And who need these graces more than parents, in the government and training of those committed to their charge?  Could our Savior rise a great while before day,—­forego the pleasures of social intercourse with his beloved disciples, and retiring to the mountains, offer up prayers with strong crying and tears, unto Him who was able to save from death in that he feared, and shall we, intrusted with the immortal destinies of our beloved offspring, refuse to follow his example, and pleading want of time and opportunity for this service, be guilty of unbelief, of indolence, and worldly-mindedness?

You labor in vain, dear readers, unless the arm of the Almighty shall be extended in your behalf, and you cannot receive the blessing except you ask it.  Let then your supplications be addressed to your Father in heaven;—­pray humbly, believingly, perseveringly, for wisdom and aid, then may you expect to be blessed.  So important is this duty, and so much is it neglected, that we could not forbear to urge your attention thereto, ere we entered upon another year.

And will not our Christian friends remember us in their prayers, asking that we may be directed in what we shall say and do this present year, in the work in which we are engaged?  And if God shall answer our united petitions, we shall not labor in vain.

* * * * *

Original.

To fathers.

By Amicus.

How gladly would the writer gain (were it possible) the ear of every father in the land, if it were but for the short space of one quarter of an hour,—­nay, some ten minutes, at a propitious time,—­such a time as, perhaps, occasionally occurs, when business cases are not pressing, when the mind is at ease, and the heart has ceased its worldly throbbings.  He wants such a quarter of an hour, if it ever exists.

“And for what?” That he may have an opportunity to propose some worldly scheme,—­some plan which has reference to the probable accumulation of hundreds of thousands?  Nothing of the kind.  Fathers at the present day generally need no suggestions of this sort—­no impulses from me in that direction.  They are already so absorbed, that it is difficult to gain their attention to any matters which do not concern the line of business in which they are engaged.

Look for a moment at that busy, bustling man; you see him walking down Broadway this morning; it is early, quite early.  May be he is calling a physician, or is on some visit to a sick friend.  He walks so fast; and though early, there is something on his brow which indicates care and anxiety.  And yet I think no one of his family is sick, nor do I know of any of his friends who are sick.  I have seen that man out thus early so often, and hurrying at just that pace, that I suspect, after all, he is on his way to his place of business.  That, doubtless, is the whole secret.  He is engaged in a large