as your heavenly Father who heard your cry and did help you; as your gracious Redeemer through whom you found access to the Father; as your sure Comforter who spake peace to your soul, and bade your fears be still. Thus yourself hallowing the name of God, you take advantage of this undisturbed quiet and retirement from the world, to meditate with a quickened feeling of anxiety, how you may, in due season, best teach your child also to hallow the same glorious name-Father, Son, and Holy Ghost-the Christians' God-the Christians' friend". And this is done, not only by abstaining from every irreverent, careless use of the Word; "taking it in vain," and using it in ordinary conversation; but by so remembering his presence whose name is invoked, that honour towards Him be in the heart, and on the lips, and in the conduct, as in the presence of the King of kings-the Lord whose name is Holy.

Where the name of God is thus hallowed, there is a natural desire that his authority, in its full power and majesty, should be established. You, therefore, pray that "his kingdom may come"-the kingdom, here, of holiness and peace; hereafter, of glory and of bliss. But never did you breathe this petition so fervently; never did the aspirations of your soul rise so eagerly in hopeful supplication for its accomplishment, as now. You look upon your infant, helpless, and unconscious yet, but still to become, as you trust,

5 Exodus xxxiii. 11. "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." John xv. 15. "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you."

a faithful subject of God's spiritual kingdom here, and a happy sharer of his heavenly kingdom hereafter. What fresh ardour does this thought give to your devotion! your petition includes a prayer for one who cannot pray; but whose welfare, in time and in eternity, is still more dear to you than your own. With what added earnestness is it now offered! As often as you clasp your infant to your breast, rejoicing as a happy mother in the possession of her new treasure, your heart swells with a mingled feeling of anxiety and hope, that the soul thus entrusted to your care may not fail its share of that kingdom, for whose coming you pray. What affectionate ponderings fill your maternal heart! Perhaps as you stand over its sleeping couch, and catch some radiant smile passing over the gentle cheek, how would you fain fix that smile, that no care ever cloud it! Since, however, a state so blissful is not for this world, and some sorrow must darken the path of life; yours is the wise resolve, that no effort shall be wanting on your part, to secure for your child the surer happiness of heaven -rest, joy, glory, which will never change. With this object in view, you will perseveringly lead your loved one so to live in obedience to the laws of God's spiritual kingdom of holiness that it lose not its inheritance in his eternal kingdom of glory. Thus you meditate! Thus you resolve! Act in accordance to that resolve, and let your holy meditations lead to a holy activity. You can give no better proof of your own sincerity in praying that the kingdom of God may come, than by training your child to a faithful obedience as a subject of that kingdom, and to a love of his laws who ruleth therein.

CHAPTER V.

THE LORD'S PRAYER.

HAVING prayed that God's "kingdom may come," you proceed to pray that "his will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." On this point your new maternal duties themselves instruct you. Do you assert parental authority as the ground upon which you exact obedience from your child? do you appeal to him by the honoured name of mother, that he obey you? do you plead your nights of wakeful anxiety, when bending over his couch in health and sickness you have so often strained your wearied eye to wakefulness lest yourself should sleep and he awake to require your care? do you plead your devoted love towards him in your oft self-denial for his sake? do you plead your secret prayers for his present and future good? do you thus appeal? do you thus plead ?-you do well. You may thus haply bend even the sturdy mind to do your will; whilst upon nobler and more generous spirits their effect will be decisive: for it is a hard heart that can resist a mother's appeal, and an ungenerous spirit indeed which yields not to a mother's plea. May God, in his mercy, bless you in applying these motives to duty! But in thus training your child, are you not instructing yourself? You pray of God, that you may do his will on earth, as angels do it in heaven! And are there never struggles in your own breast, whether you shall really do his will, or gratify your own in opposition to it? Yet remember He is your Father! Are you not addressing him as such

in this very petition? and has He no appeal to make on the score of authority? Is He not your Creator? Has He no plea to put in on the ground of love and affection? Had He no watchful care over you, when there was none else to help you? Nay, does He not himself assure you, that you shall sooner "forget your sucking child" than He forget you? Your entire dependence upon Him for the past-your sole sure reliance on Him for the future, on behalf of your loved child, as of yourself-your solemn vow of dedication, made in the congregation and registered in heaven-your late deliverance, altogether ascribed to Him-all these considerations form a claim upon your obedience as a child of God, which you never perhaps felt to be so powerful as now-when you are called upon to demand of your child, that your will be done by him.

In offering the next petition-"Give us this day our daily bread"—you feel that you have now another to care for, another to think for, besides yourself. Perhaps so favoured may be your lot in life; plenty and worldly ease surrounding you without an effort or a care on your own part; that you hardly understand the necessity of earnest supplication for a supply, of which you never knew the want. You have offered the prayer rather as an acknowledgment of dependence than as an expression of want or fear of change. Or it may be otherwise. be otherwise. You may be of those to whom added numbers in the family cause added toil for the present and added care for the future; and even in your joy you may look with tearful eye upon your dear

1 Isaiah xlix. 15.

infant, lest his need lack supply. But be not discouraged. Still offer up, with more earnest faith, this prayer for "daily bread." Remember that the richest and the greatest, the wealthiest and the most powerful, are sustained amid their daily comforts only by the daily providence of the same God, to whom you pray and in whom you trust. Comfort yourself by the assurance so frequently and so strongly brought before us by our Blessed Saviour, that the good providence of your heavenly Father is ever over you; regulating the minutest circumstances which can affect the welfare of yourself and of your family. The assurance is explicit, and illustrated by the simplest images. "Behold the fowls of the air! your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" "Yes," your heart whispers" Yes, my child; we are better than they and the Being who has made us heirs of immortality by grace will not fail to sustain us by his providence. To doubt his love now, would be senseless ingratitude. O Father! bless my child, and bless its parents' industry as they toil for its support. Give us day by day the "food convenient for us." You too, a nursing mother, have but to meditate on the nourishment you are yourself made the happy channel of conveying to your nursling, to trust in the same power to sustain your child even unto the end.

Proceeding in your supplications, you pray of your heavenly Father to "forgive you your trespasses as you forgive them that trespass against you." And too sure it is, that however kind and friendly may be our disposition; however careful we be to live peaceably

2 Proverbs xxx. 8.