tioned, the same particular treatment is not intended: certainly not. The general laws may be compared to the sun and the shower, the heat and the cold of the natural world. Possessing these, the nurseryman proceeds to the study of his plants. His productions are not one and the same; and the dispositions and tempers of the Children in one familynursery generally, discover a variety as striking.

4. Partiality. The observations already made, might seem to have anticipated the necessity of a distinct notice of this unnatural cause of failure on the part of Parents; and certainly, if the appropriate treatment of each Child, to which I have just alluded, is conscientiously studied, this will prove an effectual bar to the entrance of partiality. Of such importance, however, is this evil, that it must not be thus dismissed; for whether the family be large or small, the painful consequences extend, frequently, throughout the whole existence of the children, and are often most melancholy. Indeed, should there happen to be only two children, how do these brothers or sisters carry it towards each other, sometimes to old age? In such a sad snare, even the patriarch Jacob was caught, and what was the result? To escape the vengeance of his brother, which the partiality of his mother had excited, he became an exile from his Father's roof and his native land. Soon, too, did he suffer under the effects of that deceit which she had taught him; and which, even on his return to Canaan, seemed to endanger the lives of his entire family; nay, that deceit ultimately appears as though it had spread its baneful influence among his own children! Strange!

that in a little community, where each individual Child stands in precisely the same relation to its head; where parental duty and affection are not grounded on opinion, but all have an equal claim on the equal regard of their Parents-strange! that such a feeling as that of partiality should ever be entertained and cherished. Oh! let, then, Parents be on their guard; for "of all the infirmities to which our nature is subject," says a modern writer," none is more unreasonable, unwise, and unjust, than that of making a difference between one child and another. It discourages the rest, and ruins one-the favourite. It sets the Father against the Mother, and the other Children combine to crush the fondling." Melancholy, in the extreme, is the prospect of that Child who has the misfortune to be such a favourite!

Finally, For every one in charge of a Family, it is indeed a most serious and important consideration, that, whether the tendency of the heart be to undue severity, to over-indulgence, to a baneful inequality of treatment, or to this sinful partiality, in all cases of failure, the evil will be found at least to originate with the Parents! Meeting, as every failure must, even at its commencement, with the corruption of human nature, there will then be faults on both sides; but still with the Parents the evil originated; inasmuch as to them belong the privilege and the duty, not so much of redressing evil when it has come to a head, as of sowing the seeds of character, of training the plant, of bending the twig when young and tender, of crushing evil in the bud, or of preventing the growth of what would prove noxious to the

mind. Hence in representing to us the rectification of such a moral disorder in a family, the Scriptures direct us to commence with them:-" He shall turn the heart of the Fathers to the Children."

Placed in a situation so difficult and responsible, where so much depends upon our procedure, refuge we have none, except in the wisdom that cometh down from above, with all its heavenly attributes. This alone can preserve us from extremes, and give us consistency, as far as may be in our present imperfect and sinful state. But then this wisdom must not only be requested, but there is only one way in which it can be obtained. It is a communication from above, bestowed on those only whose hearts are in truth turned unto God; for never can we love even our offspring as we ought, till we love God as we should. Until He has the first, they cannot occupy the proper and appropriate place in our affection and our care. To the following Section, therefore, I

must now refer the reader.

SECTION THIRD.

THE MEANS OF RECOVERY AND

MENT.

ESTABLISH

Deliberate conversation with Parents as to the absolute necessity of personal Religion.

I AM not insensible that this subject is of more importance than any which has preceded it, and that if I fail here, the volume I should account of very inferior value; but though volumes have been written upon it, I must rest satisfied with only one section.

Here, however, reader, instead of any formal statements, I would prefer to hold some conversation with you, if you have no objection to give me your ear, and something more. What I request more will be mentioned presently; and in the meanwhile, allow me first to say, that, a Parent myself, and acquainted with a Parent's heart, and a Parent's cares, and a Parent's difficulties, I feel in you therefore all the interest of sympathy, and of anxiety after your best and your highest interests. If you are already not almost only, but altogether a Christian, you will, I trust, see the force of all that is advanced as we proceed. If you have reason to suspect that you are not, or if you suspect that there is a deficiency somewhere, then suffer me to request your unprejudiced and serious perusal of what follows, more than once.

Whatever men may say, genuine Christianity alone

The

can rectify the disorder which sin has introduced, whether into the soul, into our families, or the world at large. Upon this supposition, you may have observed that, in Scripture, some one striking feature of genuine Christianity is, occasionally, put for the whole: some one powerful effect is mentioned as an evidence of the existence of Christianity itself. So the "turning of the heart" towards our fellow-men, and especially towards our offspring and the people of God, if that heart directs to suitable measures, is an evidence of the heart being turned to God himself,a generous effect, and peculiar to Christianity. shipwrecked mariner, throwing out a rope to his companions who are still buffeted by the waves, gives not more evidence of his being now in safety, than that man gives of his own salvation, who, in a scriptural way and spirit, seeks for the salvation of others. From the manner, however, in which these expressions of Malachi are introduced in the New Testament, all dubiety, as to their precise meaning, is taken away, and that by the angel of God, when addressing Zacharias, the Father of John. After intimating to the Parent that his Child should be filled with the Holy Spirit, as a proof of this he adds,— "And many of the Children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God; and he shall go before Him to turn the hearts of the Fathers to their Children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just: to make ready a people prepared or disposed for the Lord." From this language you will evidently perceive, that the Fathers or Children referred to are such as had also turned to the Lord their God, and that, as a people, they were prepared or disposed for the Lord.