pel the gloom. They constrain age to renewed youth. They transform a hall into a home. Children are great teachers of theology. They give new meaning to the important terms in which God seeks to reveal himself. Father, and pity, and pardon, and love, and faith, and authority, and probation, and punishment, and recovery, derive more meaning from a single child than from all dictionaries and grammars combined. They show us the supreme order in confusion and the instrumental character of law. In God's Kingdom it is true of men, "A little child shall lead them." Parents put their image and superscription upon their children. They beget them in their own image, and train them into their own faith and destiny. Selecting for them their toys, their playmates, their books and their churches, they are responsible for their moral character and social life. Prepare for the duties of the parental relation. It requires apprenticeship for the common mechanic arts. Long training prepares the surgeon to tamper with physical limbs. What thoughtfulness should precede the assumption of parental relations! Construct your home for your children. Home may be made the most attractive place on earth. Many lose their children as soon as they can escape. There is a mistake somewhere. If the house is glum and stiff, the children required to keep still while the parents read or doze-if the house is only a feeding and clothing place, or a workshop, it has none of the charms of home, and will be early empty. But the home should be more than a house. Fill it with good cheer, youthful hope, with instruction and entertainment and affection; then it will be a perpetual benediction. Your highest duty is to your children. Make home so winsome to them that they will not go away from your eye for their pleasures. Be yourself a necessary and welcome part of their work and of their study and of their sports. It is not a service of bondage, but a reign of love in the midst of the growing sons and daughters, that you are to maintain. Remember that children do grow old. We can hardly believe that they can be trusted as we were when we were of their age. We remember them as our little ones. Recall, as distinctly as possible, your own youth. own experience, and let your children also profit by it. Proat by your FAMILY GOVERNMENT. FORTY-TWO HINTS. 1. Family government is to be family government. It uses author. Ity, authority in love, yet authority. It ordains law. It commands the child's moral nature. 2. It is not merely a provision for temporal relief. It does more than dress, feed and nurse. It is for higher purposes than exhorting, or advising, or caressing. 3. It rules in the place of God. We are created in a system by a plan of reproduction. God creates us second-hand, and governs us in the same way. 4. It prepares a religion of the hearth. This seizes upon the infinite Father on the first opportunity. The capacities and faculties for apprehending God are prepared in the home, and are experimented in private, till a distinct idea of God is presented; then this government rises into the spiritual government, and religion is launched upon the soul. 5. Parental rule must seek the ends sought by the Lord. Short of this, it is not a system of statesmanship, but a trick of politicians. It must seek purely Christian ends. To serve worldly purposes in our children by wanting for them chiefly wealth, or honor, or power, or position, is to fall below any thing worthy of the name of Family Government. 6. Parents governing on a lower plane lose all inspiration. The only dignity that can draw the soul up to its own infinite heights is the word of supreme authority. Expediency and advice are conveniences which can never be galvanized into power. Governing in God's place, one cannot miss of inspiration. 7. Family government may reach real piety. It is not expected that a mere human order will secure conversion, or that a free use of the rod will reach that result. It is chiefly urged that the child, obeying the representative authority from the motives which God enthrones, may be brought into that spirit of trustful obedience which underlies all piety, and which makes salvation solely a question of God's willingness to save. 8. The parents must be in the Spirit to attain the highest results. Their lives must be so steadied, their passions so quieted, as to give them the highest personal authority. All the human agency turns on personal authority. This means genuineness. This means authority rather than sanctimoniousness. Children feel only realities. When the atmosphere of the home is Christian, then they are sure to be encircled. 9. Instill principles, rather than enact rules or issue commands. Religious life is removed the farthest possible from a ritual or ceremony. It is a spirit. Enlightened conviction that makes its own applications partakes of the divine plan, while enactments are man's device to leave an offender without an excuse against penalty. 10. Gentleness must characterize every act of authority. The storm of excitement that may make the child start, bears no relation to act ual obedience. The inner firmness, that sees and feels a moral conviction and expects obedience, is only disguised and defeated by bluster. The more calm and direct it is, the greater certainty it has of dominion. 11. For the government of small children speak only in the authority of love, yet authority, loving and to be obeyed. The most important lesson to impart is obedience to authority as authority. The question of salvation with most children will be settled as soon as they learn to obey parental authority. It establishes a habit and order of mind that is ready to accept divine authority. This precludes skepticism and disobedience, and induces that childlike trust and spirit set forth as a necessary state of salvation. Children that are never made to obey are left to drift into the sea of passion where the pressure for surrender only tends to drive them at greater speed from the haven of safety. 