I 
 
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 D. Fanshaw, Printer, 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 150 Nassau-strcet, New-York. 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 CHRISTIAN MOTHERS 
 
 BEHALF OF THE HEATHEN, 
 
 r 
 

AN APPEAL 
 
 TO 
 
 CHRISTIAN MOTHERS 
 
 IN 
 
 » 
 
 % 
 
 BEHALF OF THE HEATHEN. 
 
 BY REV. JOHN SCUDDER, M. D. 
 
 Missionary in India. 
 
 “ The child is father of the man.’* 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 
 AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 
 
 150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW-YORK. 
 
 D. Fanchaw, Printer. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Pa^e. 
 
 Inadequacy of the means now employed for the 
 
 conversion of the world.5 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Necessity of Maternal Influence, . 
 
 8 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Power of Maternal Influence, . 
 
 . 11 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Miseries of the Heathen, 
 
 17 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Degradation of Heathen Females, 
 
 . 28 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Condition of Christian Females contrasted with 
 
 that of the Heathen,.40 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Means to be used by Christian Mothers, • 
 
 50 
 

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 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 : ' ■ 
 
 
 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
AN APPEAL 
 
 TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 > ■. I- 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Inadequacy of the means now employed for the 
 conversion of the world . 
 
 -X- 
 
 Christian Mothers —Were the great 
 mass of human beings who are ignorant of 
 the only true God, and of Jesus Christ whom 
 he has sent, collected together, and placed 
 as near to each other as they could conve¬ 
 niently stand and move, they would form a 
 phalanx a mile in breadth and more than a 
 hundred miles in length. Phalanx after pha¬ 
 lanx of this description has entered eternity 
 since Christ lifted up his voice and said “ It 
 is finished,” and the astounding cry comes 
 up to us, that forty thousand millions of them 
 have, since that period, been added to the 
 congregation of the dead. 
 
 One would suppose that Christ had never 
 given the command to send the Gospel to 
 every creature, and if this command were 
 
 1 * 
 
G 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 not found on the page of inspiration, would 
 be ready to deny that it had ever been given. 
 Who could believe that the church, with her 
 solemn vows upon her, would have allowed 
 forty thousand millions of her fellow-beings 
 to pass from the stage of life with so little 
 effort on her part to evangelize them ? I say 
 so little effort; for now and then some de¬ 
 gree of effort has been put forth. This was 
 the case in the early periods of Christianity. 
 It is the case to some extent now. A few of 
 the followers of the Redeemer have awaked 
 from their slumbers, and begun to think that, 
 with the aid which is promised from on high, 
 they have before them a world to be con¬ 
 verted. But these instances are compara¬ 
 tively rare. The great majority of Christians 
 have not learned to act upon the high and 
 ennobling principles of the Gospel. There is 
 but here and there one, “who by his ago¬ 
 nizing prayers, active efforts and benevolent 
 charities, throws himself into the mighty 
 work of converting the world.” 
 
 O 
 
 Many do not seem to understand what it 
 is to live for Christ. They practice but little 
 or no self-denial in his service. They in¬ 
 dulge themselves and lay up money, even it 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 7 
 
 is to be feared, in many instances, for the 
 ruin of their children, instead of sacrificing 
 their pleasures and dedicating their children 
 and their substance for the promotion of the 
 Gospel. Most of our pious young men shun 
 the ranks of the ministry. Millions of the 
 heathen are going down to the grave every 
 year, without having heard that there is a 
 Savior ; but these young men cannot be per¬ 
 suaded to give up their farms, or their mer¬ 
 chandize, or their law, or their medicine, 
 that they may bear the tidings of his name 
 to their shores. That which chimes with 
 their inclination is made out to be their duty. 
 They turn away in whole companies, pro¬ 
 fessing but not bearing the cross. They bow 
 their knees at the throne of grace, and pray, 
 “ Thy kingdom come,” while at the same 
 moment they refuse to do any thing person¬ 
 ally by which that kingdom may come. They 
 stretch forth their hands, while they keep 
 back part of the price. The sufferings of the 
 Son of God—the joys of heaven—the tor 
 ments of hell—the solemnities of their dying 
 bed, and the realities of the judgment day 
 are urged, but urged in vain, to induce them 
 to do differently. The sapling has grown 
 
8 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 into a tree, and every effort to bend it is 
 useless. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Necessity of Maternal Influence. 
 
 We have seen that the means now employ¬ 
 ed are inadequate for the world’s conver¬ 
 sion ; and such, we have reason to fear, will 
 continue to be the state of things until the 
 church is blessed with a different race of 
 mothers—a race of mothers who will con¬ 
 nect the subject of their infant sons entering 
 the ministry, as they shall be called of God, 
 with the subject of their conversion—who, 
 while dandling them upon their knees, and 
 rehearsing to them the history of the suffer¬ 
 ings and death of Christ, and while urging 
 upon them the importance of their dedicating 
 themselves to him, will, at the same time, 
 tell them the history of our ruined race, and 
 endeavor to impress them with a sense of 
 their obligations to enter the Gospel ministry, 
 provided God the Holy Ghost shall qualify 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 9 
 
 them for this momentous work. Mighty in¬ 
 strumentalities are needed for the conversion 
 of the world, and as they are not now to be 
 found in the church of God, we must look 
 for the required help from those who are at 
 present in the nursery. To the coming gene 
 ration our eyes turn with intense interest. It 
 must be trained in habits differing from those 
 which chain their fathers to earthly things. 
 It must be fashioned to a new standard. The 
 missionary spirit must be infused into the 
 heart of the rising generation while it is in 
 its infancy, and the impression must be made 
 now. The hope of the church in our own 
 land and the world rests, in a great degree, 
 under God, on the infant sons and daughters 
 of pious mothers. 
 
 Christian mothers, our hearts are sick and 
 faint with the burden of perishing millions. 
 We look over the moral landscape, and our 
 eyes are wearied with the dreariness of the 
 prospect. We look to you, and hope again 
 beams upon us. We look to you as God’s 
 agents not only in training laborers for our 
 own land, but in training missionaries for 
 the whole world. The hearts of the coming 
 generation are, in an important sense, in your 
 
10 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 hands—taking shape from your tuition. In 
 the cradles you rock, lie infolded the hopes 
 of christless nations. As the potter shapes 
 the clay, so should you endeavor, under 
 God, to shape the heart of the generation 
 which is now growing up, that it may be- 
 ome a missionary generation. A great re¬ 
 sponsibility in reference to raising up minis¬ 
 ters of the Gospel devolves upon you. Would 
 that I could convince you of this truth. 
 Would that I could awaken in you emotions 
 corresponding in sotne degree with the im¬ 
 portance of it, and lead you to such action 
 as may, through the agency of the Holy 
 Spirit, result in inducing your sons to be¬ 
 come ambassadors of the cross. Could I but 
 do this, I doubt not that distant heathen con¬ 
 tinents would, in coming days, murmur their 
 deep thankfulness to you, and the isles of 
 the sea would clap their hands with joy. 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 11 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Power of Maternal Influence . 
 
 In addressing vou on the momentous sub- 
 
 O j 
 
 ject of training your infant son, I invite you 
 to consider that you have the strongest rea¬ 
 son to believe that, with the aid of the Holy 
 
 Spirit, YOUR EFFORTS WILL BE SUCCESSFUL. 
 
 That you may be convinced of this, I ask 
 your attention to the following considerations. 
 
 1. Your child receives its first impressions 
 from you. In the light of your countenance 
 it catches its earliest thoughts. Your eye and. 
 voice and your caresses awaken the first ex¬ 
 ercises of its mind, and beget the first emo¬ 
 tions in its heart. Whatever be the charac¬ 
 ter of these emotions, good or bad, ennobling 
 or grovelling, it drinks them in from you. It 
 watches you with instinctive affection, and 
 as its susceptible heart yearns toward you, 
 it receives the impress of that which you put 
 upon it. The chords of its soul vibrate ac¬ 
 cording to the manner in which vou touch 
 them. Its heart is like a soil that has never 
 been occupied, where as yet no plough has 
 
12 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 traced any line and no harvest has ever 
 waved to the breeze. 
 
 2. These first impressions are also the 
 strongest and most enduring. Some soft sub¬ 
 stances grow hard when exposed to the air. 
 So the heart becomes hard as it is exposed 
 to the world. The impression which is made 
 on the soft infantile heart goes down into its 
 depths, and there it lies, and lives, though 
 the surface becomes hard. Such an impres¬ 
 sion is stronger than any which is made af¬ 
 terwards, when it has acquired a power of 
 resistance, a hardness that it had not be¬ 
 fore. And it is the most enduring; for while 
 other impressions made on the hard surface, 
 one after another, are effaced by attrition, 
 this lying lowest, towards the centre, is the 
 last to be reached. And when old age has 
 wasted away the outer coatings of the soul, 
 while there is a core of a heart yet left, that 
 impression will be found like a bright seed 
 in its cells. Facts will show this. Mental, 
 philosophers testify to its truth. 
 
