that they shall not depart from me." Now, we ask, what condition of trial and temptation, of sin and guilt, of weakness and liability to fall and perish, is there here on earth, in which any child of God can be placed, that is not fully met and provided for in such assurances as these. Yet these are all in the covenant, and the Bible is full of them. We only add one thing more. With death before them, and the solemnities of a future existence beyond, God's covenant of grace with His children contains stipulations and promises of just the kind which such a case calls for. It insures to their faith victory over the last enemy, a glorious resurrection, a happy immortality. This, too, is in the covenant, expressly promised and made sure, its guarantee the oath of Jehovah. What more could the poor, sinking, distrustful, tempted, tried, troubled heart of man desire? Can God's covenant with day and night be broken? Can God's covenant with the constantly recurring seasons of the year, summer and winter, seed-time and harvest, fail and come to an end? Yes, this covenant may, and one day will, come to an end, and cease to be any longer in force. But God's covenant of love and mercy with His children shall not fail; never. Do not fear it; it can not be. Only advert to the perfections of Him who is the author of it and every difficulty is solved, every doubt or fear is dispelled. Only think of Him who is the Mediator of this new covenant, and all is plain. If God is a being of truth and goodness, and if He did not, in seeking our benefit, spare even His own son, but did freely deliver Him up for us all, how shall He not also, with Him, freely give us all things. What can surprise us now, after this gift of His munificence?

But why, does any one ask? why this covenant of grace? Wherefore does the Most High condescend to stipulate and enter into express covenant engagements with His children? Is it not beneath Him to do this? Does it not derogate from His greatness and dignity, and infinite exaltation above His creatures? No, by no means. It is, rather, just what such love, such grace, such compassion as provided a Saviour for us, would lead us to look for. It is entirely in character, harmonizing most fully with all that we know of this glorious being. But, what end, is it asked further, was to be answered by it? Here again behold, thou tempted, doubting, disconsolate believer, the

love of thy heavenly Father. It was to sustain thy faltering faith and hope; it was to help thee to trust; to encourage thy trembling soul, too apt to forget what has been done for thee, or doubt and fear and grow weak and faint in running the race set before thee. It was to draw thee nearer thy true rest and refuge, and make thee see and feel that there is nothing, absolutely nothing, in the form of real good to thee, which is too much for God to give or for thee to expect at His hands. To this end His covenant is set before thee, is entered into with thee, is made to seal and certify to thy too often trembling soul its everlasting promises of love and mercy. To this new and gracious covenant thy Father in Heaven has been pleased to affix a seal, in visible token of His truth and love, that thou mightst not and couldst not any longer doubt the sincerity of His heart toward thee. Here we pause for the present, intending to bring that seal more fully into view at a future time, and to set forth its meaning and design, and its happy adaptation to answer the benevolent ends for which it was instituted. Here we pause and ask the Christian reader, has thou evidence that thy God has entered into such a covenant with thy soul? Are such promises made to thee? In and through a Redeemer is God thy God, and thou, through faith, His adopted, humble, happy child? Hast thou seen and felt thy need and thy wretchedness as a sinner, and returned to God in penitence, submission and love, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, and been thus accepted by Him? If these things are so, are there not some obligations on thy part? Hast thou nothing to do? no engagements to enter into with thy God and Saviour? no duties to perform? no fidelity to exhibit? no vows to make and redeem with thy fellow Christians? no self-consecration not yet made? no allegiance to be assumed and faithfully discharged? no living and no dying to thy Redeemer incumbent on thee? Yes, surely. Listen to His voice of compassion :

"The promise of my Father's love

Shall stand forever good,"

He said, and gave His soul to death.

And seal'd the grace with ble

And wilt thou not be ready to respond to this astonishing grace,

To this dear covenant of thy Word

I set my worthless name,

I seal the engagement to my Lord,
And make my humble claim.

The light and strength and pardoning grace,

And glory shall be mine;

My life and soul, my heart and flesh,

And all my powers are thine.

Original.

OBEDIENCE BY THE CHILD IS THE DUTY OF THE

PARENT.

BY REV. HENRY T. CHEEVER.

