will not let him fall, indeed I will not hurt him."

"Thou wouldst not wish to injure him, Mary, I am sure; but thou art so small, and thy arms are so slender, that I cannot trust him to thee while he is so young; but thou mayest look at him as long as thou pleasest where he now lies."

This was sufficient for Mary, who was so perfectly governed by her divinely instructed parents, that her will bent spontaneously to theirs, just as the tender osier bows to the summer breeze. Quick as a thought was Mary's wish resigned; and she said, "perhaps you will let me tend him by and by, mother, when I am a great girl."

"Certainly, my daughter, said Mrs. Armly; and I think it very likely I shall be glad of thy help to take the care of him sometimes."

This was sufficient consolation to Mary, to repay for her mother's present denial; and she was perfectly content to look at his little features and pretty hands, as he lay sleeping on the pillow by her mother.

Mrs. Armly requested that her son should

be called John, "after the name of his father." Agreed, said her husband; it is a plain name, and one highly honored in scripture history.

Never was an object dearer to any human being, than was little John to our heroine. She wept or smiled as did the idolized brother. Her first expressions at morn and last at eve, related to him. "How pretty he looks ;" "how cunning he is;" "how soft his skin;" how bright his eyes;" were often repeated by Mary, as she hung over his cradle. Previous to little John's birth, her father's flower parterre was her delight in the vernal season; and a book the favorite object in winter. But now little John was her sole delight. Mary worshipped the blue-eyed baby. She watched the gradations of his infancy: repeating every improvement in its earliest visibility, to her beloved parents, with the fondest rapture. She was in ecstacies to see him, when he was a year old, use his little feet, and step about the floor; but language cannot describe her joy, when he began to lisp her name, and call for Ma-ye. When Mary was seven years old, she was permitted to dress and feed her little brother. She tried

to learn him to say the short evening prayer, that was her last religious exercise as she lay down in her little cot at night. Nothing was omitted or forgot that was connected with her attendance on him.

Mary, said her father one evening, as the little girl was singing a lullaby to her favorite, as he lay in the cradle, I fear you love your brother more than you ought to. I perceive that all your attention is devoted to him. John is asleep; yet you continue the lullaby. Come child, come and sit by me, and I will show you a text that you have need to study.

Mary obeyed; and her father handed her the bible open, pointing her to the last verse in the first epistle general of John, "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." She read the passage; and asked her father if he would please to tell her the meaning of it. She listened with solemn attention to every word of the explanation, that followed her inquiry; and when her father paused, she said to him, I am afraid, father, I have not minded the text; for I do not feel willing that God should have my brother. Do you, father, asked the child,

with a querulous look? do you feel willing to let your little boy go to God?

If his Creator and mine, and yours, should take him away, replied the father, I think I could say as Job said: "The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh away; and blessed be the name of the Lord.”

May I say my prayers now, quickly, rejoined Mary, and go to bed? I am very tired.

"You may, child; only promise me that you will try to keep the text in your mind when you are waiting upon your brother; and ask our good Maker to give you a new heart and a new spirit, that you may love him above all things. We will now join in prayer with your mother." Anna was just kneeling down, and appeared in supplication with thanksgiving and praise. John succeeded his wife in this solemn duty; and in his prayer, he entreated that God would be gracious to his child, who was kneeling beside him; and renew her heart that she might love him, her Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, with supreme and undivided affection all the days of her life, beginning from this hour. O gracious Savior,

said the sainted father, that she may not waste her young days in idolatry. She is seven years old: her infancy has expired-before thee she is an accountable being? O may I ask again, my covenant God! may I repeat the sound, let Mary live before thee? For little John he only prayed, that Jesus would bless him, as he blessed the favored babes in the land of Juda.

What Mary thought of these things, did not then appear; for she was naturally a reserved child, and appeared to dread exposing the secrets of her little heart, even to her dear parents. She said her prayers and went to bed. From that evening, however, there was a visible change of some kind in Mary. Her manners toward her brother were materially altered. What before was extreme fondness, seemed now to be tender kindness. She waited upon him as usual; but with a seriousness and solidity that would have become a woman and a christian; appearing by her manner to say, I am an idolator no more. One day, as her mother was returning from the garden, where she had been employed an hour in assist