of wavering and yielding; go deliberately and get your switch; talk to your child composedly and seriously; tell him that he forces you to punish him, but that of course it must be done whenever he is disobedientyou may feel absolutely certain of a speedy and complete surrender. The child recognizes a power in such a spirit as that, a superior power, and by the very lay of his being he yields to it. He gets the impression that punishment for rebellion follows as a matter of course; that your authority is fixed and settled in eternal and immutable counsels, and must be respected. Thus with very little punishment, you can bring any child upon the face of the earth into cheerful and unqualified obedience. And now the disagreeable part of the work is all done. Everything else may be just as kind and gentle, as tender and indulgent, as a mother's own heart may prompt. Of course, you must govern; the reins must be kept in hand; but how sweetly you can now temper your authority with love, and your judgments with mercy; and let me hope that you will have the good sense to keep the governmental machinery as much out of sight as possible; and that under no circumstances you will be Observer, May 1, '72. betrayed into the weakness of threatening. You must know that this practice will insidiously but surely undermine your authority. After a threat is disregarded, as it often will be, you must either punish or not. If you do not, your loss in the matter of authority is obvious; and if you do, the inference is that you would not have done it if you had not threatened it—and hence you abandon the high vantage ground that punishment for disobedience follows as a matter of course. Ere long there will be a sort of tacit understanding between you that he can only be justly punished after he has been specially warned and threatened. And then all quiet, peaceful and effective government is at an end. The leading characteristics of the plan of government which I would commend to you, have now been presented. Some matters of detail will be embraced in a new series on the "Training of Children," with which I purpose to follow these papers. I shall have something to say on the best methods of punishment; on shows and other amusements; and, in short, on the subject of training, generally, both secular and religious. J. S. L. DON'T PULL IN passing through life I have noticed, that while it takes some talent and much pains to do even a little good, a great deal of mischief may be done by a man with neither ability nor character. Any fool can do a vast amount of evil with comparative ease, but it needs a wise man to do good, and he will have to work hard enough, if he is to accomplish much. I have further observed, that the action of a very stupid person will sometimes frustrate the best endeavours of the worthiest and ablest of men. Let me tell a story DOWN HILL. to illustrate the point at which I am driving. A gentleman while standing at his window one day saw four powerful horses dragging a very heavy load up a very steep ascent. There they were, with sweating sides and swollen sinews, in their desperate struggles to reach the top. Yet, inch by inch, they dragged their heavy load up that steep ascent. But just as they had almost gained the summit, a wag yoked a lean, half-starved donkey to the back of the cart. This donkey, having got its head down hill, began Observer, May 1, '72. to pull, and forthwith brought the whole thing to a perfect stand. So that this one wretched donkey, with its head downwards, was more than a match for the four fine animals, struggling upwards and onwards. Verily," one sinner destroyeth much good.' And so, also, a very stupid church member may produce stagnation in the work of a whole community. Remember, it requires no genius to grumble or obstruct. Anything in the shape of humanity is good enough for that. A block of coarsest stone, a beam of commonest wood, thrown across the rails, will prevent the finest locomotive in the world from advancing a single inch. Whereas, it takes a good engine, in good condition, and under good direction, to make substantial, progress. Let me say to every church-member who may happen to read this— Don't pull down hill. If you can show your power only by getting your head down hill, and marring the work of better men, strive to be quiet. Christian Churches beware, "lest any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you, and thereby many be defiled."