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though I still feel a fear of difficulty, I will endeavor to bear it in mind, and will try to put it in practice.

As your uncle's niece, you will be expected to show attention to all the party. Be, therefore, courteous, be kind, as the apostle exhorts; but be steady and consistent to the principles you have imbibed; remember to whose service you are dedicated.

Louisa received the advice with attentive observation, and it was evident that she was a girl who was accustomed to hear the instructions of her father, and to forsake not the law of her mother. The lesson did not appear to impose any restraint upon her she received it as the word of wisdom and of love, in which she perfectly agreed, though she felt the natural workings of the heart; and perceiving that her mother had concluded her remarks, she looked at her with a smile of affectionate confidence, without continuing the subject.

CHAPTER IV.

My party was now fast forming, and my sister agreeing to receive the young people, I was the more at liberty to attend to the seniors, all of whom were assembled; and Mrs. Evans in

troduced her friends, Mr. and Mrs. Graham, saying, I have taken this liberty;-as my friends arrived unexpectedly ;-having named to them the novelty of the engagement this evening, they declared they would not detain me at home, but would much like to be admitted here; and besides, it will answer your purpose, as they have a fine family of children.

My welcome was sincere to all, and I offered coffee early, that we might have a more uninterrupted evening. Mrs. Evans seemed full of curiosity, and addressing a lady near her, said,

I feel a little as if I had come to school; I declare I have a kind of fear that the papas and mammas are to be lectured as well as the boys and girls.

I should not be sorry were it so, she replied, for I really feel my own deficiencies.

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Oh! but really, I hope at least, she said laughing, we shall not be catechised; absolutely, I do not know whether I could repeat one of the Commandments correctly; and as to understanding them, you know, that belongs to people of a certain turn of mind, who see in them so much spirituality, as they call it, that they make the whole a mystery.

May I, I said, be permitted to remark upon your observation?

O yes, shrugging her shoulders, certainly.

I do first assure you, my dear madam, I intend not to catechise but you observed something which implied a difficulty in understanding the

Commandments: I really think, did you reflect upon them without prejudice against the spiritual meaning, you would find them very intelligible to plain common sense: every one of them is expressed in the simplest language; the reason of the difficulties which appear to some so very great, is to be found in the ignorance of the natural mind of its own state: therefore it is that the prohibitions appear hard or useless, and the positive injunctions either easy or indifferent. For instance, we will take the fifth commandment, as it is on that subject we are particularly interested at present. "Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Here is

a simple command that children should show a dutiful and respectful deference to their parents. What can be more simple? its literal sense is easily comprehended; how many hundred times have we all repeated or heard it, and never questioned the plain meaning, but we have for the most part heard it in vain. We esteemed it, perhaps, easy and indifferent, and therefore never put ourselves to the endeavor of exemplifying how we understood it by our conduct being framed by its rule. Then there is a promise attached, which is seldom attended to, of long life in the land given by the Lord our God. Why do we not attend to it? We naturally love long life; are naturally desirous to dwell long in our land; but we forget the Author and Preserver of life, and live as though our days were our own; and

the land which the Lord giveth, we esteem not as peculiar; or if we do, as only peculiar to the Jews, and then reason that the promise belongs not to the Gentiles. There is a strange propensity in human nature, to retain the command, and cut off the promise; but if by faith we are engrafted into the true Israel's stock, we partake of their privileges both of law and promise. I mention this, only to show, that the literal and obvious meaning are perfectly comprehensible to our minds, but the objection against them is their constraining authority.

Whatever objections to their authority we may ourselves have felt, said Mr. Conway, I think we should all like our children at least to be sensible of it, and to reap the advantage in their obedience.

Doubtless, for without obedience where is the authority; and without authority and obedience, where is the happiness of a family? or where is the hope of the promise? It should be a very affecting consideration to parents who desire the blessing and happiness of their children, that, if they are running a course of disobedience and disrespect, they not only transgress the commandment, but forfeit the application of the promise.

I confess I have considered the necessity of obedience singly, as right and proper, without attaching any importance to the promise: I see it is an error.

A great one for enforced authority, merely

on human motives, for present expediency, is a selfish acting; consulting, perhaps, chiefly our own present comfort, and mere worldly morality. I should like to have a little explanation of that idea.

I think we ought well to consider all the responsibilities belonging to a parent, to open out to his child all the revelation of God, concerning their nature and the end proposed by their birth into this world; to lead them on to a preparation for an eternal existence in another world; to show them their sinful nature; to point out to them the redeeming blood of Jesus; to declare the power of the Holy Ghost; and thus manifest the love of the Father; to teach them, that though all things here are temporal, yet that they have essential and important duties belonging to them, though they are to be as pilgrims on earth, seeking for a better country.

You are proposing instructions only calculated for mature and reflecting minds, and which would be very difficult to give, in their juvenile days.

I beg pardon, they are just as simple as the commandment; we need not shackle ourselves, and rob our children, by ideas of our own invention, which they cannot understand: adapt your language, if you please, to the capacity of your child; but, I believe, you will always find the plain scripture words the easiest to be understood. By early teaching them to look to God in Jesus, you perform one great parental duty, which is

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