lf up to be punished, he had been
sent to prison, but because of good behavior had been soon pardoned. He
is now spending his life among the lower class, whom he understands so
well and pities so much, trying to show them the way of salvation.

Note the atmosphere that surrounded the cradle of each of the babes of
whom we have been speaking. In the first home we find prayer, love,
hope, and tenderness; in the last, sin, hatred, crime, and villainy. Oh
that mothers everywhere would take warning! If only these two pictures
could be framed and hung in the recesses of every mother's heart where
they might teach their silent lesson! If only mothers might see how
powerful for good or evil is their influence; how the affections and the
mental powers may be moulded by prayer and maternal love, and how the
groundwork for the future of the child may be laid in its early
training!

A sensible mother has a charm and wields an influence that takes a fast
hold on the hearts of those who are dear to her. The kindly sympathy of
youth, the deep affection of manhood, can be traced to influences that
began at mother's knee.

What true, prayerful mother does not feel as her child closely nestles
to her bosom that she is invested with a divine, mysterious power, an
influence which she can not understand? Then it is that she sees her
imperfections and longs for wisdom to know how to guide her child. God
alone can supply that understanding. She is her child's book of wisdom,
love, and, beauty, but she should be of God's writing.

CHAPTER II.

A PRAYING MOTHER.

Still another mother comes before my mind--an earnest, zealous, pious
mother, who fashioned her life and example continually by God's Word and
endeavored daily to teach her children the deep truths of salvation in
language so simple that they could understand, to seek out the causes of
their failures and discouragements, and to give them timely advice and
instruction.

As I trace a few of her experiences, which are all true incidents, I
trust they may sink into some perplexed mother's heart and enable her to
wield the instruments of love and prayer about her darlings and to be
more able to guide their tender hearts in the right course.

Mrs. Worthington lived in the great city of Chicago, in a small cottage
on Portland Avenue near Thirty-first Street. Nothing about the dwelling
was elaborate; everything was simple, but very neat. Pretty vines
trailed gracefully over t