William daily heard the scriptures read in the family, and as constantly knelt with us at our family altar. But we felt it extremely difficult to determine on the right method of teaching HIM HOW TO PRAY. Though no enemies to forms of prayer in the abstract, we thought that when children learn to pray by a form, they too frequently pass through the task, without any exercise of the understandingwithout attention. At this time, Mrs. D. met with a passage in Zollikofer's Sermons, which instantly approved itself to our understandings; and on which we proceeded to act. It was this :-"Let your child be taught, in general, its relation to God, its dependance upon him, its obligations to him, &c. &c. : then let it form a prayer for itself. This will require thought, recollection, views of the future,"* &c. His mother would take him on her knee, and say, "Now, my dear, think how good God has been to you to-day, in continuing to you your dear papa, and me, and aunt, and other friends; in giving you health, opportunity for learning,

* I do not pretend to give his very words: such was the import of his advice.

&c. Think of what has been amiss with you. Consider what you need,-his protection, his favor, and his mercy." This would, at times, lead to a long conversation. At length he would kneel upon her lap, with his face in her bosom, and offer his prayers. They were, at first, short, singularly simple, but always conducted with the greatest seriousness. Exercise improved his talents; and at the age of eight or nine, he could and did pray with considerable variety, with facility, and, occasionally, with pathos and eloquence. At the age of twelve, and thenceforward, he had a remarkable fluency in prayer, though it was never heard by any human being except his aunt, his mother, and myself. On no occasion could he be prevailed upon, even to his last hour, to take a part beyond that of reading the scriptures, or of reciting a hymn, in the devotional exercises of the family. It was, I believe, pure modesty; but it was carried to an almost criminal length. In my occasional absence from home, he always devolved upon his aunt the task of conducting family prayer, for which he was himself so well qualified..

We were soon delighted, and made thankful to God, for many striking indications of his piety. His mental talents were developed in a surprising degree, at a very early stage of life; and he seems to have felt the power of religion from the time that he could first form a notion of its nature. He was not a little indebted for this to a young woman, frequently in the habit of working, as a sempstress, at our house. She had, and still has, beyond most, the power of engaging the attention and the affections of children. Many of his hours were spent with her, while at work; and she often attended him to his bed. Religion, than which nothing more delighted him, formed their principal subject of conversation; and I shall never cease to reflect, with pleasure and gratitude, on the circumstance, that that female-whom he continued to love to his dying day, and who now mourns his loss, with a tenderness of feeling scarcely inferior to my own-was so frequent an inmate of my family. She had her reward in the kindness of my son on earth-she will have it more completely in that day and in that world, where

the fruits of all such labors of love shall be fully reaped.

Amidst those early indications of religion, which afforded us so much pleasure, was his decided, invariable regard to truth. His parents had his entire confidence; and he felt no temptation to deceive us, as he was fully aware that his happiness and his woes were our's. We had his affections so strongly on our side, that, independently of a nobler principle, he would have been restrained from falsehood by a regard to our feelings. This may seem to ascribe to him a delicacy, a correctness, and a strength of feeling rather unnatural, or even impossible, at such an age: but it must be recollected, that all his powers had an uncommonly early development: and I pledge myself that such reasons, however out of the ordinary course, did very soon operate upon his mind. While we could calculate on this operation, in all his intercourse with us; we had ever studied to impress him with a sense of the divine presence and inspection. This supplied him with a motive for

speaking truth in his intercourse with others as well as with ourselves. And to no part of his character did we ever direct a more constant or more earnest attention than to this. When he was about three years old, an aged female, at whose house he was staying for a day, informed me that William had told a falsehood. As deception of any kind was so perfectly foreign from all his habits, I expressed a doubt on the subject; but she stated such particulars as caused me to fear that he had transgressed. I was thunderstruck and almost distracted; for the information seemed to blast my most cherished hopes. This might, I thought, be the commencement of a series of evils for ever ruinous to our peace. I am not I never was-naturally of a temper to augur the worst; but the first grand moral delinquency, even at such an age, must commit a breach on the noblest sensibilities of the heart, which cannot but threaten a catastrophe at which a parent may well shudder. Principiis obsta, had ever been our motto; and our child lived long enough to feel its importance, and to bless God that his parents

VOL. I.