HQ 769 iC54cl A 'r- A 1 ^REG 4 ON/ 2 i~ / ^33 7 ARY 7 4 FACIL 3 TY tallV3J0'^ ^WEUNIVEIij, ^ 1/ y O ^•lOSANCflfj";A ^W ^ ^ * v* >L ^ ^O'. Ci» C •^smwm^ § ^ ^ A>;10SANCE o m^mxo/: HyOJIWDJO"^ •\WEUNIVET?S/A o vvlOSANCE^A>, o ^/Sa3AlNrt3ftV A^^tUBRARY^/r ^^OJITYD-JO'^ ^.0F-CAIIF0% |>'^A«vHanA^"^ \WEl)NIVERi/A o o ^OFCAllFOi?^ |^lOSANCnfx>> ^/SJ13AINa3V\V <^sNt-llBRARYa^^ ^s^M!BRARYa^ >i ^^OJIIVJ-JO"^ '^'^OJIIVJJO'^^ aOS/V-'CFLrr.^ ,s;^OF-fAllFO% AOf'CAllF0%. AWEUKIVER% ^lOSANCFI mjVKlC, P. I)., \NIJ I'lMn.ISHKI) 15V AN' AS^OCl ATK) V OP MOTHERS IN ISRAEL." KOVAI, 1' LOCKK, HOOK AN'O .K>H VMSTVR IK IIATIIJIT ^■^KI■■K'^, SAN FRANCISCO: 1860, -r-;- ^r— r-^, - %., y. ffTT VflHHU fff yywV 'T M ' M I IIMly f' Ti»TtT ii; " tWfi l l 'j l, f 'i l f " f " itm^' A DISCOURSE ON FAMILY DISCIPLINE, BY THE REY. ORANGE CLARK, D. D. :-o-: TEXT. Proverbs xxiii. 13, 14, — " Withhold not correction from the Child : for if thou hnttst him uith the red he i hall not die. Tkoii shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soid from hell J' These are the words of the Orauiscient God — an imperative precept ; no less imperative than the precept " Thou shalt not kill" — or the precept" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" — " Do this in remembrance of me" — " Be courteous" — and while we dwell upon them, let them be regarded as God's words ; very plain and very imperative. Founded on this text, on the present occasion, I shall do little more than declare the result of my own experience and observation in the department of public ed- ucation and the discipline of children during more than thirty years of service. In tliat long period, not to have acquired some knowledge of the science of discipline, one must be a very dull scholar. In the recent discussions relative to school discipline, it is not uncommon to find many and conflicting opinions and much controversy in regard to the use of the rod in school and corporial punishment; and the precepts of Ueaven, through the inspired " wise man" are often adduced relative to applying or sparing the rod. "We venture to assume the position tliat all this is entirely irrelevant. Heaven has noAvhere recorded any precept in relation to the discipline of children intended to afford instruction to any but parents, and that too for the obvious reason, that if the divine precept be Avell obeyed in the family by parents, all necessity for any riiror or severity in school-g-overnment is obviated ; and if the Divine precepts, touching this matter, be not obeyed by parents, in the family' the die is cast ; the evil can never be remedied anywhere. Of- ten children go out from under the eye of their parents earlier than three years old ; and if the child be not taught subordina- tion to the parent, or to some one acting in that holy and re- sponsible capacity, before three years old, he can never be taught it ; he will never thoroughly learn it, except upon the scaffold, at the hand of the executioner. There is no degree of chastisement which can make amends for a parent's want of fidelity, for his neglect to establish his own aiithority, when God and nature placed it in his easy power and com- manded him to do so. The veiy small infant early learns the tone and look of a parent's caress ; and it needs but few days more maturity to enable that infant fully to learn and under- stand the tone and look of parental authority and reproof; and then is the time if ever to establish that subordination which will most effectually render both parent and child happy. I speak advisedly, fully aware how strange and unpopular the position I assume and the doctrine I advocate ; but equally convinced of its truth, I cannot, on such an occasion as this, withhold it, " whether men will hear, or whether they will for- bear." More than once have we seen this position demonstrated; and where the work was thoroughly done, the child grew up a most happy and amiable youth ; a blessing to the parent, ven- erated and beloved — the ornament of the schoolroom, a favor- ite among his companions, and and most of all, a blessing to himself. Life to such a child is never a burden. He knows no law but a parents wishes — at least a parent's will to him is par- amount and cheerfulness and happy industry crown his days. Having thus declared my position, I shall preceed to enforce, so far as time and my abilities enable me, the duty of family government ; and I offer my feeble aid, because I am persuaded that this well established, we shall hear no more complaint of L-54 ] -^ 5 msubordination in onr common schools, and the labor now ex- pended in discussing the question, whether and how much the rod should there be used, may all be spared. I stand before a congTCg-ation of Christians, with whom the word of God must be of paramount authority. If, in the Word of God there be a practical duty explicit and explicitly de- clared, it is the duty o^ family discipline. Painfully affecting is the case of Eli and his sons, recorded for our edification. We may profitably often read it over, reflect and dwell upon it. At the present day, I fear there are many Eli's in our land, who are destined to quaff his cup of sorrows . One of the most distinguished civilians in our land, but lately summoned before the Omniscient tribunal of eternal doom,there to meet an injured son. whose wayward, headstrong and self- willed career was terminated on the scaffold where, as I have said already, where alone can ever be learned that lesson of subordination, unless it be instilled in infancy, 7?iay perhaps to recognize in Eli of olden time a fellow sinner, a fellow sufferer ^ of