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PRESIDENT EDWARDS.

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It passed on to his

been referred to in illustration of this truth.* Ranking as he did among the highest and purest of intellects, he was not less conspicuous for godliness than for gifts. But what is more, he could count his descent through a great-great-grandfather, a great-grandfather, a grandfather, and a father who were all conspicuous for godliness,—some of them for suffering in the cause of truth, and all of them for making the Word of God their charter and their chart in life. Nor was the chain broken in the case of Edwards himself. descendants. Father and son in succession continued to enthrone God's truth in the heart as the rule of their life. In this manner, six generations at least have served God in the gospel of His Son; and the world has seen in one example what grace and truth can do when fathers seek them for their children, or honour the Spirit of Wisdom as the Teacher at once of parent and of child. Is man faithful? So is God. Is man perverse? Then, "with the froward, God shews himself froward." Fathers reap as they have sown. As they measure, it is meted to them again; while there are cases not a few in which the gray hairs even of a godly parent have been brought in sorrow to the grave by the outbreak of ungodliness, that may often be traced to the neglect, the mismanagement, or the unwisdom of the father.

But we have seen a father's influence put forth in a very different way. Death had invaded his home, and child after child was carried to the narrow house. That father felt and confessed the fear that he would yet be left alone in the world, though his family had been twelve in number. After one of the desolating blows, the surviving remnant resolved, with their mother, to erect a

*Anderson's "Domestic Constitution," Part I., sec. 6.

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family altar, and nightly to gather round it, there to bow before Him whose arrows flew so fast, and struck so fatally. But was the father among that worshipping group? Did he lead their devotions? Did he instruct them to "hear the rod?" Did he warn them to prepare for what he feared was coming, and what actually came, without very long delay, to other two? Ah, no; but in various ways he shewed that his heart was still untouched. The annoyance which he occasioned to the little worshipping group was akin to persecution-he made it painfully plain that he cared not how soon the family altar became a neglected ruin.-Such is the power of the world. the protector into a persecutor, and instead of acting for God at the head of a home, such fathers repress, deaden, and destroy the souls of their children.

It sours even a father's nature: it turns

Scarcely could we find a better illustration of a father's duty than occurred in the home of Oliver Cromwell. He has long been an incomprehensible riddle to men. Some have deemed him an arch-hypocrite, and others an arch-fanatic. Many have reckoned him a deep deceiver, who practised deception so long that he became at last the dupe of his own lie. But, in truth, all such verdicts upon Cromwell are the dictates of ignorance in some, of incompetency in others. Judged by the ordinary standards, by which alone worldly politicians and as worldly historians can judge, the Protector is one of the greatest mysteries of all time. But tried by the truth of God, or seen in the light which it sheds, Cromwell is really no mystery at all. His true nature is seen in his home, where he was beloved as few have ever been. One who has profoundly fathomed his character, and who has done full justice to the Puritan, tells us that his

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whole family, and all beneath his roof, up to his wife and venerable mother, clung to him with a tender affection—all lived with him in singular harmony, "as noble a household as any in this our land of noble households."* Their love was an enthusiasm, their attachment a passion. Piety and affection, Christian grace and household virtue, knit them all together. If Cromwell was a partaker in one great crimethough multitudes deny that it was a crime at all—he fell as David did-as Peter did-as Cranmer did, and many more; but in all the relations of life, as the ruler of a great kingdom, and the head of a household, Oliver Cromwell stands insulated-all but alone, noble, if not royal, a God-made king, a Christian.

* Myers' "Lectures on Great Men."

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THE MOTHER AT HOME.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MOTHER AT HOME.

The Morning and the Evening Star-Scripture-The Reign of Love-Responsibility -Weak Things confounding the Mighty-A Mother's Province-Her Honour -The Apollo-The Laocoon-Mingled Anguish and Joy-Godless MothersWorldly Mothers-Hyena Mothers-Ambitious Mothers-Ostrich MothersGodly Mothers-The Countess of Carberry-A Mother's Grief-Hope-A Time for Repentance--The Motherless-Examples-Alfred the Great-The Poet Gray-Dr Doddridge-Lord Bacon-Sir Isaac Newton.

It is true to nature, although it be expressed in a figurative form, that a mother is both the morning and the evening star of life. The light of her eye is always the first to rise, and often the last to set upon man's day of trial. She wields a power more decisive far than syllogisms in argument, or courts of last appeal in authority. Nay, in cases not a few, where there has been no fear of God before the eyes of the young-where His love has been unfelt and His law outraged, a mother's affection or her tremulous tenderness has held transgressors by the heartstrings, and been the means of leading them back to virtue and to God.

At the outset of this section, we are warned by the faithful and the true Witness, in many portions of His Word, that the mother, for the most part, decides the character of the son. For example, was the life of Samuel long and devout? Was he early a holy child, and honoured to work for God? That stands connected with the significant fact, that the mother of that boy had said—" As long as he liveth,

ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SCRIPTURE.

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he shall be lent to the Lord." The surrender of that believing mother's heart was ratified in heaven, and proved a blessing to her as well as to succeeding generations.

On the other hand, was Rehoboam a foolish king? Did his conduct at length rend his kingdom in twain? The Word of God explains these things by saying, "His mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonitess." That is, she was an Idolater, and he was habituated to idolatry and its maxims in youth. Rehoboam, on a throne, was hence prepared to be a scourge to his kingdom.

Or did Amaziah "do that which was right in the sight of the Lord?" Then his mother is said to have been of Jerusalem. She was trained there in the truth, and, like other Jewish mothers who had felt its power, she succeeded in planting that truth in the heart of her son.

Or farther. The name of Hezekiah is closely linked with that of his mother, Abi. The same is true of Josiah, of Jehoiakin, and others, both wicked and righteous, among the kings of the Jews; and if we are to learn, not merely from what the Scriptures say, but often also from the connexion in which they say it, there are both warnings and encouragements contained in such brief allusions to a mother's ascendancy and power.

The secret of her influence is this-A mother's reign is pre-eminently one of love—

"Here woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife,

Strew with fresh flowers the narrow vale of life.

In the calm heaven of her delightful eye,

An angel guard of loves and graces lie."

With such power for her sceptre, she can sway and mould; she can repress and encourage; she can build up or destroy

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