II. What are those motives which should excite parents to bestow it upon their children.

The nature of this duty, and the inducements which should urge us to comply with it, form then the whole division of the ensuing discourse.

I. What then is implied in a christian education? What is that duty to which St. Paul exhorts parents, when he charges them "not to provoke their children to wrath, but to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ?" This christian education, this sacred duty, includes these four things-wise discipline, salutary instruction, holy example, fervent prayer.

1. A wise discipline is essential to a christian education. In vain will you hope to lead your children in the ways of piety, if you do not begin while they are yet young, to exercise over them a strict but affectionate discipline; if you do not teach them from the very cradle, that instead of acting according to their own wayward fancies, they are to be regulated by the will of God, and their parents.Give the reins to their inclinations, suffer them to act as they please, let them have no other restraint than their own wishes and desires, and they are in the direct road to misery, to vice, and to perdition; they will perhaps live to curse that weak fondness, which strengthened vicious habits and plunged them into guilt-to execrate those criminal com

pliances which have laid the foundation of their unhappiness, by cherishing furious passions, and incapacitating them to bear with disappointment.-Govern them then with a firm and steady hand. Begin to bend the twig while it is yet flexible; in a few years it will become a sturdy oak and resist all your efforts. The vicious propensities of children, the fruit of their original corruption, are early to be discerned. On their first appearance, endeavour to extirpate them, and exercise your authority to prevent the formation of criminal habits. Keep a watch over their tongues. Do not like so many injudicious parents, encourage lying or ill-nature, by smiling at a false or malignant expression, if it have some degree of smartness. Do not nourish their pride by excessive commendation and flattery, by loading them with pageantry and gorgeous ornaments. Do not cultivate their revenge by teaching them to direct their feeble yet malicious strokes, against the persons or things that have injured them. Do not inspire a relentless and tyrannical disposition, by permitting them to torture various species of animals. Do not encourage a worldly spirit, by continually proposing the riches or honours of earth, as the recompence which they may expect for their goodness, while the favour of God is scarcely ever mentioned as an object worthy to be aspired after. Do not suffer them to be exposed to unnecessary temptations, which, while their judgement is im mature and their reason without the aids of expe

rience, will almost inevitably plunge them into sin. But on the contrary, by a steady exercise of discipline, accustom them to the utmost sincerity, jus tice, and benevolence in their intercourse with their companions. Habituate them to controul their passions and wishes. Accustom them to value time, and to flee from indolence, that canker of virtue and destroyer of the soul. Teach them to be modest, to be humble, and exemplary in their deportment; to reverence the ordinances and institutions of religion; and to pray constantly to their Heavenly Father. Thus strive, by an unintermitted course of discipline, to implant virtuous habits, to prevent Satan from gaining new authority in their souls, and to regulate their outward conduct; and you have great ground to hope that whilst you are thus em. ployed, God will shed down his Holy Spirit to bless your exertions, and to change the hearts of your offspring.

When I speak of the necessity of discipline, I am not recommending an inhuman severity. This will "provoke them to wrath," and irritate instead of reforming them. Let your government be like that of our Father in heaven; mild, gentle, affectionate, springing from love and exercised in mercy; yet not weakly with-holding reproof and chastisement when they are necessary. In inflicting this punishment, however, be careful to make your children feel that you do it in the name of God, from a

hatred of sin, and for their good. Be firm, but not furious-let your eye melt with sorrow, but not sparkle with rage-let your tongue express your regret and pity, but not pour out bitter and passionate reproaches. If your children perceive that you are influenced by passion, and not by reason and religion, your authority will become odious or contemptible.

Let your discipline be just and equal; make no invidious distinctions between your children; indulge no partial affection for one child in preference to another equally deserving. Let punishment be proportioned to faults; punish those sins that are immediately against God, more severely than those that are against you. Let wilful and habitual vices be treated with greater severity, than those that are more unintentional and rare. Preserve this family-justice, or your punishments will harden instead of amending your children.

Finally, study carefully the tempers of your children, and diversify your discipline according to the diversity of their tempers. Let it be more mild or rigorous, according as the gentleness or stubbornness of their dispositions requires one or the other of these modes of treatment.

This is the first thing that is included in a christian education; a wise discipline.

2. A christian education, requires the diligent instruction of children in the principles of our holy religion. It is possible that a person may know the doctrines of christianity and yet be unholy; but it is impossible that he should be entirely ignorant of them, and yet be holy. The illumination of the mind, always must and does precede the sanctification of the heart. Be careful then to give your offspring that knowledge and information which they must have, before they can understandingly embrace the offers of salvation, and become the children of God; and if in discharging this duty you are animated by proper motives, you have reason to hope for the accompanying influences of the Holy Spirit to bring them "from darknes into marvellous light." And even though this great effect should not immediately be produced, yet still your labours are not in vain. That religious knowledge, with which you store their minds, will be a powerful guard against temptation, a strong incentive to duty, a mean which God may hereafter employ for their conversion. Though they now neglect your instructions, yet they will not be able entirely to efface them. They may hereafter be forcibly brought to their remembrance by the Holy Ghost, and produce a saving conversion. It is a just observation of a pious and judicious writer, that "conversions in advanced life are most commonly

*Doctor WITHERSPOON;