A POOR WOMAN'S OFFERING.
The world is but a word; Were it all yours, to give it in a breath,
How quickly were it gone!
Shakspeare.
The following anecdote was related, a few years ago, by the Rev. W. S. Plumer, while addressing the Virginia Baptist Education Society. We regret that he did not give the name of the good woman who possessed such commendable zeal for the missionary cause.
"A poor woman had attended a missionary meeting a few years since. Her heart was moved with pity. She looked around on her house and furniture to see what she could spare for the mission. She could think of nothing that would be of any use. At length she thought of her five children, three daughters and two sons. She entered her closet, and consecrated them to the mission. Two of her daughters are now in heathen lands, and the other is preparing to go. Of her sons, one is on his way to India, and the other is preparing for the ministry, and inquiring on the subject of a missionary life."
THE MOTHER OF PRESIDENT JACKSON.
How often has the thought Of my mourn'd mother brought Peace to my troubled spirit, and new power
The tempter to repel. Mother, thou knowest well That thou has bless'd me since my natal hour.
Pierpont.
The mother of General Jackson had three children. Their names were Hugh, Robert and Andrew. The last was the youngest and lost his father when an infant. Like the mother of Washington, she was a very pious woman, and strove to glorify God as much in the rearing of her children as in the performance of any other duty. She taught Andrew the leading doctrines of the Bible, in the form of question and answer, from the Westminster catechism; and those lessons he never forgot. In conversation with him some years since, says a writer, "General Jackson spoke of his mother in a manner that convinced me that she never ceased to exert a secret power over him, until his heart was brought into reconciliation with God." This change, however, he did not experience till very late in life—after he had retired from the Presidency. He united with the Presbyterian church near the close of the year 1839, then in his seventy-third year. Just before his death, which occurred in June, 1845, he said to a clergyman, "My lamp of life is nearly out, and the last glimmer is come. I am ready to depart when called. The Bible is true.... Upon that sacred volume I rest my hope of eternal salvation, through the merits and blood of our blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ."