rity, having accumulated knowledge and wisdom out of long
experience, and being set by God and nature in charge over the
headstrong instincts of ignorant or capricious youth, cannot avoid
the duty of frequently applying the curb to excessive desires, and
the spur to defective ones. A sense of chafing, an impulse to resent
and rebel, will naturally often arise. And, in every such collision
of passion and rule, there is a tendency to hostility. It is needless
to say how lamentably frequent are the examples in which this
tendency makes actual foes of those between whom the natural bonds of
love and reverence are of the most sacred character. It is evident
that parental authority is a divine trust which must be exercised
over childhood and youth. Only it should be exercised on principle,
not from caprice; for the good of the ruled, not for the
gratification of a despotic self-assertion in the ruler; with fond
gentleness, not with harshness or cruelty. And the authority of the
parent should be vindicated as far as possible by force of wisdom,
weight of character, power of persuasion; avoiding, as far as can
properly be done, every occasion of conflict, every need of a violent
issue. The child, on the other hand, ought to remember the rightful
authority of his parents, consider their greater experience, take for
granted their benignant intention, cultivate a grateful sense of
dependence and duty towards them, and foster the habit of prompt and
hearty submission to their wishes. It is a safe rule, in general, for
a boy or girl to respect and obey the father and mother, and not to
think, when they oppose the thoughtless spirit of self-indulgence,
that this parental opposition is unreasonable or unkind. To honor
one's parents is the first scriptural commandment with promise.

It is a habit which no one will ever regret. But, alas! how many a
man, how many a woman, has kneeled on the grave where father or
mother lay mouldering, and has lamented, with burning tears of shame
and sorrow, the disobedience, the disrespect, the unkindness, the
neglect, shown in earlier years! How have they longed to lift up the
faded forms from their coffins, to re-animate them, and to have them
again in their homes, that, by unwearied ministrations of tenderness,
they might atone for the upbraiding past! Let the man in the full
maturity of his age, hardened by long contact with the world, revisit
the scenes of his childhood. Let him stand by the old h