Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-12-21

tP"tshhS Inree year Olu, whose Joyous lie
and buoyant annual spirits seemed to flow
from an inexhauetible fountain, suddenly
turning to its mother requested to be put
Ito bed. Retiring for that purpose to an
adjoining room, and the door being left
slightly ajar, all unconscious to the trust
ing boy and his loving mother, we over
heard him, in the sweet accents of lisping
infancy, repeat the prayer we have all so
often, repeated: p" e 'i'' =
snow lay me down to sleep,
81 pray the Lord my soul 10 Keep; '.-
rl II should die before wake,
pray the Lord my soul to tak0n ?
Z With kiss, and gentle good night,
the mother left her precious charge to
Providence that never slumbers, and re-
turned with a heavenly trust beaming from
her every feature, that only can be seen in
the countenance of those SO blessed.
But what an inexpressible magic there
; is in that simple, child's-prayer! He
Z who does not, at it's artless utterauce in the
silvery voice of childhood, feel the pervad-
ing sphere of pure and holy influences flow
J ing from attendant and guardian angels, is
fit for baptism into the Church of the Sad
ucees; for he must, in his inmost heart,
deny the existence of such beings. r
The child, taught by true mother, TO
repeat this simple prayer with trusting and
loving confidence, can never, in after life,
wholly escape from its hallewing influence.
1t will be stronger protection against the
temptations that will beset him than all the
volumes of "evidences'' and "theology"
that ever were written. The boy may
grow to manhood. In the giddy whirl of
folly and fashion-in the eager race of am
bition and worldly honors-in the absorb
ing competition of business and hurrying
to be rich--on the world s great battle
fields, surrounded by the 'pomp and cir
! cumstance of upon the oceans deep
and the deserts waste-he may forget all
else, and even this for a time; but calm
solitude-an evening hour-when about
to retire for nights repose, will come TO
him wherever he may be, and all unbidden,
bring with it the scenes Of his childhood,
and that forgotten mother win lay again
her gentle hand upon his upturned brow,
as in the olden time, and all unsought. will
agush from his full heart, if not from
his bearded lips. the prayer of his infancy.
and in its softening and dissolving power,
IL will do much to melt away the shell that
has SO long enveloped, and is fast incrust-
ing all the purer impulses Of his soul lie
is made TO review his past life, and al
though he may call it weakness, and try
toresist its spell, yet he cannot shake it off
1t will walk by his side, a perpetual mon
itor, and win him to better life.
Go TO the festive hall, where youth and
beauty, under the fascinations of flattery,
has been tempted to win conquests of
doubtful propriety- where the boundary
which separates refined social recreation
-tIom Improbable revelry has been past.
When the night has been far spent in such
n scene, follow to her home and silent
chamber, the giddy, thoughtless, er-ing
and almost fallen belle of the past hours.
See her lay aside her flashing jewels. See
her strip from her soft, white fingers, the
glittering gems and sparkling diamonds.
see her unclasp from her marble brow the
golden coronet that encircles it, and fling
them all away as baubles. See the. quiv-
ering lrp--the Inoistening eye-the swell
ing .bosoml What does it all mean? All!
her Guardian Angel has whispered to her
heart the scenes ofiong ago, and, in mem
ory, she is at her dead mothers knee, and
is child again! Aud as child, with an
Irrapressible impulse, she kneels by her
beoside and repeats her allpost-forgotten
prayer. and is saved! bat how could her
Guardian Angel have approached her If
she had not had stored away in her child
hoods Innocence that simple prayer? &.
Ne would not. in this, be understood as
inculcatinga moody spirit, which, in obe-
Ci.nce TO the mistaken notion that to be
merry is sin. would suppress the out
gushing of the feelings in recreation and
amusements. No more beautiful sight
can be seen on earth than when youth
and loveliness, in their unconstrained
exhibition of pure natural impulses. meet
in the festivities Of the social circle,
and JOY tnrilIs every heart with de-
hight. And, so far from thinking it wrong.
we believe amusements to be an essential
of our nature, without which full devel-
opment of the soul is impossible. The