eternal, unavailing regrets, remorse and sorrow. That >r youth — I knew him in his early childhood ; born with endow- 2 ments second to few if any in the land, from a mother, tender E2 and affectionate and lovely — even the loveliest of her sex, but SE born and bred too tenderlv to endure even the breeze of a sum- ^ mer s evening and therefore necessarily^ iuefiicient, mentally and physically — and a father of talents and endowments greater than almost any other, and therefore always immersed among professional cares and weighed down beneath a nation's re- sponsibilities, which made him almost a stranger in his familv, and entirely a stranger in the nursery where duty implored his frequent presence — Ill-fated youth — but I forbear. Parenls you know his history ; you know his tragical end. It is but one of many. At the present day and in every age, I fear, I know, there are many Eli's destined to quaff* his cup of sorrows to the very dregs. In the case of that venerable but wretched father, God saw fit to demonstrate to us and to all the world forever, the light in which he regards the sin of pa- rents who neglect the early discipline of thea- children. Eli's .'57061 ;? o 6 wayward sons " made thcmsch-es vile and he restrained them not"— and the penalty inQicted freezes the very soul to think upon it. If it cannot find access to our hearts througli that most accessible of all mediums, paternal and maternal love, we may well conclude that we are sadly lost to piety towards our great Father in Heaven. " In that day," saith God, "I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house. When I begin I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth : because his sous made themselves vile and he restrained them not." It must be well remembered by you all, my friends, what were the sins in which the sons of Eli, having grown up with- out parental discipline and in insubordination, were prone to indulge, in the season of youthful ardor. They were sins which almost alwavs are engrafted upon the stock of insubordinate and indulged childhood. Sins of the table and the cup. Lux- uriously feeding the body to the inflaming of the passions ; whence ensues debauchery and the irregularities that have al- ways characterized the people who have been ruined, in all ages, by luxury. Be assured, where the proper early parental authority is lacking, and subordination, in tlie first openings of the mind has not been learnt, the restraints necessary to good citizen- ship, the proper curbing of the passions, will always be wanting too in after life. A random habit of living will ensue. In the early parental authority enforced is the germ of every virtue which can adorn the man ; and in the lack of it is the germ of every evil under which society groans. In the very earliest years of man, before the schoolroom even has been ever known, is the seedtime of a futiii c liarvest ; often a harvest of civil and political degeneracy, tlic gathering in of which shall wring the heart of the hoary sage, once the too indulgent fa- ther, when he shall weep in secret over, not only his family's, but his country's desolation. That father, who, from a multi- plicity of extraneous cares, from indolence, from a mistaken tenderness, or from any cause, shrinks from the pains and dis- comforts of subduing the self-will and obstinacy of an insubor- dinate child, little knows the amount of penalty which he, at length, must pay. He violates a law of nature and of Heaven which none can ever do with impunity. Deem me not arrogant, parents respected and beloved, while I warn myself and you, in calling into special notice the fact that Eli was not silent, but went quite as far as many now do, who affect to think they acquit themselves.. when, too late, he called upon his youthful sons — "Why do ye such things ?— I hear of your evil doings by all this people — Do not so, my sons, for it is no good report that I hear ?" — Such the tone and ad- monition which he long and perseveringly used to them, in all their early youth. But mark ye — God declares that he did not restrain his children. He spared to enforce his own authority, and neglected the first law of God and nature : this was his sin ; he is not reproved of God for not counselling, ex- horting, reproving or rebuking his sons ; he even dealt out profusely his censures ; but his duty comprised more, much more, and for his neglect of this duty, his house and his poster- ity, for centuries, were ruined. Witness the dreadful issue : " Wherefore honorest thou thy sons above me ; saith God," to him. That is — why not obev me in the matter of family disci- pline ? " Thou shalt see an enemy in thy habitation in all the wealth which God shall give Israel. I Avill cut off thine arm (emblem of strength) and the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes and to grieve tliine heart, and this shall be a si^n unto thee ; thy two soas Haphui and Phinoas, in one day shall both of tliem die." Now bsliild th3 dreidfal fiilfillin^iit ; alas Gad mide good his word. The arm of strength in Eli's family was cut off ; that lineal Priesthood fell into a decline, until it became quite ex- tinct. When the Philistines triumphed over Israel, both Haph- ni and Phineas were slain, the other two sons of Eli lived only a few years after, and it is said, the Jews have a record that for many successive ages the curse rested on Eli's line. At one pei'iod, in the family of his desendants, in the male issue no one lived beyond the age of eighteen years. Zadok became the successful rival over Abiatha the descendaut of Eliand the High Priesthood was of Zadok's lineage, down to