 A case or two in point may be mentioned. 
 An old man who had passed into his second 
 childhood was stretched upon his dying bed, 
 a picture of impaired faculties, a mind in 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 13 
 
 ruins. While his friends stood by his bed¬ 
 side he opened his lips and rudely uttered 
 a couplet from a foolish nursery song. On 
 inquiry it was found that the nurse who had 
 borne him in her arms had taught him this 
 worthless ditty. The first thing learned was 
 the last to be forgotten. A gentleman not 
 long since told me, that he has a very aged 
 father, whose faculties are so much impair¬ 
 ed that he cannot remember the occurrences 
 of yesterday, but still he can readily repeat 
 the hymns which he learned in infancy. 
 
 3. These early impressions which you 
 make, shape your child’’s course in life. Those 
 things which are uppermost in your own 
 breasts will be also uppermost in your con¬ 
 duct, and will make the first impressions on 
 its heart. There is a oneness between you, 
 which resembles that between the branch 
 and the vine, and the same kind of sap will 
 be in the offshoot as is found in the trunk. 
 The ideas which your child receives from 
 you, with regard to the relative importance 
 to be attached to different things, will gene¬ 
 rally retain their influence even to its death, 
 shaping and modifying its course at every 
 step of its existence. Locke asserts, and 
 
14 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 doubtless there is much truth in the asser¬ 
 tion, that a child learns more by the time it 
 is four years old than during all the other 
 periods of its life. During these four years 
 then, while your child continues to be al¬ 
 most a part of yourself, you impart to it much 
 of your own spirit, your own ideas of that 
 which you consider to be most valuable, 
 most to be sought after in the present world. 
 And these ideas imparted by you must un¬ 
 questionably have an influence in determin¬ 
 ing the spirit and the ruling desires of its 
 future life. You may at this early age make 
 impressions respecting dress, equipage, or 
 the gratification of any appetite, which will 
 stamp its character. A mother who has a 
 martial or peaceful, a money-grasping or li¬ 
 beral, a jealous and suspicious or frank spi¬ 
 rit, may impart to her infant this same spirit, 
 and give complexion to all its plans and stri¬ 
 vings on the stage of life. 
 
 44 The most likely and hopeful reformation 
 of the world,” says Archbishop Tillotson, 
 44 must commence with children.” What 
 truth or force can there be in this remark, if 
 what I have said in regard to early impres¬ 
 sions be untrue ? It is a truth—a philosoph- 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 15 
 
 ical truth—a most solemn and awful truth. 
 Mothers, the hearts of your children love 
 you and trust you, as a man trusts God. No 
 one interposes between you and them to 
 prevent your making what impression you 
 please upon them. Their hearts are like 
 melted wax, and readily run into the moulds 
 you make for them. “ Tell me,” a person 
 once exclaimed, “ what a man is, and I will 
 tell you what his mother was.” 
 
 Now if it has been made evident that 
 your child obtains its earliest, strongest and 
 most lasting impressions from you; if it is 
 clear that the impressions you make during 
 the first four years of its life will, in a most 
 important sense, determine its temporal aims 
 and shape its whole future course, then the 
 conclusion cannot be evaded, that you have 
 every reason to believe you can, by the help 
 of your covenant-keeping God and Redeem¬ 
 er, give the mind of your infant son a direc¬ 
 tion towards the Gospel ministry. God has 
 determined to have a ministry. He has left 
 means, which will secure this end, if pro¬ 
 perly used; and these means he has in 
 no small degree committed to you. From 
 this it follows that God intends that you 
 
16 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 shall be instruments in establishing his 
 purposes. 
 
 Let me turn you to one or two facts. 
 Years ago there was a missionary meeting 
 held in one of our Eastern States. Strong ap¬ 
 peals were made. Hearts thrilled and burn¬ 
 ed with love for a perishing world. Money 
 poured in. There was one man and woman 
 there, who were poor, but the spirit of Christ 
 was not lacking in them. So they took in their 
 arms their infant son and trod slowly up to 
 the altar and dedicated him to God, to be 
 employed, if such should be his pleasure, in 
 the missionary work. The child nurtured by 
 these parents imbibed their spirit and be¬ 
 came a missionary of the cross. 
 
 There was a devoted woman in England 
 who had a son. She was accustomed to take 
 him with her into her closet and pray with 
 him when he was four years of age or be¬ 
 fore, and when she thus prayed she put her 
 hand upon his head. The boy became a 
 reckless young man, yet in all his reckless¬ 
 ness he never forgot the soft hand of his 
 mother resting upon him as he knelt with 
 her before the throne of grace. That man 
 died in the beauty of holiness, with many 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 j 7 
 
 souls as the seals of his ministry. This was 
 the Rev. John Newton. 
 
 I know a mother who has eight sons, and 
 who is not aware, as she once told me, that 
 a day ever passes in which she does not 
 pray for each of these sons by name, that 
 they may become ministers of the Gospel. 
 One of these sons has recently entered the 
 ministry. Three others are preparing for this 
 same work. 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 Miseries of the Heathen. 
 
 There are various motives which should 
 induce you to go forward in the good work 
 to which your attention has been directed. 
 
 1. Consider the woes and wants of the hea¬ 
 then. Look over into those doleful lands 
 where the prince of darkness rules with de¬ 
 solating sway. They are the border grounds 
 of hell. Millions live and die there under the 
 thraldom of evil spirits. Look at their moral 
 degradation as well as at their other miseries. 
 
18 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 It has been said that the Hindoos are a 
 virtuous people. “ Alas ! how should virtue 
 exist in a nation whose sacred writings en 
 courage falsehood, revenge and impurity— 
 whose gods were monsters of vice—to whose 
 sages are attributed the most brutal indul¬ 
 gences in cruelty, revenge, lust and pride— 
 whose priests endeavor to copy these abo¬ 
 minable examples, and whose institutions 
 are the very hotbeds of impurity.” 
 
 In vain will you seek to find virtue among 
 the heathen in India. In the place thereof 
 you will find every crime mentioned by the 
 apostle Paul in the latter part of the first 
 chapter of his epistle to the Romans ; and, I 
 was almost ready to say, crimes of so black 
 a nature that the Holy Ghost would not al¬ 
 low him to pen them. Indeed, were what I 
 know of the abominations of the heathen 
 written in the Bible, that book could never 
 be opened again and read. I never saw a 
 man in India whose word I would be willing 
 to trust. In defence of a cause in a court of 
 justice they will swear falsely, in a most 
 shocking manner, so that a judge never 
 knows when he may safely believe a Hindoo 
 witness. It is said that some of the courts of 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 19 
 
 justice are infested by a set of men termed 
 four-annas-men, (four annas are equal to 
 about twelve and a half cents,) who for so 
 paltry a sum are willing to make oath to any 
 thing, however false. Sir William Jones, after, 
 a residence of twenty years in India, testi¬ 
 fied that he never knew a Hindoo who would 
 not perjure himself for money. If deceit, dis¬ 
 honesty, filthiness of conversation, adultery, 
 fornication, discord, hatred, abuse, slanders, 
 injuries, litigations, can degrade a people, 
 then the Hindoos have sunk to the lowest 
 mark in the scale of human depravity. Oh I 
 could tell you such a tale in illustration of 
 this point as would make the ears of every 
 one of you to tingle. But I must forbear. 
 The recital would be too appalling. 
 
 “ The impurity of the conversation and 
 manners of the Hindoos,” says Mr. Ward, 
 one of the late missionaries at Serampore, 
 “is so much dreaded by Europeans, that 
 they tremble for the morals of their children, 
 and consider their removal to Europe, how¬ 
 ever painful such a separation may be to the 
 mind of the parent, as absolutely necessary 
 to prevent their ruin. In the capacity of a 
 servant, the wife of an English soldier is 
 
20 
 
 AN APFEAL 
 
 considered as an angel when compared with 
 a native woman.” We no more think of al¬ 
 lowing our children to associate with the na¬ 
 tives in common, than we would think of turn¬ 
 ing them into a den of lions, and bears, and 
 tigers. “The deliberate malice, the false¬ 
 hood, the calumnies and the avowed enmity 
 with which the people pursue each other, 
 and sometimes from father to son, offer a 
 very mortifying view of the human charac¬ 
 ter. No stranger can sit down among them 
 without being struck with this temper of ma¬ 
 levolent contention and animosity as a pro¬ 
 minent feature in the character of this peo¬ 
 ple. It is seen in every village. The inhabi¬ 
 tants live with each other in a sort of repul¬ 
 sive state; nay, the spirit of contention en¬ 
 ters into almost every family. Seldom is 
 there a household without its internal divi¬ 
 sions and lasting animosities.” 
 
