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Original.

THE PROMISE FULFILLED.

     “Leave thy fatherless children with me, and I will preserve
     them alive.”

How often has this promise been offered in the prayer of faith at the mercy-seat, and proved a spring of consolation to the heart of a pious widowed mother!  In the desolation caused by the death of the husband and father, who was the helper, counselor, and guardian in reference to spiritual as well as temporal interests, and in the deepened sense of parental responsibility in the charge now singly resting upon her, how often and readily does the widow cast herself upon the sure and precious promise of the covenant, “I will be a God to thee and to thy seed after thee.”  In the faith of this her heart imbibes comfort, her prayers become enlarged and constant, and her efforts become wisely directed, and steadily exerted, in behalf of the spiritual interests of her children.  When we carefully observe such cases, we shall find proof that the blessing of the God of grace peculiarly rests upon the household of the pious and faithful widow.  God, in the truth and promises of his Word, takes peculiar notice of the widow and the orphan, and his providence works in harmony with his word.  The importance and efficiency of maternal influence in every sphere of its exercise cannot be too highly estimated, but nowhere does it possess such touching interest, or such high promise, as the scene of widowhood.  How would faith, laying hold upon the truth of the following promise, and securing its proper influence in all appropriate labors, realize the fulfillment of the blessing:  “This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; my Spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever.”  Isaiah 59:21.

These remarks receive a new confirmation in the case of the recent deaths of two young sons of MRS. JANE HUNT, widow of the late Rev. Christopher Hunt, pastor of the Reformed Dutch church in Franklin street, in this city.  They died within eight days of each other, the elder, De Witt, in his twentieth year, on the 19th of January, and the younger, Joseph Scudder, in his sixteenth year, on the 11th January, both of pulmonary disease.  Their father, the Rev. Mr. Hunt, was a faithful and successful minister of Christ, much beloved by the people of his pastoral charge.  The writer of this well remembers a sermon preached by him at the close of a series of services in the visitation of the Reformed Dutch churches of this city, which was solemn and impressive, from the text, “There is but a step between me and death.”  This was in January, 1839.  At this time the seeds of disease (perhaps unconsciously to himself) were springing up within him, and after a few more services in his church, he was confined to his house, and lingered