the four hun- dredth year after the destruction of the Temple, Eli's calami- ties were tremendous. At length he lost the Ark in battle with the Philistines, and the wife of Phineas died of trouble, and in her expiring agonies bade them name the little one, to whom she had just given birth, Ichabod, " Name the child Ichabod," said she,*" for the glory is departed from Israel," and the ill-fated father himself too, finally died by violence. Thus the tragical illustration of God's displeasure, for lack of family discipline, of family government. Many make a very inadequate estimate of the guilt con- tracted or incurred by a neglect of parental authority. They shrink from the present ungrateful task, and much as possible, keep the ultimate disastrous result out of view. They love their oft'spring, but love them, alas, too well to administer a chastening more important to them, and more necessary to their future wellbeing than anything else in this or any world; and some have even gone so far as to assume that the child must be indulged at any cost, at least until its tender age shall have grown so strong, that at any rate, parent or no parent, he will not be denied nor curbed nor thwarted ; and then a life of wrt^tchedncss on earth is well secured, or an early and trag- ical, if not infamous death shall blast the hopes of a too fond and doting and misjudging parent, and bring his gray hairs down with sorrow to the grave. All ye who hear me, be ad- monished. No skill is adequate to remedy the evils which your neglect or indulgence may entail. In the economy of God, your child is born to you the most helpless of all the living beings in this world. Tiie young of no living animal is so helpless as the infant lord of this fair creation. Why is this so, unless it be that the germ of intelligence may be capable of being di- rected and bent and moulded by the parent? When first the enchanting smile appears upon those sweet features, ren- dered sacred l»y the kiss of an enraptured, doting mother, that mother is delighted to discover in her infant a recognition of 9 her caress. You have seen the inexpressible emotion which shone through the glistening tears of that mother. There lay then upon her lap an immortal being, helpless, subject entire- ly to her will. Its destiny, for weal or wo, in her hands. Could she maim its person ? So she could, in like manner maim or disable its spirit. Could she break or distort its limbs? So she could its affections and mental emotions. Could she poi- son its body and render that body a lump of disease and suffer, ing ? So she could, in like manner and in equal degree, its soul, its thinking faculties, and doom it to mental disquietude and discontent while natural life remains. She and the father ,- her partner in parental responsibility, have the mind and affec- tions ; its tastes ; its likes and dislikes ; its will ; its habits of thinking as well as acting in their power, to form, to mould, to direct, to ^cultivate, I had almost said, to create. How much has cultivation sometimes done to improve the person from infancy in looks, in graceful motion, in all which is commonly termed good manners and propriety of action ! How much more has also sometimes been done to render correct and agreeable the thinking and spiritual part to which the actions of the body are so subservient ; nay, of which the movements of the body serve rather as an index. As I said in the begiu- ing, so now I say again, few, few indeed the weeks that intervene between the first smile of recognition, that first understanding of a parent's tone of caress, and the ability to recognise the look, the tone of authority and reproof ; and would to God every parent were as eager and interested to discern the latter capability as tlie former ; to take due advantage of it to estab- lish the necessary, the natural authority, the right inherent which God Almighty has bestowed, and will denumd an ac- count of it, as he will of our every other talent ; but, alas ! alas ! it is not so ; that talent lies buried and neglected often, until it is quite lost and ruined, and by-and-by-, when, by the supineness or neglect of the parent, or througli a false love, an animal, not rational affection and indulguce, at length an enemy has sown tares in the heart once so tender and susceptible, which have germinated and grown a self-will 10 an insubordinate spirit ; the parent at times begins to weep and be sad, to fret, to be almost angr}-. " Oh ! I have an undu- tiful child ! of a violent and willful temper self-willed, he will break my heart I fear, and brim? me down with sorrow to the grave !" Yes, he will I assure yon, he will make your heart ache * He will plough deep furrows of care in your cheeks, whicli once were lighted up Avith a glow of such delight, when you first caught his infant smile ; he Avill largely supply the place of those sweet tears, which fell from your glistening eyes upon his smiling infant face ; he will supply their place for you with tears, which will burn, as they trickle down your care- worn cheeks, I'ke molten lead. Had you watched the precious moments, and judiciously seized upon the golden period, and fixed, when you might most easily in the infant mind subordin- ation to your rightful, natural and inherent authority ; in do- ing so you would have secured for yourself a treasure second to none save the treasure in the heavens. You would also have fixed in your child till death an equanimity of mind, a liabit of being happy because subordinate to you so lonar as your au- thority over him was legitimate ; subordinate to his teacher at school, because he has never known insubordination at home; subordinate to the civil authorithy. because he has never known insubordination at school, nor in the family ; subordin- ate to destiny I)eeause he has uever known. In- any experience, insubordination in society, in school and in the family. The work, whicii Heaven declared so hard, that kickinn- against the pricks, may all, by your fidelity, be spared to your offspring. If you will begin thus early, God has placed it in your power so render your children in a large degree happy, 1 am tnre it is so — for 1 have seen the experiment tried. 