The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 422

should be trained to go? It is one that comprehends much. It includes : 1. Manners. These are not of the first importance, but they have their value. And if politeness, demeanour, bearing, be not engra-ven in the young, it will not be perfectly attained: after_wo.rds. 2. Mind: Th_e habit o~ obse_rving, of thinking; of reasoning, of sound reading, of calm cons1derat1on and_ d1scuss1on. 3. Morals. The all-important habits of truthfulness, of temperance, of mdustry, of self-command, of courage of pure and stainless honesty, of unselfish considerateness, of generous forgiveness.' 4. Religion; The habit of reverence in the use of the Divine Natne, of pli.blio worship of private prayer, of readiness to learn all that in any way God is willing to teach us.' II. THE STRENGTH OF THE PARENTAL HOPE. Let the child be trained in these right ways," and when he ie old," etc. 1. The assurance of habit. When we have firmly planted a good habit in the mind and in the life, we have. d_one a very great and a very good thing-we have gone far toward the goal we seek. For ha.bit, early formed, ie not easily broken. We sometimes allude to habit as if it were an enemy.. But, in truth, it is our best friend. It is a gracious bond that binds us to wisdom and virtue. W"ithout it we should have no security against temptation ; with it we have every reason to hope that youth will pass into prime, and prime into old age, clothed with all the wisdom and adorned with all the grace that it received in its early years. What makes the assurance the more strong is that habit becomes more powerful with each effort and each action. Every day the good habits we have formed and are exercising become more deeply rooted in the soil of the soul. 2. The assMance of the common experience ef mankind. . • III. THE KECESSABY LIMIT. Not the very best training of the very wisest parents in the world can positively se·cure gooaness and wisdom in their children. -For wnen they have done everything in their power, there must remain that element of indi- "l"iduality which will choose its own course and form its own character. Our children may choose to reject the truth we teach them, and to slight the example we set them, and to despise the counsel we give them. In the will of every child tbere is a power which cannot be forced, which can only be won. Therefore: 1. Let all parents seek, beside training their children in good habits, to win their .hearts to that Di:virie Wisdom in whose friendship and service alone will they be safe. Where sagacity may fail, affection will triumph. Command and persuasion are the two weapons which parental wisdom will do its best to wield. 2. Let all children understand that for their character and their destiny they must themselves be responsible. All the very worthiest and wisest influences of home will lead to, no good result if they oppose to them a rebellious spirit, if they do not receive them in the spirit of docility. There is but one gate of entrance into life, and that is the personal, individual acceptance of Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour of the spirit. The parent may lead his child up to it, but that child must pass th,rough it of his own accord.-O. Ver. 13.-&cuses. Few things are oftener on human lips than excuses. Men are continually excUBing themselves from doing what they know in their hearts they ought to do. There is no sphere from which they are excluded, and there is hardly any evil to which they do not lead. I. THE SPHERES IN WHICH THEY ABE FOUND. The child excuses himself from the obedience which he should be,rendering to his parents; the scholar, from.the application he should be giving to his studies; the apprentice, from the attention he ,s~oulu be devoting to his business; the agriculturist, from the labour he should be putting forth in the fields; the captain, from setting sail on the troubled waters ; the unsuccessful tra.<l.esman or merchant, from investigating his books and seeing how he really stands; the failing manufacturer, from closing his mill; the statesman from bringing forward his perilous measure; the minister, from seeking his delicate and difficult interview; the soul not yet reconciled to God, from a searching inquiry into its own spiritual condition and present obligation. . • II. 'l'HEil1 IIIORAL CHARACTER. 1. There is a decided ingredient of fa7sehood about them. '!'hose who fashion them know in their hearts that there is something, if not much, that is imacrinary about them. The lion is not without; the slothful man will not be slain in the streets. The evil which is anticipated in all cases of excuse is e:i.:aggerated, if it is not invented. We do not, at 11uch times, tell ourselves the whola arr. xxir. 1-29.J THE PROVERBS. 439