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An unmarried wet-nurse, inevitably implies a person of blighted reputation, one with whom the faithful follower of Christ is enjoined, "no, not to eat." How, then, can you justify the introduction of such a character among your domestics, to say nothing of the very strong relationship in which she will stand to your own child? When a woman has surrendered her chastity, what possible guarantee have you for the existence of any one right principle within her? Do you not shudder at the dreadful responsibility incurred, by bringing pollution into your dwelling? Is it the part of a Christian mother, to lay her tender infant to the callous bosom of one, who can only regard it as a means of gratifying her mercenary desires? You may rest as confidently as you will, on the assurance that actual disease does not lurk in her veins, to poison the constitution of your babe: but where is your proof that a temper, secretly soured by the conscious loss of reputation -a mind hardened by the indulgence of guilty passion-will not inflict upon it more than your maternal love could bear to contemplate? Many a scream, that is readily attributed to the derangement of your child's digestive functions, would be traced, if the little sufferer could tell its own story, to the neglect, or even cruelty, of your ill-chosen deputy. Oh, Christian sister! can you so forget your sucking child? Can you so fail to have compassion on the son of your womb?

A virtuous, modest, healthful young matron comes, with a husband's sanction, and unexceptionably recommended, willing to take up her abode with you for a while, and to nourish your child. You decline, on the ground of her being married, and send her

away, to reconcile the disappointment with promises given in God's word to those who obey his laws; which promises we are all bound, instrumentally, to fulfil to the utmost of our power. Another applies, acknowledging herself to be a mother under circumstances of open guilt; and this recommendation is irresistible.

We are told by 'A Parent' that one excuse offered is that of wishing to rescue an erring fellow-creature from more hopeless infamy: and we would gladly believe that such excess of charitable feeling is what prevails over the tender jealousy of maternal solicitude, inducing her even to throw her own babe across the path of a sinner hastening to destruction: but, admitting this, there are claims not to be slighted with impunity, which must all be cast out of her sight. Are there no female domestics in your house? Do you strengthen them against temptation, when you single out an unchaste woman, and introduce her to their daily notice, as an example of lucrative crime? They see her temporal situation improved, they behold her appointed to a post of honourable, yea sacred trust, and this, unquestionably, because of her former transgression. With such a companion at hand, with a watchful enemy always near, always active to seize every occasion of making one sinner instrumental to the final ruin of others, can you find any justification beyond the miserable, selfish, and unsound plea of false expediency? You, perhaps, seeking the Lord in prayer, persuade yourselves that you can trust his overruling providence to preserve your household from the infection of a plague-spot needlessly introduced; yet can you not trust him, that if you put honour upon the state which he pro

nounces honourable in all, and refuse to know a wicked person, as an inmate of your family, he will provide against a possible evil, in the very anticipation of which you run counter to his gracious command, to take no such anxious care for the morrow? Or, really incapacitated from undertaking the office yourself, and disappointed in your search for a married nurse, cannot you look to the same blessing on a different mode of nourishment? It is customary, we are aware, to denounce the practice of bringing up infants, as it is called, by hand: but to this prejudice we can oppose the observation of many years, the personal knowledge of many individuals growing up in the enjoyment of remarkably sound and vigorous constitutions, whose nutriment was yielded by the cow or the goat, from the very day of their birth.

We have been assured that, to save appearances, a ring is sometimes bought, for the finger of the unhappy being who never appeared before the altar with the father of her child: but this we do not like to credit, because it would imply something too glaringly opposed to even common honesty-a lesson of deliberate, habitual deceit, inculcated where Satan had, perhaps, omitted to suggest such duplicity: and overthrowing at once every pretence of doing good to the soul of the unhappy transgressor.

If this most important subject were duly weighed --and that in the balances of the sanctuary--its difficulties would often lead to a more persevering and successful effort, on the mother's part, to fulfil a sweet and sacred office, which ought to be among the dearest of her cherished privileges. But if there be a real inability for the task, then he who knoweth

our frame, and whose tender care for the little lambs is far beyond that of the fondest mother, will assuredly provide, in answer to the prayer of faithaccompanied as it ought to be, and as the prayer of true faith ever will be, by a fixed determination to abide by his known will.

In conclusion, let us most earnestly entreat all our female readers, to take into their most compassionate consideration, the state of those whose transgressions ought to exclude them from any part in our households; at least, until long trial has given good ground for trusting that they are reclaimed from the error of their ways. Alas! how wide, and how neglected a field here lies before us. It is a crying evil, one that falls most peculiarly within the province of the Christian lady to ameliorate: and surely the Lord will bless every effort made to that intent, short of sacrificing the best interests of those who are especially committed to our own guardianship.

C. E.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN
LADY'S MAGAZINE.

MADAM,

I CANNOT be unwilling to explain the expression in which your correspondent, Margaret, finds a difficulty. The paradox of being 'cursed with a good gift,' touches upon that great anomaly which human understanding cannot penetrate: but your correspondent needs not to be told there was a time when every thing here was good; and there came a time when every thing was cursed; and evil would those good things have remained for ever, had not redeeming love interposed to take the curse out of them. Of these are our mental powers, as well as our temporal possessions. Good in themselves, they are no longer blessings in the hand that holds them. Is wealth always a blessing? Is beauty always a blessing? Are the highest intellectual endowments not often the very impetus to destruction? Or, to the point in question, is it a blessing to a child to possess a talent for music, which, before it is capable of choosing for itself, induces the parent to sacrifice it, mind and body, at the shrine of vanity? This was the case supposed: if your correspondent still thinks the language inaccurate, or unfit to convey my meaning, I can only add, that it is strictly scriptural. When I applied the term 'cursed' to the good gift

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