said, "You are
going to be ordained to-day, and you will be told your duty by those
who know it far better than I do; but I wish you to remember one thing
which perhaps they may not tell you--remember, that, whenever you lay
your hand on a child's head, you are laying it on its mother's heart."

FOOTNOTES:

[43] "The Sybarites of to-day will tolerate a sermon which is delicate
enough to flatter their literary sensuality; but it is their taste which
is charmed, not their conscience which is awakened: their principle of
conduct escapes untouched.... Amusement, instruction, morals, are
distinct _genres_."--AMIEL.

[44] The finest description of a speaker known to me is this of Lord
Bacon in Ben Jonson's _Discoveries_; and it is evident that it was the
man rather than the manner or even the matter which made the impression:
"Yet there happened in my time one noble speaker, who was full of
gravity in his speaking. His language, where he could spare or pass by a
jest, was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly,
more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he
uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His
hearers could not cough, or look aside from him, without loss. He
commanded where he spoke; and had his judges angry and pleased at his
devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of
every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end."

[45] It has often astonished me to observe how easily ministers' wives
in this respect find for themselves the right path. One would think it
would be very difficult sometimes for those who have been brought up in
cities or in a secluded circle to adapt themselves suddenly to a remote
and unselect society; and they have not, like their husbands, had the
opportunity of meditating long on the duties of a public position. A
hearty and cordial humanity in the members of a minister's family lends
an immense assistance to his work. A minister ought to belong to no
class of society, but to have the power of moving without constraint in
every class.

[46] "Not a heart but has its romance, not a life which does not hide a
secret which is either its thorn or its spur. Everywhere grief, hope,
comedy, tragedy; even under the petrifaction of old age, as in the
twisted forms of fossils, we may discover the agitations and tortures of
youth. This thought is the magic wand of poets and preachers."--_Amiel._