ome was the place of my spiritual nativity, and my parents were
God's instruments in leading me to Christ!"

The eminent piety of Dr. Dwight stands on record as the fruit of a mother's
faithful religious training; for "she taught him from the very dawn of
reason to fear God and keep His commandments, and the impressions then made
upon his mind in infancy, were never effaced." The mother of young Edwards
is another example of early piety as the fruit of religious home-culture.
The aged Polycarp, when under arrest during the persecution under Marcus
Aurelius, in reply to the injunction of the pro-consul, "Swear, curse
Christ, and I release thee!" exclaimed, "Six and eighty years have I served
Him, and He has done me nothing but good; and how could I curse Him, my
Lord and Saviour?" Thus showing himself to have been a Christian at the
early age of four years! It was through the instructions of his grandmother
Lois, and his mother Eunice, that young Timothy "knew from a child the holy
scriptures, which made him wise unto salvation."

And what an effectual antidote are such instructions against vice and
temptation! How many have by them been arrested from the devouring jaws of
infidelity and ruin! Thus it was with John Randolph, who said that in the
days of the French revolution, when infidel reason took the place of God
and the bible, and infidelity prowled unmolested throughout France, he
would have become an infidel himself, had it not been for the remembrance
of his childhood days, when his pious mother taught him to kneel by her
side, and to say, "Our Father, who art in heaven!" Thus, too, with the
pious and learned J.Q. Adams, who daily repeated the little prayers his
mother taught him when a child.

Thus, then, we see that parents are encouraged by the most brilliant
examples of history, to teach their children religion at the home-fireside,
"when thou liest down and risest up." Oh, let the gentle courtesies and
sweet endearments of home engrave the Word and Spirit of God upon their
tender hearts. Wait not until they are matured in rebellion, and sin lay
beds of flinty rock over their hearts; but let them breathe from infancy
the atmosphere of holiness, and drink from the living fountains of divine
truth. See that your homes become their birth-place in the spiritual
kingdom of Christ.

Such religious training will be the guardian of their future life, and will
fortify them against impending evil. What made Daniel st