Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/17

12 heart-searching review of the past to be entered into, by one whose mind has ever been seriously impressed with the nature and importance of religious truth, without a desire arising to make the kind of dedication here alluded to; but it is one of the constant besetments even of the rightly intentioned, and often of the truly convinced, to put on this great work until some vaguely anticipated era in our existence shall have marked the season of dedication with peculiar solemnity, or stamped the resolution with additional force. How often this era proves in the end to be the hour of irremediable sickness, it is not my business here to inquire; but certainly, if the possibility of near and awful death—if the preparation for an event which in many cases has proved but a short passage to the grave—if a providential and merciful escape from the dangers of that trying hour—and if the important reality of entering at once, as it were, upon a new and two-fold existence,—if all these circumstances combined be insufficient to constitute an era so important as that which is required for the date of a solemn dedication of the heart and the life to God, it is scarcely likely that human experience will ever afford the opportunity desired; and the inquiry necessarily follows, in such a case, whether it is really desired at all.

It is by no means an unfrequent case, that as young people grow up, and find themselves either not quite so clever, or not quite so good as they expected and wished to be, they reflect either secretly or openly upon the management of their parents, who they believe might have made them better than they are. It is quite possible too that their parents may have been in fault; and that either from their own discrimination, or from the general advance of society toward a more enlightened state, they do actually see the defects of their own training, as those defects begin to tell upon their characters and conduct in riper years. All who have been led to think seriously on this subject, have probably felt this; but it is not all who have an opportunity of showing how such defects may be remedied, by training up others in a happier and wiser manner.

Again, we are all more or less beguiled into the belief that with us it is too late to make any serious alteration in