naturally succeeds that of sympathy and compassion for the little stranger which Providence has ushered into existence, and which a good God has recommended to our kindness and care. The first thing that strikes us in infancy is its helplessness. A child is so very feeble and dependent. Other beings have been endowed by Providence with the instinct which is necessary for the preservation of self, and are at the moment of birth supplied with the covering which shall protect them from the rigours of climate. But not so with man. Were it not for a mother's solicitude and attention, he would inevitably perish. It is by a long and painful experience that he acquires the use of his various faculties. "There was a time," as it has well been said, "when the tongue of the most accomplished orator could not articulate the simplest sounds,—when the pencil which seems to create nature anew, depicted rude and unmeaning strokes,-and the hand which charms with celestial harmony, produced only discord and confusion."

It is at this period, then, that the young look to us for sympathy and support, and when there is excited in the parents' breast a feeling which nerves the heart to struggle and toil for the welfare of one unconscious of the benefits which are showered upon it,—a feeling which shall yearn towards it while life endures, and which will often burn brighter and glow more intensely even when assailed by the rude blasts of ingratitude and unkindness. So strong, in fact, is this feeling in the breast of one parent, that, as it has eloquently been observed, "It transcends all other affections of the heart. It is neither to be chilled by selfishness, nor daunted by danger, nor weakened by worthlessness, nor stifled by ingratitude. She will sacrifice every comfort to the convenience of her child; she will surrender every pleasure to his enjoyment; she will glory in his fame, exult in his prosperity; and if adversity overtake him, he will be dearer to her through misfortune; and if disgrace settle upon his name, she

will still love and cherish him in spite of his disgrace; and if all the world beside cast him off, she will be all the world to him."

It is in consequence of this feeling that we are perhaps apt to overrate, to some slight extent, the benefit which we confer upon the young, and to think how important we are to them, whereas they are quite as important to us. They are in fact our teachers. God sends them with their mission. Where is a nobler discipline than beside the cradle? How many a thoughtless girl has it transformed into the careful, the devoted and the noble-minded woman! How many a man, who was indifferent to the sports and festivities of youth, has it taught to sympathize in their careless glee and promote their innocent mirth! And then, too, the man who has hung over the couch of his own sick and suffering infant, who has had to witness pains which he could not alleviate, and seen, as I have, the eye of his little one turning to him with its deep eloquence even in death-how kind, how considerate, it makes him to every poor child he sees-how much in life it makes beautiful that before seemed dull and prosaic, and what once was desert "blossom like the rose"!

Another set of feelings which the contemplation of infancy is calculated to excite, are those of hope; for the mind has seldom gloomy forebodings beside the cradle of the young. It is a time when we rather turn to that which is bright and glowing. Who knows but that the child that lies before him may be designed for some great and glorious destiny? Was it not thus that Milton once slumbered, indifferent to the sounds which under his plastic power were to rivet the attention and inspire the noble feelings of thousands? Was it not thus that a Burns dozed on as if there were no sky above him, no daisies on the mountain-side, and no "wee, cow'ring, timorous beasties," to claim the protection of a poet's lay,-thus that sleep closed the eye of a Newton, which in after time was to track the

comet's course, and detect the law by which all created matter is held together and exists,—and stilled the voice of a Chatham, which with the thunder of a Demosthenes was to vindicate the rights of humanity at the same time that it pleaded the majesty of law?

I have said that at this period we will not contemplate the gloomy side of the picture, and it is not natural that we should do; for childhood is suggestive of hope. Fore-done as we may be by the drudgery and daily cares of our own position in life, we all at once turn poets by the cradle of our little ones. Stern reality may have dissipated the fairy visions of our younger days, and, overpowered by disappointment, we may have ceased to picture glowing prospects for ourselves; but here we think the propensity may safely be indulged. Nay, we imagine that we may congratulate ourselves on good grounds, for we have our own experience to aid us in forming plans for our children, and we cheer ourselves with the thought that they will profit by our very errors.

Another reflection which the contemplation of childhood is calculated to excite, is that of our own advance in life. We who were ourselves but a short time ago associated with the young and thoughtless, are now included among "the fathers in Israel." We feel that a new step is made in existence. In fact, I know nothing so much calculated to age a man, as the birth of an infant. I do not mean to say that, chronologically speaking, he has a number of years added to him; but I mean to say that it makes him feel older. Different ideas,

different hopes, different cares, arise from such an occurrence. His pursuits, too, are altered; his thoughts and anxieties ally him with the older members of the community. A strange change comes over him. He lives not for himself; he lives for others. As his anxieties differ, so do his interests; and the circle of the gay and merry-making, which it was once his ambition and pleasure to join, is now willingly abandoned for

the smiles and greetings of his own fire-side. A change such as this is naturally calculated to awaken reflection and selfexamination. It tells us that an important period of life is gone, that another generation has arisen to take our place in the world, and that it cannot be long ere we shall be summoned to sleep with our fathers, and "the place that now knows us shall know us no more."

The most important suggetions, however, which the contemplation of childhood is calculated to excite, is that of responsibility. No parent can gaze on his slumbering infant without feeling that its destiny is to a considerable extent entrusted to himself. Whether we come into the world with certain innate ideas and propensities, is one of those abstruse questions which I am not now going to discuss. But I think that every one, who has attentively considered human nature, must allow that to a very great extent we are the creatures of education. I question whether there ever was a child born with dispositions so vile, but might not, under judicious treatment, have become a worthy and respected member of society. Nay, I go so far as to assert, that what are usually denominated evil propensities, are, if judiciously directed, the means of promoting the greatness of the individual and the welfare of the community. I believe, with an eminent transatlantic divine, "that the same misguided ingenuity which has brought many a malefactor to the gallows, might have raised him, under happier circumstances and better instruction, to fortune and to fame.”

Which of us, then, is there, who as he gazes on the innocent countenance of his little one,‚—a little one free from vice, a child of the Eternal, entrusted to him to be trained "in the fear and admonition of the Lord,"-must not feel what a solemn responsibility attaches to the relationship in which he stands, and how careful he should be that a creation so glorious, be not marred and defaced by his own neglect, by his own misconduct, or by his own bad advice!

To one individual this responsibility peculiarly attaches, and that is the Christian Mother. Did our limits permit, it could, I think, easily be shewn that the elements of that greatness, for which all eminent men have been distinguished, existed to a certain extent in the mother that bore them, and that it has mainly been owing to her influence that they have attained the distinction they enjoy. A good mother can counteract the evil example of a bad father; but a good father can never destroy the evil influence of a bad mother. It is from this circumstance that the royal sage has told 66 us, a child left to himself bringeth his MOTHER”—not his FATHER--" to shame;" and that a kindly old German writer has penned the following memorable sentence, which deserves to be written in letters of gold: "Alas for the man, for whom his own mother has not made all other women venerable !"

Christian Mothers! when I perceive what is your influence, -when I consider how the prayer you have taught us to lisp at your knee, how the impressions you have inculcated, will survive-aye, when you are cold and mouldering in the grave, when I know how your children shall for these things "rise up and call you blessed"—when I know how the dying eye shall gaze for your saint-like and angel forms to whisper, "Sister spirit, come away,"-I call upon you to appreciate the power you possess ; and, in your unnoticed obscurities, to fulfil that most important, that most holy, of all duties, the duty of a Christian Mother!

And may God so bless your efforts and ours, that when we are summoned to the tribunal on high to answer for the care we have taken of those entrusted to us, we may be able to appear in the presence of our Almighty Judge, saying, "Lo, here are we, and the children whom thou hast given us!" Amen.