"I
know him," says God, "that he will command his children and his household
after him, and they shall keep the ways of the Lord to do justice and
judgment." He was not a tyrant; his comrades did not bear the rough
sternness of a despot, neither did his power wear the scowl of vengeance.
But these bore the firmness and decision of love tempered and directed by
the law of Christian duty and responsibility. They showed his station as a
father; they wore the exponent of his authority as a parent, whose love was
a safeguard against tyranny on the one hand, and whose accountability to
God was a security against anarchy, on the other. Hence, his children
respected his station, venerated his name, appreciated his love, confided
in his sympathy, and yielded a voluntary obedience to his commands; for
they discerned in them the blessing; and when offenses came, they bent in
the spirit of loving submission and pupilage, under his rod of correction,
and kissed it as the means of their reformation and culture.
Thus does home-discipline involve the firmness of parental authority united
with the mildness of parental love. Love should hold the reins and use the
rod. Then it will purify and elevate natural affection, and develop in the
child a sense of proper fear, without either disrespectful familiarity or
mechanical servitude.
The efficiency of home-discipline depends upon its early introduction, upon
the decision with which it is administered, upon its adaptation to the real
wants of the child, and upon the manner in which it is applied.
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