The mind of the mother was also
impressed with the idea of her own responsibility. She felt that the
soul of the child would be required at her hands, and that she must do
all in her power to fit it for heaven. Hence she was importunate and
persevering in prayer, for a blessing upon her efforts; that God would
graciously grant his Spirit, not only to open the mind of her child to
receive instruction, but also to set it home and seal it there.
Her solicitude for the spiritual welfare, of the child was such, as
often to attract the notice of the writer; while the results forced upon
her mind the conviction, that the tender bud, nurtured with so much care
and fidelity, and watered with so many prayers and tears, would never be
permitted to burst into full flower, in the ungenial soil of earth.
Mary Jane had hardly numbered three winters, when a little sister of
whom she was very fond, was taken dangerously sick. Her mother and the
nurse were necessarily confined with the sick child; and she was left
very much alone. I would fain have taken the little girl home with me;
but it was feared that a change of temperature might prove unfavorable
to her health, so I often spent long hours with her, in her own home.
Precious seasons! How they now come up to me, through the long vista of
the dim and distant past, stirring the soul, like the faint echoes of
melting music, and wakening within it, remembrances of all pleasant
things.
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