“In Philadelphia he was taken with a dangerous fever, and was brought to the place where I met him.  There, on that bed of languishing, the scenes of his early childhood clustered around him, and among them the image of his mother was fairest and brightest, and in memory’s vision she seemed to stand, as in former days, exhorting him to become the friend and disciple of the blessed Savior.  The honeyed accents were irresistible.

“Through the long lapse of thirty years—­though she was now sleeping in the grave—­her appeal came with force to break his flinty heart.

“With no living Christian to direct him on that bed of sickness, remembering what his mother had told him one-third of a century before, he yielded to the claims of Jesus.”

Here the power and faithfulness of a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God were exhibited.  Here was a mother’s influence crowned with a glorious conquest.

* * * * *

EXCERPTA.

AN AMERICAN HOME.—­The word Home we have obtained from the old Saxon tongue.  Transport the word to Africa, China, Persia, Turkey or Russia, and it loses its meaning.  Where is it but in our favored land that the father is allowed to pursue his own plan for the good of his family, and with his sons to labor in what profession he chooses and then enjoy the avails of his labor?  The American Home is the abode of neatness, thrift and competence, not the wretched hut of the Greenlander or Caffrarian, or under-ground place of Kamschatka.  The American Home is the house of intelligence; its inmates can read; they have the Bible; they can transmit thought.  The American Home is the resting-place of contentment and peace; there is found mutual respect, untiring love and kindness; there, virtue claiming respect; there, the neighbor is regarded and prized; there, is safety; the daily worship; the principle of religion.

Ten thousand good people noiselessly at work every day, making more firm all good felt at home or abroad, and fixing happiness and good institutions on a basis lasting as heaven.

CHRISTIAN UNION.—­In “D’Aubigne’s Reformation” we find a short, beautiful sentiment on the subject of Christian Union.  He says:  “Truth may be compared to the light of the sun.  The light comes from heaven colorless and ever the same; and yet it takes different hues on earth, varying according to the objects on which it falls.  Thus different formularies may sometimes express the same Christian truth, viewed under different aspects.  How dull would be this visible creation if all its boundless variety of shape and color were to give place to one unbroken uniformity?  How melancholy would be its aspects, if all created beings did but compose a solitary and vast unity?  The unity which comes from heaven, doubtless has its place; but the diversity of human nature has its proper place also.  In religion we must neither leave out God nor man.  Without unity your religion cannot be of God; without diversity it cannot be the religion of man, and it ought to be of both.”