 Private murder is practised to a dreadful 
 extent, especially in the houses of the rich, 
 where detection is almost impossible. Infan¬ 
 ticide is a thing of very frequent occurrence. 
 The relation of a single fact on this point 
 must suffice. In the province of Mulwa, 
 where this crime is common, a gentleman, 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 21 
 
 who was some time since engaged in politi¬ 
 cal investigations there, discovered in one 
 village that while there were forty-two male 
 children not a single girl was to be found. 
 They had all been slaughtered almost as 
 soon as they were born. 
 
 Let me point you to a few of the scenes 
 which are witnessed in that Eastern World, 
 in order that you may be more fully convin¬ 
 ced of the misery which reigns there. 
 
 1. The great temple of Juggernaut at Orissa. 
 Every year more than a million of persons 
 visit this celebrated spot, there to pay 
 homage to a rough hewn block with a din- 
 gy visage and a bloody mouth. The roads 
 thither, for fifty miles around, are skirted by 
 the bleached bones of the pilgrims who have 
 died by the way-side. Look at one of their 
 horrid festivals : infuriated men catch the 
 long ropes and drag the ponderous car of 
 the idol through the deep sand. On it rolls, 
 like a fiend-drawn chariot. The robed Brah¬ 
 mins sit perched in its lofty tiers—‘the clang 
 of harsh instruments, the shoutings of the 
 swarming throng, and the howls of those de¬ 
 votees who roll their bodies in its track, or 
 throw themselves under its massive wheels 
 
22 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 to be crushed to death, give a vivid picture 
 of hell’s demoniac host. It is said that one 
 hundred and .fifty persons were once killed 
 near the gate of the temple by the tremen¬ 
 dous press of the vast crowd. 
 
 2. The Ganges. The river Ganges is said 
 to be a goddess. “ The sacred books of the 
 Hindoos declare that the sight, the name, or 
 the touch of this river takes away all sin. In 
 prospect of dissolution, its waters are fraught 
 with peculiar efficacy in washing away the 
 stains of sin. To think intensely on the Gan¬ 
 ges at the hour of death, should the person 
 be far distant, will not fail of a due reward. 
 To die in the full view of it is pronounced 
 most holy. To die on the margin, in its im¬ 
 mediate presence, is still holier ; but to die 
 partly immersed in the stream, besmeared 
 with its sacred mud, and imbibing its puri¬ 
 fying waters, holiest of all. If distance inter¬ 
 pose a barrier, the preservation of a single 
 bone, for the purpose of committing it at 
 some future time to the Ganges, is believed 
 •to contribute essentially to the salvation of 
 the deceased. 
 
 “ Were you standing on the banks of this 
 river, you might in one place see two or 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 23 
 
 three young men roughly carrying a sickly 
 female towards it. If you were to ask them 
 what they are going to do with her, perhaps 
 they would reply, we are going to give her 
 up to Gunga, to purify her soul, that she may 
 go to heaven ; for she is our mother. In an¬ 
 other place you might see a person seated 
 in the water accompanied by a priest, who 
 pours mud and water down his throat, cry¬ 
 ing out, O mother Gunga, receive his soul. 
 The dying man may be roused to sensibility 
 by the violence. He may implore his priest 
 to desist. But his entreaties are drowned. 
 He perseveres in filling his mouth with this 
 mud and water, until he gradually expires, 
 stifled, suffocated, murdered in the name of 
 humanity—in the name of religion.” 
 
 In another place you might see a man de¬ 
 scending from a boat into the river, with 
 water-pans suspended to his neck; which 
 water-pans when filled will drag him down 
 to the bottom, so as to be seen no more for 
 ever. There is murder again in the name of 
 religion. He is a devotee, and has purcha 
 sed heaven, as he supposes, by this his last 
 and greatest good deed. You might then fol¬ 
 low the carcasses which are ever floating 
 
24 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 down the current of this great water ceme¬ 
 tery, until your eye should rest upon the 
 island which lies at its mouth. It is Saugor 
 island. In 1837 there were more than 60,000 
 boats abreast of its most holy landing-place; 
 and it was supposed that there were 300,000 
 pilgrims there. This is the island where 
 hundreds of mothers were accustomed to 
 hurl their infants to be devoured by croco¬ 
 diles, until prevented by British bayonets. 
 
 There is one circumstance connected with 
 the river Ganges which I would not fail to 
 mention. “When any person,” says Cap¬ 
 tain Williamson, “ has been taken to the 
 side of the Ganges, or other substituted 
 waters, under the supposition that he is 
 dying, he is, in the eye of the Hindoo law, 
 dead. His property passes to his next heir, 
 according to his bequest, and in the event of 
 recovery—which, from a sudden rallying of 
 the vital powers or other causes, sometimes 
 happens, especially in cases of rapid and 
 great prostration of strength—the poor fellow 
 becomes an outcast. Even his own children 
 will not eat with him nor afford him the least 
 accommodation. If by chance they come in 
 contact, ablution must follow. The wretched 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 25 
 
 survivor from that time is held in abhor¬ 
 rence, and has no other resort but to asso¬ 
 ciate himself with persons in similar circum¬ 
 stances.” He literally becomes a fugitive 
 and a vagabond upon the earth. 
 
 3. Goomsoor. Look at the horrid festival 
 of the Khonds. See that human victim fast¬ 
 ened to a strong post, amid the surrounding 
 multitude. There is a strange fierce look 
 about that crowd. They are decked in holi¬ 
 day finery, and drawn knives are in their 
 hands. Hear the appointed signal, and wit¬ 
 ness the impetuous rush of the throng upon 
 that living victim, each vying with his neigh¬ 
 bor who shall gash out the first piece from 
 the quivering body! This is common. 
 
 Captain Campbell, of the English service, 
 rescued, on one occasion, no less than one 
 hundred and three children, who had either 
 been bought or stolen, and who were des¬ 
 tined to this doom. He writes as follows, “ I 
 have been most fortunate in my late expe¬ 
 dition among the wild Khonds of Goomsoor, 
 and have rescued no less than one hundred 
 and three children of various ages, who were 
 intended for sacrifice by these barbarians. 
 These children are now at head quarters, 
 
 3 
 
26 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 and form a most interesting group, happy 
 (such as were aware of their situation) in 
 having escaped the fate which awaited them. 
 
 After the arrival of the British troops in 
 that country a female found her way to the 
 Collector’s camp with fetters on her legs. 
 She had escaped from those who had charge 
 of her, and related that she had been sold 
 by her own brother for the purpose of being 
 sacrificed. 
 
 4. Let me enumerate some of the penan¬ 
 ces whereby the heathen endeavor to propi¬ 
 tiate their deities, and gain the adoration of 
 men. Some of the Fakeers or Yogees (devo¬ 
 tees who go about and beg alms) practice 
 most fearful austerities upon themselves. 
 Some live in holes and caves; some drag 
 around a heavy chain attached to them; 
 some make the circuit of an empire, creep¬ 
 ing on their hands and knees; some roll their 
 bodies from the shores of the Indus to the 
 Ganges ; some swing all their life time be¬ 
 fore a slow fire ; some hold up one or both 
 arms until the muscles become rigid and the 
 limbs become shrivelled into stumps; some 
 stretch themselves on beds of iron spikes; 
 some carry iron collars round their necks. 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 27 
 
 See these wretched creatures, groping the 
 dark way to eternal death, without any 
 knowledge of Christ, striving to make atone¬ 
 ment for their sins ; some lying all day with 
 their heads on the ground and their feet in 
 the air; some stuffing their eyes with mud 
 and their mouths with straw; some lying 
 with pots of fire upon their breasts; some 
 enveloped in nets of ropes; some stretched 
 out in ponds of water. 
 
 See some casting themselves down from 
 a height upon iron spikes or bags of straw 
 with knives in them ; some dancing on fire ; 
 some having their sides or tongues perfora¬ 
 ted, and canes, swords, or living snakes put 
 through the aperture ; some with their breast 
 and arms packed with pins ; some sitting all 
 night by the temples with lamps, whose 
 pointed extremities are fastened in the flesh 
 of their foreheads. See some swing through 
 the air by hooks grappled in the flesh of 
 their backs; some bind themselves to trees 
 until they die ; some throw themselves from 
 precipices and are dashed to pieces ; some 
 bury themselves alive in graves which their 
 own relations have dug. These facts and 
 these scenes to which I have drawn your at- 
 
28 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 tention, will show you how great are the 
 moral degradation and the miseries in gene¬ 
 ral of the heathen of India. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Degradation of Heathen Females. 
 
