Whether it was that this had its influence in the shaping of the another’s instructions, or not, yet such was the fact, that the subject of a preparation for early death, was not unfrequently the theme, when religious instruction was imparted.  The mind of the mother was also impressed with the idea of her own responsibility.  She felt that the soul of the child would be required at her hands, and that she must do all in her power to fit it for heaven.  Hence she was importunate and persevering in prayer, for a blessing upon her efforts; that God would graciously grant his Spirit, not only to open the mind of her child to receive instruction, but also to set it home and seal it there.

Her solicitude for the spiritual welfare, of the child was such, as often to attract the notice of the writer; while the results forced upon her mind the conviction, that the tender bud, nurtured with so much care and fidelity, and watered with so many prayers and tears, would never be permitted to burst into full flower, in the ungenial soil of earth.

Mary Jane had hardly numbered three winters, when a little sister of whom she was very fond, was taken dangerously sick.  Her mother and the nurse were necessarily confined with the sick child; and she was left very much alone.  I would fain have taken the little girl home with me; but it was feared that a change of temperature might prove unfavorable to her health, so I often spent long hours with her, in her own home.  Precious seasons!  How they now come up to me, through the long vista of the dim and distant past, stirring the soul, like the faint echoes of melting music, and wakening within it, remembrances of all pleasant things.

I had been spending an afternoon with her in the usual manner, sometimes telling her stories, and again drawing forth her little thoughts in conversation, and was about taking leave, when I said to her, “Mary Jane, you must be sure and ask God to make your little sister well again.”  Sliding down from her chair, and placing her little hand in mine, she said with great simplicity, “Who will lead me up there?” Having explained to her as well as I could, that it was not necessary for her to go up to heaven; that God could hear her, although she could neither see him nor hear his answers, I reluctantly tore myself away.  Yet it was well for the child that I did so; for being left alone, the train of her thoughts was not diverted to other objects; and she continued to revolve in her mind, as was afterwards found, the idea of asking God to make her sister well.

That night, having said her usual evening prayer, “Our Father,” “Now I lay me down to sleep,” &c., the nurse left her quietly composed to sleep, as she thought, but having occasion soon to pass her door, she found that Mary Jane was awake and “talking loud.”  On listening, she found that the little girl was praying.  Her language was, “My dear Father up in heaven, do please to make my little sister well again.”