present, and let all the measures you adopt, be regulated by a regard to the best good of your children both in this life and in the life to come.

3. You ought to regard the influence your children will have upon others. Mankind are made for society. No man lives to himself alone. His influence is felt by all with whom he has intercourse. Even when he does not aim at exerting an influence upon others, it may not be less sensibly felt. If his mind is so formed that he can be happy himself, he will contribute to the happiness of others. But if his training has been such as to render him incapable of any real comfort himself, he will be perpetually destroying the comfort of those around him. He will often be likely to do it by design, in order to gratify his own selfish feelings. And he will often do it when he has no such design; the bare sight of wretchedness in one person being sufficient to make others wretched by sympathy. If your child is trained up in the way he should go, he will be capable of doing great good in the world, and he will not be deficient in the disposition to do it. If he is taught to practice according to the rule of our Lord, to do unto others as he would have others do unto him, he will greatly contribute to the peace and good order of the community to which he belongs. But if he is taught to be wholly selfish in his aims, and to sacrifice the good of others whenever it stands in his way, he will be a disturber of the peace, and a promoter of discord and confusion. Have you not sometimes seen an individual, who has been trained to habits of benevolence and kindness, who has been taught to regard the good of the public more than his own, who has gained an extensive influence in the world, and exerted it with the happiest effect, in promoting every object of public utility, and after a long life of usefulness, has gone down to the grave followed by the blessings of succeeding generations? Is it not desirable that your children should be such? On the other hand, have you never seen an individual, who has been trained to habits of selfishness, who has no fear of God, nor regard for the comfort of others, but has some quickness of intellect and plausibility of address, and has learned to scoff at serious things, and laugh to scorn all scruples of conscience?

Have you not seen him gain an influence over the inexperienced and unthinking, and become but too successful in seducing them far from the paths of virtue, and plunging them into the vortex of dissipation and vice, thus blasting the hopes of many an affectionate parent, and piercing their hearts through with many sorrows? Such cases are too common. And painful as it is to contemplate them, they may be the cases of your own children, if parental faithfulness do not prevent. The good or evil consequences of what you now do, will be felt by succeeding generations. You will form the minds of your children to habits of virtue or vice. They will form the minds of their children; and these again will exert an influence on those that follow after; till the good or evil consequences of what you do, shall spread far and wide, and go down to the end of time. But they will not stop there. They will extend through eternity, filling heaven with songs of praise, or hell with the groans of despair.

4. You have reason to consider how you yourselves will be affected by the manner in which you train up your children. Parents sometimes live to witness the consequences of their mode of training their children, in a manner which affects them most sensibly. If they have been formed to virtuous habits, they will be a comfort to you. If they have been suffered to contract vicious habits, how often will they pierce your hearts with anguish. How delightful it must be to parents to witness their offspring growing up around them, cheerful and happy in themselves, and promoting the happiness of all with whom they have intercourse. And how often must your hearts be pained within you, if, when you look upon your children, you behold them wretched objects themselves, and marring the happiness of others. Parents also sometimes live to become old, and to need the aid of dutiful and affectionate children to support their declining years. How dreadful must be the disappointment, in that case, when they find their children so selfish and unfeeling as to treat them with neglect, and refuse a return of that care and kindness, which, when children, they experienced so largely at their parents' hands. If you regard your own comfort, then, you must not neglect your children. If you wish them to contribute to your

happiness, you must train them in such a manner that they will be capable of doing it, and may not be wanting in the disposition.

