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THE PRAYING MOTHER.

BY REV. CHARLES ADAM SMITH.

THE strength of a mother's affection is well known. We need not say how much every child owes to maternal watchfulness and care. We need not go back to the early years of life, and bid memory recall the anxious hours that have been spent in watching over the helplessness of infancy, in expostulating with the waywardness of childhood, in observing the progress of youth, as it advances toward maturity. A mother's love seldom grows coldso seldom, that she who forgets her child is considered an anomoly, unworthy to occupy that social position and rank which her name indicates.

But it is when maternal affection is hallowed by piety and prayer, that it possesses the greatest value, and secures for its object the greatest blessings. Without this, it loses most of its power; and that which it retains is more likely to be detrimental than advantageous to the mind over which it is exercised. There are mothers who never pray, and they, too, have influence; but it is an influence that is far more likely to be employed in fixing the young thoughts upon worldliness and vanity, than upon those spiritual concerns and duties that are of the highest moment to the soul. Even such a mother may profess to be willing that her child should be saved; but not standing herself upon the high vantage-ground of piety and prayer; not having herself experienced the renovation of the life within; not being herself a guide in the path of Christian obligation and hope, the influence of her counsels, even when they advert to duty, must be greatly circumscribed and weakened, by her practical refusal to walk in the way of duty herself. Such a mother cannot labor with the earnestness of one who has known both the bitterness of the displeasure of God and the joy of his love. It is the pious mother who has felt all this, and who is, therefore, alone truly qualified to labor for the everlasting interests of her child, because she alone can put a VOL. XVIII.-No. XI.-21

proper estimate upon those interests. It is her privilege to understand something of the value of the soul, and the nature and extent of the malady with which it is afflicted. She has discovered the earliest signs of its alienation from God, and watched, with increasing and trembling concern, their gradual and progressive development. The soul is possessed, she knows, of evil dispositions of passions that, if unrestrained and allowed to have their own way, will destroy its peace, both for time and eternity. She is persuaded, too, that there is a plan of recovery. She has tested and proved its efficacy. And she is conscious that there is a power mightier than hers-an influence that can prevail over the temptations of the world; over the force of passion; over the inconsideration of youth; over the natural love of what is evil, and the natural aversion from what is good. And now, impressed with these considerations, we see the pious mother busy at her task. The work which God has given her to do; that which she regards as the most important of all, is the work of educating a soul for heaven. And, in the prosecution of this work, she endeavors to fix the conviction of duty upon the mind and heart, by her instructions and example. And then she sanctifies her work by prayer. She sows the precious seed, and calls upon the Lord of the harvest to take care of it, and cause it to grow into holy and abiding principles of faith and action.

But what is the purport of those supplications which the praying mother offers to Christ? It is, that he would cure the malady of the soul, and restore it to spiritual soundness and health. The first conviction, then, which leads to such a prayer, is, that the soul is distempered.

We sometimes hear and read about the innocence of childhood. Now, in a certain qualified and comparative sense, the phrase is not objectionable. Childhood may be innocent of the known and wilful violation of the laws of God. It may be innocent of any intention to avoid what is right, and to do what is wrong; for there is a period in childhood when the difference between good and evil is not discerned. There is, also, in childhood a beautiful simplicity, a freedom from arrogance, a comparative love of what is pure, that removes it far from the insincerity, and pride, and

corruption, which too often betray themselves during the progress and amid the temptations of after years. There was, indeed, a touching and eloquent propriety in the act of our Saviour, when he placed a little child in the midst of his disciples, as an emblem of that humility and simplicity of character which were essential to their entrance into the kingdom of heaven. But to say that childhood is innocent in such a sense as to possess no moral incapacity for the joys and employments of duty, and so as not to need the intervention of Christ, for its recovery, is to deny that all men are by nature dead in trespasses and sins.

"Lord help me," was the And does not the Christian

Again the supplications of the praying mother are an acknowledgement that without the assistance and blessing of the Divine Spirit all other means must fail. petition of the mother of Canaan. mother feel that there is no other help, after she has labored long and faithfully to remove the moral distemper that afflicts the child of her affections? How often does a wayward and disobedient temper betray itself, notwithstanding all her exertions! How of ten are her pious admonitions and counsels disregarded! How many are the signs that mere human effort, although stimulated by the warmest affection, and by a becoming regard for the interests at stake, cannot do the work! Hence, the reliance upon Christ for aid. Hence, the prayer that implores his intervention. Would that there were more of this feeling of dependence, this placing the work of conversion in the hands of Christ. Too much reliance, we fear, is often placed upon mere inculcation, as if the work of the soul's recovery were of man, and not of God.

