Our Sabbaths were our happiest days; we were near no place of public worship--not so near, at least, as to permit any of the children often to attend. As soon as we were dressed and had breakfasted, family prayer was attended to, and then our father would point out some hymn or passage of Scripture which he wished us to learn, when we would sally forth, book in hand, in different directions, one to stretch himself upon the soft grass in the field close by, another to pace backward and forward on the pleasure walk, or to find a seat in the bough of an old bushy tree; while another would seek a little summer-house our father had made of heather, and seated round with the twisted boughs of the glossy birch, each reading aloud till the allotted lesson was thoroughly fixed upon our minds. If the day was wet, or if it was the winter season, we would gather around the table by the window. During the afternoon, mother would read to us, or all of us, father and mother included, read by turns; questions were then asked, and conversation entered into, about what we had been reading. [Illustration: See page 40] It was upon one of these occasions, when some remarks made by one of my parents in endeavouring to call our attention to the truth that we must be changed, renewed in the image of God; or, to take up the simple figurative expression then made use of, that we must have _new hearts_, else we never could be happy with our Father in heaven, that an impression was made upon my mind, never to be effaced: from that hour, through all my follies and all my waywardness, the thought of that new heart still haunted me, until I indeed found peace with God through Jesus Christ, and felt the renewing power of the truth of God. Viewing the practice of allowing children to consider their lessons as a part of their amusement, as pernicious in its tendency, as calculated to induce a habit of trifling with serious things, and to form a giddy, frivolous character, our parents never permitted anything like levity in attending to our lessons; we never were allowed to consider them as a recreation, but as serious, though cheerful employment, which must never be trifled with, but seriously and earnestly engaged in. A uniform veneration for the word of God was evinced by themselves, and if we read or repeated any part of it, we were taught to do so seriously; if a hymn was recited, or any piece in which the name of our Creator might occur, we were accustomed to do so in a solemn and attentive manner.