Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/21

Rh Word, and every spare moment was spent in prayerful reading of the Bible.

“He had a good English education; his wide reading and reflection, his frank and friendly spirit to all, his lively interest in the current questions of the day, made him ready and helpful in any society in which he might be placed. He was wisely directed in the choice of a wife when he married Agnes Ewing, the daughter of a respected elder in the Antiburgher Church. Her gentle, kindly nature, her wisdom and conservatism, held in check his more impulsive spirit, and for forty years she was a most faithful and loving wife, and a model mother of eleven children, who all grew to be men and women; for forty years there was no death in the family, and father was the first to be taken. Like Abraham, he erected an altar at once in the little stone cottage where we were all born, the scene of so much true happiness. The fire never went out on that altar until the family left for America, and was rekindled in the home in the New World, For some years my father’s business took him from home at too early an hour to gather his children around him, and mother took the duty, and O how lovingly was the sacred duty done! In well chosen, fervent, tender words she commended the children and the absent husband to the Heavenly Father’s care.

“The earliest recollections I have are of those morning prayers. My father was gifted in prayer, and I used to wonder if I should ever be able to pour out my heart as he did to the Father in heaven; but my mother’s prayers, so loving, so filial, so reverent, touched my heart, and led to a desire that I too might so pray, and get an answer of peace.

“The Sabbath was in our household the ‘day of days.’ The family morning worship, the breakfast table surrounded by a crowd of hungry, happy children and parents all together, glad at the reunion and the prospect of rest and worship; the morning church, all attending; after dinner,