6 GIVE ME WINGS. [Written for the Mother's Assistant.] "GIVE ME WINGS." BY MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY. The little son of pious parents was always attentive to religious instruction. He was especially delighted with any conversation on the heavenly state. His loveliness of temper, and serious turn of mind, were remarked by all who knew him. At the age of four years, he was taken to that world for which he seemed to have a peculiar fitness. It has been remembered that to his nightly prayers he voluntarily added a petition for wings; that he never omitted, before retiring to rest, to say, "Give me wings, that I may fly upward," unless very weary and sleepy, when he would imbody his supplication in the fewer words, "GIVE ME WINGS." Wings? What a prayer, my child! Wings? They are thine! No! Thy dark, loving eye, 'Mid all the sparkling up and overflow Of childhood's happiness, was heavenward bent, Now they are thine, indeed. But didst thou think How they were purchased? With what lingering pangs, Of young affections, with their blossomed links Rememberest thou, O winged creature, in thy seraph joy, Most happy one, to be attended thus By those whom she had nurtured, and to feel Hartford, Conn., Dec., 1842. THE WOODMAN'S DAUGHTER. 7 THE WOODMAN'S DAUGHTER. Being overtaken by a storm one summer's evening, I saw a feeble light gliminering through the casement of a cottage, toward which I bent my steps. I knocked at the door, and was welcomed in, but immediately perceived that the inhabitants were oppressed with grief. "I fear," addressing myself to the father, "that you are in trouble." "O, yes, sir, our hearts are all bursting; for Death is coming to bear off our little Jemima. She is up stairs, sir, where she has now been these eight days, and her mother has not left her, night or day. She is one of the sweetest girls a father ever loved." "But Death," I remarked, "does not come by chance." “O, no, sir. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.' But it is hard work to part. "Walk up, sir," said the father, "and see her before she dies; but she is so changed!" I entered her room, and soon perceived that Death had cast his shadow on her countenance, which still retained its beautiful form. Addressing myself to the child, I said, “Do you think die?" "Yes, sir." "And if you die, where do you expect to go?" "To heaven." "What makes you think you shall go to heaven?" you shall "Jesus Christ has said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' "Did you always believe in him, and love him?" "No, sir; not till he inclined me; for, if we love him, it is because he first loved us." "Then you can leave father, and mother, and all, to go to heaven?" "Yes, sir; I have no wish to live on earth, when I have the prospect of living a nobler and happier life in glory." The surgeon, who had been anxiously expected for several hours, now arrived. "Do you think," said the heart-struck mother, "the child is dying?" This question, though familiar to the humane man, was not heard without an evident expression of grief. "While there is life," he replied, "there is hope; but I would advise you not to be too sanguine in your expectations." 8 THE WOODMAN'S DAUGHTER. We now walked down stairs; the surgeon left, but I could not leave. "Will you, sir," said the father, "go to prayer with us? If it were not for prayer, and the hope which the gospel inspires, my heart would break." With this request I complied; and, while praying to the God of all grace, that the little child might be favored with the light of his countenance in her passage through the valley of the shadow of death, I heard the mother's shriek, which convinced me that she was gone. All wept aloud; the children started up, wringing their hands, and calling, “Jemima, Jemima, don't leave us!" and the mother, with a softened melancholy of countenance, appeared among us, saying, with a faltering tongue, "She exclaimed, as I was raising her up on the pillow, I am going to glory!' and fell back in my arms, and died." London Teacher's Offering. PARENTAL PARTIALITY.-There is one fatal danger in family government, which every parent should avoid, and that is partiality. It is too often the case that fathers and mothers have their favorite child. From this, two evils result. In the first place, the pet usually becomes a spoiled child, and the "flower of the family" seldom yields any other than bitter fruit. In the second place, the neglected part of the household feel hatred towards the parent that makes the odious distinction. Disunion is thus sown in what ought to be the Eden of life; a sense of wrong is planted, by the parent's hand, in the hearts of a part of his family; an example of injustice is written on the soul of the offspring, by him who should instil into it, by every word and deed, the holy principles of equity. This is a subject of great importance, and I commend it to the particular notice of all parents. TO MAKE HOME HAPPY. Nature is industrious in adorning her dominions, and the man to whom this duty is addressed, should feel and obey the lesson. Let him, too, be industrious in adorning his domain; in making his home-the dwelling of his wife and children- not only convenient and comfortable, but pleasant. Let him, as far as circumstances will permit, be industrious in surrounding it with pleasing objects; in decorating it, within and without, with things that tend to make it agreeable and attractive. Let industry make home the abode of neatness and good order — a place which brings satisfaction to every inmate, and which, in absence, draws back the heart by the fond associations of comfort and content. Let this be done, and this sacred spot will become more surely the scene of cheerfulness, kindness, and peace. Ye parents who would have your children happy, be industrious to bring them in the midst of a pleasant, a cheerful and happy home. Waste not your time in accumulating wealth for them, but fill their minds and souls, in the way proposed, with the seeds of virtue and true prosperity; and teach them to love God and keep his commandments. "The grape must be crushed before the wine will flow," and we must have felt adversity before we can rightly estimate friendship. CONSTITUTION FOR MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. 