1 am drawing no picture of imagination, God has never doomed either you or m(.' to bo the ill-faled parent of an undutiful, peev- ish, fretful and ill-*('Mii)ered cliihl. If our ollspring be such, it is our own fault. We may render them, if we will, quiet and peaceful in their own lu-easts ; in the family, in tiie school, and in the community, uniform in their habits of feeling, almost as *See Appendix A. 11 uniform as the sun in its course. But we must becrin early to do it ; and we must make tlioroug-li work thus early. We must act with discretion, but we must not spare our feelings. If it be necessary we must chasten ; perhaps chastise. Ijut we must do it at a period when a straw for the rod will be eflfec- tual as the raw-hide lash could be at a later period in life, and even mere so. What ! I think I hear some fond mother or some indulgent father say — what! assume the tone and attitude of rebuke, or authoritative reproof towards a little child, less than three years old.* Many shrink back with a])parent hor- ror at the bare suggestion that the rod should ever make a part of nursery furniture. I fall back upon the text — and is not that enough ? But more — Is not God our Father ? Is he not a wise and discreet parent? And do you lack demonstra- tions of His tender love? Does He not use the rod for chas- tisement ? " What son is he whom that Father chasteneth not ?" Did he never chastise should we ever be " partakers of his ho- liness?" No. He does chastise. We have often felt the rod ; and let me asssure you, parent, unless you profit by it, unless you learn subordination to His high behest, and ride well your offspring, teach them well, above all things teach them subor- dination, teach them it by stern chastisement, early chastisement if necessary ; unless you do this, they will become, in life's de- cline, to you a rod, in your Almighty Father's hand, to lash you very severely. Better, far better occasion them some tears, some infant tears, for which they will always kiss your hand, which did wield the rod and tliank you all their lives. Better, far better than weep those tears yourself, when floods of weep- ing can avail nothing for yourselves or them. Throughout all a long experience and observation in Com- mon and Academic Schools, two facts have uniformly been apparent. I have never known a pnpil insubordinate and refractory who had been thoroughly taught subordination to parental authority. And I have always remarked that the children who most respect parental authority, uniformly are most affectionate towards both parents and teachers. Thorough *See Appendix B. 12 parental discipline lavs the foundation of character for useful- ness and distinction in life. The ciiild, wayward and perverse, who has never been taught subordination to a parent's behest, be his other advantages what they may, has had no adequate preparation of character for usefulness in life. It is a truth, a maxim incontrovertible, which no well-informed man can gain- say or controvert, that the foundation of character must be laid in family discipline. Every rule may admit of exceptions, but this Las as few as any oll.cr, that he who has not leamt the lesson of implicit subjection to his parent, or to some one ac- ting in that responsible capacity, lacks, totally lacks the foun- dation necessary to a useful and prosperous life. He will go stumbling along down to the grave. He may blunder into a fortune — or wandering honors, di-iven of uncertain winds may settle on his brow. But he will find himself ill-fitted to use the one or to wear the other ; and instead of adding value and lustre to such t!;ings, they will have to impart largely to him ; so that they will all, in the end. be the worse for having fallen to his lot. He may receive them bright and comely, but he will leave them lean, meagre and depreciated. He comes up into life a misguided and ill-fated man, yielding obedience of- ten, nay always, to passion, ill-humor or inclination, rather than to calm reason or sober judgment. Often the fire of youth consumes his energies or burns down his constitution. Disappointment begets for him sloth and supineness, or fretful and struggling disccntent, which corrodes his temper and the domestic circle of his manhood, and old age is anything but peaceful. His children are the unhappy and ill-fated victims of an unreasonable aud churlish rule, well calculated to render them worse than their father, in their generation, degenerated and degenerating ; and thus a people made up of families, lost and being lost to domestic discipline, must decline and de- generate, be their commercial and other advantages what they may — must at length fall into anarchy and misrule ; and igno- miny and ruin ensue. While, on the other hand, let family or- der and domestic discipline be scrupulously aud diligently 13 cultivated and maintainod, and lianded down, improved and improving;, entire, from generation to generation, and my word for it, a prosperous and strong nation, a well-oidered commonwealth will be established, like