Year: 1860




From the Monthly Religious Magazine.


Deacon and Mrs. Chase were strict an,
reverent mcmbers of an evangelics
church, in a secluded New England vii
lage, and kept unbroken aud uudulate.
the strong old faith of the Puritans.-
"Sister Chase as the good Deacon
grave wife was called in the church, wa
a dcvout, earnest, praying woman, who
was also ready at every call of duty, ant
kept her lamp always trimmed and burn
ing.


With meek and conscientious fidelit,
she also sought to train up her children
in the way they should 20, not omittins
the occasional application of Solomon
prescription yet many confession she
made upon bended knees, aud many .
tear shed in tho night hours over hel
own short comings and the departure Of
her family from the path of rectitude.-
But with this laboring aud praying moth.
er there was one stereotyped style Of
goodness, and it was to produce this in
all under her charge that she laborcd.-
Servants and children alike were expect.
ed to become passive, unGuestionipc,
tame spirited recipients of he. theology, "
or they were in t!!:s '.gall of bitterness
and the hSuds Of iniquity." No matter
! ii nature iad made u fiery impetuous
Peter, grace must make him docilc, un-
demonstrative John.


Good Mrs. Chase understood duty bet.
ter than she did human nature, but some
times the ignorance of the one led her
into misinterpretation of the other
She had four children, two meek, sub
missive girls, aud two boys, one of whom
was too young as yet to be the object or
cause of much anxiety, the other, with
whom our story has the most to do, q
fiery, impetuous, fun loving school boy of
ten years, rejoicing in mischief, and not
repen,ing very etfectually, except when
he felt that he had given pain to one he
loved as he did everything else with an
dnimus.


With this boy, this erratic, willful,
Master Fred, lay Sister Chase's sorest
trouble. "Wherc could he have got such
a nature?' she asked herself in perplex.
ity. "Certainly not from me; and if it
were in their father, why have not the
other children inherited it? Mrs.
Chase was firm believer in total dcprav.
ity; if she had ever been skeptical on
that point, she would have been restored
to soundness after short experience in
managing Fred When tie boys cratic
propensities began to manifest them.
selves in his boyhood, his mother was
puzzled, for the young tyrant would lie
awake when all Christian babes ought to
be asleep; he would scream from no con-
ceivable cause, and manage to fight
strong battles with those two red fists of
his, when he should have quietly sub
mi.ted to his morning ablutions. As
soon as he grew large enough to run
any other child Of the family, he was
"into everything" nothing could be kept
safe from his deprcdations unless out Of
his reach, and the quiet, nicely kept
furniture Of the Chase domicile received
more scratches, dents, and belaborings
generally, than during the entire previ-
Gus pc riod of its household use.


After a while these practices were
checked by wholesome discipline; but
what was kept under in one place would
creep out in another At church he was
the sevcrcst of trials, for sitting still was
virtue which refused to be engrafted
upon Fred, though it was natural to his
sisters. At family prayers, while the
rest listened to the service, Fred describ-
ed diagrams on the carpet with the toe
of his shoe, or rummaged with one hand
among the promiscuous collection which
he carried in his pocket, or planned the
next chestnutting excursion, and was off
with whoop aud bound as soon Us his
father had said "Amen." Not one de-
liberate act of malice or violence, or mis-
chief, did Fred plan or execute; but he
was boiling over with animal spirits,
which must find vent somehow and the
perpetual air of constraint about the
family. tho subdued tone, and the solem-
nifty Of his mothers appeals to him to
repent and give his heart to Christ, only
drove him to the opposite extreme. In
vain did she tell him, when his merri-
ment became unbearable, that tho
laug liter of fools was like the cracking of
thorns under pot ;'-he hated the au-
thor Of those words, because he somehow
felt, though he could not say it, that
mirth was part of his nature, and could
not, and would not be ignored. Ia vain
did she tell him that the "way of the
transgressor is hard ;" and that she fear.
ed he was Gin the broad road IN death -
the only hard way for him was the way
Of precision, and grave, steady applica-
tion. If sho had told him that these
we're the ways of transgressors, he would
have fully believed her.


The good mother had in her heart
consecrated this frst-born son to God,
and her fondcst hope was to see him q
minister of the Gospel. She used to take
him alone into her room, and read to
him and pray with him, and weep over
his want of interest when he would break
into the story Of young Samuel or limo.
thy with "What time is it mother?-
Maynt l go pretty soon ?" By the time
he was ten or eleven years of age, he had
begun to consider himself AZ a sort Of
rerrobate, given over-"it was no use
for him to try to be good as he could see.
and yet he didn't see what he had done
that was very bad only he couldn't be
as mother wanted him to be, and he sup
posed he was an awful sinner, for he had
always been told that he was and
he began to do from perversity what
l. E. l.. ~,