work of time, and must, with children, proceed by
slow degrees as they are able to bear it. But the subjecting the will is
a thing which must be done at once, and the sooner the better." "Then a
child is capable of being governed by the reason and piety of its
parents, till its own understanding comes to maturity."

Again she writes: "Cowardice and fear of punishment often lead children
into lying," and accordingly, to save her own from temptation, the rule
was--"whoever was charged with a fault of which they were guilty, if
they would ingenuously confess it and promise to amend should not be
beaten." The most careful discrimination was made between inadvertent
and deliberate falsehood.

"If they amended, they were never upbraided afterward." Kindly
commendation was regularly awarded to obedience evidently done at a
sacrifice. "When the thing crossed the child's own inclinations, and
when any of them performed an act of obedience, or did any thing with an
intention to please, though the performance was not well, yet the
obedience and intention were kindly accepted, and the child with
sweetness directed how to do better for the future."

Recreation was liberally allowed, and outdoor physical amusements
encouraged. "High glee and frolic," so notably appearing in the
narrative that, in after days, some writers thought to turn this matter
against John Wesley, remarking that he had himself been indulged by his
mother at home in amusements which he was now prohibiting to the
students under him at college. He made the difference of age and the
demands of duty his defence, rather than any difference of principle.

Here, surely, the motherly instinct of this remarkable woman may be of
use to-day, in clearing the line of duty in the question of amusements.

"Your arguments against horse-races do certainly conclude against
masquerades, balls, plays, operas, and all such light and vain
diversions. I will not say it is impossible for a person to have any
sense of religion who frequents these; but I never, throughout the
course of my long life, knew as much as one serious Christian that did;
nor can I see how a lover of God can have any relish for them."

"Take this rule--whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness
of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish
of spiritual things--in short, whatever increases the strength and
authority of your body over your mind--that thing is sin to you, howe