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Gems of the heart there are, some of them sparkling in the sunshine of joy, and others bedewed with the tears of sorrow, which to a sensitive spirit it seems almost sacrilege to lay open to common observation. If ever thus exposed by a mind of true delicacy, it can only be as in the present case I am sure it is-as an offering to that Saviour from whom not even our dearest treasures should be withheld.

There are two principal reasons for the publication of this work, the force of which, I cannot doubt, every thoughtful reader will feel. There was, first, in the life of its subject, a delightful manifestation of the grace of God—a maturity of Christian character not often seen in later years, and quite remarkable in one so young. There was, indeed, little of striking incident in her career. Persons of a mental habitude so vitiated as to relish only adventure and romance, may as well let alone the book "before it be meddled with;" unless, indeed, by its quiet recitals, a taste more simple and healthful may be formed. It is a home-life that is here set before us-a way of even tenor; a daughter's meek and loving dutifulness-a sister's gentle and untiring fidelity. The little of society that befitted her years, was select, unostentatious, unexciting. Yet, for this very reason, there may be a peculiar timeliness and power in her example. In these days of out-door stir and display, we all need to be taught the young especially-how to "show piety at home." None, it is believed, can read without advantage the story of every-day duty so unremittingly done, of victories so earnestly struggled for, and so habitually won-all on a field remote from "the magic of the public eye," all achieved through that "simple faith" which was so brightly exemplified in her life's fitting close.

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Another point of interest in this work, is the method of parental training it unfolds. This may be characterized as eminently evangelical. As in the inculcations of the pulpit, so in our domestic teaching, it is quite possible, even for the most orthodox, to make too little of Christ. The central position of the Cross may be in a measure overlooked. It may be partly forgotten, that Christ is "the chief corner-stone," that "other foundation can no man lay;" and the attempt may be almost unconsciously made to lay some "other foundation," to make some protracted preparation for the reception of the great atonement. Such preliminary processes as the first missionaries to Greenland found so unavailing, may for substance be repeated, and with no better success. True, the law is " school-master to bring us unto Christ." But "in his life the law appears;" and that with a clearness and force, with a convincing and subduing power, which it no where else assumes. To see our need of Christ, be we adults or be we children, we must look unto Christ. By irresistible contrasts, we are thus taught what depravity is. As we see our salvation, we see also what may lead us to prize it, and to labour for it, our fearful condemnation. It is with "God in Christ," not with an absolute God, the lost sinner, be he old or young, is from the first concerned. When by "looking unto Jesus," sense of need is awakened, a feeling of guilt and a consciousness of impotence, it is to Jesus we are to look also as our Helper-not after long delays, not after a wearisome round of selfrighteous preparation, but with unhesitating promptness, and with a sense of entire dependence. This, if we enter as we ought into the spirit of the Gospel, is the course we enjoin on adult inquirers. Why should it

not be our course with the young inquirers around our fireside?

Such was the method, essentially, by which the subject of the following sketches was trained for heaven. There was no discarding, on the part of her parents, of the doctrine of total depravity, or of human helplessness, or of regeneration by the Divine Spirit. But these and other kindred truths were to be learned, they judged, at the Cross of Christ. They were to be experimentally discovered, and that in the act of pressing toward the Saviour, and striving to embrace him. In the effort to be Christlike, they were persuaded, she would discover more and more the evils of her heart; and He to whom she looked at first as her model, she would soon come to magnify as her strength. With the earliest dawn of reason, Christ was placed before her, as all in all in the matter of her salvation. She was taught to love him, to trust in him, to follow him, to honour him, to take him at once, and without misgiving, as her Saviour. With gentle and unwearied assiduity it was urged upon her, as a thing to be expected, as the fitting concomitant of her baptismal relationship, as a duty and as a privilege, that she should be in all things a Christian child; not waiting for years of almost necessary sinfulness to elapse, for some strange shock to be experienced, for some mystic token of the accepted time to be given. Christ was set forth as not only able but ready to meet all her wants as the Gracious Shepherd, on whose arm, in peaceful trust, she might ever lean. She was taught, from the first, to make the love of Christ the great constraining motive of her life; and that, not as an attainment barely possible, not as something which might, perhaps, at some remote period, be realized, but

as a present concernment, as something confidently looked for, and, by the grace of the purchased Spiritnot at all in her own might quite feasible. It was in "simple faith" she was thus taught to live; it was in "simple faith" she thus learned to die.

Now, in all this, it may be said, and must, indeed, be admitted, there is nothing essentially new. In the theory of most of us it may have been all embraced. Yet I shall be much mistaken if the perusal of these pages does not convince many a parent of a practical legalism hardly suspected before. I shall be not a little disappointed, if some are not led, as the issue of their meditations on the processes and results here unfolded, to magnify Christ more fully and hopefully in the training of their children. That flowers of paradise may thus bloom on Julia's grave, may He grant, who, from the home she loved and adorned below, hath called her so early to her better home above!

ASA D. SMITH.

NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 1852.

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