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The tear glistened in his eye, and his lips quivered with emotion. For some time he could not speak. At length he said,

"Wait, my dear, a few weeks, and perhaps I shall feel authorized to accompany you to the baptismal font, for I have never been baptized." He could say no more. He arose and left the room.

There is no doubt but that Mr. Lindsley was at this time under deep serious impressions, and that he had formed secret-resolutions to enter upon the work of his salvation. Mrs. Lindsley followed the retiring steps of her husband, as he left the room, with a streaming eye, offering up to the Divine Being the earnest petition, that the Holy Spirit might accompany him wherever he went, revealing to him his character as a sinner, and constraining him to fly to the foot of the cross for mercy and life. When she turned her eyes towards Mary Anna, whose presence she had entirely forgotten in the deeply absorbing train of reflection that had been passing through her mind, she saw her bathed in tears. Her first thought was, that this gush of sensibility had been called forth by the deep feeling she had just witnessed in her parents. Mrs. Lindsley, therefore, did not think fit to intimate, by making any inquiry, that she noticed this burst of tenderness in her daughter.

After a little interval Mary Anna was the first to interrupt the silence that ensued, by the following innocent, artless, and affecting train of remarks; and as she spoke, the tears were still glistening in her eyes.

"Mother, I hope dear father will become pious, and be baptized. For I was reading this morning in the gospel of St. John, and it has been sounding in my ears ever since, he that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.' I hope father will be saved; don't you, mother?"

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Child," said her mother, her heart ready to burst with emotion, "it is highly proper that you should feel a tender and affectionate solicitude in reference to the eternal salva

The religious exercises of a child.

tion of your dear father, but of vastly greater importance that you should feel an anxiety about your own everlasting condition, and learn to remember your Creator in the days of your youth.'

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"Dear mother," said Mary Anna, "how long I have wished to talk with you on this subject! I have been thinking all day what an awful thing it would be, to be damned to be shut out for ever from heaven, and cast down to that place where, the Bible says, 'the worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched;' and I sometimes fear that I shall be shut up there, for I am such a sinner!”

"How long since you have had these feelings and reflections?" inquired her mother.

"Ever since I can remember," said she, "at times. But these thoughts have dwelt continually in my mind since last spring. I went out one day to gather wild flowers. As I was wandering around, all at once it occurred to me, how beautiful and lovely are the works of God! The trees had just put on their new foliage-the meadows and pastures were covered with fresh verdure-the violets bloomed all around-the blossoms hung upon the peach trees-every breath of air seemed full of fragrance-the sun shone with all its splendour and brightness over every field, and seemed to tip every flower with new tints of beauty-a thousand little insects were buzzing and dancing through the air— the birds were singing sweetly from every bush and bramble-the lambs were skipping over the hills, or chasing in little troops through the plain-all seemed joyous, and thankful, and glad. A voice seemed to whisper in my ear, Shall all these praise God and you forget him?' O, how my heart then sunk within me! I sat down and wept. I tried to pray-to bless God; but then I felt that I was so great a sinner-I had forgotten God so long, and loved him so little, that I could not pray. It seemed as if he frowned upon me with a look of wrath. I came home sorrowful. I kept thinking for many weeks about this, and when Hezekiah died I felt as though God designed his death as

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Joy and peace in believing.

a warning to me; and there has not been a day from that time to this that I have not thought about dying; and when I have been alone, and thought over all the wrong things I have done, I have often felt as though there was no hope for me. But the other day I was reading in my Bible this passage, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' I had just before been thinking, what an intolerable burden' my sins were; and the thought occurred to me, Am I not one of those who are 'labouring and heavy laden?' Am I not one of those to whom the Saviour here says, 'I will give you rest?' In spite of myself I could not but rejoice. It seemed as if I had all at once found Him that would save me. Ever since then I take delight in nothing so much as in reading about Christ. Mother, do you not think that Christ will have mercy upon me? May I not then also be baptized?”

This guileless, unsophisticated, and almost infantile discourse of Mary Anna quite overcame the feelings of her mother. Her heart was too full for utterance. Embracing her daughter, she bathed herself and her child in tears of tenderness and joy.

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WHEN it is recollected that baptism is the sign and seal of the Christian covenant-a covenant entered into between creatures, whose breath is in their nostrils, and that Omnipotent Being who "is from everlasting to everlasting"-that all his mercies are covenanted mercies-that the very idea of a covenant implies the greatest condescension on his part, inasmuch as he thereby binds himself by a promise, assuring those that love and fear him, that though "the mountains depart and the hills be removed, his kindness shall never depart from them, nor the covenant of his peace be removed"—when these several particulars are recollected, it is truly astonishing, that, on the one hand, any who have not repented of their sins, who have not resolved to turn from every evil way, and devote themselves, soul and body, to the service of God, should presume to approach the baptismal font, or seek to be washed in the mystical waters of baptism, as though "the putting away of the filth of the flesh," not "the answer of a good conscience toward God," would make them clean in his sight;

The danger of indecision in religion.

and on the other hand, that any who cherish a well-grounded hope that they have been born of the Spirit—and are desirous of receiving some special token of God's lovingkindness, should think lightly of this blessed sacrament, instituted on purpose to initiate them into the family of the Most High.

Mr. Lindsley, for a number of weeks after the conversation related in the last chapter, appeared very thoughtful and serious. He assembled his family, night and morning, and read to them some affecting portion of Scripture. His whole appearance indicated the undoubted fact, that he was under deep convictions of sin, and "almost persuaded to be a Christian."

Mrs. Lindsley was cheering herself from day to day with the hope that the time was not far distant, when herself, her husband, and their only child, would stand before the baptismal font to enter into an everlasting covenant with Jehovah. She did not, however, think it expedient to mention the subject again to her husband, presuming that when his mind was in a fit state he would himself propose it.

Mr. Lindsley was a firm believer in the truth of the Christian religion, and in its vital and practical influence upon the heart and life. He could not have borne the idea of dying without its consolations. He meant to save his soul. But still he did not now feel ready to obey the call of Christ, to give up all and follow him. He stood so connected with men of business, and by his professional duties was so frequently brought in contact with the world, that he feared he could not sustain the Christian character consistently. Such were the evil suggestions of a heart that still clung to the world. Though in most points a man of great decision and fearlessness, Mr. Lindsley was ashamed of the cross, and shrunk from the idea of standing before the world in the avowed character of a religious man. He soon began to resist the strivings of God's Spirit. He secretly tried a thousand expedients to extract the

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