lse interests of life. It will
restrict the fashionable taste and sentiments of the age. It will teach
wisdom to the pious mother, and be a sure defense against the dangers and
indiscretions of the nursery and fashionable boarding school. Under its
influence, mothers will not trust the souls of their children to the
guardianship of irreligious nurses, nor expose them to the perils of a
corrupted and heartless fashion. They will deny themselves the ruinous
pleasures of a gay and reckless association with the world; and with
maternal solicitude, attend upon the opening of those buds of life which
God has committed to them. The pious mother will wield her power over her
children, by the force of this sympathy; for her's is the deepest, purest,
and most saving of all home-sympathy:

"Earth may chill
And sever other sympathies, and prove
How weak all human bonds are--it may kill
Friendship, and crush hearts with them--but the thrill
Of the maternal breast must ever move
In blest communion with her child, and fill
Even heaven itself with prayers and hymns of love!"

CHAPTER XV.

FAMILY PRAYER.

"Hush! 'tis a holy hour,--the quiet room
Seems like a temple, while yon soft lamp sheds
A faint and starry radiance through the room
And the sweet stillness, down on yon bright heads
With all their clustering locks, untouched by care,
And bowed, as flowers are bowed with night,--in prayer.
Gaze on, 'tis lovely--childhood's lip and cheek
Mantling beneath its earnest brow of thought!"

Home-sympathy will prompt to family devotion. The latter is the fruit of
the former. A prayerless home is destitute of religious sympathy. The
family demands prayer. Its relation to God, its dependence and specific
duties, involve devotion. Communion with God constitutes a part of the
intercourse and society of home. The necessity of family prayer arises out
of the home-constitution and mission. Family mercies and blessings; family
dangers and weaknesses; family hopes and temptations,--all bespeak the
importance of family worship. If you occupy the responsible station of a
parent; if God has made you the head of a religious household, and you
profess to stand and live on the Lord's side, then, tell me, have you not
by implication vowed to maintain regular family worship? Besides, the
benefits and privilege of prayer develop the obligation of the family to
engage in it. Is not every