s invariably found in her
seat in the sanctuary, with such of her children as were old enough to
be taken to church. In the afternoon she gave her nurse the same
privilege, but retained her children at home with herself. The moment
the house was clear, Mary Jane might be seen collecting the little group
for the nursery; alluring them along with the assurance that "now mother
was going to make them happy." This meeting was strictly in keeping with
the sacredness of the day. It was also a social meeting, each little one
as soon as it could speak, being required to take some part in it, the
little Mary Jane setting the example, encouraging the younger ones in
the most winning manner; and always making one of the prayers. The Bible
was not only the text book, but the guide. It furnished the thoughts,
and from it the mother selected some portion which for the time, she
deemed most appropriate to the state of her infant audience. Singing
formed a delightful part of the exercises. The mother had a fine voice,
and the little ones tried to fall in with it, in the use of some hymn
adapted to their tender minds.

These meetings were also very serious, and calculated to make a lasting
impression on the tender minds of the children. At the close of one, the
mother who had been telling the children of heaven, turned to Mary Jane,
and said, "My dear child, if you should die now, do you think you should
go to heaven?" "I don't know, mother," was her thoughtful reply;
"sometimes I think I am a good girl, and that God loves me, and that I
shall certainly go to heaven. But sometimes I am naughty. J---- teazes
me, and makes me unthread my needle, and then I feel angry; and I _know_
God does not love me _then_. I don't know, mother. I am afraid I should
not go to heaven." Then encouraging herself, she added in a sweet
confiding manner, "I hope I shall go there; don't you hope so too,
mother?"

Oh, who of our fallen race would ever see heaven, if sinless perfection
only, were to be the ground of our admittance there? True, we must be
free from sin, before we can enter that holy place; but this will be,
because God "hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him."[A]

How much of the great doctrine of Justification by Faith in Christ this
little girl could comprehend, would be very difficult to tell. But, that
she regarded him as the medium through which she must receive every
blessing