One of the elements of the Christian mother's prayer-that prayer which receives an answer-is a strong faith. Such a faith will consider every discouragement as an additional reason for perseverance. The want of success in the endeavor to lead the soul to Christ, will only increase the urgency of petition. Human appliances may fail, but the power of divine truth is exhaustless, and may prevail, even in cases that are beyond the reach of the ordinary means. And when we speak of the ordinary means, we allude to the Spirit's influence, among the rest. There is an ordinary influence which accompanies Christian fidelity in the work of

human conversion, and which often accomplishes the end in view. Take the child who is carefully instructed from his early years. Imperceptibly, and yet surely, may the divine Spirit go along with those instructions, writing them indelibly upon the mind. In this case, the work of moulding the character, of reforming it after the model of the gospel, is constantly progressive; so that we often hear of persons who cannot point out the day or the hour of their conversion. So long as they have had any moral consciousness, they are sensible of having loved and feared God.

But there are other cases in which fidelity is not thus rewarded. Owing to some peculiarity in the moral constitution of the child, or from some other reason, the truth does not exercise the power which it ought. The child grows up, and youth fades away into manhood, and there is no evidence of conversion. And then the difficulty is increased, by his being thrown out upon the busy world, mid the strifes of men; where the din of business, or the raging surges of human passion, or the noise of ambition, contending for renown, is so apt to dazzle and fill the mind with what is earthly and fading. At this crisis, scarcely anything appears to be left for the praying mother but prayer. She has been sowing the good seed, but the enemy has been busy, at the same time, sowing tares, and there is danger that in so genial a soil as the human heart, they may prevail over all the good impressions of early life. And yet she despairs not. Her faith brings her to the mercy seat. There she pleads the promises of God. She pleads her own earnest desires. She pleads the value of the soul. She prays that some chord of memory, that some spring of the mind may be touched, which shall revive the past-the days of childhood and early youth-and bring up, with resistless power, the recollection of maternal faithfulness and love. She believes that divine grace may so control and guide the thoughts; she believes that the seed of truth, which now lies apparently dead, beneath the surface of indifference and unbelief, may still possess vitality, which needs only to be stimulated and encouraged by a life-giving impulse from on high, in order to spring up, and grow, and ripen into fruit.

Prayer accepted, is not always immediately answered. Differ

ent causes may intervene. It may be a trial of faith. Or the favorable opportunity may not have arrived. Many, thus tried, would faint and despair, and perhaps charge God with unkindness, in not answering prayer at once. But a strong faith continues to plead, knowing that God has his own reasons for delay.

Such a faith-the prayer of such a faith-is very likely to secure its object. It appeals to the strong sympathies of Him who is all benevolence. It is earnest, confident, full of strong hope. Do we question whether such prayer is heard? Do we question whether God, in answer to it, often puts in operation all the extraordinary agency that can be made to bear upon the human mind, consistently with its freedom and accountability? Ask, rather, whether God reigns? Whether he is true to his promises? Whether he has power to change, by some master touch, the current of the mind's thoughts, and the heart's feelings? By one of those mysterious spiritual laws, of which we know nothing, we have reason to believe that the power of such prayer is felt; that it often turns the destiny, and changes all the prospects of the soul. To doubt this, is to limit the agency of the divine Spirit; it is to confine that agency to the methods that lie within the circle of our own vision. We can understand how the Spirit may operate, at the very moment when the mother is addressing truth to the mind of the child. We see an appropriate and sufficient medium in the tearful eye of that mother, in her trembling voice, in the swell of the soul's emotions, visible in every feature, and in her whole manner. But we cannot understand how prayer can effect its object when that object is removed far away from these outward tokens of maternal tenderness and concern. But if we cannot understand this, God can. He has not made us familiar with the mode of operation of all his laws. Nor is it more incomprehensible that the Spirit should thus descend upon the heart, in answer to prayer, than that it should descend at all; and the same God who pours out his transforming grace, may pour it out when and where he pleases. Yes, we believe that a mother's prayer has often saved her child. We believe it is often a bright cloud of mercy, that hovers above and around him, leading him on to various thoughts, and, in the hour of temptation, throwing a light upon