12. After obedience is secured to authority, explanations may follow to strengthen authority for future storm. 13. For a child not wrecked in deceit, appeal to religious motives. These are the love of God, love of virtue, love of purity, approval of their own conscience. 14. For a child dashed under falsehood, threatening the very integrity of the character, operate on lower motive to drive him up into obedience. This distinguishes between fear and terror. God appeals to one for virtue, and may use the other in final retributions. 15. Form in the child habits of self-denial. Pampering never matures good character. 16. Form in the child habits of benevolence. It partakes of the divine mind. It should become a state, and not be an impulse. 17. Emphasize integrity. Keep the moral tissues tough in integrity; then it will hold a hook of obligations when once set in a sure place. There is nothing more vital. Shape all your experiments to preserve the integrity. Do not so reward it that it becomes mercenary. Turning State's evidence is a dangerous experiment in morals. Prevent deceit from succeeding. 18. Guard modesty. To be brazen is to imperil some of the best elements of character. Modesty may be strengthened into a becoming confidence, but brazen-facedness can seldom be toned down into decency. requires the miracle of grace. It 19. Protect purity. Teach your children to loathe impurity. Study the character of their playmates. Watch their books. Keep them from corruption at all cost. The groups of youth in the schools, and in society, and in business places, seethe with improprieties of word and thought. Never relax your vigilance along this exposed border. 20. In family government threaten the least possible. Some parents rattle off their commands with penalties so a steady roar of hostilities about the child's head. ten by the parent and unheeded by the child. All profusely that there is These threats are forgotgovernment is at an end. 21. Do not enforce too many commands. Leave a few things within the range of the child's knowledge that are not forbidden. Keep your word good, but do not have too much of it out to be redeemed. Sometimes punishment is necessary, Heaven is better than hell. 22. Punish as little as possible. but the less it is resorted to the better. 23. Reward rather than punish. 24. Never punish in a passion. Wrath becomes only cruelty. There is no moral power in it. When you seem to be angry you can do no good. 25. Disorder means ruin. This is true of the governed and of the government. Order must be enforced. 26. Brutish violence only multiplies offenders. Striking and beating the body seldom reaches the soul. Fear and hatred beget rebellion. 27. Avoid punishments that break down self-respect. Striking the body produces shame and indignation. 28. Punish privately. It is enough for the other children to know that discipline is being administered. 29. Hold a child sometimes by main force. This may give the idea of a resistless force without any of the cruelty of blows or fierceness of passion. 30. Avoid extremes. Make your punishment severe enough to succeed, but never too severe to show love. 31. Never stop short of success. When the child is not conquered the punishment has been worse than wasted. Reach the point where neither wrath nor sullenness remain. By firm persistency and persuasion require an open look of recognition and peace. It is only evil to stir up the devil unless he is cast out. Ordinarily one complete victory will last a child for a life-time. But if the child relapses repeat the dose with proper accompaniments. 32. Leave no ambiguity about the reason and purpose for which you are punishing. A whipping is not so many lashes. It is so much moral persuasion. It means results in peace. 33. You must discover existing offenses. ered breaks down the moral nature. principle. Disobedience undiscov It substitutes cunning in the place of 34. Avoid apparent espionage. To be shadowed stirs all the evil within, and awakens all the disgust and wrath against the spy. 35. Do not show distrust. Like begets like. 36. Make no random charges. There are wiser ways of cross-ques tioning. False accusations are never forgotten, and are made the excuse for offenses. 37. Do not require children to complain of themselves for pardon. It begets either sycophants or liars. It is the part of the government to detect offenses. It reverses the order of matters to shirk this duty. 38. How to watch. Notice his directions, question his companions, question him for details. Be on the look-out for omissions. Fill the silent spaces with questions. A child is sure to fall through such an examination. A few discoveries wisely handled discourage the art of sin. 39. Grade authority up to liberty. The growing child must have experiments of freedom. Lead him gently into the family. Counsel with him. Let him plan as he can. By and by he has the confidence of courage without the danger of exposures. - 40. Parents must respect each other. Undermining either undermines both. 41. Always keep in the spirit of love. 42. Form an alliance with the children against the spirit of evil, and get them to help you conquer that evil. This inspires them by making them feel that they are taking the part of victors rather than of the vanquished. SUGGESTIONS TO CHILDREN. "The governor," Reverence your parents. Always address them in respectful language. Slang terms that would bring them into disrepect with others are offensive. ," "the boss," are terms of disrespect. Your heart may not be so coarse toward them, and think such expressions only add spirit to your conversation, but you are working evil to yourself. Honoring your parents secures God's favor. Appreciate your parents. You will never understand how much they have done for you till it is too late for you duly to show your appreciation. You will never find any other friends who will care for you and cling to you in evil fortune as your parents. They may not have worldly renown, but they deserve your homage. Your best blood you received from them. Do not shorten childhood by haste. Maturity will come only too |