at schools the children should attend--or the casual
mention of the most common news of the day. He provided liberally for
his family, what they should eat and drink, and wherewithal they should
be clothed and instructed--but he took no pains to gain their affections
or their confidence, to enlarge their ideas and awaken within them the
thirst for knowledge, and plant within them the deathless principles of
right and wrong--or even to inspire their young minds with love and
reverence for their Divine Creator and Preserver. All this most
important duty of a father was left to his wife, and blessed is the man
who has _such_ a wife and mother, to whom to intrust the precious charge
he neglects. Most amiable and affectionate, intelligent and judicious,
and of ardent and cheerful piety, this excellent woman devoted herself
with untiring zeal to the training of her cherished flock, and as she
saw and felt with poignant grief that she would have no help in this
greatest and first earthly duty, from him who had solemnly promised to
sustain and comfort, and assist, and cherish her, to bear and share with
her the trials and cares of life (and what care is greater than the
right training of our offspring), she again and again strove with
earnest faith and humble prayer, to cast all her care upon Him, who she
was assured cared for her, and go forward in every duty with the
determination to fulfill it to the utmost of her power. Many times did
the cold and stern manner of her husband, his anger at trifles, and his
thoughtless punishment for accidental offenses, cause her heart to bleed
for the effects of such government, or want of government, upon her
children's hearts and minds. But she uttered no word of blame in their
presence, she ever showed them that any want of love or respect for
their father grieved her, and was, moreover, a heinous sin, and by
patient continuance in well doing, she yet hoped to reap the full
reward. Her eldest, Charles, felt most keenly his father's utter want of
sympathy, and to him she gave her most constant tender care.
Affectionate, but hasty, he was illy constituted to bear the harsh
command, or the frequent fault finding of his father, and often she
trembled lest he should throw off all parental control, and goaded by
his irritated feelings, rush into sin without restraint. And so,
probably, he would have done but for the unbounded love and reverence
with which he regarded his "blessed mother." Her ge