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She is the ministering angel of infancy, and the priestess of the nursery
of home. She sets the first seal, makes the first stamp, gives the first
direction, supplies the first want, and soothes the first sorrow. To her is
committed human life in its most helpless and dangerous state. Touch it
then with the rude hand of parental selfishness; let it grow up in a barren
soil, amid noxious weeds, under the influence of unholy example; and the
delicate tints of this blossom will soon fade; the blush of loveliness will
soon give way to the blight of moral deformity.
[Illustration: TEACHING THE SCRIPTURES. J. Porter]
Hence every babe will be the parent's glory or the parent's shame, their
weal or their woe. If entrusted to them, God will hold them responsible for
its moral training. He will require it from them with interest. Their trust
involves the eternal happiness or misery of their child. The productions of
art will perish; the sun will be blotted out, and all the glory and
magnificence of the world will vanish away, but your babe will live
forever. It will survive the wreck of nature, and either shine as a diadem
in the Redeemer's crown of glory, or dwell in the blackness and darkness of
perdition forever.
To you, Christian parents, as the stewards of God, this precious being is
entrusted. The care of its body, mind and spirit is committed to you; and
its character and destiny in after life will be the fruit of your dealings
with it.
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