" 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.
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