He that spareth his
rod hateth his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes."
Children are by nature depraved, and if left to themselves, will choose
evil rather than good; hence, as foolishness is bound up in the heart of a
child, the rod of correction must be used to drive them from it. He must be
restrained, corrected, educated under law. In the language of Cowper--
"Plants raised with tenderness are seldom strong;
Man's coltish disposition asks the thong;
And without discipline, the favorite child,
Like a neglected forester, runs wild."
There are two false systems of home-discipline, viz., the despotism of
discipline, or discipline from the standpoint of law without love; and the
libertinism of discipline, or discipline from the standpoint of love
without law.
Home-discipline from the standpoint of law without love, involves the
principle of parental despotism. It is extreme legal severity, and consists
in the treatment of children as if they were brutes, using no other mode of
correction than that of direct corporeal punishment. This but hardens them,
and begets a roughness of nature and spirit like the discipline under which
they are brought up. Many parents seek to justify such mechanical severity
by the saying of Solomon, "he that spareth the rod spoileth the child." But
their interpretation of this does not show the wisdom of the wise man.
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