a house with a founda- tion deeply laid upon a rock. A lack of family discipline operates upon the body politic not much unlike drunkenness and licentiousness upon tlie do- mestic welfare. The latter, we well know, ever neutralize all other influences, and render abortive all other causes combined to create a prosperous and happy domestic circle. So the for- mer, viz : a lack of family discipline will most surely, although slowly minish and nring low any nation or people. It sows the seeds of anarchy and misrule and insubordination everywhere. In a republic it will generate a self-will and self-exaggeration in the minority to defy the majority and not to submit to the pow- ers that be, which, as they are legitimately constituted, are or- dained of God — until union and co-operation of States and in- terests, so necessary to the very existence of a Republic, is denounced or repudiated, and the compact dissolved by vio- lence. Parents ! It is m your jamilies and around the domes- tic hearth, chiefly that you are to contribute to the maintenance and perpetuity of our political institutions and civil compact. Let your children grow up insubordinate to your authority, and, if otliers do the same, in three generations, nay, less than that — the child may he already born, who shall Avritc tlie history of tlie United States of America from beginning to end. Jil- ready the philanthropist cannot fail to discover signs of insubordina- tion very portentous* I have little hope of any great political reform or improve- ment until God shall raise up some master spirit capable of moving the public mind on this most important of all subjects, family discipline. f Our system of Public Schools in New England, New York and S3me other States, is grand and highly beneficial. It has done and is doing wonders. I would rather be Horace Mann, late lamented Secretary of the Board of Edu- cation in Massachusetts, than to be President of the United *See Appendix E. t See appendix D. 14 States of America. The Common School system and the won- ders it has wrought and is destined to work are immensely above my ability to eulogize them. I will not attempt what is so much beyond my power. But I do aspire to do some- thing, to aid them, to bring a little straw, brick or morter to aid in erecting the mighty temple which may in after ages, be the wonder of the Avorld. It is not to the present rich and great — the upper ranks of society, as they are called, that we are to look for reform and practical improvement in this mat- ter. In two or three generations at most, they will have sunk into obscurity, and the influence will have passed into other hands. Out of the present mass of the people, now laboring class, who get their bread by daily toil, are to come the men and women who shall sway the goverment and wield the des- tiny of our nation. And if these shall not have learned that sub- ordination which can be taught only in the nursery, and at the parental fireside, wo to our nation ! Wo to ()ur future destiny ! Who, let me ask, was the grandfather of John Quincy Adams ? A hard-working shoemaker, who got his living and the bread for his family with his thread and awl. Who was the Father of the best Governor of Massachusetts, and the longest kept in office during the last half century ? A poor but industrious hatter. And I might go on in enquiries of this kind till to- morrow evening. Wealth enervates and causes the progeny of the rich to degenerate and sink downward in influence; while hard and industrious labor strengthens both body and mind, promotes enterprise and energy, accustoms to grapple with and overcome difficulties, and thus men rise, acquire mental superiority and intellectual energy, attain wealth, attain influence ; become capable of wielding the sceptre, of manairing the helm of government, and are at length obliged to assume that helm. Thou industrious farmer, thou diligent tradesman, you little know to what important posts in society your cliildren or your grandeliildron may be des- tined. Perchance you may one day be permitted to look down from the high battlements of glory eternal, and see that son who now sits a small lad by your side, or that infant which, 15 on your return home this evening, you ■will take up from its cradle into the arms of your affectionate caress, charged with the awful responsibilities of a nation's destiny or wearing the ermine of Judiciary power — or, guiding by his eloquence, the decisions of a nation's Legislature. Who thought of anything great and responsible in the future career of an unpromising and insignificant farmer's boy, who "was entered by his pool' and industrious father at the Exeter Phillips Academy, upon the charity foundation, which boy's head and face were fre- quently kindly washed and combed, for decency's sake, by the yenerable, paternal chief of that Institution, before he could be taught to do those offices for himself. That boy, then so un- promising, afterwards became no less a man than Daniel Web- ster, the wonder and admiration of a civilized world ; whom, when in Europe, crowned heads and sovereigns were eager and proud to honor and caress.