and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead ?"James xx. 23. 2. Abraham was called the father of the faithful, because of his faithfulness in household duty. Here, everything was clock work. No family in the whole region was more orderly or better disciplined. "I know him," saith the Lord, "that he will command his children, and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”—Gen. xvii. 19. You see he resorted both to persuasive and coersive measures. When mildness failed, gentleness, sweet as heaven— what then? let things slide? Satan rule the day? yield to false tenderness, sickly charity, as most parents do? Spare the rod, spoil the child! Had Abraham thus healed slightly, daubed with untempered mortar, "conferred with flesh and blood;" or, like Eli, suffered the inmates of his house to do vile things, and restrained them not-would he have been highly honored as he was? “Them that honor me, I will honor; and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." 1 Saml. ii. 30. What sin greater, what more God-dishonoring, than the neglect to train our children in the " way they should go,” or to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ?" "Oh, it is a sadd'ning sight, When children go astray, Forsaking what is good and right, To walk in Satan's way." LYING AND MAKING LIARS. Conversation between Mr. STANDFAST and Mr. WHIFFLER. (No. 2.) They flattered him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues."—Psalms lxxviii. 36. W. WHAT shall we do, then, Mr. Standfast, if we take away the story? The appetite is not satisfied. The mind is left empty, swept, and garnished, and for one story cast out by parental authority, seven others worse than the first will creep in. We can only defeat bad stories by good ones." S. "That is, don't feed children on bad lies but on good lies-not on black lies but white lies! See the cloven foot, do you, Mr. Whiffler? Could a cunning, crafty, devilish devil do up anything better to his liking to ruin the souls of little folks? This smells stronger of brimstone than anything yet! What will not the old serpent do next? "Here's the snake in the grass, the serpent coiled.' Because children in their natural state, at enmity against God, in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity, crave lies, the food of Satan, you fill them to the full of this food, gratify their depraved appetites to surfeiting. It's natural for the carnal heart to crave lies, while the heart is in the possession of the father of lies. Why not feed the natural or carnal heart of your little ones on other things besides novels of a carnal nature, earthly, sensual, devilish? When the mind is empty, swept and garnished, what do you do? fill it with truth, the food of heaven, the bread of eternal life, as God requires? Nay, 'but with lies, the food of LYING AND MAKING LIARS. 45 Satan, and these lies enter in and dwell there, and the last state of your children is worse than the first.' (See Math. xii. 34, 44, 45.) Feed your offspring on good lies, and how long ere the carnal appetite hankers after the bad ones? Feed them on white lies, and how long ere they crave the black ones? Novels are lies, Webster says so, 'fictitious tales,' 'counterfeits,' 'false,' 'not genuine.' "You know, or ought to know, Mr. Whiffler, that the thirst for novel-reading is cultivated by novel-reading; or that reading fiction, with a little sprinkling of religion, prepares children to love to read fiction, though it may have a sprinkling of irreligion. "There is that in the character of fictitious writings, properly called novels, whether the subject be secular or religious, which forms a taste different from historical, didactic, or any of the other classes of writing, and this taste is as readily formed by holding the child upon religious novels in his younger years, as if he were supplied with secular novels. "Thus the child is piously trained to seek his gratifications of mind amid elements of grossest corruption. If the enemy of all good shonld set himself to devise a scheme to take children out of religious families, and from them to rear a supply of victims of this form of ruin, he could, with all his cunning, hardly contrive a better way to avoid giving alarm and to secure the result. 'Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not the dead are there; and that her guests are in the depths of hell.'—Prov. ix. 17, 18. In the Sabbath-school library, and in the books purchased for children, we furnish them with the means of cultivating a taste for novel-reading, and so prepare them greedily to devour whatever fictitious trash may fall in their way, and then waste our breath in deploring their exposure to a corrupt literature. "Are your children liars, fond of reading lies, fictitious writings, silly tales or stories- The Little Corporal,' 'Our Young Folks,' and the like? Not if you have obeyed God in training them in the way they should go.' Whenever and wherever you see any one, old or young, eager after sickly, simpering, tickle, fancy publications, soulless and Christless as the barren fig tree, take it for granted there has been sad omission in family duty. Grace in the soul, heaven-born, is the safeguard, the cureall! Plant grace, then, deep down-water it with prayer constantly, as the dew of heaven, and Satan is cast out, finds no lodgment, no disposition or relish remaining for lying, reading lies, or telling lies. 'Tis truth that binds, and truth makes free, From sin and Satan's heavy chain, And then within the heart doth reign. They have a freedom then, indeed, That doth all freedom else exceed.' "The truth of God 'Where'er it enters in, Is sharper than a two-edged sword, To slay the man of sin.' 'Thy word have I hid in my heart,' says the Psalmist, 'that I might not sin against thee.' 66 When once the truths of the Bible have taken firm root in the heart, and become more precious than gold, sweeter also than honey and the honey-comb, these sugar-coated |