them. On the contrary, they respect them more. It is a cruel and unnatural selfishness that indulges children in a foolish and hurtful way. Parents are guides and counsellors to their children. As a guide in a foreign land, they undertake to pilot them safely through the shoals and quicksands of inexperience. If the guide allow his followers all the liberty they please, - if, because they dislike the constraint of the narrow path of safety, he allow them to stray into holes and down precipices that destroy them, to slake their thirst in brooks that poison them, to loiter in woods full of wild beasts or deadly herbs, can he be called a sure guide? And is it not the same with our children? They are as yet only in the preface, or, as it were, in the first chapter of the book of life. We have nearly finished it, or are far advanced. We must open the pages for these younger minds. If children see that their parents act from principle; that they do not find fault without reason; that they do not punish because personal offence is taken, but because the thing in itself is wrong,—if they see that, while they are resolutely but affectionately refused what is not good for them, there is a willingness to oblige them in all innocent matters, they will soon appreciate such conduct. If no attention is paid to rational wishes, if no allowance is made for youthful spirits, if they are dealt with in a hard and unsympathizing manner, the proud spirit will rebel, and the meek spirit be broken. Our stooping to amuse them, our condescending to make ourselves one in their plays and pleasures at suitable times, will lead them to know that it is not because we will not, but because we cannot, attend to them, that at other times we refuse to do so. A pert or improper way of speaking ought never to be allowed. Clever children are very apt to be pert, and if too much admired for it, and laughed at, become eccentric and disagreeable. It is often very difficult to check our own amusements; but their future welfare should be regarded more than our present entertainment. It should never be forgotten that they are tender plants committed to our fostering care; that every thoughtless word or careless neglect may destroy a germ of immortality; that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child;' and that we must ever, like watchful husbandmen, be on our guard against it." 6 How beautiful was the conduct of Jephthah's daughter, and what devotion to her father did she show when she said, "My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the Lord, do with me as thou hast named"! Thank God that he does not require of children any such sacrifice as Jephthah's daughter made; but he does require obedience, filial love, and respect, and a kind, rational rev erence. We are also taught a lesson upon the solemn nature of a vow to God. A vow is a solemn affirmation before God, and I do not know as it is forbidden in the Scriptures. There are vows vows mentioned in the Bible of various kinds, and many instances are on record to show that their non-fulfilment was followed with the most terrible consequences. Men now are taking vows-judicial vows, marriage vows, church vows, social and political vows, and how often are broken. Go into our courts of justice, where men are sworn in the most solemn manner to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and what do you hear? Men who have been found in a state of intoxication swear solemnly that they do not know where they obtained the poison which made them drunken the day before; or, if they can tell that, do not know what they drank. The perjury in our courts of justice is terrible, and the broken vows which are piled up in our temples of law are legion. Nor is perjury on this subject alone common. False swearing is frequent on all subjects. Men swear falsely for their friends, for money, and for reputation for any thing they want, and can secure by it. But a few days since, we were told of a father and mother, who, to save a guilty son, took false oaths as to his age, that they might shield him from the penitentiary. The marriage vow, how often is that broken! What mean the constant applications for bills of divorce? What mean the constant efforts to change the divorce laws? What mean the bickerings and strifes in families, the separation of the married parties, the desolation of homes? All traceable to the violations of the marriage vow. And then the vows to God and his church. What becomes of them ere the ink on the paper is dry, or the echo of the solemn words of fellowship have died away? A vow never should be made without serious thought; and when made, it should be sacredly binding. There is an old proverb, that “a bad promise is better broken than kept." Perhaps so; but it is even far better than that, that a bad promise had better never be made. The warrior Jephthah made a solemn vow; he never should have made it. It was a rash promise a promise which God did not demand of him, but which he sacredly kept. - We are also taught something, in this connection, of the sorrow of parting with children. This brings us to a part of our subject which is interesting to all who sustain the parental rela tion; for where is the parent who has not lost a child? Where is the family of long standing which this affliction has not visited ? Jephthah was an iron-hearted warrior. He was a man inured to hardship and suffering. He had been exposed in his day to the vicissitudes of persecution and bloodshed. But hard hearted as he was, when he found his own dear daughter must die, he was terribly agitated. The large, hot tears rolled down that bronzed cheek as he turned away from his child to weep. What must have been the surprise of those soldiers as they saw their leader, just returning from a splendid conquest, weeping there like a child? O, that is a place where the strong man always weeps. At the grave of his child he must feel, he must mourn; it is Nature, and Nature must have her way. So Jephthah felt. This maiden, who had come out to meet him, was his only child, and besides her he had neither son nor daughter. His wife was gone. His children, one by one, had died, until she, the fairest of them all, was left alone to cheer him. And how many other fathers have bowed and wept over the graves of their children, and mourned the sad fate which had taken them away! I have seen the strong man, who has watched unmoved the flashing lightning, who has braved the ocean when lashed to its utmost fury, |