ess, the restraints, the self-denial, and the encouragement
which may be requisite for this. The faith and prayers which may be
necessary to bring their children into the fold of the Good Shepherd,
who in his last commission to his disciples did not forget to remind
them, saying, "Feed my lambs," and whose promise and prediction, before
his coming into the world, was, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
I have _ordained_ praise." The Scriptures inform us that it was the
purpose of God when he "set the solitary in families," to "seek a goodly
seed."

How delightful and consoling then is the thought, in this world of sin
and temptation, where there are three mighty obstacles to the final
salvation of our children--the world, the flesh and the devil, that
angels, ministering spirits, are appointed to "keep their watchful
stations" around the families of the just. "Are they not all ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister to them who shall be heirs of
salvation?"

When parents cheerfully fall in with the great designs of God, and in
dependence upon him in the use of the divinely appointed means, in his
preparing a people to himself, what a glorious combination there is in
all this to fulfill his gracious purposes. Not only God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, but the angelic hosts, and all good
people by their prayers and labors, help forward this grand and glorious
design.

When beyond this sublunary sphere, and the vail is removed which now
hides from our view the realities of the unseen world, with what
different emotions may we suppose parents will look upon their mission
on earth. It will indeed seem wonderful that they should have been thus
intrusted with the care and guardianship of children, which in a
peculiar sense is their own, and in this respect widely differing from
the angelic band, whose happiness, though they are permitted to minister
to the saints, in such efforts and experience, must be inferior to that
which parents will feel in training their own offspring--even emulating
the all-wise Creator in his preparing a people for himself. It is
certainly but natural to suppose that the happiest souls in Heaven will
be those parents who are the spiritual parents of their own children.

The benefits which must result to parents in the careful training of
infants--children who are, by means of parental faith and fidelity,
converted in early life, can scarcely be apprehended, certainly n