nce which will soon become a pleasure to the
child. By the latter you jade and vex and burden him. But when the reins
will not do alone, then the whip must be resorted to. And the question at
once arises, what kind of a whip? We answer, not such as you use to your
horses and oxen in the team,--not the horse-whip. Corporeal punishment
should be used only as a last resort, when all other corrections have
failed, when the child becomes an outlaw, and his reprobate heart can be
reached only through the infliction of bodily pain. As a general thing it
is even then unavailing, because too mechanical to produce permanent good,
and not adapted to mental and moral reformation.

Sometimes, however, there is necessity in the use of this rod. "Every
child," says Dr. South, "has some brute in it, and some man in it, and just
in proportion to the brute we must whip it." When thus necessary we should
not shrink from this kind of correction. "It is pusillanimity, as well as
folly, to shrink from the crushing of the egg, but to wait composedly for
the hatching of the viper." Yet, on the other hand, in the language of Dr.
Bell, "a maximum of attainment can be made only by a minimum of
punishment."

In the discipline of home, whether by guidance or by forcing, whether by
the rein or the rod, much depends upon the manner in which it is
administered. It should always be adapted to the peculiar character and
offense of the child. You can restrain some children better by kind words
and promises than by rough admonitions and threats. Study, therefore, the
peculiarities of your child, and prudently apportion the correction to the
offense. If there are sincere penitence and confession, the correction
should be purely moral. Let the object of every correction be to produce
penitence and reformation of heart as well as of conduct, and a hatred of
the offense. Always execute your threats and fulfill your promises at the
time and on the occasion designated. Threaten as little as possible, and be
not hasty in your threats. Treat your children as rational and moral
beings:

"Be obeyed when thou commandest, but command not often;
Spare not, if thy word hath passed for punishment;
Let not thy child see thee humbled, nor learn to think thee
false."

Always examine the offense before you punish. See whether it is of
ignorance or not,--whether of the head or the heart,--whether intentional
or accidental. Examine his motives in committing the of