The Love of God. 147

he fancied, very foon after his admiffion to the
houfe ; but fhe confeffed that fhe had not had the
heart to inform her young Mafter, left he fhould
fend the boy away who had feemed to take him
fo out of his trouble! This was what fhe moft
thought about. So fhe had tried to correé& the
child herfelf, but not with the fuccefs fhe had de-
fred. How little fhe knows the heart,” thought
Theodore, “his evil propenfities would have been
an additional claim upon my kindnefs !”

I will pafs over all that Theodore faid to the
boy himfelf. No father could have been more
earneft, more folemn in his warnings, or more
kind in his expoftulations. Reuben, by this time,
could underftand all he faid, and fhame and re-
pentance burnt in his face during a painful inter-
view. It is right to remind you, dear children, of
the many excufes that were to be made for him.
He had been brought up, till feven years old, in
total ignorance of God, and without ever having
heard one duty commanded or one fin forbidden.
The woman lied daily and hourly in his fight, and
made him do the fame; and fhe took all fhe could
lay hold of in any way, and beat him if he did not
follow her example; and although Theodore’s in-
ftruétions had opened a new world on the child’s
mind, the evi] HABITS were not fo foon got rid of.
So there the mifchief was; and now the great dif-
ficulty Theodore felt, was to know what to do for
the beft. And, after much confideration, he de-
cided to fend him to fchool, as the likelieft means