him and them willing to take their part, and able to obtain them pardon, whose name is called "Jesus," because "he shall save his people from their sins."* And this is not a little to begin with; and not a little to have to say to those who naturally look up to you, and are disposed to take every word you utter, without questioning, for truth. And if you cannot lead them. much further by your personal instruction, you can quietly take them by the hand once a weekyou and your wives together; and bring them to the house of the Lord, telling them, before you go, who is to meet you there, though you see him not, and whose messenger they are to listen to: and, on your return, you can make all kneel down with you whilst you ask a blessing on what you have heard. And, in your behaviour all the day through, you can put such a difference between that day and others as every child can see. And when, on the morrow, you go forth to your work and to your labour until the evening," you can make it very plain that you go forth contentedly. You can let your children see that in everything you give thanks, and praise God for the bread you earn; and by God's grace you can "do justly, and love mercy, and walk humbly with your God:" and whether habitually you do so or not, cannot but be very

*Matt. i. 21.

manifest to those who see you daily, and observe you always and if it be, it cannot but tell. There is no instructor like example.

Neither is there any reason why, by the same grace of God, you might not have your children under discipline. There is an art, if I may so speak, in this. It is a thing to be studied; but so is it also with the methods by which you get your bread. But, as Eli's example may have taught you, "It is for your life," and for your children's; and you must learn it, lest it fare with you and yours as it did with him and his.

I cannot enter fully upon particulars, but a hint or two you shall have before I proceed. For there is little hope of good by calling upon others to do their duty by you, and to enable you to send your children to school, unless you will

prepare the way of the Lord" yourselves in this respect, and "make his paths straight," as far as your own best endeavours may be available.

Be

St. Paul then has said, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right." assured, therefore, that it is right. To do what his parent bids him at once, and without answering again, is the first thing a child has to learn; and he may learn it before he can tell his letters. There may easily be, and there often is, as much * Eph. vi. 1.

difference between two children before either of them is five years old, as between a loyal subject of the state, and a rebel in arms against authority. Exact nothing unreasonable; do not multiply restraints without cause; do not erect your own humours and fancies into laws. But, with these cautions, you must be inflexible. Do not yield to a child's perverseness, or to his importunity. By perseverance, you will soon convince him that it is in vain to struggle; and then he will cease to do it. And these advantages will follow, he will learn quickly, because, having no hope that his task will be excused him, he will apply himself to it without delay. He will be a much happier child, because comfort comes much more from having got the mastery over our desires, than from having got possession of the objects of them. And, above all, the practice of all religious duties will be made much easier. When the constraining motives of the Gospel are laid before him, having been used to bend, he will surrender himself with less opposition to the will of God. Ye should deal, however, with your children as your heavenly Father deals by you: "I have drawn you," he says, "with cords of a man, with bands of love."* And, "Fathers," says St. Paul, "provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged."† We + Coloss. iii. 21.

*See Hosea xi. 4.

must have the affections as well as the confidence of those whom we desire to guide. Parents should not so behave as to cause their children to be frightened at them; for this can hardly fail to operate as a perpetual temptation to lying and artifice. And He that knows what is in all of us, by calling love "the cords of a man," has taught us, in a very affecting manner, what those inducements are by which the human nature may best be drawn and wrought upon. Let this also be taken into consideration. There is a third error as common and as fatal as either undue indulgence or undue severity, -I mean an inconsistency of behaviour towards children; or the being at one time very easy, and at another very harsh, under the self-same circumstances. Where this is wont to be the case, your child will never give you credit for having a reason for your conduct towards him. He will look upon you as being swayed only by humour and caprice; and consequently, though he may obey you where he is forced, he will never be sensible that it is right to do so; nor regard you as having more wisdom than himself. Again; let reproof and censure be in just and evident proportion to the offence given; and let it be clear that offence is taken by you on true and just grounds. We may sometimes hear a parent expressing more anger because a child has broken a pane of

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glass, than he does when the same child has taken God's name in vain. This is to instruct him that it is a worse matter to put you to inconvenience than to sin against the Lord; and, at the same time, it proves to him your own selfishness, and consequent unworthiness of his respect, and it confounds right and wrong.

Further, distinguish between levity and obstinacy, between carelessness and malice in the wrong doer, and deal out your rebukes accordingly. "Of some have compassion, (as St. Jude expresses it,) making a difference, and others save with fear, "pulling them out of the fire.”* He that would reprove or correct another with effect, must be his own master at the time; where there is much passion there will be little justice, and no appearance of deliberate judgment. Parents are sometimes so far off their guard as to vent their displeasure against a child's fault in intemperate language, not stopping short sometimes even of oaths and blasphemies, and much exceeding in their own practice any expressions of indignation or measure of correction, which they would permit others to make use of towards their children, without loud complaints. I will add here but one thing further, and that will bring me to what I have to say to the other class I mentioned. You are not in a condition to do

* Jude 22, 23.