Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1860-03-31
MISCELLANY.
FAMILY GOVERNMENT.
a SERMON PREACHED BY HENRY WARD BEECH
Err AT PLYMOUTH CHURCH, BROOKLYN,
On Sunday Evening, February 20, 1850.



TExr.-"And, ye fathers, provoke not your chill
dren to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and
admoniton of the Lord" "-EpH. vi, 4.
From the beginning of the world, God has
founded the family as one of the most impor-
tant instruments of good on earth. Be! SITS,
prone to the earth, without soul, he suffered to
roam lawless and unwedded. No such liberty
was given to man. From the beginning God
made man and woman, grouping them into fam
lily relations; and all the dealings of God with
the infant race looked with especial fondness
upon the prosperity of the family state. 1t is
declared that this shall be perpetuated through
many generations. Not only is its continuance
as an institution taught in scripture, but there
is nothing more conclusively taught there, as
there is nothing more emphatcally shown in
actual life, than that its results for good for
evil are transmissble and transmitted through
many generations. 81 am jealous God, visit
ing the iniquities of the fathers upon the chill
dren, to the third and fourth generation Some
rebel at this, as if it were an injustice. What
ever be its moral character, one thing is certain
that, just or unjust wise or unwise, it is a
fact Whether there be a God or no God,
whether there be a divine government or no di-
vine government, the benefits on the one side,
and the iniquities on the other side, of fathers,
are visited upon their children to the Third and
fourth generation. If it be not divine moral
law, it certainly is natural law. If it be not
a truth to be accepted from the Bible it is
truth to be CLEANED and accepted from the ex-
perience of actual life; and heed is to be given
to it. Parents may train up their children SO
as to be sure, if they have been thoroughly
faithful and skilful, not only that their children
will be rightly trained, but that the work will
not stop with them--thit it will go on down
through three or four generations
a mother, shut up from company, wholly en-
crossed at home, knowing little of the pleasures
of society, seeing few and seldom seen, living
only in Gods house and in her own, is not a
slave, wearing out her life without reward. She
may look forward to a certain prospect OF tens
and hundreds Of her posterity, ornaments to
society, themselves happy, and all Of them in
succession to rally around about her in heaven,
and call her blessed. On the other hand if a
mother prefers her own ease and loves her off
spring with affection so adulterated by folly as
TO leave them unframed and uncducated, it is
so extreme a sin that God declares that not
alone her children shall suffer, but her chdren's
children. And oftentmes four or five genera
tons are scarcely sufficient to ehace the evil
one parent inilicts.
This is mysterious. 1t is not what we should
have expected in divine government Ger
tainly if this had been the declaration of Scrip
turc alone il would have excited surmise ana
wonders but as it is as strong in fact as in dec
laration, what can we do but accept it Where,
however, could God have put a penalty with
more prospect of its detorring men from sin
than here? II the household is the foundation
of society, and il the whole hope of the world
lies in the fidelity Of the world to their children,
could this fidelity have been secured by prom
Use more inviting than this-that it shall go on
after them to their children's children? And
if they are uniaithiul in this regard, could they
have enforced upon them a more rigorous pen
atty than this-that their unfaithfuness will not
only not leave their children unpunished, but
will punish their childrens childrenP
do not propose, tonight, to go into the
whole subject of the household. 1t is almost
inexhaustiblc, because all life questions root in
the family. The family is the epitome of hu-
man life. 1t is the microcosm of society. On
ly one or two topics will occupy our attention
namely, the necessity of family government
and some considerations as to the wisest meth
cd Of administering it. These remarks are not
chiefly for those who have reared their house
hold, and are wiser in that very respect than
am. But in such congregation as this, there
are always households being set up, families
beginning, young parents who are perplexed,
and earnestly desire instruction with regard to
the management of their children. And in
course of teaching this is one of the themes
most fit for the pulpit.
The mind of child, so soon as it begins to
expand, is like the soil of garden in spring
1t will shoot up vigorously, if left to itself
weeds; but if titled, fruits and flowers. Every
body must be, and everybody will be, educated.
The head will learns the heart will feel and
head and heart together will make the body act
and will produce a character of some sort. The
ls. hall Al.
shall develop the heart who shall establish the
character? God says the parent shall do it,
SO nature teaches. And this requistion is
founded on good reasons, which are not with
held from us.
The parents are with the child from the very
beginning. The child is made to be moulded
1t is made so as to be easy moulded. 1t is in
state to be easily governed. Its first thought
dawns while it is in the arms of its PARENTS