“However deeply you may be struck with the sentiments of the great and pious character, who has been himself so eminent an example of piety and virtue, who has so truly adorned that gospel which he professed, who has so strenuously endeavoured to shew his love to God, by his affection for his fellow creatures; however impressive you may, at a future period of your lives consider these arguments; they will to you, my darling children, appear with an additional force and value, thus treasured up for your attention, and guidance, by your beloved mother—by her, who first taught your infant lips to lisp the sacred name of God in prayer, and who enjoined you to place your trust, your hopes and your happiness in Him. How much do I owe to her, whom the Almighty, in His abundant mercy, was, pleased to bestow upon me. “Well indeed do I remember that upon our first meeting after that long separation, of which I have already told you, and previous to our marriage; with what sweetness, what meekness, but with what dignified judgment, and true piety, did she instil similar sentiments into my mind; and shew me what erroneous views I had formed of the requisitions of Christianity. I was indeed a nominal Christian; my chief apprehension was of being righteous over much, and I felt as though a general compliance with the letter of the commandments was all that was required of me; and even in the neglect of many of these, I comforted myself with the reflection that the Lord would not be ‘extreme to mark what was done amiss.’ I was even in the constant habit of committing a breach of the third commandment without being sensible of it, and allowed myself to use the sacred name of God, in common and trivial conversation, without feeling the wickedness of such profanation. For this she instantly but gently reproved me. On the very first day of our meeting she entreated me to conquer the habit, with so much earnestness of affection, and described the nature of it in such just terms, that the effect was instantaneous, and I can hardly remember having been afterwards guilty of it, never certainly without strong reproaches of conscience; and for many years it has given me a feeling of pain when I have heard others guilty of it, similar to what my beloved Isabella experienced for me. Having been sent into the world at an early age, and not having had the advantage in any ship to which I belonged in early life, of ever hearing religion mentioned; it had certainly not been cultivated in my mind; and but for the pains taken by my beloved mother in my childhood, which the Almighty had been pleased to enable me to retain, amidst all the trials, temptations, and bad examples, to which I was so frequently exposed, and which I now deeply deplore, as having sometimes had dominion over me; but for these seeds thus preserved, I should indeed have been ‘without God in the world.’ But blessed be God, the inestimable treasure