grief, are the musical notes within you. If your will is suffered to strike those notes, in a violent and careless and uninstructed manner, discord and sin will very likely be the consequence. But if you are rightly instructed in your duty, and you pay continual attention to the lessons which you receive, — for if you do not pay this attention yourselves the lessons will be of little service to you, then your affections will be made to harmonize together more and more, and it will be easy and delightful to you to produce spiritual music, that is, to be good, and this music will be very sweet to the ears of your friends and of listening angels, and of God who made you, and made you to be good and happy.

You have a great many teachers, to instruct you in spiritual music. Some of them are visible; such as your parents and your minister and your schools and your books; and some of them are invisible, such as experience and habit and conscience. But let your

teachers be ever so many, and ever so well qualified, if you do not attend to their instructions, and do not try to profit by them, you will never be accomplished in that goodness

which I call spiritual harmony, but you will go on making discord through the whole of your lives. And what sad lives, such lives

of discord will be!

I have said, that you must remember your Creator by thinking of him, and trying to please him; and that the way to please him is by being good, which is also the way to be happy yourselves. Now, if it is so very important to be good, it is also important to know what it is to be good, as exactly as we can. A few plain rules will point out to you the best ways for a child to take in order to be good.

The first rule of goodness for you to observe, is, to love and obey your parents. It is true that most children do not need to be told to love their parents, for they cannot help loving them, and it would be strange if they did not love them. You see every day that your parents take care of you, and work for you, and love you, and so you naturally love them. But then most of you do need to be reminded how much you owe to your parents, so that you may love them more thoughtfully, and show your love to them in a right and proper

manner.

By saying that your love of your parents should be thoughtful, I mean that you should think of their kindness and their watchfulness, so that your mind may be prepared to show your love on every occasion. You owe to your parents more than you do to any other human beings. You hardly know how much and how often your parents think of you, and how constantly they are endeavoring to provide for your happiness and safety. They are always anxious for the comfort of your body and the improvement of your mind. They not only toil that you may not want, and watch that you may not suffer, but they would rather want themselves than see you want, and would rather suffer themselves than see you suffer. Now you should think of this, and then your love will be thoughtful, and will be ready to show itself in a proper manner. And how will it show itself in a

proper manner? By leading you to obedience. The best way to show your parents that you love them is to do the things that they wish you to do, and to do them willingly and cheerfully. You should obey them, not because they are stronger than you, and have

power to oblige you to obey; but because you love them, and like to show your love by pleasing them. And parents are better pleased by the obedience of their children. than by anything else. Of course I do not mean that you should do what is wicked, even in obedience to your parents; because that would be to disobey God; but I do not be lieve that you will be exposed to any such trial; and you may be assured, that as your parents are wiser than you are, they will know what is right better than yourselves, and will only expect you to do what is really good.

The second rule of goodness is, to speak the truth always. There is a most excellent beauty in truth. No child and no man can be good, without being honest and true. When a child is in the habit of speaking what is false, the beauty of his soul is gone, and there is no knowing how deformed it may grow. The ways of falsehood are crooked and dark and foul and dangerous, and if you begin to walk in them, you will soon meet with shame, and soon after with misery. But the ways of truth are straight and open, and

full of sunshine and honor. Shall I tell you what a child is like who loves the truth, and always speaks the truth? He is like a pure fountain of water, which exactly reflects the image of every flower which stands near it, and every bird which flies over it, and which is so clear that one can look down into it and see every little pebble at the bottom. But a child who does not love the truth, nor speak it, is like a fountain which has been sadly disturbed and mixed with impurities; it is turbid and muddy, and no one can see into it, and there is no refreshment in looking at it. I beseech you, my children, to hold fast to the truth, and never be afraid of speaking it, and to shun the crooked paths of deception, and to keep your souls clean and pure, like fountains of healthy and crystal water, into which the flowers and the stars and all men love to look.

The third rule of goodness is, to be just and kind to all persons. To be just to all persons commonly means to deal with them and behave towards them in precisely such a way as they have a right to mark out; to give them everything which is their due, and keep from them nothing which is theirs. To be kind to