"Let me know all the facts," said the pastor's friend, "before I give my
opinion. Have you ever considered the character of the _mothers_,
respectively?"

At once the pastor clasped his hands and said, "I have it; the secret is
out. It is strange I never thought of it before. The elder's wife,
although, as I trust, a good woman, is far from being an active
Christian. She never seems to take any pleasure in religious
conversation, but whenever it is introduced, either is silent or
speedily diverts it to some worldly subject. She is one of those persons
with whom you might live in the same house for weeks and months, and yet
never discover that she was a disciple of Christ. The other lady, on the
contrary, is as eminent for godliness as her husband is for
inconsistency. Her heart is in the cause; she prays with and for her
children, and whatever example they have in their father, in her they
have a fine model of active, fervent, humble piety, seated in the heart
and flowing out into the life."

The friends prosecuted the inquiry no further; they felt that the riddle
was solved, and they rode on in silence, each meditating on the wide
extent, the far-spreading results of that marvellous agency--_a mother's
influence_.

* * * * *


Original.

PRAYER FOR CHILDREN SOMETIMES UNAVAILING.