ies,
would, at any time, be sufficiently discouraging. The difficulty must
be greatly increased by a dark, rainy night. We travelled many miles,
and to a late hour. At length we became satisfied that further search
would be unavailing; and all but the mother determined to return home.
It was an idea she could not, for a moment, endure. She would hear of
nothing but further search. Her strength, at last, began to fail her,
and I prevailed on her to return to her abode. As she turned her face
from further search, and gave up her child as lost, her misery was
almost too great for endurance. 'My child,' said she, 'has been
devoured by a wild beast; his little limbs have been torn asunder; and
his blood been drunk by the hideous monster,'--and the idea was
agony. As she clung to my arm, it seemed as if her heart-strings
would break. At times I had almost to support her in my arms, to
prevent her falling to the earth.

"As we proceeded on our way back, I thought I heard, at a great
distance, the sound of a horn. We stopped, and listened: it was
repeated. It was the concerted signal. The child was found. And what
were the feelings of the mother!" Language cannot describe them. Such
is the strength of maternal affection. And can a child be so hard-
hearted as not to love a mother? Is there any thing which can be more
ungrateful than to grieve one who loves you so ardently, and who has
done so much for you? If there be any crime which in the sight of God
is greater than all others, it appears to me it must be the abuse of
parents. If the spirit of a demon dwells in any human breast, it must
be in that breast which is thankless for parental favors, and which
can requite that love, which watched over our infancy and protected
our helpless years, with ingratitude and disrespect.

CHAPTER V.

RELIGIOUS TRUTH.

In this chapter I shall take up the subject of religion. That you
may understand your duties, it is important that you should first
understand your own character in the sight of God. I can, perhaps,
make this plain to you by the following illustration:

A few years since a ship sailed from England to explore the Northern
Ocean. As it was a voyage of no common danger to face the storms and
the tempests of those icy seas, a crew of experienced seamen was
obtained, and placed under the guidance of a commander of long-tried
skill. As the ship sailed from an English port, in pleasant weather
and with favorable br