To a Christian Parent on the Death of an Infant ([c. 1823–38])

From 1799 to 1935, the Religious Tract Society published cheap literature promoting the Christian, and specifically nonconformist and Evangelical, ideals of education, social reform and salvation. This chapter contains many of the precepts for religious tracts outlined by David Bogue, yet the tract, perhaps in an attempt to be narratively ‘entertaining’, contains quotations from a number of popular authors and religious works. It is a high privilege for parents to see a child happy on earth, and pressing forwards, as a youthful pilgrim, to the heavenly city; but they can then only rejoice with trembling, for many a pilgrim has halted on his journey, or been waylaid by dangers, or seduced by temptation from the right path. It is a hard thing to reconcile a parent to the loss of a child; but God can do this. If for a little season God has hid his face from people, with everlasting mercies will he return unto them.