blighted in its first bursting of beauty.  Oh, cruel and unthinking parents! why will you thus abuse the loveliest and noblest part of your child?  Why make that babe of yours a mere plaything?  If “out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God has perfected praise,” then why not train them up to praise Him?  “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven.”  Oh, you who are the nurse of infant innocence, have you ever thought of the deep curse that will attend your neglect of the babe which God has given you!  Have you, pious mother, as you pressed your child to your bosom, ever thought that it would one day be a witness for or against you?  Far better for thee and it that it were not born and you never revered as mother, than that you should nourish it for spiritual beggary here, and for the eternal burnings hereafter!  Oh, look upon that babe!  It is the gift of God—­given to thee, mother, to nurse for Him.  Look upon that cherished one!  See its smile of confidence turned to you!  It is a frail and helpless bark on the tumultuous sea of life; it looks to you for direction,—­for compass and for chart; your prayers for it will be heard; your hand can save it; the touch of your impressions will be a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death.

  “Then take the heart thy charms have won,
  And nurse it for the skies!”

CHAPTER X.

Home dedication.

  “The rose was rich in bloom on Sharon’s plain,
  When a young mother with her first born thence
  Went up to Zion, for the boy was vowed
  Unto the Temple-service; by the hand
  She led him, and her silent soul, the while,
  Oft as the dewy laughter of his eye
  Met her sweet serious glance, rejoiced to think
  That aught so pure, so beautiful, was hers,
  To bring before her God!”

Beautiful thought, and thrice beautiful deed,—­fresh from the pure fount of maternal piety!  The Hebrew mother consecrating her first-born child to the Temple-service,—­dedicating him to the God who gave him!  What visions of unearthly glory must have been before her, as she led her little boy before the altar of the “King of kings!” Happy mother! thou hast long since gone to thy great reward.  And happy child! to be led by such a mother.  Ye are now together in that temple “not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” and with united voice swelling those anthems of glory which are poured from angelic lips and harps to Him who sitteth upon the throne.

What an example is this for the Christian parent!  God is the Father of every home.  From Him cometh down every good and perfect gift; and hence to Him should all the interests and the loved ones of the household, be dedicated.  This is essential to the very conception of a Christian home.