 Having given you a description of the 
 miseries in general of the heathen, I must 
 ask you to proceed one step further and Look 
 
 at THE WRETCHEDNESS AND DEPRAVITY OP 
 heathen FEMALES. Of these I cannot draw 
 a more accurate picture than Paul has exhi¬ 
 bited in the third chapter of his Epistle to 
 the Romans : “ There is none righteous, no 
 not one. There is none that understandeth : 
 there is none that seeketh after God. They 
 are all gone out of the way: they are alto¬ 
 gether become unprofitable. There is none 
 that doeth good, no not one. Their throat is 
 an open sepulchre : with their tongues they 
 have used deceit, the poison of asps is under 
 their lips : whose mouth is full of cursing 
 and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 29 
 
 blood. Destruction and misery are in their 
 ways: and the way of peace have they not 
 known. There is no fear of God before 
 their eyes.” 
 
 In illustrating this I shall mainly give you 
 quotations from the natives of the soil. Per 
 haps in no country is the quarrelling of fe¬ 
 males carried to such an extent as it is in 
 India. Being held in the most deplorable 
 ignorance and slavish subjection, they vent 
 their furious passions against each other, and 
 indulge in the most virulent and indecent 
 railings. 
 
 “ Their throat is indeed an open sepulchre, 
 the poison of asps is under their lips.” They 
 swear in the most terrible manner, laying 
 their children down and stepping over them, 
 uttering at the same time the most filthy and 
 blasphemous expressions. Not only do they 
 curse God, but they call down his curses 
 upon themselves and their children. They 
 will say as follows: “ Make it known, O 
 God, that the crime which my accusers as¬ 
 cribe to me is false : if otherwise, let thy 
 temple go to ruin, let thy bowels burst, let 
 thyself be destroyed, and let thy shrine be 
 levelled to the dust. If this accusation be 
 
 3* 
 
30 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 true, let this my child on the ground die.” 
 Paul has said correctly, “ Their mouth is full 
 of cursing and bitterness.” 
 
 Let us advance a step farther in this hor¬ 
 rid revelation, and see how literally these 
 words of the apostle are verified in their 
 case—“ Their feet are swift to shed blood. 
 Destruction and misery are in their ways.” 
 In the province of Bengal alone it is sup¬ 
 posed that 120,000 infants are yearly de¬ 
 stroyed ere they have seen the light of day. 
 
 It is a common if not invariable practice 
 for heathen husbands to beat their wives. 
 On such occasions these wives show their 
 revengeful spirit in different ways. At one 
 time they fly to the temple of the goddess 
 Karle—the goddess of vengeance, who wears 
 two dead bodies for ear-rings, who has the 
 heads of giants whom she has slain as a 
 girdle to her loins, and who is said to be 
 pleased a thousand years with the sacrifice 
 of one man. To her shrine they fly and en¬ 
 treat her to take vengeance on their husbands, 
 as I myself have witnessed. When abused 
 by their husbands, they sometimes w T reak 
 their spite upon their poor children, kicking 
 them in a most violent manner. Sometimes 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 31 
 
 they starve themselves to death ; sometimes 
 they destroy themselves by cutting their 
 throats, or swallowing poison, or throwing 
 themselves into wells. 
 
 “ The way of peace have they not known.” 
 Suicide is more frequent among the women 
 than among men. A number of reasons have 
 been assigned for their committing this crime. 
 The first has been already mentioned, name¬ 
 ly, the ill-treatment they receive from their 
 husbands. Another is the belief that if they 
 destroy themselves 
 into devils, and can take full vengeance upon 
 those who have used them ill. The females 
 of India are objects of contempt even before 
 they are born. The great reason why sons 
 are so highly respected and daughters so de¬ 
 graded is, that none but the male offspring 
 of a family can perform the annual funeral 
 rites to the souls of their deceased ances¬ 
 tors ; and according to their conviction it 
 follows that all the progenitors of a family 
 are cast into hell for want of a son among 
 their descendants. 
 
 When a female child is born the fact is 
 generally made known to the relations most 
 nearly connected with the family, but some- 
 
 they shall be changed 
 
32 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 times the news does not go beyond the door¬ 
 posts. The members of the household sel¬ 
 dom distribute sugar and beetle-nuts to their 
 friends, as is done at the birth of a son. The 
 brand of shame is thus early put upon the 
 tender infant. The mothers groan at the un¬ 
 happy destiny to which their daughters must 
 eventually be subjected, and on this account 
 spend many of their leisure moments in me¬ 
 lancholy meditation. They are frequently 
 heard to say that it would be better if their 
 daughters were born mud or clay, which the 
 potter shapes into cooking utensils, than to 
 be destined to become the worst treated 
 slaves in the world. On the thirteenth or 
 some other convenient day a name is given 
 to the female child. It is chosen from the 
 catalogue of goddesses related to the gods 
 or goddesses whom the family worship. The 
 name is seldom given with any very splen¬ 
 did ceremonies, even among rich individu¬ 
 als. The great majority of the Hindoos give 
 names to their daughters without invitation 
 or ceremony. The mother is forbidden to 
 address the children by their own names, if 
 they happen to be the same in sound with 
 the names of their mothers-in-law, fathers- 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 in-law, husbands, brothers-in-law, or other 
 relations of their husbands’ houses. The 
 Hindoos say that the wife who pronounces 
 the names of these relations and of her hus¬ 
 band will be doomed to everlasting fire. 
 
 The education of females is systemati¬ 
 cally opposed. With the exception of those 
 women of ill-fame who are priestesses of 
 the temples, and whose business it is to 
 sing the most obscene songs within these 
 temples, no females are taught to read. The 
 following are some of the alleged objections 
 to their education. 
 
 1. Females ought not to be educated, for 
 if the many unlettered men were to have 
 educated females for wives they would not 
 be subject to them. 
 
 2. Adultery is certainly to be expected 
 from education given to females. 
 
 3. Custom is opposed to it. 
 
 4. Bread is not procurable by the educa¬ 
 tion of females. 
 
 5. Education is not required to teach a fe¬ 
 male how to perform her duties, as it has 
 nothing to do with cookery. 
 
 6. If a woman be educated, she will become 
 a widow, or some other misfortune will follow. 
 
34 
 
 AN ArPEAL 
 
 7. A wife is married to a Hindoo, not for 
 the purpose of sitting down and conversing 
 with him on any subject, but that she may 
 be the confidential servant in domestic 
 drudgery. 
 
 S. A woman can obtain salvation even 
 without worshipping the gods, for a husband 
 is to a wife greater than a god : the husband 
 is her god, and priest, and religion and its 
 services : wherefore abandoning every thing 
 else, she ought chiefly to worship her husband. 
 
 Their marriages are marriages neither of 
 choice nor affection, and consequently are 
 prolific sources of misery. Before a girl 
 reaches the age of seven or ten years, the 
 parents are bound to give her in marriage. 
 Both husbands and wives are often dissa¬ 
 tisfied with the choice of the parents. The 
 husband proves unfaithful to the wife, and 
 she utters many curses against her parents, 
 who married her to such a vicious and pro¬ 
 fligate husband. She grows hard-hearted 
 and thinks of breaking her marriage ties, or of 
 committing suicide. Look also at their treat¬ 
 ment after marriage. 
 
 J After the ceremonies are performed, the 
 bride remains with her mother, or goes to 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 35 
 
 her husband’s house, where she is under the 
 control of her mother-in-law. As she is gene¬ 
 rally very young, great pains are taken in 
 teaching her how to dress rice, make curry, 
 &c. for if she is not skilful in the manage¬ 
 ment of cookery, her mother-in-law kicks 
 her, spits upon her, cuffs her, and beats her 
 with a stick or any thing which may be at 
 hand. The ill-treatment which she receives 
 from her mother-in-law sours her mind to a 
 dreadful degree against her. She stores up 
 her troubles in her heart, and waits with 
 patience to take a double vengeance upon 
 her when opportunity shall offer. To this 
 mijst be added the manifold grievances 
 which the sisters of her husband inflict upon 
 her. They beat her, and torture her feelings 
 by heart-rending rebukes and reproachful 
 epithets. 
 
 The relation of a wife to a husband is that 
 of a slave to a tyrant. She is bound to be 
 entirely subject to him. She is at the mercy 
 of his will. See how the character, duties 
 and position of heathen wives are defined 
 by Manu, the greatest of Indian legislators 
 and philosophers. 
 
 “Women,” says he, “have no business 
 
36 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 with the texts of the Veda or Sacred books : 
 having therefore no evidence of law and no 
 knowledge of expiatory texts, sinful woman 
 must be as foul as falsehood itself.” Again: 
 “ Infidelity, violence, deceit, envy, extreme 
 avariciousness, a total want of good quali¬ 
 ties, with impurity, are the innate faults of 
 woman kind.” 
 
 “ With regard to their duties,” he says, 
 “ though enamored of another woman, or 
 devoid of good qualities, yet a husband must 
 be constantly revered as a god by a virtuous 
 wife.” It would be a difficult thing for some 
 of the wives of the heathen to revere their 
 wicked and cruel husbands, who, to qupte 
 again from the native, “ use their wives in a 
 most desperate way, and that at times when 
 there is not a particle of guilt, as if they were 
 puppets of iron, and who ruthlessly visit 
 them should they happen to sneeze or cough 
 in their presence.” 
 
