Orphan's Advocate, published in Boston, March 1851.

66 WHO WILL FIND THE CHILD.

"Among the many good places for children, we know a superior one for an infant boy, twenty months old, to fill the vacancy left by the death of an infant of that age, in a family of prosperous people. If we mistake not, the child should have light eyes and hair; an orphan would be preferred."

The solitary number of the Orphan's Advocate within reach contains various touching passages. Here is a sample:

66 INFLUENCE OF CHILDREN.

Many a ray of sunshine has a child shed into a dark heart. Childhood softens the selfishness of age, and bids the frozen sympathies gush out. Who has never felt that he had reason to bless children for what they have done for him?

"Many orphans owe their happy homes to the influence of other children. We have known instances when a child has persuaded its parents to adopt a little orphan-they have persuaded others to do the same. They read of the little ones who need homes, and they seek homes for them."

"CHILDREN'S SYMPATHY FOR ORPHANS.

"Children frequently sympathise deeply with orphan children. There are no objects for whom

their hearts are so easily or deeply enlisted.

We have been frequently told of children who read over regularly the list of children needing homes in the Orphan's Advocate, and manifest great interest for them."

These excellent Misses Fellowes enlist the services of the benevolent to "search out the children." Besides having ten travelling agents, part male and part female, they urge them not to overlook the

poorhouses. "Shall we not," say they, "have our poorhouses emptied of their young inmates? Shall Massachusetts, shall any State in the Union, bear upon its brow the curse of young humanity neglected? The older poor can speak for themselves, the younger cannot; but their cry goes up to God, who hears and knows, and who will recompense good or evil to those who search out, or refuse or neglect to search out the little ones, and see that their wants are supplied." "Applications, especially for young children to be taken by adoption, are becoming daily more numerous." "Our friends will need to be diligent in looking up the destitute little ones, so that there may be a constant supply for those whom this increasing interest shall lead to seek to become foster-parents."

I have been assured that the success of this plan is unfailing, and that its benevolent inventors are greatly encouraged to proceed.

One instance of adoption touched me deeply on many accounts. In the graveyard of the first Pres

byterian Church in Elizabethtown, the monument is found which tells the dismal story of the deaths of Mr Caldwell, once pastor of that flock, and of his wife. She was shot, with her babe in her arms, through the window of her own house, by ravening soldiers in search of plunder. He encountered a similar fate more than a year after, when exerting himself like a Christian patriot in the service of his country.

Such deeds have left scars which are calculated to excite national spleen; and such monuments, records so sadly true, aid in fretting and keeping it alive.

Nine children were by these deeds of cold murder left unprotected. After the funeral, the Hon. Elias Boudnot ranged the bereaved offspring around the remains of their father, and with that speaking spectacle before the eyes of a crowd of mourners, asked which of them was going to fulfil the Divine promise, that the seed of the righteous shall not be forsaken? which would embrace the opportunity of proving that they valued their patriotic friend and faithful pastor? which would from these for saken ones rear citizens worthy of their parents? "For my share," said the noble man, "I select this boy for mine, and engage before you, my fellowcitizens, and under the eye of heaven, to rear and train him as my own son, and may our God give His blessing." There was a solemn pause. Many an eye brimful was turned from the dead father to the fatherless little flock. One and another stepped for

ward and led forth an orphan, till all the nine found parents; and, with the exception of one unsettled character whose act was that of fleeting emotion, and not of Christian resolution, and who in a short time returned the chosen child to its friends, no one failed of their engagements. Nor did the Father of mercies fail of His; they turned out excellent citizens, who served their country, or who became the mothers of those who serve it now; and nearly

may I not say all-came forth in life as real Christians, the petitions which their parents left behind being answered when they had passed by their stormy deaths to the world of eternal peace. And that rejected and returned one was, if I remember right, the very one afterwards chosen by General Lafayette, carried to France, and furnished with the most complete and accomplished education which Parisian skill could offer to sound ability. He returned to do his country signal services in the walks of literature, piety, and philanthropy.

Two of this group of early mourners still survive, one of whom holds an honourable place in the General Post-office at Washington. And it was a Caldwell of the third generation that did me the great kindness to introduce me to President Fill

more.

No plan of charity, when performed in a right spirit, seems more calculated to do good, and to receive a blessing, than this. It is a feeble imitation of the manner of the Father of us all; for we,

fallen beings, are aliens and parentless, until, through atoning mercy and converting grace, we become the adopted children of our God, and then we are partakers of his love, and heirs of the heavenly inheritance.

Doubtless, amid the many, some of the kind purposes are frustrated-some of the parents tire, as in the case of the little Caldwell-and some of the children disappoint and wound, but these cases are the exceptions.

I have seen the parties dwelling harmoniously and helpfully together; and I have seen the adopted, in the old age of the adopter, exercising all the tender cherishing that filial piety could devise. There is a beauty in the pleasing sympathies thus exercised, for there is a blessing on them from on high.

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