9 We publish the following form of a Constitution for Maternal Associations, for the benefit of such persons as design to associate themselves together for the laudable and praiseworthy object of assisting each other in the important work of training up their children in the way they should go. The Constitution may be altered by omissions or additions, in order to adapt it to the circumstances of any persons, or any place. — ED. CONSTITUTION FOR MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS. PREAMBLE. Deeply impressed with the great importance of training up our children in the fear of God, we, the subscribers, agree to associate ourselves together for prayer and mutual counsel in reference to our maternal duties and responsibilities; and we adopt the following Constitution: — ART. 1. This Association shall be called THE MATERNAL ASSOCIATION CHURCH. OF THE ART. 2. The object of this Association is mutual counsel and interchange of thought in relation to the physical, intellectual, moral, and religious education of our children, and to assist each other to the utmost of our ability in this great work. ART. 3. The officers of the Association shall be a first and second Directress, a Secretary, and a Librarian, who shall be chosen annually. ART. 4. The duty of the first Directress shall be to preside at all meetings. In the absence of the first, the second Directress shall preside. ART. 5. The Secretary shall keep a record of the proceedings of each meeting, and a correct list of the names of the members and of their children. ART. 6. The Librarian's duty shall be to keep the books belonging to the Association, and to take to the meetings such as the Directress may designate. She shall also keep a correct list of the books. REMARKS BY THE EDITOR. The published Constitutions have generally twelve or fifteen articles, but one half of them properly come under the head of by-laws, or regulations; and some are simply suggestions and recommendations. They are, however, good, and we will recapitulate some of them. The meetings of the Association may be held at two o'clock in the afternoon of the last Wednesday of each month. These meetings should be opened with prayer: a short portion of Scripture may be read, and a hymn sung. Then may follow reading from books or periodicals, interspersed with conversation, all of which should have a direct tendency to convey instruction in relation to family discipline, and to promote maternal faithfulAt four of these meetings, namely, those for January, April, July, and October, the parents may take with them such of their children as are under fourteen years of age. The exercises at these meetings should be such as are best adapted to interest and instruct the children. ness. 10 CONSTITUTION FOR MATERNAL ASSOCIATIONS.- EUCLID. A public meeting may be held once a year, and a discourse delivered on some topic adapted to the occasion. Various duties of a moral and religious character will be constantly suggested to the members of an Association, by the books and periodicals which are read. Every mother, however, should take a good periodical, devoted to maternal subjects, so that she may study it at home. We say study, for it is not sufficient that we hastily read an article, and then lay it by, never to be looked at again. A few good books, also, would be extremely serviceable. When an Association has been formed, the meetings should be regular; and the officers, in particular, should see to it that the Association does not languish and dwindle away. They may find it necessary, sometimes, to visit each member on the day of the meeting, or the day before, to induce them to attend. ELOQUENT PLEA FOR THE POOR. - We utterly repudiate, as unworthy, not of freemen only, but of men, the narrow notion that there is to be no education for the poor, as such. Has God provided for the poor a coarser earth, a thinner air, a paler sky? Does not the glorious sun pour down his golden rays as cheerily upon the poor man's hovel as upon the rich man's palace? Have not the cottager's children as keen a perception of all the freshness, verdure, fragrance, melody, and beauty of luxuriant nature, as the pale sons of kings? Or is it in the mind that God has stamped the imprint of a baser birth, and that the poor man's child knows, with an inborn certainty, that his lot is to crawl, not to climb? It is not so. God has not done it. Man cannot do it. Mind is immortal. It bears no mark of high or low, of rich or poor. It heeds no bound of time, or place, or circumstance. It asks but freedom. It requires but light. It is heaven-born, and it aspires to heaven. Weakness does not enfeeble it. Poverty cannot repress it. Difficulties do but stimulate its vigor. And the poor tallow-chandler's son, that sits up all night to read a book which an apprentice lends him, lest the master's eye should miss it in the morning, shall stand and treat with kings, shall bind the lightning with a hempen cord, and bring it harınless from the skies. The common school is common, not as inferior, nor as the school for poor men's children, but as the light and air are common. It ought to be the best school, because it is the first school; and in all good works, the beginning is one half. Who does not know the value to the community of a plentiful supply of the pure element of water? And infinitely more than this is the common school, for it is the fountain at which the mind drinks, and is refreshed and strengthened for its career of usefulness and glory.- Bishop Doane. Euclid, the disciple of Socrates, having offended a brother of his, the brother cried out, in a rage, "Let me die if I am not avenged on you one time or other!" to whom Euclid replied, with a sweetness next to Christian, "And let me die if I do not soften you by my kindnesses, and make you love me as well as ever." |