deavors, but divine grace which made
Christians. I observed that the truth appeared to be, that divine grace
_blessing_ human endeavors seemed most likely to accomplish that great
end. She replied that experience was not on my side, for that the
children of religious parents were not always religious. I allowed that
it was too true. I knew that she drew her instances from two or three of
her own friends, who, while they discovered much earnestness about their
own spiritual interests, had almost totally neglected the religious
cultivation of their children; the daughters in particular had been
suffered to follow their own devices, and to waste their days in company
of their own choosing and in the most frivolous manner. "What do ye
more than others?" is an interrogation which this negligence has
frequently suggested. Nay, professing serious piety, if ye do not more
than those who profess it not, ye do less.

I took the liberty to remark that though there was no such thing as
hereditary holiness, no entail of goodness; yet the Almighty had
promised in the Scriptures many blessings to the offspring of the
righteous. He never meant, however, that religion was to be transferred
arbitrarily like an heir-loom; but the promise was accompanied with
conditions and injunctions. The directions were express and frequent, to
inculcate early and late the great truths of religion; nay, it was
enforced with all the minuteness of detail, "precept upon precept, line
upon line, here a little, and there a little"--at all times and seasons,
"walking by the way, and sitting in the house." I hazarded the
assertion, that it would _generally_ be found that where the children of
pious parents turned out ill, there had been some mistake, some neglect,
or some fault on the part of the parents; that they had not used the
right methods. I observed that I thought it did not at all derogate from
the sovereignty of the Almighty that he appointed certain means to
accomplish certain ends; and that the adopting these, in conformity to
his appointment, and dependence on his blessing, seemed to be one of the
cases in which we should prove our faith by our obedience.

I found I had gone too far: she said, with some warmth, that she was not
wanting in any duty to her daughters; she set them a good example, and
she prayed daily for their conversion. I highly commended her for both,
but risked the observation, "that praying without instilling principles,
might