And that dear place had
another to carry on the work; gentler but not weaker; and memory recalls a
mother pressing her face close to mine as she often knelt with me before
the mercy-seat. I will not cast reproach on any institution which has been
productive of good to myself and to others, but with profound gratitude
will say, home was the place of my spiritual nativity, and my parents were
God's instruments in leading me to Christ!"
The eminent piety of Dr. Dwight stands on record as the fruit of a mother's
faithful religious training; for "she taught him from the very dawn of
reason to fear God and keep His commandments, and the impressions then made
upon his mind in infancy, were never effaced." The mother of young Edwards
is another example of early piety as the fruit of religious home-culture.
The aged Polycarp, when under arrest during the persecution under Marcus
Aurelius, in reply to the injunction of the pro-consul, "Swear, curse
Christ, and I release thee!" exclaimed, "Six and eighty years have I served
Him, and He has done me nothing but good; and how could I curse Him, my
Lord and Saviour?" Thus showing himself to have been a Christian at the
early age of four years! It was through the instructions of his grandmother
Lois, and his mother Eunice, that young Timothy "knew from a child the holy
scriptures, which made him wise unto salvation."
And what an effectual antidote are such instructions against vice and
temptation! How many have by them been arrested from the devouring jaws of
infidelity and ruin! Thus it was with John Randolph, who said that in the
days of the French revolution, when infidel reason took the place of God
and the bible, and infidelity prowled unmolested throughout France, he
would have become an infidel himself, had it not been for the remembrance
of his childhood days, when his pious mother taught him to kneel by her
side, and to say, "Our Father, who art in heaven!" Thus, too, with the
pious and learned J.
Pages:
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186