ncy.
If, then, we find ourselves daily coming short of the terms of that
covenant which God has made with us as parents, we need not despair of
his fulfilling his part, for we can plead our surety's work, and that is
ever acceptable in his eyes, and answers all his demands.

Let not, however, the negligent and willfully-ignorant parent conclude
that the spotless robe of the perfect Savior will be thrown as a shield
over his deficiencies and deformity. Let not those who have blindly and
carelessly entered on parental duties, without endeavoring to ascertain
the will of God and the requirements of his law, expect that the
blessing of obedient and sanctified children will crown their days. Let
not those who suffer their children to grow up around them like weeds,
without religious culture or pruning, who demand no obedience, who
command no reverence, who offer no earnest, ceaseless prayer, let them
not suppose that the blessing of the God who spoke from Horeb will come
upon their families. "He is in one mind and who can turn him." Not an
iota has he abated from his law since that fearful day. Not less sinful
in his eyes is disobedience to parents now, than when he commanded the
rebellious son to be "stoned with stones until he died." Yet, how far
below His standard are the ideas even of many Christian parents? "How
different," says Wilberforce, "nay, in many respects, how contradictory,
would be the two systems of mere morals, of which the one should be
formed from the commonly-received maxims of the Christian world, and the
other from the study of the Holy Scriptures;" and we are never more
forcibly impressed with this difference than when we see it exemplified
in this solemn subject.

The parents who stood at Horeb learned that God required them to train
their children to implicit and uncompromising obedience, and he who
closely studies the Word of God can find no other or lighter
requisition. How will the received opinions and customs of this age
compare with the demand?

We ask our young friends, who may perchance glance over these pages, to
pause a moment and consider: If capital punishment should now be
inflicted on every disobedient child, how many roods of earth would be
planted with the instruments of death? If every city were doomed to
destruction in which the majority of sons and daughters "set light by
father and mother," how many would remain? To every child living comes a
voice, "Know thou that for all the