* My auditors— parents, respected and privileged — rule well your offspriiis:. if you would have future generations rise up to call you blessed. Neglect thoroughly to teach them subor- dination to your authority and they will never themselves re- spect your memory ; and future generations, if they remember you at all, will disdain you, if they do not curse your memory. God will chastise you as he did Eli of old, and your house and your posterity will be doomed to ignominy. Your memory will never be hallowed in the breasts of your descendants, and you will look down on this world, if spirits departed can look back, to lament the day when it was announced that to you a son or daughter was born. Mothers, take warning, if you would not have the future surcharged with the griefs and an- guish of a mother's broken heart. With unending regrets, with pains so great, that what you suffered for them in early infancy, shall be as nothing. Young parents, whose infant offsprings are yet in your arris, your career is all before you. Our day is gone. With you it is not too late. You can form and fashion your own destiny, so far as children can effect it, as you will. You may so discipline them that they shall never *See Appendix C. 16 give you grief ; but shall make your declining years very pleasant ; shall hand you so gently down life's last declivity that you may hardly perceive its descent. For tlicm you may enjoy a gilded setting sun, or at least one wliich sliall spread a golden tinge on every cloud around. Be admonished that if they in infancy scrupulously respect your authority, they will, all your life long, be tender of your happiness. If they early learn to follow the dictates of their own will, rather than yours, they will find little delight, at any time, in rendering you happy ; but will, like the brute, in the craving of their own desires, become absorbed and neglect, if not abuse you, in the grey evening of your life. Be once more admonished ; and let reflection possess you, while you look down the career be- fore you, through that late old age, which you hope to live and experience. It will bring its inconveniences. The tottering step ; the voice enfeebled ; the whole body stooping ; bowed down beneath a weigiit of infirmities ; and will you now take the precaution to provide for yourselves a solace and support ? Or will you, by present neglect, add to all other inconvenien- ces of old age, a broken heart and a pillow filled with thorns on which to die ? As I look around on this assembly and behold so numerous a gathering of young persons, I cannot persuade myself to forego the privilege of so far deviating from the legitimate theme of this discourse as to offer a few suggestions for their edification. The transition from the subject of family disci- pline to that of the fealty due to our Heavenly Parent is cer- tainly very natural. If (rod be so explicit on the subject of ruling well one's own household, it is but natural to infer that He claims a pious d3li3itio:i of our eirly life to his honor and glory. Had He not told us so, we could not but infer t'lat He must exact from us all, very early the demeanor of dutiful chil- dren towards Himself. He is perfect in wisdom ; almighty in power, and omniscient, seeing the end from the begining ; and* our own experience has ten thousand times attested that His love towards us all, as far transcends that of any earthly pa- rent as the Heavens are high above the earth. And while He 17 has promnlgcd His own behest, " ITonor thy father and thy moth.cr," with a glorious promise annexed, he has also pro- claimed that " the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." With all this before His eyes, how sorry a figure must that young person exhibit to all celestial intelligences, and to God, who deems it mean-spirited to manifest religious reverence and fea. to sin against God ! How harsh, discordant and offensive must sound in the ear of spotless purity, those obscene and filthy jestings, in which giddy and thoughtless young persons so often indulge! What a loathsome object to Him, '' to whom all hearts are open, all desires known and from whom no se- crets are hid," must be that youthful heart, in which are cher- ished lewd and lascivious thoughts and designs and desires ; and as out of the abundance of t'le heart the mouth speaketh what a stench must go up from the heart which pours forth over tiie tongue indecent language to amuse and corrupt ; in- fecting the very atmosphere one breathes in, and poisoning his fellows for this world and the next. What a dreadful mistake young persons make, who decline to dedicate themselvs to God, in the way of His appointment and habitually turn their backs upon the ordinances of God's most holy religion. They de. cline the best, the only safeguard in the world. It is the great God, our Maker, Preserver and constant Benefactor, our Heavenly Father, who makes to all youths the great proclama- tion " I love them who love me, and they who seek me early shall find me." "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." 0, my young friends ! unpopular as is the religion of Jesus among you, and of low repute in your estimation, in that better world, where good men go when they die ; where God yoir P.it'i3r, t'i3 SiviouL' w^d rebe.nslyou, now are, where your pious parents and ancestors deceased are with them there, in that high abode, whither you must go if ever you shall find unalloyed happiness — " Piety in youth is sweeter than the incense of Persia, more delicious than odors wafted by western gales from a field of Arabian spices." While impiety, neglect of parental honor, neglect of God and reckless indif- ference to spiritual things must be most offensive. But I for- 18 bear. Ingenuous and young as you now are, why should not the claims of parental indulgence and tenderness on the part of God reach your hearts? You covet the good opinion of those with whom you associate. Why will you be indifferent to the good opinion of God, your Heavenly Father and Friend, who stands ready and eager to bless you with all His blessings ; whose eye is