for the sacred ministry, more than a hundred were the offspring of Praying Mothers.

And-to mention but one instance more- ST. AUGUSTINE, that sublime genius, that illustrious father and great luminary of the church, whose fame filled the whole Christian world in the latter part of the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century, was till his 28th year only" a bitterness to her that bore him.' From his own subsequent confession, he was deaf to the voice of conscience, broke away from all moral restraints, and spent his youth amidst scenes of baseness and corruption. But, in all his wanderings, that depraved young man was followed by a Weeping Praying Mother. Her tears on his account watered the earth, and her prayers went up as incense before God. It is not possible,'-said a certain Bishop, in reply to her importunity, that he would endeavour to reclaim her son,- Good woman, it is not possible,

that a child of such tears should perish.' And at length the son himself carried to his Praying Mother the news of his conversion, and she received "the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Not long after, as they were journeying together, she said, 'My son, what have I to do here any longer? The only object for which I wished to live was your conversion; and this the Lord has now granted me in an abundant manner.’— Five days after she was seized with a fever; and on the ninth her tears were for ever wiped away. And wherever the name and writings of Augustine, the gifted Bishop of Hippo, have been known, there also has been told for a memorial of her" the story of

the Praying Mother.

A word, then, to you who are Mothers.

It is not likely that you will leave your children large estates, or great titles; but it is in your power to leave them what is infinitely more to be desired, viz. The rich legacy of a Mother's prayers. Your children are born under the curse of a broken covenant; and they must be born again, or they can never belong to Christ's blessed kingdom. You cannot bear the thought that one of those little ones, whom you so tenderly love, should be the hold of every foul spirit,' and never become the habitation of God through the Spirit,-the Holy Spirit. Go, then, to the Messiah, that Almighty Redeemer, and tell him of their state. Go, like the woman of Canaan, and like her plead in humility and faith, and with an importunity which can take no denial. Go, and you will find, as she did, that "the Lord is rich unto all that call upon him." Though, like her, ye be poor,

and feeble, and obscure; yet, like her, ye may exert an influence which shall "spoil principalites and powers," and save the soul of your child.

The tie which binds mothers to their children is inexpressibly tender; and compared with it most others are feeble. There is something too in the relation you sustain with them which is more interesting and solemn than words can adequately express; for it is something, which takes fast hold on eternity itself. From you they receive their first impressions; and by you are their first thoughts, desires, actions, and motions, regulated. Ordinarily, you are the first, to whom they learn to make known their wants; you are the first towards whom they stretch forth their little hands; your name is the first they learn to speak; your countenance and voice the first they learn to recognize; and your smiles and frowns, your feelings and passions, the first in which they feel a sympathy. It is to you that their first inquiries are generally directed; it is from your lips that their first ideas of God, and Christ, and heaven are generally gained; and it is in your ear, as you bend over their lovely forms, and smooth their little pillows for the night, that they lisp their first accents of prayer to "Our Father who art in Heaven." Your lessons are, or should be, the first that they ever learn; your cradle hymns the first that rock them to sleep; your spirit the first that they imbibe; your influence the first that they feel; and your image the first that is stamped upon them. Indeed it is not too much to say, that to your hands, more than to those of any other human being, is committed the momentous work of moulding their intellect and heart in the very earliest stage of

rational existence; and that it is from you, pre-eminently, they receive the first and grand outlines of their future character.

O what spot is there on earth which, for training up little children for heaven, is to be at all compared to the home-the Sweet Home'—of the Praying Mother! Where in the whole universe does piety begin to bud so early and so brightly in little children as it does around the altar, where they have worshipped with their Praying Mother! Who like her has the power of fixing a grasp upon them, which neither the wiles of infidelity nor the headstrong passions of youth may ever be able to throw off! Who like her can entwine about their spirits such fine cords of truth and affection as God's blessed Spirit can make use of in binding them to Messiah's throne and kingdom for ever!

To your hands then, ye mothers, is the everlasting happiness of your precious babes confided as it is confined to no other hands on earth. When you would give them to feel the refreshings of cleanliness you can (like the good mother of that family of children in America just mentioned) raise your heart to God for those effusions of the Spirit, which shall cleanse and gladden their souls for ever. When you put on their clothes in the morning you can ask your heavenly Father to grant unto them to " be arrayed in fine linen clean and white," which "is the righteousness of saints." When you prepare their daily food you can pray that they may have a heart to come to that feast to which they are especially invited, and may gladly avail themselves of those abundant provisions which heaven has made for their everlasting felicity. As you lead them to the Sanctuary you can lift up a prayer

that they may so go to the Upper Sanctuary, and "dwell in the house of the Lord for ever." Should they leave you to go to school, you can still follow their infant footsteps with a prayer, that their path through. life may be like that of the "just, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day." And, as you lay them down on their little couch, you can kneel down before him who seeth in secret, and let the silent breathings of your heart go up to heaven for a blessing on your sleeping babes. Your infant daughter may be "a mother in Israel," when you are dead. Your little son, who now prattles on your knee, and begins to ask about his soul and about his Saviour, may tell the story of redeeming love amidst the frosts of Lapland, or the burning sands of Africa. Ten thousand hearts may welcome the glad tidings; and twice ten thousand blessings be poured upon the head of your son. Amen. -(Southern Churchman.) GOODELL.

THE MOST MISERABLE MAN.

Who is the most miserable man upon earth? and whither shall we seek him? Not at the tavern; not at the theatre;--but at the Church! That man who has sat Sabbath after Sabbath under the awakening and affecting calls of the gospel, and has hardened his heart against these calls, he is the man whose condition is the most desperate of all others :-"Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! and thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell."-Cecil.