Never should religious tasks be prescribed as penalties for bad conduct. Instruction must always be delivered with great seriousness. It ought not to be exclusively confined to the Sabbath, but be the business of every day; yet it should be especially attended to on the day of rest from worldly pursuits. 627. (2.) PERSUASION, ADMONITION, AND WARNING, are a very important part of religious education. 628. (3.) DISCIPLINE is an important parental duty. By discipline, is meant, the maintenance of parental authority, and the exercise of it, in the way of restraining and punishing offenses. Parents are appointed by God to rule, to be the sovereigns of the house, allowing no interference from without, no resistance from within. Their government must be firm, but mild: the love of the parent must not relax the reins of the governor, nor the authority of the governor diminish the love of the parent. The first thing a child should be made to understand, is, that he is to do, not what he likes, but what he is commanded; that he is not to govern, but to be governed. He must be made to submit while young, and then submission will become a habit. All commands, however, should be reasonable. Nothing but what is wise should be enjoined, and every injunction that is issued should be obeyed; if not, punishment should follow. 629. Correction is an essential part of discipline; for rewards and punishments are as necessary in the government of a family, as in that of a state. Correction is enjoined in the Scriptures as a needful duty. "He that spareth the rod," saith Solomon, "hateth his son." Yet a stern and rigid severity is not a duty. The first object of every parent should be, to render punishment unnecessary. It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them. This can be done to a great extent, but it requires a very early, very judicious, and very watchful system of training. If this be neglected, severity often becomes necessary. 630. Corporeal punishment, though occasionally it may be necessary, is not good as a system. To render it in a good degree unnecessary, children should, from the dawn RULES OF DISCIPLINE. 287 of reason, be made to feel that parental favor is their richest reward for good conduct, and parental displeasure the severest rebuke for misbehavior. Happy the parent who has attained to such skill in government, as to guide with a look, to reward with a smile, and to punish with a frown. 631. When severe chastisement becomes necessary, the following RULES should be observed: never chastise in a state of anger; patiently examine the offense before you punish it; accurately discriminate between sins of presumption, and sins of ignorance or inadvertence; accidents should not be punished, unless they involve willful disobedience; apportion the sentence to the degree of offense and the disposition of the offender; ingenuous confession and sincere penitence should, in most cases, arrest the process of judgment, and the child be made to punish himself by remorse: till repentance is produced, scarcely anything is gained by chastisement; instruments of punishment should not be kept perpetually in sight, for this is to govern by fear, and not by love; be very cautious not to threaten what you either do not intend, or are not able to inflict; and forbear threatening as much as possible: in the case of older children, the greatest caution is necessary in expressing a parent's displeasure: reasonable expostulation, tender reproof, appeals to their understanding, feelings, and conscience, are all that can be allowed in this instance. Corporeal correction can do good only before the understanding can argue upon the heinousness of the offense; or after it appears that the young offender will not regard rational methods of chastisement, or appeals to the higher powers. 632. Parents should be very careful not to foster, by injudicious treatment, those very propensities which, when more fully developed, they will find it necessary to repress by discipline. Lying and ill-nature are encouraged by smiling at a false or malignant expression, because it is cleverly said. Pride is nourished by excessive flattery and commendation; vanity, by loading them with finery, and both admiring them and teaching them to admire themselves; revenge, by directing them to vent their impotent anger upon the persons or things that have injured them; insolence and oppression, by allowing them to be rude to servants. Discipline, to be effectual, should be steady and unvarying, not fitful and capricious; it must be a system which, like the atmosphere, shall press always and everywhere upon its subjects. Both parents should join to support domestic authority. Robert Hall's Reproof. 