your parents, but to obey them: if they treat you unkindly, God will judge them, but He means you to learn a lesson of submission. Besides, you are not old enough, or wise enough, to understand all the reasons which your parents have for their conduct; so you must take for granted that they know best, and remember at all events it is much better for you to do your duty by submitting yourselves to them, even when they seem unreasonable, than to run the risk of breaking God's commandment, by setting up yourselves against them. One word more, dear children, upon this subject. Almighty God has seen fit to give us a very great proof of the importance of obedience to parents, by setting us an example in Jesus Christ Himself. For we read that He, when He was upon earth, "was subject”* to his parents, and probably worked at the same trade that his father worked atthat of a carpenter; and it seems that He was with them till He was thirty years of

* Luke ii. 51.

age.

Now only think of this, dear children, that the Son of God was subject to his parents according to the flesh, not only during his earliest childhood, but after he had grown up to man's estate, and had long passed that age when most of you would be inclined to think you can judge for yourselves, and need not pay attention to your parents any longer. But you must always honour them as long as they live, and if hereafter, when they become aged, you are strong and prosperous, you must consider it bounyour den duty to provide for them. As Jesus Christ, in the hour of his greatest distress, when He was dying upon the cross, did not forget His mother, but recommended her to the care of his disciple St. John; so you must make it a chief duty to take care of the declining years of your parents, and honour their gray hairs, and submit yourselves to them in their old age, as much as in their earlier years. I have said a good deal about submission

* John xix. 26.

to parents, my dear children, because I am more and more convinced, every day, that the happiness of families depends. upon this-the young must submit themselves to the elder; there must be a regular subordination, a domestic government in every house, or all peace is at end, all order is at end; and where there is no peace or order there is no religion, or at least it cannot be effective, practical religion.

If I see before me any parents, I must say one word upon this subject to them. I have seen very often, my friends, what I consider to be very mistaken indulgence in parents. It will never be found wise to go contrary to what the good and wise providence of God has seen fit to appoint. Now He has seen fit to appoint parents as superiors, and elders, and rulers in their own houses and families; and He has also seen fit to appoint children to be ruled, kept in subjection, governed by their parents. You must take upon you this duty of ruling, which God has given

you,—you you, you must make your children mind you, and keep up your authority, or it will be worse in the end for them and for you. I do not mean to advise severity, but firmness and for this end do not be passionate or capricious; do not be very kind and indulgent at one moment, and then severe and violent the next; but keep your tempers-never suffer your children to get the better of you after you have said such and such a thing shall or shall not be done; and they will soon learn the duty of submission, and will be infinitely happier than if you spoil them. A spoilt child is a torment to himself, as well as to all about him.

you

that

And now, my young friends, I must turn to you again, and after having shown first of all, my text teaches you, to submit yourselves to your parents, I must show you that it requires you also to submit yourselves, secondly, to your teachers. "Ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder,' and, therefore, to your teachers. You may remember that in the Church Catechism

you are taught that part of your duty to man is “to submit yourselves to all your governors, teachers, spiritual pastors, and masters." Now, if you think a little, you will see that this is not only your duty because God has commanded it, but is right and reasonable in itself. You are all ignorant, and cannot teach yourselves many things which are necessary for your well-doing in after life; your masters and teachers undertake to instruct you in all these things; but if you pay them no attention, and do not try to learn as they bid you, and are idle and careless, you lose all your own time and trouble, you get the character of being inattentive and obstinate, and you get none of the good which schools and teachers are intended to do you. We take the pains, and are at the expense, of finding schools for your good, it does not do anybody the smallest good in the world but yourselves; so that the least you can do in return is to be diligent, and to submit yourselves to your teachers. Upon this sub