 “ Widows,” says Manu, “ can never be 
 married.” Dreadful are the consequences 
 which result from this restriction. Again this 
 lawgiver says, “ A woman who has no chil¬ 
 dren may be cast off by her husband, and 
 another taken in the eighth year ; she whose 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 37 
 
 children are all dead, in the tenth ; she who 
 has daughters only, in the eleventh ; and she 
 who speaks unkindly, without delay.” I will 
 mention a few of the laws by which women 
 are bound by Plindoo customs. 
 
 1. A wife must not sleep longer than her 
 husband. She must awake by break of day, 
 and be ready for his commands. 
 
 2. She must prepare her husband’s food, 
 and wait for his coming home before she 
 can put any thing into her mouth. Though 
 pressed with hunger, she cannot eat until he 
 has taken his food. 
 
 3. Though the husband abuse, beat, or 
 cut the throat of his wife, yet it is spoken of 
 as the truest law for a chaste wife to remain 
 as silent as a dead person. 
 
 4. At night she must not go to bed before 
 her husband. 
 
 5. A woman, whether old or young, at the 
 sight of a man, of whatever age he may be, 
 must instantly rise, if she is sitting. 
 
 In all the wretchedness I have now been 
 describing the degraded females of India 
 live; and they die like the beasts of the 
 field. Many of them are destroyed, as you 
 have heard, by their own hands. Tens of 
 
 4 
 
38 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 thousands have perished on the funeral pile, 
 and in many parts of Hindoostan they yet 
 continue to be thus immolated. To give one 
 instance. Not Ions: since the kin^ of Edur 
 died. On the morning of the burning of his 
 corpse no less than fourteen living persons 
 (of whom I think five or seven were queens) 
 were burnt to death with it before all the 
 assembled population of Edur. 
 
 A few remarks on this subject must close 
 the details of misery which I am relating. 
 The holy books of the Hindoos recommend 
 voluntary religious suicide. The following 
 is a quotation from one of them. “ There 
 is no virtue greater than a virtuous wo¬ 
 man’s burning herself with her husband ; 
 no other effectual duty is known for virtuous 
 women at any time, after the death of their 
 lords, than casting themselves into the same 
 fire. There are 35,000,000 of hairs on the 
 human body. The woman who ascends the 
 pile with her husband will remain so many 
 years in heaven. If the husband be a mur¬ 
 derer of his own friend, the wife by burning 
 with him purges away all his sins.” 
 
 Encouraged by such doctrines, the wretch¬ 
 ed widow ascends the pile of wood on which 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 39 
 
 is stretched the corpse of her husband. 
 Around this pile stand the helpless children, 
 and for what? To put out the fire with their 
 tears ? No ! but in the name of their gods to 
 apply the torch which in a few minutes is to 
 leave them motherless orphans in a friend¬ 
 less world. “Can the policy of hell,” says 
 one, “ prevail further than this. Why is it 
 that in circumstances so powerfully calcula¬ 
 ted to summon forth all the tenderness and 
 sympathy of a mother’s heart, we behold 
 the unhappy creature pillowed on putres¬ 
 cence and ashes, curtained with blazing 
 flames, and overcanopied with volumes of 
 smoke?” Ah! Christian mothers, it is because 
 the religion of Jesus has never reached her 
 heart* This is the way by which she believes 
 she is to obtain heaven. 
 
 I have thus exhibited to you a picture of 
 female existence in India. There is not a 
 bright color nor a beautiful shading in this 
 picture. You have followed me as 1 have re¬ 
 hearsed the woes of your own sex. You nave 
 seen that from before their birth to the hour 
 of their death their life is a life of shame, and 
 contempt, and sorrowful treatment, enough 
 to break the heart of a Christian mother. 
 
40 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Condition of Christian Females contrasted with that oj 
 
 the Heathen . 
 
 Are you pained and wearied with the 
 mournful picture of wretchedness which has 
 just been drawn ? I am glad if you are, for 
 I desire now to turn your attention to a 
 BRIGHT CHAPTER OF BLESSINGS. I allude tO 
 
 your station, and your history, from the time 
 that a Christian mother rocked your cradle, 
 while she lulled your wakefulness with some 
 sweet song of Zion. Look back a moment 
 and let your past life unroll itself to your 
 scrutiny. Stern looks did not greet your en¬ 
 trance into this world. You were not shun¬ 
 ned as a painful appendage to the house¬ 
 hold circle, nor visited with cold neglect. 
 No. Kind hands fondled your tender form. 
 Many eyes glistened at the sight of you, 
 and affection exhausted itself in contriving 
 for your comfort. You were watched and 
 cherished with unvarying tenderness. Your 
 birth was not hid as a disgraceful thing. It. 
 was told with joy. Complacent smiles sat 
 upon parental lips as they spake of you. 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 41 
 
 There was no line of demarcation between 
 you and your brothers. No superstitious par¬ 
 tialities hedged you about with a wall of 
 shame. No Cain’s mark was put upon your 
 brow. No mother wept away her lonely 
 hours, grieving that she had given birth to a 
 daughter—-to you. No ! You were born under 
 the shadow of the blessed Gospel—and you 
 were welcomed with much gladness, and 
 guarded with deep solicitude and sleepless 
 assiduity. And as you grew in stature, and 
 passed on through the changing scenes of 
 childhood, blessed influences sprang up 
 around your path to form your character in 
 accordance with pure and elevating stand¬ 
 ards. Your home was not a den of pollution, 
 where the very air, burdened with impuri¬ 
 ties, communicated its foul taint to your sus¬ 
 ceptible heart. Your mother was no quarrel¬ 
 some, swearing virago, to nurture you into a 
 wretched conformity to herself. 
 
 No ! Maternal example shone around you 
 like a light from heaven. Its brightness and 
 
 O O 
 
 purity beamed across your young heart 
 with softening, purifying influence. As the 
 Almighty Spirit brooded over the unformed 
 earth and fashioned its chaotic materials 
 
 4* 
 
42 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 into a world of beauty, so your mother's 
 spirit brooded over your heart when it was 
 as yet “ without form and void,” and so 
 moulded its elements that your character 
 became full of sweet harmonies. How bless¬ 
 ed were the days of your infancy ! And 
 when you became older, you were not shut 
 out from an education. There was no flaming 
 sword at the gate of this Eden, turning every 
 way to keep you from the walks of learning. 
 You were not trained under the workings of 
 a religious S}'Stem which proclaims you to 
 be an unworthy and dangerous subject of 
 intellectual culture. The arrangements of 
 your early life were not so adjusted by 
 others as to shroud you in midnight igno.- 
 rance and give cultivation only to the pas¬ 
 sionate parts of your nature. Oh no! Every 
 thing was done to furnish each chamber and 
 recess of your mind with useful knowledge. 
 
 And you were not betrothed in infancy to 
 one whom you had never seen, and married 
 to one whom you did not love. You enjoyed 
 the high and excellent privilege of personal 
 choice, and were wedded to one who had 
 gained your affections by his worthiness and 
 love. No cruel mother-in-law was enthroned 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 43 
 
 over you in your husband’s house, to rule 
 you with a rod of iron, to spit in your face 
 while you were yet a young bride, and beat 
 you with merciless passion. Your husband’s 
 house was your house, and home, and gov¬ 
 erning sphere. The keys and the sway were 
 given to you. And your husband was not a 
 tyrant who gloried in trampling you under 
 his feet, and made you the convenient ob¬ 
 ject upon which to vent his fierceness, so as 
 to visit you ferociously if you did but sneeze 
 or cough in his presence. 
 
 Oh no ! What endearing courtesies have 
 you constantly received instead of such 
 heart-rending treatment! Your duties were 
 never defined to be those of an abject and 
 degraded slave, nor your husband placed 
 before you in the attitude of a god. Your 
 place has been in his heart, and not at his 
 feet. You were never goaded to despair 
 and suicide by the cruel and systematized 
 oppression of himself and his relations, or 
 maddened to a wild and fearful revenge 
 upon them. 
 
 Your lines have fallen in pleasant places, 
 your heritage is in a goodly land, a land 
 gladdened with the disenthralling influences 
 
44 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 of the Gospel of peace and joy. Your station 
 in society is an honorable one. There is no 
 Manu among Christian legislators to stamp 
 the character of your sex with ignominy, 
 and associate the idea of woman with every 
 thing that is foul and despicable. There is 
 in this free land no legislation that aims to 
 degrade you and set you forth in the eyes of 
 men as basely inferior to them. You occupy 
 an honorable position. High esteem is set 
 upon you. The gentlest courtesies are ren¬ 
 dered to you as your right. The hardened 
 wretch lowers his tone till it savors of 
 blandness, if he speaks to you. If you travel 
 through the land, acts of kindness and pre¬ 
 ference will be shown to you at every step. 
 Public opinion frowns on the man who can 
 treat a woman cruelly. You give character 
 to the circle, in which you move, and men ac¬ 
 commodate themselves much to your stand¬ 
 ards. The softest and sweetest words are 
 spoken to you. Man, iron-handed man, 
 fashions himself to a gentle bearing in Amur 
 presence, and the lion-hearted learn to act as 
 lambs. Truly your station is honorable and 
 your privileges are great. The hours of 
 your gladsome infancy, the sunny bridal 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 45 
 
 days, comforts, anti joys of your matronly 
 life, all testify that your position has been 
 and is replete with blessings. 
 
