mer. In the school-room, some luckless little urchin in a moment of forgetfulness infringes one of the rules of the school. Our patient man pays but little attention to the matter; for he sees that however much it may interfere with the good order, it was not an offence, because not intentional, and he dismisses the child with a single word of caution. The impatient teacher would have called up the little fellow immediately and given him a severe whipping or its equivalent, without stopping to inquire as to his guilt. Thus, day after day, both the parent and the teacher meet with numberless little things calculated to tax their patience almost to the last degree of endurance. We may feel that we are accomplishing little good; but when we least expect it, we shall find the bread we have cast upon the waters return to us. Be patient with the children you have in your charge. They are frail creatures, and like ourselves fallible. Were you, fond mother, deprived of a single one of them to-morrow, you would reproach yourself for your harsh and unkind treatment of that one when under the influence of excitement. Think not so much of your own comfort as of the importance and welfare of that human soul which God has placed in your care for guidance.

There is on the part of parents and teachers very frequently what might be termed a lack of gentleness, and, singular as it may seem, it is not confined to those in the lower walks of life. I have seen petulant outbreaks of temper in those claiming to be the most refined, which were anything but creditable. Of course the basis of this is mainly a lack of patience and self-control. Few

parents stop to think how unpleasant they are making their homes by this sort of treatment of their children. The little ones skulk away into the corners or slyly slip out of the house to escape from the danger. Such harsh and inhuman treatment of the child does much toward hardening it and making it rebellious. It lives under at continual fear that some little mishap or indiscretion may bring down the storm upon its head. A little boy once remarked to me: Our teacher last winter was scolding continually; he never knew when to quit talking." On inquiring whether he secured good order in this way, the boy replied: "Oh, no! we all did as we pleased. When we wanted to lie down on the benches or put our feet on the desks, we did so. We had everything our own way." Is this not in general the result of scolding, both in the school-room and in the home? Is it not a fact beyond denial that those who make the greatest bluster and noise generally accomplish the least? Independent of this result, gentleness in the teacher or the parent begets a corresponding gentleness in the child. Have you never noticed the little girl as she plays with her doll, or the little boy as he drives his imaginary horse, that each imitates your manner? If your manner is rude, theirs is rude; if gentle, they are also gentle. It is but the influence of the home example.

Were I to sum up the treatment of the child, I could give no better comprehensive rule than the one so often quoted: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." Suppose yourself, for the moment, assuming the place of the child, what treatment would you desire?

Having settled this in your mind, you are prepared to decide what treatment is due the child, and therefore best calculated to make its life pleasant and profitable. Were you to select an instructor or a companion by whom you would wish to be influenced, it would not be one who is dogged, sullen, sour, morose, and impatient, but one who, on the contrary, is lively, cheerful, kind, patient, gentle, pleasant, and obliging. Your child needs this same kind of instructor.

CHAPTER XIII.

GOVERNMENT.

IDO not propose to discuss here the subject of govern

ment at length, nor do I propose to present a system of ethics. My space for that would prove too limited, and it would not comport with the object I have in view, that of presenting to the reader a few practical hints in a familiar way. I shall deal with government only so far as it relates to the family and the school, as that is all that specially concerns us at present.

Every well-digested and well-balanced system of government has affixed a system of rewards and punishments - rewards for well-doing, and punishments for offences. It is so with all laws, whether physical, civil, or moral. Every infringement of a physical law is punished with pain or ill health, and either through neglect or through ignorance of these laws thousands almost daily are hurried off to eternity. Each civil law has its penalty attached, and when obedience is denied, the offender suffers the penalty. So too in the infringement of a moral law, we know that if we refuse obedience we must suffer the punishment ordained of God. Thus when the revealed law of God tells us that the drunkard shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven, there is at once a command prohibiting drunkenness, and at the same

time the penalty of disobedience is made known.

God speaks to us through the Scriptures in no uncertain terms. The law and the penalty are there both set forth.

Family government and school government, which are much the same the teacher during a part of the day simply taking the place of the parent-embrace to a great extent both the civil and the moral law; hence, from the nature of these two kinds of government, what will apply to the one must, so far as fundamental principles are concerned, apply to the other; and as the parental relation takes precedence, let us first consider family government, and we shall have at once that which embraces both. It is not a mere agency, but in truth a government in which there are rules and laws to be obeyed and authority to be maintained. Some of the principles which must regulate this government have been spoken of in the preceding chapters. We have proved that this government does not consist in the brutish harshness which is apt to prevail at times, nor yet in that looseness which permits the child such absolute freedom that it soon establishes itself as monarch of the household. The latter too plainly argues the absence of government, just as the former ignores its fundamental principles.

One of the first principles of family, as of all other kinds of government, is that there must be a welladapted system of rewards and punishments. Each offence should have its proper penalty attached, and, when properly administered, such punishment should be