never turned off from you from the time you begin to live until you die ; and whose smile of love lights i-p all the bliss of Heaven ? My young friends, there is prevalent a great error in regard to a pious reverence towards God and His great ordinances. A spirit of evil appears to have infused into the youthful mind a false estimate of the position we are made to occupy on the earth. I allude to the idea that it is manly to exhibit a cold indifference to the externals of religion ; to prostitute the no- ble faculties God has given us to very ignoble use. In view of this state of things, an involuntary impulse seems to cry : " Run and speak to those young men, and bid them be brave, be bold, be independent, be heroic too, and show those noble traits in daring to be singular, preeminent in reverence and propriety ; make it manifest that you are incapable of but one fear, the fear to offend your God ; make it manifest that you can defy all the world, but must revere the Most High and His Ordinances. In short, make it manifest that you have courage enough, in the face of an ungodly world, to cultivate a pious reverence for all things sacred and holy. If others profane holy time, let it be seen that you respect yourself too much to follow tlie multitude to do evil ; that you are too independent to float with tlie filthy current down to hell : that your aim is upward. Conscious of superior endowments, such as are capa- ble of rising above all low, groveling and animal propensities, let it be seen that you mean to bask in the pure element of ra- tional, moral and religious purity ; that you mean, as far as possible, to assimilate yourself to God ; that you will regard as degrading, and will set your face, as a flint, against all ir- reverence and impiety. That you will never encourage, with a smile even, but w ill frown down liiat misguided youth who aims no hiiihci* than to let it Ijo seen that he can glory in his ow'n shame, unblushitiuly eommit sin and impiety. Take that nol)le. iji(U'])on(h'nt stand as the ehamjiion of goodness and of pious reverence, whieh will assimilate you to the angels. Shew your fellows that you can 1)0 merry, l)ut not at the ex- pense of innocence ; that you can enjoy a laugh, hut cannot licedlessly trifle with things that (Jod has made holy ; that on serious subjects you Avill be serious . in the presence of your superiors, you will l)e circumspect and modest, and in the im- mediate i)resence of God, you will Ijc grave and reflect that you will prudently regard times and seasons. Folly can 1)C reckless and fool-hardy. 'I'o Ije profane requires little of tal- ent or intellect, and the veriest coward and shalloAV -brained, often, generally, has Ihc noisiest and filthiest tongue. Let all your fellows know full well that you can, for pastime, wander over the fields, to enjoy refreshing breezes and the scenes of nature, but not on Sunday, that day made sacred oi" Clod to ])ublic, domestic and private homage : that you can be gay and meriy, but on Sunday you must be serious, liccausi^ tliaL day is made of ( lod for sei-ious Ijusiness, serious thoughts, serious demeanor ; that you lielieve (lod meant something Ijy the com- mand " l{em-eml)er the Sabbatli day to keep it holy." Tell th(;m God has made it imperative n})on you ""to be Ijaptized in tlio name of the Father, tlie Son and the Holy Ghost,'" and publicly to ratify your 1>aptism. to entitle you to a j)lace in the <.'ove- nant fold of youi- Redeemer : and you can see no manliness or independence in diso1)eyii\g God. It ratlier appears to you l»rutis]i and heartless to do so. l*oiui rh(Mu to tlie Holy Com- munion Talde ; where monthly is celel)rated, according to His own ajipointment, a Savior's dying love, and tell them that, it ever you go to Heaven, you can can only go there as redeemed ones, ransomed from the jienaity due for sin. at the cxjiense of this same Savior's blood ; and you can discover notlilng noble, nothing to evince courage (M- inde]»eiideiu'e of ^pi)-itual necessities, just as were the •Jo i»roducts of the autumual luirvo.^t. iIh: fruit.-^ of you)- industry, L-reatcd to meet your temporal ^vant^. If it hv niauly to lead a life ofimlolenee and sloth : to earn nothing', and have iiotiiina- wherewith to clothe and feed the hody. then it is manly to neg- lect and slight the means necessfiry to deeentlv feed and clothe your soul forever : but not otherwise. Let the Avorld see, ray ' young friends, that you mean to act consistently ; to have and to maintain a system of right reason— that you mean to reason as God reasons — that, as a dutiful cliild. you were taught to act as your parents bade you act : so, as a dutiful child of God, you mean always to act as He Indsyou act : acknowledging liim in all your ways, that He may direct your steps. My young auditors, I have only time, on this occasion, to barely glance at this subject. It is a great subject ; embracing all your liappy prospects for time and for eternity. An inter- esting topic : to parents surely interesting, penetrating every tenderest fibre of the father's and tlie mother's heart. Not any period in the lii'e of children so aljsorbs all a parent's tender- ness and anxiety as that period, when they arc just opening upon manhood ; emerging into active life ; receiving the im- press of character and destiny. ! how many a hapless pa- rent of a })rofanc and graceless sou or daughter we have known who would not allow themselves to believe, although they knew their child to 1)e thus unpromising and ungodly ! Such is parental love. It will cheerfully suifer for you, forego sweet sleep and every pleasure. Nay, will know no pleasure till your infant pains and cries are soothed and quieted. 