Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/31

Rh subjects. We retired frequently together in the summer evenings to a field near our house, and there kneeled down and engaged in prayer. I have often looked back with delight upon these spiritual interviews, especially as my dear friend was, in the vigor of youth, seized with a brain fever, and after a severe struggle of five days yielded up his spirit into the hands of his Maker.”

Mr. Carter’s religious experience is a forcible illustration of the type of piety which is often seen where the training of children is faithful, and according to the Scriptural plan, where the parent is told to speak to his little ones “when thou sittest in the house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” Christian nurture produces the highest kind of Christian character, symmetrical, earnest, and duty-loving. Of him the elder brothers and sisters who knew him as a child bore witness, “Robert was always a good boy.” His sense of duty was ever strong, and even as a boy he lived not to himself. He assisted his parents in their responsibilities for the family, feeling as keen an interest as they did in the welfare of his brothers and sisters. Even to old age he never could understand how young men could work for themselves alone, without feeling the duty of helping their parents and extending to brothers and sisters a helping hand.

As an illustration of the way in which the daily life of his parents constantly preached to him, he used often in after life to tell a story of his walking one day with his father to a place at some distance. The way was hot and dusty, and they were feeling very thirsty, when in a little nook by the roadside they espied a crystal spring. The boy sprang eagerly forward to drink, but the man paused by the spring-side and raised the broad Scottish