You will then see the folly and the fruits of your diseased
affection and misguided indulgence,--
"A kindness,--most unkind, that hath always spared the rod;
A weak and numbing indecision in the mind that should be master;
A foolish love, pregnant of hate, that never frowned on sin;
A moral cowardice, that never dared command!"
CHAPTER XIX.
HOME-DISCIPLINE.
"In ancient days,
There dwelt a sage called Discipline,
His eye was meek, and a smile
Played on his lips, and in his speech was heard
Paternal sweetness, dignity, and love.
The occupation dearest to his heart
Was to encourage goodness.
If e'er it chanced, as sometimes chance it must,
That one, among so many, overleaped
The limits of control, his gentle eye
Grew stern, and darted a severe rebuke,
His frown was full of terror, and his voice
Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe
As left him not, till penitence had won
Lost favor back again, and closed the breach."
Discipline involves the judicial and executive functions of the
home-government. It is the method of regulating and executing the
principles and practice of government. It includes the rein and the rod,
the treatment of offences against the laws of home, the execution of the
parental authority by the imposition of proper restraints upon the child.
It involves a reciprocity of duty,--the duty of the parent to correct, and
the duty of the child to submit.
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