633. Once, says Dr. Gregory, when Mr. Hall was spending an evening at the house of a friend, a lady, who was there on a visit, retired, that her little girl, of four years old, might go to bed. She returned in about half an hour, and said to a lady near her, " She is gone to sleep; I put on my night-cap and lay down by her, and she soon dropped off." Mr. Hall, who overheard this, said, “Excuse me, madam: do you wish your child to grow up a liar?" "Oh dear no, sir; I should be shocked at such a thing." "Then bear with me while I say, you must never act a lie before her: children are very quick observers, and soon learn that that which assumes to be what it is not, is a lie, whether acted or spoken.” Το 634. (4.) EXAMPLE is necessary to give power and influence to all other means. In alluring children to religion, parents must be able to say, "Follow me." exert a suitable influence, the religion of parents must be eminent, and consistent with their profession, in all their spirit and behavior, for children have their eyes always upon their parents, and are quick to discern any violations of consistency. Parents must not tell them that religion is the first thing, and yet educate them for the world. 635. (5.) DILIGENT, CONSTANT, AND CAREFUL INSPECTION, is a most important parental duty. They must never allow any engagements whatever to take off, long together, their eyes from their children. They must study the development of their character under all circumstances in which they have an opportunity to view them, that they may learn what treatment to adopt with reference to each. Parents should also inspect their family, to know what good or evil is going on among its members. Inspection must extend to everything; to the servants that are admitted into the house, for how much injury may be done to the youthful mind by an unprincipled RELIGIOUS DUTIES OF PARENTS. 289 and artful servant. The companions of children should be most narrowly watched: one bad associate may ruin them forever. The reading of children should be carefully inspected; and all corrupting books, and newspapers, and indecent pictures, képt out of their way. The recreations of children should be watched, and no games allowed that are immodest or likely to lead to gambling. 636. (6.) PRAYER must crown all other efforts; for who, except God, can subdue the tempers or change the hearts of children? Beside daily private prayer, there should be FAMILY. PRAYER. This should be offered regularly and constantly, morning and evening, each day of the week, at an hour best adapted to the exercise. The morning or evening hymn of a pious family is one of the most touching sounds in our world. The prayer should be neither so long as to weary, nor so short as to seem like a mere form. It should be fervent, and chiefly relate to the circumstances of the family. Seest thou yon lonely cottage in the grove, Its roof deep-shaded by the elms above, Moss-grown, and decked with velvet verdure o'er? Sweet peace, and love, and joy, thou there shalt find; Nor yet in solitude his prayers ascend; His faithful partner and their blooming train, The lay of love and joy together sing, To Him whose bounty clothes the smiling plain, Earl Roden. 637. Dr. Sprague, in his Letters from Europe, gives the following anecdote of this gentleman, finely illustrative of the subject just presented :-"When George IV. was in Ireland, he told Lord Roden that, on a particular N morning, he was coming to breakfast with him. He accordingly came, and, bringing with him two or three of the nobility, happened to arrive just as his lordship and family had assembled for domestic worship. Lord Roden, being told his guest had arrived, went to the door and met him with every expression of respect, and seated him and the gentlemen that accompanied him in his parlor. He then turned to the king and said, 'Your majesty will not doubt that I feel highly honored by this visit; but there is a duty which I have not yet discharged this morning to the King of kings-that of performing domestic worship; and your majesty will be kind enough to excuse me while I retire with my household and attend to it.' Certainly,' replied the king, but I am going with you,' and he immediately rose and followed him into the hall where the family were assembled; and, taking his station in an old arm-chair, remained during the family devotions." This anecdote reflects honor upon his lordship and the king; while it exhibits in the one the dignity of unyielding Christian principles, it displays in the other the courtesy of a gentleman, and the regard felt for a consistent religious character. In view of the duties of parents, although so imperfectly delineated, John A. James very justly remarks: "It is enough to make a parent tremble, to think what a parent should be." The sketch we have furnished of filial and parental duty is condensed from the admirable volume of Rev. J. A. James, entitled the Guide to Domestic Happiness; from which also we shall derive illustrations of some other relative duties. The duties of husbands and wives are comprehended among the relative duties; but it will be more regular to consider them under the Seventh Commandment, which, according to the rules of interpretation formerly laid down, by forbidding the violation of the marriage vow, inculcates the duties arising from the conjugal relation. IV. Duties of Instructors and Scholars. 638. The duties of instructors and scholars are very similar to those of parents and children; for instructors are to be regarded, when engaged with their scholars, as |