Year: 1860

/
are SO accommodating, morose, reck.
less and unflial. We suggest the forego-
ing as one of the possible reasons.


I ?. Parents provoke their children to
wrath sometimes by favoriteism. That
pride of a child's brightness or beauty
which some mothers and fathers possess
will certainly run into favoritism unless
there is studied watchfulness That
genuine reasons may exist for thinking
more of one child than another, in some
respects, we would not deny, but care
should be taken that it may not appear in
the conduct, and one be treated with par
tiahty; which is what we mean by favor
itsm. Nothing will arouse the indignant
feelings OF son or daughter quicker than
this evident partiality. 1t stirs up the
worst class of passions in the human BOSOM


Nothing creates more surely the a0n 3
care spirit in the young than this; and
such reckless spirit generally leads to
ruin.


Parental favortism is one of the evils
which is universally deprecated, and, on
that account, parents arc quite unwilling to
admit that they have favoritcs among their
children But this is stcalthy evil, and
takes possession of the heart without sound
ing alarm. Simply living without stopping
to reflect upon this danger may lead to it.


1t is one OF the perils that must be ponder
ed often, to guard cffectually against it.
Wisdom will not always do it, nor even
goodness As good man as Isaac had
his favoritc Esau, and as good a woman as
! X Rnhaonn hol bn,, f,vor;to ToooI -.


IDENTIFY neither of them intended to wrong
their sons. Perhaps they never stopped to
consider whether they were partial. The
consequences, however, are perpetual
Warning against this evil. A long train OF
sorrows were entailcd thereby upon both
parents AMI sons A great rupture wa,
made in the family, and L au became a
rougher, harder, and more wilful man than
he otherwise would have been. The worst
part of his nature was developed by that
partiality, and his fierce passions ragged for


more than twenty years. Then, when
Jacob became the father of large family


notwithstanding the experience he had had
in this regard, he made Joseph his favorite


1t was manifest in his conduct The bro


theirs SAW it clearly, and you recall how it


provoked them to wrath. What a terrible
tragedy was enacted in consequence, in
that family. There is scarce y any thing
upon the annals of crime, in all past his


tory, to compare with it. We have muir


ders now, and lover shoots lover i'll tho
phrcnzy of disappointment, and barbarous
cruclties are pcrpctratcd upon men; but
where does brother riseup against brother
and conceive OF such malignant wickedness


as that which sold Joseph into hopeless
bondage? That was a deed done in the


family circle. 1t was conceived and act


ed by those who had sat around the same
table, and knelt at the same altar Chill


dren of Il common parent, bone of his bone


and flesh of his flesh, developed spirit


that was fenliSh and cruel AS the grave,


extinguishing the last, fickeriug spark Of
fraternal love, and terminating in a family
quarrel that crushed the hearts of the pa


rents, and destroyed the peace and happi-
| ness of the children. Parental partialty
was the mother of a deep rooted and spite
full envy and this gnawed away, as a


canker- worm, at the heart of domestic


peace.


B. Parents provoke their children to


wrath by excessive indulgence In lulgod
children are usually peevish, headstrong,


and wilful. Being left to their own way
so much tiattered, carressed and pampered


they finally demand the qualification of
their wishes, and become turbulent and


passionate if denied. The direct tendency
of indulging a child in his own way is to
make him rash and reckless If allowed


to 90 uncorrected to day because it is diff


fcult to secure obedience, he will take


more advantage tomorrow. Give child
an inch, i'll this respect, and he will take
an ell. One indulgence causes him to de-


mand another, until he reaches point
where he resists all restraints, and passion


usurps the throne of reason. Hence, in
any community, the most unruly and ire
sponsible children are found among the in
dulged. They are much ottencr found with
this class, than they are with those who
have been treated too severely. The Scrip
lures warn parents against indulgence


much more frequently than they do against


severity, intimating thereby that it is a


greater evil We have such instructions
as the following repeated "Ho that sparcth
the rod hateth his son but he that loveth
him, chastencth him betimes." "Chasten


thy son, while there is hope, and let not
thy soul spare for his crying" "Withold
not correction from the child, for if thou
beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. u
"Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and de
: liver his soul from hell" Then the ex-
ample of Eli and others is held up as a
; beacon light over this dangerous shoal,-
: Judging from the frequent reference of the
: Bible to this subject, we should infer that
it was a prolific source of evil-that it is
very common way ofspoiling children,
There are two frequent causes of this in
dulgencc. The first is mere animal c6fc-
: tim Some parents idolize their children
: so that they can scarcely endure to see
, them punished. Any thing that causes