e prayer of his childhood.
"How often in old age," says Bishop Hall, "have I valued those divine
passages of experimental divinity that I heard from the lips of a mother!"
Dr. Doddridge ever lived under the influence of those scripture
instructions his mother gave him from the Dutch tiles of her fireside. He
says, "these lessons were the instruments of my conversion." "Generally,"
says Dr. Cumming, "when, there is a Sarah in the house, there will be an
Isaac in the cradle; wherever there is a Eunice teaching a Timothy the
scriptures from a child, there will be a Timothy teaching the gospel to the
rest of mankind." By the force of this same influence, the pious wife may
win over to Christ her ungodly husband, and the godly child may save the
unbelieving parent. "Well," said a mother one day weeping, "I will resist
no longer! How can I bear to see my dear child love and read the
scriptures, while I never look into the bible,--to see her retire and seek
God, while I never pray,--to see her going to the Lord's table, while His
death is nothing to me! I know she is right, and I am wrong. I ought to
have taught her; but I am sure she has taught me. How can I bear to see her
joining the church of God, and leaving me behind--perhaps forever!"

The Christian home has its influence also upon the state. It forms the
citizen, lays the foundation for civil and political character, prepares
the social element and taste, and determines our national prosperity or
adversity. We owe to the family, therefore, what we are as a nation as well
as individuals. We trace this influence in the pulpit, on the rostrum, in
the press, in our civil and political institutions. It is written upon the
scroll of our national glory.

The most illustrious statesmen, the most distinguished warriors, the most
eloquent ministers, and the greatest benefactors of human kind, owe their
greatness to the fostering influence of home. Napoleon knew and felt this
when he said, "What France wants is good mothers, and you may be sure then
that France will have good sons." The homes of the American revolution made
the men of the revolution. Their influence reaches yet far into the inmost
frame and constitution of our glorious republic. It controls the fountains
of her power, forms the character of her citizens and statesmen, and shapes
our destiny as a people. Did not the Spartan mother and her home give
character to the Spartan nation? Her lessons to her child infused t