Even your love must be that which is exercised and expressed towards a superior. If there be no reverence of the heart, it cannot be expected in the conduct. In all virtue, whether it be that higher kind which has respect to God, or that secondary kind, which relates to our fellow creatures, we must have a right state of heart, for without this, virtue does not exist. Your words should correspond with the reverential feelings of the heart. When speaking to them, your address, both in language and in tones, should be modest, submissive, and respectful: not loud, boisterous, impertinent, or even familiar for they are not your equals, but your superiors. If at any time you differ from them in opinion, your views should be expressed, not with the flippancy and pertinaciousness of disputants, but with the meek inquisitiveness of pupils. Should they reprove, and even more sharply than you think is due, you must lay your hand upon your mouth, and neither answer them again, nor show resentment. Your reverence for them should be so great, as to impose a considerable restraint upon your speech in their company; for much is due to the presence of a parent. It is exceedingly offensive to hear a pert, clamorous, talkative young person, unchecked by the countenance of a father or mother, and engaging much of the conversation of a party to him self. Young persons should always be modest and retiring in company, but more especially when their parents are there. You should also be careful about the manner of speaking of them to others. You should never talk of their faults, for this is like Ham's conduct toward his father. You must not speak of them in a jocose or familiar manner, nor say any thing that would lead others to think lightly, or to suppose that you thought lightly of them. If they are attacked in their reputation, you are with promptitude and firmness, though with meekness, to defend them, so far as truth will allow, and even if the charge be true, to make all the excuses that veracity will permit, and to protest against the cruelty of degrading your parents in your presence. Reverence should extend to all your behavior towards your parents. In all your conduct towards them, give them the greatest honor, let it be observed by others that you pay them all possible respect, and let it also be seen by themselves, when there is no spectator near. Your conduct should always be under some degree of restraint, when they are within sight; not the restraint of fear, but of esteem. How would you act if a king were in the room? Would you be as free, as familiar, as noisy, as when he had retired, or before he had entered? Now I am of opinion, that parents sometimes undermine their authority, by allowing the same rude and boisterous behavior in their presence, as in their absence. This should not be. When reason is expanding in children, they should be made to understand and feel the truth of what I have already affirmed, that there is an outward respect due to the very presence of a parent. Ali rude and noisy rushing in and out of a father or mother's company is unmeet. It is the etiquette of a court, that no one shall enter the royal presence, when the king is upon his throne, without obeisance. I do not ask for the same obsequiousness in families; this would be absurd; but I ask for the principle from which it arises, a respectful deference for authority. The next duty is OBEDIENCE. 'Children, obey your parents,' says the apostle in his epistle to the Colossians. This is one of the most obvious dictates of nature; even the irrational creatures are obedient by instinct, and follow the signs of the parent beast, or bird, or reptile. Perhaps there is no duty more generally acknowledged than this. Your obedience should begin early; the younger you are, the more you need a guide and a ruler. It should be universal: 'Children obey your parents,' said the apostle, 'in all things.' The only exception to this, is when their commands are, in the letter or spirit of them, opposed to the commands of God. In this case, as well as in every other, we must obey God, rather than man. But even here your refusal to comply with the sinful injunction of a parent, must be uttered in a meek and respectful manner, so that it shall be manifest you are actuated by pure, conscientious motives, and not by a mere rebellious resistance of parental authority. Your obedience should have no other exception than that which is made by conscience: in your situation, inclination and taste are out of the question, both must be crossed, opposed, and set aside when opposed to parental authority. Obedience should be prompt. As soon as the command is uttered, it should be complied with. It is a disgrace to any child that it should be necessary for a father or a mother to repeat a command. You should even anticipate, if possible, their injunctions, and not wait till their will is announced in words. A tardy obedience loses all its glory. It should be cheerful. A reluctant virtue is no virtue at all. Constrained and unwilling obedience, is rebellion in principle; it is vice clothed in the garment of holiness. God loveth a cheerful giver, and so does man. A child retiring from a parent's presence, muttering, sullen, and mourning, is one of the ugliest spectacles in creation of what value is any thing he does, in such a temper as this? It should be selfdenying. : You must give up your own will, and sacrifice your own predilections, and perform the things that are difficult, as well as those that are easy. When a soldier receives a command, although he may be at home in comfort, and he is required at once to go into the field of danger, he hesitates not, he considers he has no option. A child has no more room for the gratification of self-will than the soldier has; he must obey. It should be uniform. Filial obedience is generally rendered without much difficulty when the parents are present, but not always with the same unreservedness, when they are absent. Young people, you should despise the meanness, and abhor the wickedness, of consulting the wishes, and obeying the injunctions of your parents, only when they are there to witness your conduct. Such hypocrisy is detestable. Act upon nobler principles. Let C it be enough for you to know what is the will of a parent, to ensure obedience, even though continents laid, and oceans rolled between you and your father. Carry this injunction with you everywhere; let the voice of conscience be to you, instead of his voice, and the consciousness that God sees you, be enough to ensure your immediate compliance. How sublimely simple and striking was the reply of the child, who, upon being pressed in company to take something which his absent parents had forbidden him to touch, and who, upon being reminded that they were not there to witness him, replied, 'very true, but God and my conscience are here.' Be it your determination, to imitate this beautiful example of filial piety, and obey in all things even your absent parents. BRANDENBURGH HARVEST-SONG ON THE QUEEN OF PRUSSIA'S DEATH. THE Corn in golden light, Now send we far around Alas! a heavier sound Comes o'er the day! |