 As you review these things, Christian 
 mothers, remember that you are indebted to 
 Christ for them. It is the law of Christ that 
 distinguishes your condition so greatly from 
 the condition of Hindoo women. You are 
 under especial obligations to the Redeemer. 
 Wherever he is not worshipped females 
 are degraded and oppressed with a despot¬ 
 ism fierce and unrelenting. Wherever he is 
 obeyed and loved, there you are loved and 
 honored. Every thing around you is a wit¬ 
 ness to the truth of this. Every thing that 
 makes you to differ from heathen mothers 
 proves it. 
 
 Go to Gethsemane and Calvary, and see 
 the Almighty Savior bowed beneath the 
 burden of unutterable agony. With his own 
 blood he purchased for you these earthly 
 benefits, and hitherto I have mainly had 
 these in view; but stop here a moment and 
 think that Christ not only gives you these 
 temporal blessings, but also redemption from 
 eternal wo. Think of the precious hopes of 
 salvation which illumine the way of your 
 
46 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 pilgrimage. Think of the holy consolations 
 that sustain you in hours of trial. Oh think 
 of the heaven towards which you are jour¬ 
 neying ; and from these heights of earthly 
 and heavenly felicity on which you stand, 
 look down, I beseech you, into those depths 
 of degradation whieh I have described. 
 There lie many benighted and languishing 
 spirits, groaning over their own earthly 
 wretchedness, and shut out from one com¬ 
 forting ray of a joyful rest beyond the grave. 
 
 And remember, oh remember! that these 
 depraved mothers will give shape to all the 
 unborn millions who shall swarm upon that 
 soil, so long as they are under the degraded 
 religion which makes them what they are. 
 Let me entreat you to look forward and try 
 to conceive of the abominations and miseries 
 which are to make India, and I would add 
 all that Eastern world, accursed, until the 
 latest generation shall have passed from 
 their beautiful shores into hell, unless the 
 religion which makes these mothers a chan¬ 
 nel of pollution and wretchedness is broken 
 from off their necks, and they be set free 
 with the liberty wherewith Christ maketh 
 free. 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 47 
 
 Oh the Gospel, the glorious Gospel. What 
 transforming powers does it possess! Yes, 
 for by it those heathen mothers who are now 
 a torment to themselves, a curse to their 
 posterity, and a dishonor to Jehovah, who 
 are now training their offspring for endless 
 misery, can be made a glory and delight 
 unto Christ. Those heathen mothers, now 
 sunk in the depths of degradation, with 
 hearts bruised and bowed down by constant 
 and systematized tyrann}^, and with minds 
 darkened by benighted superstition, can be 
 restored to their right position, and be made 
 a blessing in all their relations. Those hea- 
 then mothers now in ignorance and* dark¬ 
 ness, living in misery and hastening on to 
 the realms of eternal wretchedness, who 
 stand even now on the confines of hell, and 
 manifest in their conduct the temper of the 
 spirits that dwell in that fathomless pit, can 
 be reclaimed by the omnipotent and saving 
 influence of the glorious Gospel. Yes, and 
 every family may, by it, become a minia¬ 
 ture of the church of God. Every husband 
 may be like the bridegroom Christ, and 
 every wife like the Lamb’s bride, the church. 
 Their sons may become as plants grown up 
 
48 
 
 AN ATPEAL 
 
 in their youth, and their daughters as corner 
 stones polished after the similitude of a pa¬ 
 lace. But alas! there are none to carry this 
 Gospel to them; none who will go and 
 preach salvation on every mountain of sin, 
 and tell the wondrous story of a crucified 
 Redeemer in every valley and by the banks 
 of every stream. 
 
 Christian mothers, do you care for the 
 temporal comfort of the heathen ? Have you 
 any compassion for their perishing souls ? 
 Have you any gratitude to the Son of God, 
 who has so abundantly blessed you? Have 
 you any desire to honor him, any delight in 
 his glory, any burnings of heart to carry out 
 the great purpose of his death] Then I be¬ 
 seech you, by each and all of these conside¬ 
 rations, to train your sons for Christ; to edu¬ 
 cate them from infancy for him ; for minis¬ 
 ters or missionaries, as he shall call them to 
 his service. 
 
 What an enterprise is here for you ! Look 
 not upon it coldly, for it is blessed. I call 
 on you to arise and gird up yourselvesTor 
 this work. I call upon you to use your ut¬ 
 most endeavors to impress the hearts of 
 vour infant sons during the first four or five 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 49 
 
 years of their lives, with such truths as will 
 ultimately, through God’s grace, make them 
 fountains of joy to distant and heathen lands. 
 Oh ! it is no time-service that I ask of you. 
 It is labor that shall garnish the throne o 
 God with bright jewels, even redeemed 
 souls. It is labor that shall polish the crown 
 of Christ and make it resplendent with gems 
 dug from heathen mines, and cleansed from 
 heathenish stains. It is labor that shall swell 
 into a louder shout that anthem of redemp¬ 
 tion which at the last day shall echo among 
 the vaulted roofs of the upper temple. I call 
 on you to furnish soldiery for Immanuel, as 
 he urges his legions on to the great battle¬ 
 grounds of paganism and holiness. I ask 
 your sons for God’s honor, for Jehovah’s 
 glory. I ask you to do all in your power to 
 save them from worldly lives, and devote 
 them to the cause of the glorious Redeemer. 
 
 Reproach has been gathering for ages on 
 the name of Christ. The church has not 
 obeyed her Lord. She has lived in disobe¬ 
 dience to her living head. Here is an oppor 
 tunity for you to wipe away this accumu¬ 
 lated reproach, by laying, through grace, the 
 foundations of a missionary church in the 
 
50 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 cradles of your nurseries. Here is an oppor¬ 
 tunity for you to be preaching the Gospel 
 through the lips of your own offspring, even 
 when you stand on the battlements of hea¬ 
 ven and look down upon this earth to see 
 how goeth the contest between hell and the 
 Lord of Hosts. Oh ! will you not consecrate 
 your children to this work ? Would you have 
 one harp in heaven unstrung for the want 
 of such a consecration ? 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Means to be used by Christian Mothers. 
 
 Let me now give an answer to the ques? 
 tion which I hope has arisen, “ How 
 shall I do this work ?” I will make some 
 remarks which may form a connected an¬ 
 swer to this inquiry. And, 
 
 1. Dedicate your new-born son to God .— 
 Make an honest and entire consecration of 
 him, and let him be ever to you as a sacred 
 vessel for God’s sanctuary, which may not 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 51 
 
 lje put to a profane use without provoking 
 Divine judgement. Say as Hannah did, with 
 weeping heart, “ I will give him unto the 
 Lord all the days of his life. As long as he 
 liveth he shall be lent to the Lord.” I would 
 that there were more such mothers as was 
 Hannah, who would dedicate their children, 
 if sons, to the sanctuary of God even before 
 their birth. I do believe that if the church 
 abounded with such mothers there would 
 not be so many tears shed over ungodly 
 sons as we are now obliged to witness. 
 
 2. Pray that your son may he led by God's 
 Spirit into the ministry. Let this be the ear¬ 
 nest desire of your heart. Plead at the 
 throne of grace, that this petition may be 
 offered in heaven’s courts before the Father 
 by the great Intercessor. Day after day and 
 year after year, let this supplication be re¬ 
 corded in the book of Divine remembrance. 
 Show that this is the main anxiety of your 
 soul for your son, that he may be a watch¬ 
 man on somfe watch-tower of Redemption 
 erected amid pagan or other desolations. 
 You may have power with God and prevail. 
 He will hear persevering prayer. Then ne¬ 
 ver be faint nor be weary, but with the same 
 
52 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 purpose in view, untiringly at God’s feet, 
 press your suit and plead his gracious pro¬ 
 mises until the desire of your heart is ful¬ 
 filled, even with a crown of rejoicing. 
 