-Congregational Miscellany. WHAT IS WORSE THAN CRIME? AN exchange says truly that "it is not crimes such as murder and robbery which destroy the peace of society, so much as the contemptible gossip, the family quarrels, jealousies and bickerings between neighbours, meddlesomeness and tattling, which are the canker which eats into all social happiness." How forcibly this remark must come to the minds of many who have witnessed the misery produced by tattling in a neighbourhood. Better by far live in a neighbourhood of thieves than of liars; and all tattlers are liars, and what is worse than that, both thieves and murderers; they steal the good name of the innocent, and by blasting the fair fame of the virtuous, send to a premature grave many tender beings, who cannot rise beyond the reach of their demonial shafts. Oh! that every virtuous female and honourable man could and would heed the advice of one who talked sense in a plain way, when he said:- -"Don't make yourself miserable and chase lies and slanders round the world. Live them down. The worst lies and most wicked slanders can't stand long against a good life. They are generally the tools of the wicked one which are not worth picking up. A part of the world has nothing else to do but slander the other part. They serve their master, do their work, and will have their merited reward!" OILING THE ARE you afraid that a little politeness will injure your business, or undermine your health? Then, why do you not practise it a little oftener, good sir, or madam? Don't you know that life's great, rough, clanking machinery will work all the easier for a drop of oil here and there? MACHINERY. Kind words and pretty courtesies cost people nothing, and it is a pity they are kept so exclusively for state occasions. Suppose your fellow mortal has done nothing more than his duty toward you, is that any reason why you should neglect to thank him for it? Doing one's duty Observer, May 1, '72. is an up hill sort of business some- or shadow in the world, without times, and it is very easy to get dis- adding to it, by wrinkled brows and couraged, if there is no sunshine fault-finding complaints? How much along the road. The clasp of a kind better it is to carry the bright little hand, the beam of a sympathising amenities with us along the walk of eye, the sound of a gentle or gracious life, and scatter them broadcast word, will often do the dispirited where they illume the heart of our tailor more good than a dollar bill. brother men, whose troubles may Because people are poor you have no lie deeper far than our ken can right to take it for granted that they penetrate. What if saying "thank are devoid of feeling and sensibility. you" be but a trifle? we would like The times are passed when the to know how many of the joys and allegiance of man was purchased by sorrows of this world are aught else? gold and treasures; the only current Oil the machinery of your daily existcoin now-a-days is the look and word, ence, and see how much more and the thoughtful courtesy that are musically the wheels will revolve, remembered long after, the more im- good people! You are careful enough portant occurrences sink into forget- of great matters-let not the lesser fulness. Isn't there enough gloom be neglected. "BLESSED TO GIVE." THE kingly sun sends forth his rays; The rustic flower, upspringing bright, The merchant rain which carries on Suggestive warnings crowd the earth; Oh man, the gem and crown of all, Take thou this lesson. Heed the call Of these less gifted creatures near; The rather, that Christ's voice most dear, F. E. WILSON. Observer, June 1, '72. CHRIST, THE GREAT TEACHER. A SERMON BY BARTLEY ELLIS.* "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell and great was the fall of it."-MATTHEW vii. 24-27. THAT portion of Holy Writ commonly designated the Sermon on the Mount stands in relation to the fully developed doctrine of the Great Teacher as a portal to a grand temple of truth. The passage I have read may be regarded as the formal and practical application of His great sermon. The words are peculiarly and solemnly awful. The distinction they draw is not between those who hear and those who do not hear; but it divides the hearers themselves into two classes-the one class being "wise" enough to turn what is heard into practical life, and the other so "foolish" as to derive no practical benefit whatever therefrom. The illustration in our text is one that would readily strike an inhabitant of Palestine, which is largely a land of mountain and desert, having periodical rains and long intervals of dry weather; and, as in most countries near the tropics, exceedingly violent rains, and also floods pouring down the hills with devastating power, often sweeping away buildings and trees. Very vividly, therefore, would the hearers of Christ realise the folly of the man who, within reach of a mountain deluge, builds his house upon the surface sand, as contrasted with the wisdom of the man who, digging through the surface, erects a firm and durable edifice upon the substratum rock. Such, says the Great Teacher, are the folly and the wisdom, respectively, of these two classes of hearers-those who hear without practical application, and those who hear and do. Now there are two or three characteristics of our Lord's sayings which are suggested to us by this declaration of His concerning them 1. The sayings of Christ are eminently practical. His sayings were always in order to doing. He dealt not in philosophical abstractions, nor in metaphysical subtleties, nor in theoretic