VERY likely some one that reads this title will say: A strange and back-handed position is this. The writer has taken the thing by the wrong handle. Why didn't he say, Obedience to the parent is the duty of the child? Because that is just what he does not now mean. He agrees with you in a truism that every body admits; but you,, perhaps, do not agree with him at first sight, in a position equally true, and of far more practical importance to be admitted, namely, that obedience from your child is not only your right, but your duty as a parent. Stripped of its strangeness and paradox, it is just this: You, as a parent, especially a mother, are under obligation to God to make your child obedient. That is, God has made you a mother, and intrusted you with the parental authority, in order that you may habituate that child, as its first great law, to filial obedience. And the will of your child having been once fairly broken and habituated to the absolute parental authority, if you have entered into covenant with God on its behalf by infant baptism, and do henceforth faithfully perform your duty, your child will be ready, and that, as a general thing, right ready, for implicit obedience to the Divine authority. And the well-disciplined, dutiful subject of family government shall, in due time, become the willing, loyal, and obedient subject of Almighty God.

The child is by no means to be reasoned into obedience, nor is the propriety and reasonableness of it to be the grounds of your enforcing it. Great mischief is liable to be wrought by this doctrine, that a child should be reasoned into obedience. Yet by some writers on education, the principle mainly enforced, amounts to this, that a child should be taught to obey, not be- · cause obedience is always and at once a duty, but because the particular thing ordered can be proved reasonable; as if the infant casuists and controversialists of the nursery were expected to see things as readily in real life, as they are talked out in the Rollo dialogues of its A, B, C's.

But the common sense of mankind, if it has not already, will ere long, we believe, eschew this doctrine; and experience will teach that prompt, implicit, unreasoning, almost unconscious obedience, is the first thing to be taught to a child, and that there can be no peace to the soul without it. Showing reasons to a child for its obedience before it has learned to obey, is far from being useful, that we are induced to think that a parent of a strong will, though a perverse one, will, almost invariably, train a child better than a parent of the reasoning turn and habit with her children. As "obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams," so an authority which is absolute by virtue of its own inherent strength, is better than one which is inevitably shaken by a constant reference to ends and purposes, and by the reasonable doubts which will arise as to whether they are the best and most useful.

The parent's perversity or positiveness, unless it be unkind or ill-tempered, will not occasion the child half so much uneasiness in the one case, as the child will suffer from those perversities of its own, which will spring up in the other. For habits of instant and mechanical obedience are those that give rest to the child, and spare its health and temper; while a wavering or half doubtful obedience will keep it distracted between propensity and duty, and so will keep up a perpetual irritation on its nerves, and be a drain upon its mental and bodily strength.

It is clear, then, that children must be early taught to obey absolutely and independently of reasons; and a mother is both saving herself and her child, who calmly but steadily enforces this obedience. The opposite policy is always disastrous both

with good children and bad, making the former bad and the latter worse, while to habituate them to unquestioning obedience at once, is as much better for the child as it will be easier for the parent in the end, although the desire of avoiding present trouble with a perverse boy may lead a mother to yield her prerogative of command upon occasions, and try the force of reasoning and temporizing.

When a reason for a command can be given by a parent, simply in a word or two, at once intelligible by the smallest capacity, then it may be ventured, nay, perhaps it is demanded in the case supposed; but beware of diffuseness with a child. Dr. Channing, somewhere in his diary, warns himself, as a parent, against it after this wise:

"A little boy slams the door violently. 'Don't, my boy, do so,' his mother says, 'it disturbs your little sister.' The boy feels that he has done wrong and determines to obey his mother. But she goes on to say, with increased warmth, 'it is now the third time that you have waked her up this evening.' This neutralizes the effect of what was said before. 'I should think that a boy of your age might know better than to make such a noise.' Here the boy begins to grow impatient. 'It costs me, and you know it does, a great deal of trouble.' He is now a little irritated, and as soon as the torrent of words comes more vehemently, his irritation entirely stifles his good resolutions, and drives him almost immediately into some other disagreeable act."

Let mothers learn a lesson from this, and beware alike in their family disipline, of diffuse reasoning and angry fault-finding.

THINGS that only help us to exist, are in a secondary and mean sense useful, or rather, if they be looked for alone, they are useless and worse, for it would be better that we should not exist, than that we should guiltily disappoint the purposes of existence. MODERN PAINTERS.