tried spiritually to do the same, and all his household arrangements for the Lord's day were made subservient to that end. It was, at the same time, his endeavour to make all that concerned religion joyous or attractive, and his Sabbaths were thus made refreshing at once to Philip Henry's home and his own soul.

5. That his children might see religion in its proper place, Henry frequently observed fasts in his family, or had stated days for special humiliation and prayer. "Thus was he," in the reverent language of his son and biographer, "prophet and priest in his own house, and the king there also, ruling in the fear of God, and not suffering sin upon any under his roof."

6. Henry had some general maxims from Scripture which he early sought to fix in the minds of his children, like nails in a sure place. "Remember thy Creator," "Come to Jesus," "Bear the yoke in thy youth," "Flee youthful lusts," "Cleanse thy way," these, and other brief maxims, were household words with him, and were early inwoven with the thoughts and the habits of his children; so that it would have been an outrage to their own hearts, as well as to their father's lessons, to forget them in life.

But, 7. Along with these, the more ordinary kinds of scholarship were not neglected by Philip Henry in training his children. Among other things, he taught his eldest daughter Hebrew, when she was only six or seven years of age, by means of an English and Hebrew grammar which he had compiled for that purpose, and the pupil was carried so far forward by such fatherly assiduities that she could translate a Hebrew psalm with ease.*

"Every day of the week his custom was, every morning and night, to

Another admirable exemplification of Home methods of education, or of the spirit which should pervade them, may be found in the life and the painstaking of Edward Bickersteth. In training for spiritual prosperity, his maxims, as recorded by himself, were these :-Pray for the children: ever instil Christian maxims: act towards them in the spirit of the gospel: watch over their intercourse with others : teach them to govern their tempers: see that they diligently attend to the means of grace. In every point shew them Christ-he is the root of all spiritual prosperity, the physician of body and soul, and the giver of mental power. He is altogether lovely in all his ways, and everything should turn the mind to him. In every walk, in every lesson, in every event, in every sin, in every mercy, Bickersteth thus tried to speak to his children concerning a Saviour. He was the sun and the glory of every day; and children so trained have learned to call their father blessed. Bodily health was not neglected, neither was the culture of the mind, nor accomplishments, so far as they were Christian; but this man of God ever put that wisdom first which came from heaven to guide us thither, and, amid ten thousand proofs of the ravages of sin, it is one of the most conclusive, that parents expect prosperity in any sense for their children, while neglecting to lead them in the good way of the Lord. With the exquisite pathos of a mother whose

read a chapter to his family, and expound it distinctly and clearly, and, after singing a psalm and prayers, to appoint his children to retire by themselves, and write over a copy of his exposition; by which means, as himself once told me, every one of his children, five in number, had the exposition of the whole Bible by them, written with their own hands. This custom he kept up constantly in his own house for above twenty, if not above thirty years together, without any intermission, except in cases of absence from home, which happened but seldom." -See Life of Philip Henry, by Sir J. B. Williams, Notes.

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THE CHILDREN OF SORROW.

heart had been deeply wounded, poetry may tell of the

Homes of England

"How beautiful they stand,

Amidst their tall, ancestral trees,

O'er all the pleasant land;"

but unless the fear of God be reigning there, even such homes are morally bleak, and desolate, and hastening to decay.

Such, then, are specimens of the painstaking employed by Christian principle to educate children for God. And no need to depict at length the contrast between all this and the superficial character of much that is called education. Read, for example, the life of any of the world's devotees : let it be that of Lady Blessington, and the contrast there will strike any reflective mind as much as the contrast between a fleeting mirage and a solid, material landscape. Oh need we wonder that they who are trained amid such ungodliness become the votaries of self, of pleasure, of sin? Were the Homes of England guided by such principles as those which directed Henry or Bickersteth, then it would become widely true that—

"There first the child's glad spirit loves

Its country and its God."

but as it is, where the fear and the love of God do not preside, the nurslings of ungodliness become at last, by a sure decree, the sons and the daughters of woe.

A PARENT'S AUTHORITY.

217

CHAPTER III.

THE AUTHORITY OF HOME.

The Fifth Commandment-A Conflict of Duties-Heavenly Wisdom-The Moral Throne A Constitutional Sovereign-Godless Children of Godly ParentsExplanations-Examples-Colonel Aaron Burr-Napoleon Bonaparte-George Washington-John Albert Bengel-Noah Webster.

"HONOUR thy father and thy mother," are the divine words which decide the Authority of Home, and decide it beyond the reach of sinless challenge for ever. If aught were needed to enforce or illustrate such a precept, we find it in the words "Children, obey your parents in all things." Modern theories of education may be advanced ignoring that authority; parents may thus be tempted to relax their control, or to be less circumspect in their supervision; but wherever it is lessened or presented in a light different from God's, God and man are there in conflict, and disorder will ensue. The domestic constitution is outraged, and, as that constitution is divine, it never can be violated without sin, and its close companion, sorrow.

But in referring to parental authority, we speak of Christian Homes, and assume that the will of God is a rule to the parents. We have seen a despotic father drive from his presence, by harsh, unfeeling conduct, the child who would have made God's truth the standard of judgment, and in such a case, there is a painful collision between duty to God and duty to an earthly parent: it is the old question as to

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THE NARROW CHANNEL.

obeying God rather than man. All such cases demand the very meekness of wisdom, lest, under the guise of religion or the plea of conscience, children be only indulging a form of domestic rebellion. But where God's truth is the acknowledged standard, the path of duty is plain: the parent's authority is over all his will may not be challenged : his word is law. Does he issue an order, for example, regarding the books to be read, the company to be kept, or the path to be pursued by his children? Then to oppose or to evade his will is undisguised sin, and will bring the soul to sorrow -perhaps into peril.

No doubt the parent needs wisdom, and tenderness, and care, ere he issue such an order. A command given in anger will most probably be such as cannot be enforced; and then parental authority suffers. Hence the need of asking wisdom from Him who giveth liberally, and upbraideth not; and hence also the call to fathers and mothers not to provoke their children to wrath. But a parent's abuse of power cannot supersede or even modify the divine enactment; and that enactment is "Children, obey your parents in all things." Between the extremes of laxity and of strictness, every parent, guided by love, must seek the narrow channel; and if parents seek it where God has laid it down, they will not seek in vain.

But though God has thus placed a parent on a moral throne, it is not the throne of an autocrat. Nay, a father is a constitutional king, and a mother a constitutional queen. Each has a book of laws, binding alike on sovereign and subject; and when they are obeyed, families know indeed what it is to live under the Prince of peace; the olive branch may wave continually beside that hearth.