 3. Begin to labor with your child before he 
 is four years old. Attention to this is of the 
 greatest importance. Many mothers are 
 skeptical respecting the formative power 
 and permanent influence of impressions 
 made so early. But I have already endea¬ 
 vored to show the truth in regard to this 
 subject. “ Give me the first five years of a 
 child’s life,” said a celebrated French infidel 
 philosopher, “ and I will teach it to break 
 every law of God and man.” Give me the 
 first five years of my child’s life, you may 
 say, and I will, through the Holy Spirit, 
 make such an impression upon his mind 
 that lie will grow up with but one thought 
 and one design, which will be to live and 
 labor for a dying world. I have heard of a 
 case in a family where there were two sons, 
 the one four and the other twelve years of 
 age. On the younger lad a most vivid and 
 powerful impression in regard to the hea¬ 
 then was made, while the other was un¬ 
 moved. The ground was preoccupied in the 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 53 
 
 elder ; the field was clear for impressions in 
 the heart of the younger. 
 
 Christian mothers, if you would expect 
 your labors to be crowned with success, you 
 must begin to instruct your sons in very 
 early life,—before they are four years old. 
 Even before they have learned to speak, 
 when the eye first begins to beam with the 
 light of awakened intelligence, sing to them 
 low plaintive airs concerning the wants of 
 our own land and of the heathen, as well as 
 the sweet hymns which tell of salvation by 
 the blood of Christ. Let the first thing that 
 their minds catch be something respecting 
 these wants. That first idea will thoroughly 
 imbue the soul and impart a savor which 
 later impressions cannot wholly destroy. 
 Christian mothers, at what age does your 
 little boy know that a penny will supply him 
 with a toy ? At that age you should endea¬ 
 vor to make him understand that the only 
 remedy for the miseries of a dying world, 
 for the perishing heathen, is the Gospel. 
 
 4. Let their nursery books be of a right 
 kind. Furnish them with some simple books 
 and periodical papers which direct their at¬ 
 tention to the wants of our own land, as 
 
54 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 well as those which show the habits and cus¬ 
 toms and religion of the heathen*—books 
 and periodicals, whose history shall not only 
 delight and instruct their young minds, but 
 which shall call out the earliest emotions ol 
 their souls and engage their liveliest sympa¬ 
 thies in their behalf. Choose those books, 
 which, in simple historical portraitures, dis¬ 
 play the grand reasons of the world’s 
 wretchedness, and point out the cross as 
 the only remedy for its woes. You will thus 
 afford your sons a fund of pleasure as great 
 as they would drink in from “ Jack the giant 
 killer,” and other similarly frivolous and 
 dangerous books. You will store their minds 
 with truth, instead of those fictions which 
 will haunt them ever afterwards. You will 
 strengthen their minds with substantial food, 
 instead of weakening them with airy and in¬ 
 digestible fancies. You will make impres¬ 
 sions which will prepare their minds to 
 grasp eagerly for missionary intelligence, 
 and constrain them to become deeply enga- 
 
 * Since my return to America I have published a 
 small work entitled “ Letters to Sabbath-school Chil¬ 
 dren, on the condition of the Heathen.” It is printed by 
 the American Sunday-school Union. 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 55 
 
 god in the cause of missions. Its progress 
 will become dear to them. Facts in regard 
 to it will be closely linked with all their ear¬ 
 liest associations, and incorporated with their 
 thoughts and affections, making the mission¬ 
 ary life appear desirable and blessed. 
 
 5. Tell them stories which hear upon the des¬ 
 tinies more particularly of the heathen world . 
 Store your own mind with facts, and be 
 guided in the selection of such facts by these 
 two things, the death of Christ, and the ruin 
 of earth by sin. Let them be exceedingly 
 various in their general character, but let 
 them all have some point which shall clear¬ 
 ly exhibit these two subjects, or something 
 which can be brought to bear upon them. 
 Your little boys will often come with the re¬ 
 quest, “ Mamma, please to tell me a story,” 
 and if you will always have suitable stories 
 at hand to tell them, you will find them de¬ 
 lighted hearers ; and while they are entirely 
 unconscious of the whole matter, you will 
 be planting in their budding, inquisitive 
 minds, the two greatest ideas of which we 
 can here form any conception, namely, that 
 they must live for Christ, and live for a dy¬ 
 ing world 
 
56 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 6. Teach them to contribute for the support 
 of the Gospel at home and among the hea¬ 
 then. As soon as they can understand the 
 idea (and they will understand it at a very 
 early age) that money is needed to spread 
 the Gospel of our Savior, teach them to 
 give it, and to give it systematically. Teach 
 them to give it by self-denial. Let them 
 earn a penny as often as they please, by 
 going without some accustomed luxury, or 
 what some might call comfort. Provide 
 them with work, whereby they may gain 
 money for the heathen. Teach them to exer¬ 
 cise their ingenuity and their industry in 
 order to gain something for this purpose. 
 Furnish them with a missionary-box to hold 
 their contributions, and so instruct them that 
 they shall feel much happier in dropping a 
 penny into it, than by spending it for candy 
 or similar things. Christian mothers, we 
 want children trained thus in habits of giv¬ 
 ing, in habits of denying self, in order to fill 
 the Lord’s treasury. Would that those Chris¬ 
 tians, who now have a place in our churches 
 and make money in our streets, had thus 
 been trained. Then would not schools in 
 heathen lands be disbanded for want of 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 57 
 
 means to support them ; nor would presses 
 be stopped, nor missionaries at home and 
 abroad faint and die, through overwork. 
 
 7. Let them know that they are consecrated to 
 God. Christian mother, tell your child after 
 you have thus instructed him, that you have 
 vowed to the Lord, that if he would qualify 
 him for the work of the Gospel ministry, you 
 would not only relinquish your right in him, 
 but do all in your power that he may preach 
 among the heathen the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ. Take him alone. Summon to your 
 aid all the solemnities of circumstance and 
 place that you can : kneel with him ; put 
 your hand upon his head, as Newton’s mo¬ 
 ther did, and pray with him. Give him 
 away to God, audibly, in a form of conse¬ 
 cration, and then tell him that vou have 
 thus consecrated him ; that you do not con¬ 
 sider him your son, but God’s; and fre¬ 
 quently admonish him of this scene. Endea¬ 
 vor to impress him with the thought, that as 
 you have relinquished all right in him that 
 lie may be devoted to this work, he should 
 be willing to forsake all to enter upon it. 
 And thus let this idea “ grow with his 
 growth and strengthen with his strength,” 
 
58 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 that; his business is a world’s salvation. I 
 have advised you, audibly to consecrate 
 your sons to God, in their presence. Some 
 mothers may possibly be indisposed to in¬ 
 struct their children at the early period just 
 mentioned, from the belief that they cannot 
 comprehend the meaning of such instruction. 
 Should you be of that number, you surely 
 cannot refuse to comply with one item in 
 the request just made, which is, that after 
 you have consecrated your sons to God in 
 private, you will take them into your closets 
 and kneel with them and pray audibly with 
 them, that they may hear you while you 
 give expression to the desire that God will 
 make them not only the trophies of his grace 
 but heralds of the cross. 
 
 8. Endeavor to kindle in the heart of your 
 son the heroic spirit of the Gospel. Make him 
 feel that of all the enterprises of the present 
 day, the missionary enterprise is one of the 
 noblest which can be undertaken on earth. 
 Make it appear glorious. You have his affec¬ 
 tions, and his imagination lights its torch at 
 the altar fire which burns upon your heart. 
 Use a sanctified and chastened imagination 
 in pourtraying to him the glorious results of 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 59 
 
 this enterprise. Catch the spirit of the pro¬ 
 phet bard : “ The wolf also shall dwell with 
 the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down 
 with the kid, and the calf and the young 
 lion and the fading together, and a little 
 child shall lead them,$c. They shall not hurt 
 nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the 
 earth shall be full of the knowledge of the 
 Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Set be¬ 
 fore him the Captain of Salvation, and the 
 glorious rest which is to follow the warfare; 
 that his heart may pant with the spirit of 
 the Gospel, and that he may long to be one 
 among Christ’s soldiers. 
 
 “ We must have mothers in France,” said 
 Madam Campan to Bonaparte. This single 
 remark, it is said, had a magical influence 
 on the mind of the emperor. And what did 
 he do under the influence of this thought? 
 From that moment he set the mothers of 
 France to the work of education, to carry 
 forward his plans. Mothers inspired their 
 children with a martial spirit. They put into 
 the hands of their infant boys the little 
 trumpet, sword, drum, and martial flag, 
 and chanted over their cradles the sweet War 
 monody. They embraced all possible oppor- 
 
60 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 tunities to exalt the name of their illustrious 
 military conqueror. Thus in a few years 
 mothers infused into the minds of the chil¬ 
 dren of Franee such a thirst for military ho¬ 
 nor, that their boys panted to be men, that 
 they might enter the field of military glory, 
 and serve their emperor and their country. 
 Truly our Lord has said, “ The children of 
 this world are wiser in their generation than 
 the children of light.” . 
 
 Christian mothers, will you not do fot 
 Christ what the mothers of France did foi 
 Bonaparte ? Let me entreat you thus to act. 
 Such action on your part would, I doubt not, 
 often be overruled by the Head of the church 
 for the conversion of your children. Get 
 them to turn their attention to the miseries 
 of others, and they will naturally be induced 
 to turn their attention to their own miseries. 
 Let me mention a case or two in point. 
 
