prehends in its nature the ingredients of immortal life, fall like an unheeded flower among the clods of the valley, and produce no corresponding fruit? Let us entertain no such desponding thoughts as these, when every instance of Divine wisdom exhibited in this material world is a proof of our future existence. The house of this tabernacle shall indeed be dissolved, but we have before a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, whose builder and maker is God.

180

SERMON VII.

TO PARENTS.

"Train up a child in the way

he should go."

THERE have been so many elaborate treatises written on education, that it will be deemed by many presumption in me to take up the theme. But, as a father, as one who has felt the want of it himself, and seen the effect of it in others, I may be allowed to contribute my mite. I am persuaded, however, that no man alive is able to set down a system that can either be agreeable or profitable to all. There has never been a system on this, or any other subject, since the building of Babel and the confusion of tongues, which has been of the least service to mankind. I would, at any rate, undertake to lead more children, and even more men, by a proverb or by a fable, than by the finest

theory so put together that the whole were fair and plausible, and the parts exactly proportioned. A man may improve a hint, but he will never do any thing more than admire a system. In some instances, this way of conveying instruction may be amusing and idle; but on the subject of education it may turn out highly pernicious. I do not speak altogether from experience, but I think, as far as morals are concerned, every thing depends upon the character of the parents and the temper of the children; and the first of these has more influence on the second than is generally imagined; and, therefore, the best system on this subject may be utterly useless to any

one.

There is one rule, however, which I would give to all parents, and one which is worth a thousand volumes of speculation-and it is this. In training up a child in the way that he should go, be always yourself what you would wish

your child to be. Irascibility on your part will not produce mildness or patience on his. If you are proud, you need not expect him to be humble; and if you are not economical, you may depend on it he will be extravagant. I have seen many ingenious attempts on the part of parents to retain their own vices, and yet deny the practice to their children. It will not do. The principles of religion may be inculcated to cover the deceit, but a man's vices are always better known to his family, than his virtues are to the world. It is best and safest, then, always to give a fair copy to your children, and an example every part of which it will be for their honour and profit to imitate. If you do this, a hint from you will have more influence on their minds than correction would from a parent of a different character.

A parent who is anxious for the virtue of his children should be most careful of his own; and there is no better expedient

to secure and improve it, than to summon his parental affection to its support. If you were not wise enough to love virtue for its own sake, you ought at any rate to practise it, in the minutest observance of its dictates, for the sake of your children. This is one of the peculiar blessings which a parent enjoys if he will but take advantage of it; because without the danger of hypocrisy or the blame of affectation, he may train himself to virtue by habits which discover their usefulness as he continues to cultivate them. He is doubly rewarded; first in his own improvement, and then in the visible effects of his example on those who are dearest to him. Every one attaches a considerable degree of respect to the venerable name of father; and his important charge makes us bear his superior strictness and caution without envy; and we never call him precise even when he descends to the minutiæ of fair and honourable conduct. He