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became of the old people we are not informed; but, long as David lived, he remembered his father. When even Solomon ascended the throne in his sight, he forgot not his descent from such a parent: and, in the last Psalm he is generally supposed to have penned, he closes by saying, -"the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended." When even his last words are recorded (2 Samuel xxiii. 1.), the father's name, it seems, must not be omitted: so that, to the very close of life, this great and extraordinary man is held up to us as the "stem of Jesse." Parental influence, therefore, in David's case, will, it is presumed, now be admitted.

As a father, David himself will yet be noticed. Amidst the affairs of his kingdom, and frequent wars, as a parent, at one period, he failed sadly, and, as a husband, he fell. For such neglect, however, even the affairs of a kingdom form no apology. These sins, therefore, not only cost him extreme anguish, but they stand recorded as the greatest blots in his character. Still, after his own iniquities had corrected him, and his backslidings had reproved him, there was one child who filled his old heart with joy. This, however, was a son whom he himself instructed, and one of whom both himself and the mother took such care, and with whom they were at such pains, as will appear afterwards.

JOHN THE BAPTIST.-To this parental influence, eminence in the church as well as in the state may very often be distinctly traced.

Of John the Baptist, one said, who knew perfectly every prophet that had preceded him, "Verily, I say unto you, among them that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist."

But this wonderful man was in the desert till the day of his showing unto Israel, there enjoying the benefit of

such parents as Zacharias and Elizabeth must have been. "They were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." With what delight then must the Father have uttered these words: "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way!" Old though he was, long as he breathed, he, as well as Elizabeth, must have watched over him; for their early death is, at best, a mere conjecture, but other instructors John had none. The sayings respecting him might be "noised abroad through all the hill-country of Judea," and interest in other quarters a few like themselves; but scribes, or priests, or teachers of the law, he had none. Under his parent's eye, "the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the desert till the day of his showing unto Israel."

SOLOMON.-Among the characters in Scripture conspicuous for greatness of mind, another individual equally remarkable for political wisdom, and for general as well as religious knowledge, must not be omitted, Solomon, the son of David: a man who possessed "wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, as the sand that is on the sea-shore,-whose wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the East, and all the wisdom of Egypt; one, in short, who was wiser than all men, and whose fame was in all nations round about: who uttered three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five,-who spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; who spake also of beasts and of fowl, of creeping things and of fishes."

It is true that, at one remarkable period of his existence, he received what no parent, however anxious, could Lestow; an immense accession to all his powers immedi

ately from the Almighty: but then this accession to his former greatness was in answer to his own request, and it stands recorded as the effect of his own choice. Now, at the auspicious moment when Jehovah put the question, "Ask what I shall give thee."-Why select wisdom and understanding? At a moment when he had everything

in his option which God himself could give, had parental influence and parental advice, tenderly and often repeated, no share in guiding him to this selection? Solomon himself will tell you. "I was," he replies, "I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me,-Let thine heart retain my words; keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.-Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and, with all thy getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her." To these parental monitions, if the reader desires to hear an echo of approbation from heaven, he may do so, in 1 Kings iii. 10-14; and should he wish to know what Solomon himself, in mature age, thought of such parental instruction, he will find it in such words as these,-"Keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: when thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.”

After the numerous proofs already adduced, does it not now appear evident, that the Almighty has condescended for ages to discover his marked regard for the domestic constitution, and its strong natural attachments, as affording to him the most efficient means, either of perpetuating his fear in our world, or reviving it? Not that Scripture

does not furnish us with instances, where no such analogy holds. For the sovereignty of God there is ample scope in this rebellious world; but, so far from disregarding a constitution of his own creation and upholding, he has, in the great majority of recorded cases, taken the opportunity of pointing out to his people the moral power and numerous advantages inherent in its very frame. I am far from having forgotten Elijah, or Daniel, or Paul: but neither these nor any other can weaken the force of what has been advanced. The two former, had Scripture not been silent, might have confirmed these statements; and, as for the last, his case was altogether out of the usual course of nature; and, with his own characteristic humility, he scruples not so to tell us.

Let it not, however, be supposed, that in the Sacred Scriptures alone are to be found apt and forcible illustrations of the remark with which this division begins. No. These are characters, it is true, that will continue to abide a comparison with the illustrious of any age; like the lofty mountains of nature, whether existing in Europe, in Asia, or America, which are admired for their altitude and sublimity by every spectator and in every period of time. But, with a view to interest the young and rising generation, the parents of a future age, as well as to illustrate to parents themselves, the power of forming to future greatness of character, which is lodged in their hands by the appointment of God, I may be permitted to introduce a few of the greatest men who have lived since the volume of Revelation was closed. With their names, it is true, all men are already familiar: but, to the parental eye especially, there is scarcely a more interesting point in which their characters can be studied, than the moment when these were yet only in the bud. It will then be

seen that what Cowper said of his oak might be applied to most of them:

Time was, when, settling on thy leaf, a fly

Could shake thee to the root-and time has been
When tempests could not.

ALFRED THE GREAT.-When the early period in which he lived, and the disadvantages under which he labored, are considered, perhaps Alfred the Great stands at the head of British biography. A man who was not only skilled in the art of government, but who acquired such a knowledge of the Scriptures, and the truths they unfold; who cultivated, at such an age, philosophy and history, geography, and astronomy, and botany; who was himself an author as well as a translator and corrector of previous historians; a man whose genius, not confined to literature, extended to the arts of architecture and ship-building, gold and silver workmanship, and even other branches. All these acquirements have justly entitled him to the epithet of "great" though another simple and impressive addition to his name, by an author of the eleventh century, crowns the whole. He is there styled, " Alfred the truthteller."

Of the greatness of Alfred's mind, some idea may be formed from the manner in which he speaks of the Divine Being. In reply to the question, "Why is God called the Highest Eternity?" he says

"Because we know very little of that which was before us, except by memory and by asking; and yet we know less of that which will be after us. That alone exists rationally to us which is present; but to HIM all is present, as well that which was before as that which now is, and that which after us will be. All of it is present to HIM. His riches increase not, nor do they ever diminish. He never remembers anything, because he never forgets aught. He seeks nothing, because he loses nothing: He pursues no creature, because none can fly from him: He dreads nothing because he

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