'Twill toil a cheerful toil to feed and clothe your childhood. 'Twill consume the midnight lamp and hardly suiBfcr one day's task to end, till another morning's cares and toils begin, to gain the privilege and defray the cost of educating and culti- vating your opening minds. 'Twill sacrifice its own last com- fort to render you respectable and good and happy. And as you spread your sail and launch oft' into life, 'twill follow you with long and eager look, and then set itself down to weep and pray for you. In your absence, your parent's moistened, sleep- less j)illow will greet the return of dajlight ; and could you 21 look into his sleeping- apartnuMit, perchance you would not find him there : but, in some sequestered retirement, on bended knee, in tears and prayer,that He, who only can, would protect and prosper you. And as days and months and years roll on, tidings come of you. tliat you are ill requiting a parents fond solicitude ; that you are wanting in fidelity, in industry or goodness that you spend your days in idleness, or your nights in revelry ; that you have learnt to profane, or use irrever- ently the Holy Name in which you was baptized ; that your tonffue and of course your heart lias become foul and filthy — how slow to Itelieve and how sad to know is a parent's heart. But when tidings come of you that you are true to yourself — true to your parents, true to your God, that He accordingly gives you .favor in the esteem of men ; that you have proved yourself a wise son, an honor to all who ever loved you. ! there is gladness in that dwelling then, where you was born and nourished ; smiles glisten through parental tears ; the heart rises to obstruct the utterance, and the exclamation of good old Jacob must express it all — " It is enough." My young- friends — one simple request — will you, by a virtuous, a prudent and religious life of industry and self-circumspection, make your parents happy, be happy too yourselves and, at last, unter- rified, meet your God in smiles of love ? " Well done, good and faithful servant.'" son or daughter, " enter into the joy of thv Lord." *$7t5Bir5 ap»pe:st)ix. A. 1 biivo known an iutant. who, before be was ten montbs old, w 11 recog- nized parental autboritj, and was wont to iniplicitlj- obey and never, from the age above named, was even allowed toery in liis tatber"s presence. TJiat child was ever nniformly happy ; and no child ever more ardently loved his parents. That child is now a man. and has never to this day, been known to adopt :\ mea.snre or do an act. which he even snspected might not meet the cordial a])- probation of his parents : and liis parents now bear unequivocal testimony that lie linds liis cliief deliglil iu rendering them happv. and yet he has ne\ er be- trayed anv lack of decision of character, enterprise or moral coir age. He has prospered in tlie world, his urbanity of conduct luis hitherto disarmed envy and he is one of tliose young men wliom his cotemporaries ■■ delight to honor.*' B. Walking in one of oar most fashionable streets. I found a little girl, about three years old. dres.sed like a sylph, and sitting at play witli a companicu upon the sidewalk: at a distance, the front door of the house of one of our •' up- per ten,"' opened and the mother of that little angel appeared calling •• Minnie ! ^finnie ! I come here .'.' come right here '.'.! C',me I my — miixl your mother. Minnie — come I xayJo me .'.'" The mother disappeared ; the child bad risen, and had run a few steps towards the house : but. as the door closed, she returned and seated hei'- self again with her little playmaie; having apparently already learned not only to disobey, but to deceive her mother. I passed on. musing. In imagina- tion I was transported forward some fifteen years — I saw that lovely little fallen angel grown to womanhood, beautiful as bad l)een her mother ; but. a wayward headstrong youth, debauched and sunk in infamy. And I beheld that mother too : the beauty on her lovely face had given place to the hectic flush and she had laid herself down to die of a broken heart. Her daughter bad brought her there. Insubordinate slje Iiad grown np, and all for a niotiier"s indoleace, or misjudg'^d indulgence. Infantile pervei-seness nourished, bred by parental neglect, liad dom' it all. 0. Daniel Webster, the lirsi. and 1 believe the only American t^tatesman ever lionoi'ed witli a scat ujion tin- •• Woolsack." in Ijigland's •• House of Lords." L). Would to (Jod that :-ome Wendell I'billips. or Henry Ward Beeebcr, would eschew the subject of N'egro slavei-y. useless, nay hurtful even to the slave : and bring bis Websterian power, bis ("iceronian elocjnence to bear on the great subject of Family Government throuhgrul the whole length and breadth of our land I Generations yet unborn, in long sucee.ball no nioi-e be subordinate to the majority ". A Monareliy alone ran save ns fnjiD Ibe horrors of Anan-ny. From such a latastrophy let nie be hidden in the gra\ e. y s» )^ ^ .f th JJUJftVX,!!^ -'':iiliAJNU ','' iunrl itinrs . ; OF-CAL! F0^4^ .,^.OF-CAL'F0ft^ 'y< H -^'^<" >''^;'^VH(lm^^ o :lOSANCElfJ> o -"^ '-'^ #' >&AiHVa8nV^ AS 5 'JiU'W'a^r Jx^ ^OFCA^IFOff^ P^^ /iiivuaiiiv^' ^IUBRARY(9/: il llTi < \WEUNIVERS"/A o ^lOSANCElfj> 3 a ^ "^AiiaMNnjwv ><^OF'CAUF0£(/^ M:OFCAl!FO/ 4? SMEUNIVERS/A <^m'wm\^ ^•lOS^CElfj-^ o .^WE•UNIVfRS//, =3 ■^■^wm^ ^lOSANCEUr^ -^tUBRARYd^: ^tilBRARYOr^ IIIVJ-JO'^ ^^WE-UNIV!Ri/^ */Or-'S ^\.urLAllFO% ^urLAiiiav,^^ ivCSM a^zSA L 009 508 314 3 1 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACIl A A 001 427 774