 A clergyman not long since told me, that 
 when he was about five years of age he saw 
 some pictures of the Tuscarora Indians, 
 which had been sent bv a ladv who had gone 
 as a missionary from his native place. This 
 circumstance made an impression upon his 
 mind respecting missions which he never 
 
vO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 61 
 
 forgot, and he considers this as one of the 
 important means which God made use of for 
 his conversion. 
 
 Another clergyman stated, that in his boy¬ 
 hood a colored nurse, a pious methodist, im¬ 
 pressed it upon his mind by her simple re¬ 
 marks that he was to become a minister. 
 This impression never left him even in his 
 most sinful years; but was, he believes, a 
 leading instrumental cause of turning his 
 mind to the subject of religion, and finally 
 of constraining him to become a preacher of 
 the Gospel. 
 
 An American missionary said, “ I recol¬ 
 lect particularly, that once my mother came 
 and stood by me as I sat in the door, and 
 tenderly talked to me of God and my duty 
 to him, and her tears dropped upon my 
 head. That made me a missionary.” 
 
 9. Teach them to pray for a perishing world « 
 Never should they bow their little knees at 
 the throne of grace in the morning and in 
 the evening, without pleading with God for 
 this object. They should also attend a month¬ 
 ly concert of prayer. Many parents do not 
 feel disposed to take their children to the 
 monthly concerts as now established, be- 
 
 6 
 
62 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 cause they are held at night, when they can 
 scarcely be kept awake. If this objection be 
 valid, then by all means let a monthly con¬ 
 cert of prayer be established exclusively for 
 children, and let it be held at a season when 
 their attention can be kept up. Perhaps the 
 afternoon of the Sabbath would be the most 
 appropriate season. Indeed I think that such 
 a concert should at all events be established. 
 Very frequently the nature of the missiona¬ 
 ry intelligence communicated at our usual 
 monthly concerts of prayer, and the long 
 prayers which are offered are not adapted 
 to children. Prayers with children should 
 never exceed four or five minutes, and the 
 missionary intelligence should be of the most 
 simple and stirring nature. The little books 
 which have been printed by our Sunday- 
 school, Tract and other Societies, as well as 
 the little monthly papers which are devoted 
 to the publication of missionary intelligence, 
 will furnish ample means to interest juvenile 
 hearers. Were I the pastor of a church, it 
 would, I think, be one of my first objects to 
 establish such a monthly concert of prayer. 
 I can hardly think of any meeting which it 
 would give me so much pleasure to attend, 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 63 
 
 or which would, with the blessing of God, 
 tell so much upon the salvation of the souls 
 of the children, as well as upon the promo¬ 
 tion, eventually, of the Redeemer’s king¬ 
 dom. If you ever expect your children to 
 become men and women of full stature in 
 prayer, they must he educated in the missionary 
 yrayer-meeting. Unless they are thus educa¬ 
 ted, they will never pray for the heathen as 
 they should pray for them. They will be no 
 better in this respect than ourselves. And if 
 there be not a much greater spirit of prayer, 
 how is this world ever to be converted to 
 Christ. 
 
 I have said nothing to those mothers who 
 profess to be Christians, but who are unwill¬ 
 ing to have their sons enter the ministry be¬ 
 cause they may be poor, or from some other 
 trivial reason. Do such mothers know what 
 they do? Have they any desire that their 
 sons should become converted? Even if they 
 have, I know not what reason they have to 
 hope (so far as they are concerned) that this 
 will be the case. They may expect to weep 
 over ungodly sons, and break their hearts 
 over graves on whose tombstones there shall 
 be no record of hope. 
 
64 
 
 AN APPEAL 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 And now, Christian mothers, what more 
 shall I say ? You are compassed about with 
 a great cloud of witnesses, looking upon you 
 to see what you will do—to see whether you 
 will bestir yourselves in this matter or not. 
 The church looks to you with deep solici¬ 
 tude. The church of the coming genera¬ 
 tion has its germs in your families. You are 
 the guardians over Christ’s nursery. Shall 
 they be plants standing like green olive-trees 
 in the house of God, or shall they be like 
 the present dwarfish race of Christians. 
 
 The eyes of the great Head of the church 
 are placed upon you. He has entrusted to 
 you the great means of raising up ministers 
 to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth, 
 and he looks to you to see what you will do. 
 And will you not awake to a sense of your 
 responsibilities and rejoicingly use the in¬ 
 strumentalities which Christ hath committed 
 to your hands ? 
 
 Oh! for one brief moment suppose your¬ 
 selves in the condition of those wretched 
 heathen for whose sake I plead. Suppose 
 
TO CHRISTIAN MOTHERS. 
 
 65 
 
 you were in their places, without God, and 
 without hope in the world, and I were plead¬ 
 ing for you in this little work with many 
 prayers and tears. How would you wish 
 that they should act for you ? Say, Christian 
 mothers, how would you wish them to act 
 for you? So act for them, and act now. Ne¬ 
 ver ! Oh never was there a class of females, 
 from the days of Adam to this time, who 
 were placed in so responsible a situation as 
 you. Every act of yours will tell upon the 
 destinies of souls, either for heaven or for 
 hell. It is a solemn thing for you to die . How 
 much more solemn and awful a thing is it 
 for you to live in such a day as this. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 7 
 

 
 
 
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 a 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN LIBRARY, 
 
 Published by the American Tract Society. For Library • 
 Associations, Schools, and Families. Containing 45 vo 
 lumes of 430 pages. Price, with case, $ 20 . 
 
 The set embraces about 20,000 pages, in a fair type for persons of 
 every age, with twenty-four steel plates and numerous other engrav- 
 ings, those in volumes 25, 26, 27 being by Adams. 
 
 Vol. 
 
 1. Doddridge’s Rise and Pro¬ 
 
 gress. 
 
 2. Wilberforce’s Practical View 
 
 and Flavel’s Touehstone. 
 
 3. Edwards on the Affections, 
 
 and Allei tie’s Alarm. 
 
 4. Banyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. 
 
 5. Baxter’s Saints’ Rest. 
 
 6. Baxter’s Cal!, Dying Tho’ts, 
 
 and Life. 
 
 7. Memoir of Brainerd, and Fla- 
 
 vel cn Keeping the Heart. 
 
 8. Memoir of Henry Martyn. 
 
 9. Edwards’ Hist, of Redemp¬ 
 
 tion. 
 
 10. Pike’s Persuasives to Early 
 
 Piety. 
 
 11. Pike’s Guide for Young Dis¬ 
 
 ciples. 
 
 32. Memoir of Rev. Dr. Payson. 
 
 13. Ncvins’ Practical Thoughts, 
 
 and Thoughts on Popery. 
 
 14. Evidences of Christianity. By 
 
 Jenyns, Leslie, Littleton, 
 Watson, and others. 
 
 15. Memoir of Brainerd Taylor. 
 
 16. Memoir of Buch anan, with his 
 
 Researches in Asia. 
 
 17. Elijah the Tishbite By Rev. 
 
 Dr. Kruinmacher. 
 
 18. Bogue’s Evidences of Chris¬ 
 
 tianity, and Keith’s Evi¬ 
 dence of Prophecy. 
 
 19. Melvill’sBible Thoughts; and 
 
 Foster’s Appeal to the 
 Young 
 
 Vol. 
 
 20. Mammoft, by Rev. J. Harris) 
 
 and Henry on Meekness. 
 
 21. James’ Anxious Inquirer; and 
 
 Mason on Self-Knowledge. 
 
 22. Memoir of Mrs. Harriet L* 
 
 Winslow. 
 
 23. Memoirs of H. Page, Rev. S. 
 
 Kilpin, and N. Smith. 
 
 24. Abbott’s Mother at Home, and 
 
 Child at Home; and N. W. 
 Dickerman. 
 
 25. Gallaudet's Scripture Bio - 
 
 grapliy, Adam to Joseph. 
 
 26. Do. do. Moses. 
 
 27. Do. do. Joshua, Judges, 
 
 Ruth and Samuel. 
 
 28. Gallaudet’s Life of Josiah; 
 
 Youth’s Book on Natural 
 Theology, with 26 engrav¬ 
 ings ; and Child’s Book on 
 Repentance. 
 
 29. Hooker’s Child’s Book on the 
 
 Sabbath; Beecher on In¬ 
 temperance ; and Mather’s 
 Essays to do Good. 
 
 30. Practical Piety, by Hannah 
 
 More. 
 
 31. Flavel’s Fountain of Life, or 
 
 Christ in his Essential and 
 Mediatorial Glory. 
 
 32. Abbott’s Young Christian. 
 
 33. Venn’s Complete Duty of 
 
 Man. 
 
 34-45. Religious Miscellany ; 
 being the General Scries of 
 Tracts, to No. 428.