in England, and we preach many long sermons, yet the people will not repent nor convert; This was the fruit, the effect, and the good that his sermon did, that all the whole city, at his preaching, converted, and amended their evil living, and did penance in sackcloth. And yet in this sermon of Jonas is no great curiousness, no great clerkliness, no great affectation of words, nor of painted eloquence; it was none other but, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed;" it was no more. This was no great curious sermon, but was a nipping sermon, a pinching sermon, a biting sermon; it had a full bite, it was a nipping sermon, a rough sermon, and a sharp biting sermon.

Do you not here marvel that these Ninevites cast not Jonas in prison, that they did not revile him, nor rebuke him; but God gave them grace to hear him, and to convert and amend at his preaching. A strange matter, for so noble a city to give place to one man's sermon!

Now England cannot abide this, they cannot be content to hear God's minister, and his threatening for their sin, though the sermon be ever so good, though it be ever so true. It is, "a naughty fellow, a seditious fellow, he maketh trouble and rebellion in the realm; he lacketh discretion."

is anything quick, or do sharply, then he is a foolish fellow, he is rash, he lacketh discretion. Now-a-days if they cannot reprove the doctrine that is preached, then they will reprove the preacher, that he lacketh due consideration of the times, or that he is of learning sufficient, but that he wanteth discretion. "They say what a time is this picked out to preach such things! he should have a respect and a regard to the times and to the state of things, and of the common weal." It rejoices me, sometimes, when my friend comes and tells me that they find fault with my discretion, for by likelihood, think I, the doctrine is true; for if they could find fault with the doctrine, they would not charge me with the lack of discretion or with the inconvenience of time.

Now I will ask you a question I pray you when should Jonas have preached against the covetousness of Nineveh, if the covetous men should have appointed him his time? I know that preachers ought to have a discretion in their preaching, and that, they ought to have a consideration and respect to the place and the time that they preach in; as I myself will say here what I would not say in the country. But what then? sin must be rebuked, sin must be plainly spoken against. And

hen should Jonas have preached against Nineveh, if he should have forborne for the respect of the times, or the place, or the state of things there?

From the Journal of the Institute at Flushing.

"SIR-Should the following lines meet your approbation, they will need an explanation. I was observing to one of my friends, that we could derive religious instruction from every event and every object. He then stated to me the following fact. "I had never seen turf or peat burn, and one Sunday evening as I was going to view a beautiful prospect, I observed a piece lying on the ground; thereupon neglecting the scene, I took it up, carried it home, and placed it upon my fire." He then challenged me to derive a moral from it, and to embody it in rhyme, and here you have result.

"T was evening; and each dying ray
Uad tinged the scene with paly light;
While linger'd yet the parting day,
As if to welcome in the night.

With hasty step and solemn thought,
He had escaped the busy throng;
And, bending onward, would have sought
Where a dark river flowed along.

He would have climbed the distant hill,
To while away that idle hour,
To scan the valley deep, the rill,
The verdant plain and village tower.

He would have tried a loftier theme, When with the scene his feelings warm'd, And turned from hill, and vale, and stream, To Him who all so fair had formed.

But lo

a turf arrests his eye, He hastes his straying feet to turn, Passes the scene unheeded by,

And hies him home to see it burn!!!

Oh! smile at this, if smile thou hast
To waste on themes deserving tears,
Since not a day or hour is past,
But some such folly meets our ears.
For thus we turn from heaven and God,

A bright Eternity of joy,
For some poor worthless, tinsel clod,

Some baseless dream, or gilded toy.

Cambridge, March 17.

425

B. D. W.

PARENTAL AUTHORITY. To any parent who wishes for something really excellent on the subject of education, and who is willing to bestow thought upon it,-to study it, -we know of nothing better than Miss Caroline Fry's Scripture Principles of Education. The book is not of a sufficiently popular character, to exert the widest possible influence, but intelligent parents who will read thoroughly, will derive very great advantage from the perusal of it. We give one extract as a specimen. EDS.

It is very common to hear parents say, or those who, as teachers, hold a parent's place, "I never require any thing of children without explaining to them my reasons for it; I wish them to obey me from the conviction of the propriety of my commands." And, again, with reference to matters of judgment and knowledge-" I always accustom children to think for themselves; to form their own judgment of what I communicate to them, rather than to receive it on my authority. I wish to encourage independence of opinion.

'Of such a principle of education carried into effect to the extent that I have often seen it, I desire, in a few words to represent the falseness and danger. And, first, I would say, it is con

trary to the word of God. A child is there required to obey his parents, not because he is convinced their commands are wise, but because "it is right." That is, to obey is right. In another place, he is told to obey his parents, not for the reasonableness of so doing, which he may or may not perceive, but because "it is pleasing to the Lord." These are some of many similar texts; in none of which do I see any such conditions or inducements to obedience appended, as are made use of by, the parents alluded to above.

Secondly, It is contrary to the method of God's dealing with the children of his own family; which as before stated, we have professed to consider as the surest guide and example for the treatment of ours; having the same nature to act upon, and the same end in view. God requires of his children an obedience beyond their understanding of his commands, and apart from their perception of the fitness of them. Doubtless, all his commands are fit and reasonable, and such as by their own excellence might bespeak obedience if understood aright. The Heavenly Father cannot err, the earthly parent may, consequently, the obedience of the child is limited by the maturity of his understanding as a man must act on his own responsibility, of course on his own judgment: but this affects not the period of education. I mean to show no more by this analogy, than that while obedience is due to a parent, it is due because he is a

parent, not because his commands are reasonable in the judgment of the child.

6

66

And, thirdly, I think this principle is bad in the results it is likely to produce. Independence of opinion is not a grace: it is in many cases a vice. To the latest moment of existence, in the utmost maturity of intellect, on the most important matters, man cannot, in all cases, think for himself, but must believe what he is told on higher authority. And when all human learning shall have enlarged his mind, and heavenly knowledge been added to its stores, and others shall bow before him as the wisest of men ; the greatest grace that can adorn his character, will be at last as it was at first, to feel that he knows nothing, and to receive as a little child the engrafted word." "If any man thinks, he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing as he ought to know." If such be the perfection of Christian character why begin the formation of it in a tone so different? To tell my child that I, his father, his tutor appointed by God and man to be his instructor, guide and governor, am to be judged by his imbecility, that he is to receive no opinion upon my authority-that he is to examine my opinions and judge for himself, that he is not to believe or do what I tell him, unless, I can approve it to his understanding; —if I wished to produce in manhood a proud free thinker, or a lawless infidel, this is the method I would use; but not if I desired to see in my child, an humble, believing, self