Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-01-15

their closing eyes, and not commit
them to your god? Can you labor that
they may enjoy the good things Of this
fieeting world, and not pray that God
would prepare them for that upon
which they will soon enter! Can you
see them growing up around you with
out hope, and without God in the
world; though you be unable to do more,
can you refuse to pray that He, who in
a peculiar manner extends the arms OF
mercy to those in the morning Of life,
would take. them to His embrace, and
prepare them for his kingdom.
You have seen the hand of disease
fastened upon them, aud have passed
days of anxious toll, and nights OF
sleepless solicitude to arrest their ma
lady; and have cried from bursting
heart, ooh! spare my child" You
have seen the object of your tenderest
affections sinking into the arms OF
death, and with heart rent with an
guish, have said with the nobleman,
"Come down e'er my child die" And
when the last duties of paternal affec-
ton were performed, and the grave has
closed over the child of your bosom,
you have perhaps looked back to the
time when it was under your care, and
mourned that you thought no more OF
its immortal part, that you prayed no
more for its precious soul.
If you have passed through scenes
like these, if you have thus felt, then
remember those, now in life and health,
and improve the opportunity now Civ
enyou. The time for your exertion is
very short. Soon your children will ar
rive at that period of life, when mo-
TIERS influence will be very feebly felt
unless it has been early exerted. Would
you find in them rich source of con-
ISOLATION when your heads shall become
white with years, and your bodies bend
ing to the grave; then you will no,o
commit them to Him who can sancti-
fly and save the soul. Should you go
down to the grave and leave these OBJ
jects of your love in cold, unfeeling
world, what better can you do for them
than to secure the friendship Of one
who "sticketh closer than a brother"
s. whose Glove is stronger than death. "
The tender tie which now binds you to
them will soon be dissolved you can
not resist the stroke which shall tear
them from your bosom. You may have
felt the pang-your heart may have
been filled with sorrow, o then, if you
ever prayed. if your soul ever went out
to your God, in humble petitions; tell
Him of your children who know Him
not; when you know what it is to
wrestle in secret with the God of Jacob,
give him back in faith your Children
Then in that other world to which you
are going, you may through grace say,
"Lord, here am /, and the children thou
hast given me-" Should this paper
fall into the hands of mother who ne
yer proyed even for herself: she must,
she cannot but pray for those to whom
she has given life. Prayerless Mother
spare, Oh! spare your child. Stop
where you now are, on the threshold of
eternity, and remember as you gaze on
that countenance which smiles in your
bosom, that you have never prayed for
its soul which will live forever. Have
you mothers feelings, and can you
still neglect it!
Oh! my God, give me poverty, give
me pain, leave me friendless and forsa-
ken by the world,-but leave me not to
the embrace of a prayerless mother =
Leave not my soul to the care of one
who never raised her weeping eyes to
heaven, as she implored its blessings on
my head.
Are you mother? and can you close
your eyes upon the scenes of earth, and
remember that you never raised, even
in silent breathings, the desires Of your
heart to heaven for child, perhaps
your only darling?
In some lonely hour when the labors
of the day are ended, and you have per-
formed the last act of kindness for your
sleeping bades; kneel, it, you never have
before,-kneel before Him who seeth
your heart in that silent hour, and ut
ter one short peayer, one broken petit
ton for YOUR dear children,