Hour after hour the stage rolled on. Passengers entered and left; but the boy (perhaps I ought rather to call him the young man) was almost insensible to every thing that passed. He sat, in sadness and in silence, in the corner of the stage, thinking of the loved home he had left. Memory ran back through all the years of his childhood, lingering here and there, with pain, upon an act of disobedience, and recalling an occasional word of unkindness. All his life seemed to be passing in review before him, from the first years of his conscious existence, to the hour of his departure from his home. Then would the parting words of his father ring in his ears. He had always heard the morning and evening prayer. He had always witnessed the power of religion exemplified in all the duties of life. And the undoubted sincerity of a father's language, confirmed as it had been by years of corresponding practice, produced an impression upon his mind too powerful ever to be effaced—"My son, you may forget father and mother, you may forget brothers and sisters, but, oh, do not forget your God." The words rung in his ears. They entered his heart. Again and again his thoughts ran back through the years he had already passed, and the reviving recollections brought fresh floods of tears. But still his thoughts ran on to his father's parting words, "forget not your God."
It was midnight before the stage stopped, to give him a little rest. He was then more than a hundred miles from home. But still his father's words were ringing in his ears. He was conducted up several flights of stairs to a chamber in a crowded hotel. After a short prayer, he threw himself upon the bed, and endeavored to obtain a little sleep. But his excited imagination ran back to the home he had left. Again he was seated by the fireside. Again he heard the soothing tones of his kind mother's voice, and sat by his father's side. In the vagaries of his dream, he again went through the scene of parting, and wept in his sleep as he bade adieu to brothers and sisters, and heard a father's parting advice, "Oh, my son, forget not your God."
But little refreshment could be derived from such sleep. And indeed he had been less than an hour upon his bed, before some one knocked at the door, and placed a lamp in his room, saying, "It is time to get up, sir: the stage is almost ready to go." He hastily rose from his bed, and after imploring a blessing upon himself, and fervently commending to God his far-distant friends, now quietly sleeping in that happy home which he had left for ever, he hastened down stairs, and soon again was rapidly borne away by the fleet horses of the mailcoach.
It was a clear autumnal morning. The stars shone brightly in the sky, and the thoughts of the lonely wanderer were irresistibly carried to that home beyond the stars, and to that God whom his father had so affectingly entreated him not to forget. He succeeded, however, in getting a few moments of troubled sleep, as the stage rolled on; but his thoughts were still reverting, whether asleep or awake, to the home left far behind. Just as the sun was going down the western hills, at the close of the day, he alighted from the stage, in the village of strangers, in which he was to find his new home. Not an individual there had he ever seen before. Many a pensive evening did he pass, thinking of absent friends. Many a lonely walk did he take, while his thoughts were far away among the scenes of his childhood. And when the winter evenings came, with the cheerful blaze of the fireside, often did he think, with a sigh, of the loved and happy group encircling his father's fireside, and sharing those joys he had left for ever. But a father's parting words did not leave his mind. There they remained. And they, in connection with other events, rendered effectual by the Spirit of God, induced him to endeavor to consecrate his life to his Maker's service. In the hopes of again meeting beloved parents and friends in that home, which gilds the paradise above, he found that solace which could no where else be obtained, and was enabled to go on in the discharge of the duties of life, with serenity and peace. Reader, you must soon leave your home, and leave it for ever. The privileges and the joys you are now partaking, will soon pass away. And when you have gone forth into the wide world, and feel the want of a father's care, and of a mother's love, then will all the scenes you have passed through, return freshly to your mind, and the remembrance of every unkind word, or look, or thought, will give you pain. Try, then, to be an affectionate and obedient child. Cultivate those virtues which will prepare you for usefulness and happiness in your maturer years, and above all, make it your object to prepare for that happy home above, where sickness can never enter, and sorrow can never come.
D'Aubigne's Hist. of the Reformation, 4 vols., cloth extra, $1 75.Saints' Rest, large type.Guide to Y'ng Disciples.Bunyan's Pilgrim's Prog.Elijah the Tishbite.Volume on Infidelity.Nevins' Pract. Thoughts.Nevins' Thoughts On Popery.Religion and Eter. Life.Jay's Morning Exercises.Flavel's Meth. of Grace.Doddridge's Rise and Progress.Bogue's Evidences of Christianity.Flavel's Fount'n of Life.Life of Martyn.Baxter's Call, large type.Baxter's Call, small type.Mason's Spirit. Treasury.Baxter's Saints' Rest.Hall's Scripture History.Gregory's Letters on Infidelity.Edwards' History of Redemption.Morison's Counsels to Young Men.Pike's Persuasives to Early Piety.Anxious InquirerEdwards on Revivals.Mason's Self KnowledgeBishop Hopkins on Ten Commandments.Reformation in Europe.Henry on Meekness.Practical Piety, by Hannah More.Baxter's Dying Tho'ts.Memoir of Mrs. Graham.Baxter's Life, chiefly by himself.Complete Duty of Man.Anecdotes for the Family Circle.Owen on Forgiveness of Sin, Psalm 130.Alleine's Alarm.Jay's Christian Contemplated.Keith's Evidences of Prophecy.Memoir of Mrs. Sarah L. H. Smith.Spirit of Popery.Life of Rev. Sam. Kilpin.Abbott's Y'ng Christian.Wilberforcs's Prac. View.Fuller's Backslider.Sacred Songs, (Hymns and Tunes.)Life of David Brainerd.Flavel on Keeping the Heart.Melvill's Bib. Thoughts.Do. (Patent Notes.)Mammon. By Harris.Flavel's Touchstone.Nelson on Infidelity.Life of Samuel Pearce.Redeemer's Last Command.Bible not of Man.Edwards on Affections.Memoir of Dr. Payson.Mem. of Hannah Hobble.Beecher on Intemper'ce.Memoir of Mrs. H. L. Winslow.Life of John Newton.Mem. of Norm'nd SmithGurney on Love to God.Self-Deception.Mem. of Jas. B. Taylor.Memoir of H. Page.Appeal to Mothers.Memoir of Rev. Dr. Buchanan.Abbott's Moth, at Home.Young Man from Home.Social Hymns.Hymns to Sacred Songs.
Peep of Day.Child's Book on Repentance.Amos Armfleld, or the Leather-covered Bible.Line upon Line.Precept upon Precept.Amelia, the Pastor's Daughter.Youth's Book of Natural Theology.Child's Hymn Book. Select, by Miss Caulkins.Nathan W. Dickerman.Script. Animals, 16 cuts.Elizabeth Bales.Mary Lothrop.Letters to Little Children, 13 cuts.Emily Maria.John Mooney Mead.Newton's Letters to an Adopted Daughter.Henry Obookiah.Watts' Divine and Moral Songs.Gallaudet's Life of Josiah.Child's Book on the Sab.The Dairyman's Daughter, etc.Abbott's Child at Home.With numerous similar works.
Sabbath Manual, Parts 1, 2, and 3. 6 1/2 cents.Temperance Manual, 5.In GERMAN—31 vols. various sizes.In FRENCH—12 vols.In WELSH—Pilgrim's Progress and Baxter's Saints' Rest and Call.
Also, upwards of 1000 Tracts and Children's Tracts, separate, bound, or in packets, adapted for convenient sale by merchants and traders, many of them with beautiful engravings—in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and Welsh.