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 existed, they reckon them all by far too little, in comparison of what they now feel were due on their part. Sometimes, indeed, the departure of a child is such as to leave a pleasing hope in the mind of a pious parent; and this hope more than compensates for his laborious instrumentality in training the disembodied soul for glory. A parent naturally shares in the happiness of his child. He cannot be indifferent to any thing that concerns him. He follows him while still in the body, through all the probable events of his future life, and anticipates the various turns of Providence which may yet distinguish him. But his anticipations, if he has any religious feeling are not confined to the shifting scenes of the present state. He has many an anxious thought about the unalterable condition of the soul in another world. And if; when his young charge is taken from him, he has a well-grounded hope that the soul, once the burden of his frequent prayers, and the object of his pious instruction, is now in possession of eternal bliss, what consolation is his under the loss of his society! What joy in reflecting on the glory to which he is exalted! What ingratitude for the part committed to him of pointing out the way that led to the blessed issue!