theology; all that He taught of theology was in order to religion; all that He exhibited of God was moral and for moral ends, in order to induce his hearers to become "imitators of God as dear children." I grant that the Great Teacher has not taught us everything He might have taught. It would have been an easy thing for Him to have taught us the nature, number, ranks, ages and offices of angels, both good and bad. He could have told us what geologists are vainly endeavouring to tell whether this world was made out of the wreck of a previous world or evoked from nonentity. He could have told us with the utmost certainty (what interpreters of prophecy are every now and again trying to tell us) how long this age will last, and the precise time when the Son of Man shall come. Christ could have told us all this, and, a great deal more which man's curiosity seeks to know; but He has left all this just as He found it, because a knowledge of it is not necessary to salvation. He addressed the understanding only as the way to the heart. He addressed Himself to man's actual condition, and sought to remedy man's moral evils. He spoke of the forgiveness of sins, of virtue, benevolence and humility; of love to God and love to man; teaching all hearts, * Preached in College Street Chapel, Chelsea, London. Observer, June 1, '72. meeting all conditions, supplying all necessities, and seeking to gather all men unto Himself in penitent and obedient trust. He did not care for mere hearers and learners; He wanted doers; and in nothing did the practicalness of His teaching more manifest itself than in the direct way in which He laid hold of the simple essence of virtue. Accounting lightly all that was merely accidental and formal, He went directly to the heart of every matter with wonderful precision and power. You may see, throughout this discourse of His, how He scorns all phylacteried Pharisaism, trumpet-blowing almsgiving, sackcloth fasting and synagogue praying; going directly to the moral element and essence of them all. See how He detects the principle of murder in a feeling of anger, and that of adultery in a lustful look. How sternly He tells Nicodemus that he "must be born again! How strikingly He revealed the essence of all true worship, by telling the Samaritan woman that God is a spirit, and may be worshipped anywhere by a true and spiritual heart. How earnestly He insists that the doers amongst His hearers are His only true disciples. He sought simply to possess men's hearts, to bring their moral principles and feelings into harmony with God. Christ's sayings were eminently practical. Please to remember, then, that every truth of Christ's, whether it be regarded as great or small by you, comes to you with its direct and practical appeal, and demands to be instantly embodied in practice. Whenever you hear His truth and fail to apply it, you come under the condemnation of the foolish builder—you "hear his words and do them not." 2. Christ's sayings are not only practical but practicable. Many a man has appeared before the public with beautiful theories and grandly concocted schemes; and as we have looked at them we have been enchanted; but they have been totally impracticable. In many teachers ideal theories, impossible ordeals, dishearten and drive back the yearning student; but not so the teaching of Christ, which, though lofty, proposing for our en deavours the highest conceivable excellence, is connected with special means and agencies to enable us to embody it in practice; and I would remark, that in Christ, as a teacher, we have what we have not in extent, if at all, in any other teacher, both precept and example, doctrine and life. It is much easier to execute a piece of workmanship if we have a pattern than it would be if we had none. We have the earthly life of the human Christ, which we may set before us as a perfect and constant moral example. I bless God that we have so much of the life of Christ detailed in the New Testament. Every Christian doctrine and precept is embodied in Christ's personal example, and thereby acquires a moral power that no mere written law could possess. Instead of a creed to be subscribed and a code to be obeyed, we have an example to imitate. The power of Christianity is the power of Christ's person. We first love Him and then we listen to His precepts. His image comes before His maxims. He becomes the centre round which all our affections gather and our life revolves. All our religious thought and love and worship enshrine themselves in Him. His sacred person stands ever before us, combining all that is divine in Deity with all that is perfect in humanity-a presence that we cannot banish; a power that we cannot withstand; a beautiful incarna tion of purity and love, that we can neither destroy nor corrupt. Would we learn Christian virtue? Then we go not to a book of dogmas, but to the history of a man. We consider Him; we learn of Him; we are called to a discipleship of imitation; we are thrown upon the tender heart of a |