5. The times in which your children are to live, ought to be considered. They are perilous times; and they are likely to be more perilous. The general neglect of family government and family instruction is notorious. All who have the care of children, and wish to train them up in the way they should go, are compelled to feel how extremely difficult it is. They naturally look for the indulgences which are granted to others of their own age; and are not easily satisfied with a denial. And probably many parents, after a few struggles, give up their judgment to the wishes of their children, and leave them to take their own way. How common is it for them, at a very early age, to go where they please, and spend their leisure hours with companions of their own selection. And what parent knows the conversation that is had, and the practices that are indulged, the sentiments that are imbibed, and the habits that are begun, when his children are out of his sight? Facts sometimes transpire in relation to what passes at such times, which are enough to make every friend to the rising generation tremble for them; facts which go to show a corruption of sentiment and practice deeply rooted and widely spread, and most disastrous in its aspect. How often are habits of intemperance begun? How often are impure passions inflamed? How often is profane and indecent language listened to and repeated? How often are dishonest propensities acquired? How often are infidel sentiments imbibed, when parents are not suspecting any evil, nor using any means to guard the youthful mind? The widely spreading contempt of the Sabbath, the increasing prejudice against vital religion, the growing prevalence of corrupt sentiments, and the alarming increase of vicious practices, all show the peculiar dangers to which the young are exposed at the present day; and call loudly upon parents to awake from their false security, and make what efforts they can to save their children from the evils which threaten.

Do you ask, now, what can be done for the benefit of your children? It is impossible, within the limits. of

these pages, to go far into particulars. But, a few things may be mentioned, of great and obvious importance.

1. You can cultivate their minds. One great reason why the young are so prone to low and grovelling pleasures, is, that their minds are so uncultivated. The taste for useful knowledge would exclude the taste for dissipation; and its gratification would be cheaper, as well as its consequences happier. If children were taught to think, and assisted to find materials for thought, they would find a pleasure in the exercise of their rational faculties, far exceeding the gross pleasures of animal indulgence. If they were taught to enjoy this pleasure, and were furnished with the means of obtaining it, by books of an interesting and useful character, and by sensible and rational conversation, home would be rendered attractive, and they would not feel the necessity of roving abroad in search of something to amuse them. If they were taught to think, and were trained to habits of reflection, they would not run into so many evils from mere thoughtlessness. If they were taught to value useful knowledge, they would not employ their time in the perusal of those works of fiction with which the world is flooded, and which are so dangerous in their tendency, from the erroneous views they give of real life, the corrupt sentiments they often contain, and the fascinating attractions with which they often surround vice and crime. An expensive education is not what is here intended. It is such an education as they can obtain at their own fireside. Let the parent begin early to cultivate their minds. Let him teach them to employ their own powers. Let him encourage the inquiries which they are disposed to make into the reason of things, and see that they learn to understand thoroughly whatever comes in their way. And abundant materials will be found within his reach, for such mental cultivation as is here intended.

2. You can establish your authority over your children, and keep them under suitable restraints. God has invested the head of a family with a certain degree of authority, and required him to exercise it. And you cannot refuse to exercise it, without refusing to do your duty. But it is not only the authority of God which requires this of you, the good of your children also requires

it. They are not capable of governing themselves. They are prone to desire a thousand gratifications which are injurious in their nature and tendency. And in these they must not be indulged. They also need to learn subordination to their superiors. God has placed others above them, as well as their parents. And to their superiors in age or station they must submit. It is greatly for their comfort when they have learned to do it, cheerfully, and from a sense of duty. They need also to learn submission to Divine Providence. To no other duty are they likely to be called so frequently as to this. And how can it be expected that they should submit cheerfully to the allotments of Providence, if they have never learned submission to their parents, nor submission to other superiors? Unhappy, indeed, is the case of that child, who has been brought up so tenderly, and with so much indulgence, as to have every wish gratified, while he remained in his father's house, and has never learned to give up his own will to the will of a superior, till he is cast forth into the wide world, to act for himself. How can he bear the daily contradictions he must now experience? How can he be otherwise than wretched, while his fellow men seem to conspire to counteract his wishes? And what else can be expected of him than that he should be perpetually murmuring at the allotments of Providence, so many of which are different from what he would choose for himself? If you would promote the best good of your children, you must govern them, and teach them a ready and cheerful submission to your authority. And you must exercise that authority in restraining them from every thing of an injurious nature. Your judgment is better than theirs; and you must exercise it, and require them to conform to it. Let your authority be exercised mildly, indeed, but let it be firm. Show them the reason for your decision, as far as may be, but insist upon their compliance. You must keep them from wicked and corrupting companions. It may be difficult, indeed, but it must be done. "A companion of fools shall be destroyed." You must keep them from wicked and corrupting practices. It is for this end, that you are invested with authority to command them, and they are required to obey. Think not you have