to her child, and
is all the world to him. But if she be a praying mother, the child will
very early discover that, like himself, she too is a helpless,
dependent, needy creature, and he will learn to trust in that great
Being whom his mother adores.

Perhaps she has been in the habit, when her child was drawing its
nutriment from her breast, to feel more than at any other time her
responsibility to the little helpless being who is a part of herself,
and especially to "train it up in the way it should go." And she will
usually improve this opportunity to commune with her God, saying with
more solemn importunity, day by day, "How shall I order thee, child?"
She feels the need of more wisdom, for she now begins to realize that
her arms will not always encircle her child, and if they could, she
could not ward off the arrows of disease and death. She thinks too of
the period as near when it will be more out from under her scrutinizing
watch, and will be more exposed to temptations from without and from
within. Perhaps, too, she may die early, and then who will feel for her
child, who will train it, who will consecrate it to God as sedulously as
she hopes to do? O, if she could be certain of its eternal well-being.
She eagerly inquires, "Is there any way by which my child can be so
instructed, so consecrated, that I may be absolutely certain that I
shall meet him, a ransomed soul, and dwell with him forever among the
blessed in heaven?" "Yes, there is." I find in the unerring Scriptures
many precious examples of children who were thus early dedicated to God,
and were accepted and blessed of Him. She loves to remember those
mothers on the plains of Judea who brought their infants to the Savior
for his blessing. They were not discouraged, though the disciples, like
many of the present day, forbade them to come, saying, "Of what possible
use can it be to bring young children to the Savior?" But behold, the
Savior welcomes and blesses them. Children who have been thus blessed of
the Savior will not, cannot be lost. His promise is, "None shall pluck
them out of my father's hand;" and again, "I will keep that what is
committed to me till the final day."

With such Scripture promises and examples, this praying mother, hour by
hour, lifts her heart to God, and implores that the Savior would crown
with success her endeavors to obey his precepts, and, in doing so, to
accept her consecrated child. How sweet and gentle are her accents!