Written for the Mother's Assistant. INFLUENCE OF EARLY INSTRUCTIONS. BY REV. HUBBARD WINSLOW. It is divinely written, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." But we are often met with the assertion, that children of pious parents as frequently prove to be irreligious and wicked in their future lives, as the children of ungodly parents. The assertion is, however, very wide of the truth. Statistical facts prove that, taking into view the relative proportion of pious parents, the number of the children of such who become subjects of divine grace, compared with others, is as three to one. When the child of a pious man, especially of a clergyman, or a deacon, grows up in impiety, and becomes notorious in sin, the fact attracts much more notice than in the case of the children of ungodly parents. This accounts for the prevailing false impression respecting the influence of early instructions. The hundreds of the children of ungodly parents, who grow up in impiety, and even go to dissipation and temporal ruin, are scarcely thought of; while here and there an instance in the children of pious parents, is every where marked and remembered. If you would disabuse your minds of a common slander respecting the children of ministers, for example, call to remembrance those whom you know, who have passed the age of fifty, or are grown up and settled in life, and you will find in most instances that nearly all, and in many instances quite all of them, have become the followers of Christ, and are among the most useful members and brightest ornaments of society. The same you will find true, to a very great extent, of the children of truly Christian parents generally. Still it is not to be denied that there are many painful instances of failure; and it becomes us to inquire into their causes. Are they to be referred only to the divine sovereignty? It is equally unphil 2 INFLUENCE OF EARLY INSTRUCTIONS. osophical and irreligious to refer evils to the sovereignty of God, when we can find causes enough for them in the misdoings of men. It is, then, of the greatest importance that we should carefully explore these causes of failure, that we may avoid them. And here it is to be remarked, that it is not enough for a parent to be pious, or even eminently pious, to secure the piety of his children. Nearly all men, even the best, have some special failure in their Christian character-some points in which they are signally defective and this may be the very point of their relation to their children. They may be as good as other Christians, and even better in some other respects; but in this one particular there may be a sad delinquency as in the case of Eli which proves the undoing of their children. Among the causes of failure in Christian parents to secure the piety of their children, we may notice the following as probably the most common and fatal: - 1. Parental neglect. Many parents are so immersed in the cares of their profession or business, as to neglect their more sacred duties to their children. This is not unfrequently the case with clergymen. They perhaps theorize well in regard to parental duties; but so numerous and pressing are the demands upon their time and thoughts, that they allow themselves to neglect the religious culture of their own households. The same is often true of men in other professions, of merchants, of mechanics, of men in public service, when pressed with business. They look forward, perhaps, to the time when they shall have more leisure, and when they intend to bestow more thought and care upon the religious culture of their children; but before that time comes, the die of their children's character is cast. Days, weeks, months, years roll on, and scarcely a thought, or a word, or a prayer, do they give to the religious culture of their children; all the while intending to do it, so soon as they shall be relieved of present cares. But they are, in the mean time, living in violation of one of the most explicit and solemn duties inculcated in the Sacred Scriptures. They are allowing demands upon their time, made by the too numerous engagements into which they have consented to enter, to set aside the express command, "Train up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Whatever apologies they may offer to their consciences, there is in the sight of God no excuse for allowing other engagements to displace their duties to their children. They ought not to make such engagements; God has never authorized or allowed it; they have no right so to enlarge their business, or by any INFLUENCE OF EARLY INSTRUCTIONS. 3 means so to increase the demands upon their time, as to interfere with the religious welfare of their own families. 2. Some parents fail of securing the piety of their children, because they do not themselves become pious early enough in life. They live without religion till their older children have passed the period of childhood, and secured the elements of their future character. They perhaps even maintained loose principles, which, though subsequently abandoned by themselves, have taken effect in the characters of their eldest children. And the character of the elder children has a very direct and powerful influence upon the character of the younger. If one or two of the elder children of a family become pious, and set the example of elevated virtue, the rest usually follow; but if they take the opposite course, whatever parents may afterward do to arrest the fatal current which has begun to flow through their families, it is usually a severe and almost fruitless struggle against an unequal force of evil. It is comparatively easy to divert a stream near its source; but when it has flowed far enough to acquire its full magnitude and force, it cannot easily be controlled. Look well, then, to your first-born children. Let your religious culture commence with their infancy; labor, too, with the inspiring hope that, if they do well, you will be blessed in all your household. 3. Some children are ruined by unprincipled and wicked domestics. False sentiments, dangerous principles, wicked practices, may be by them formed in a child, without the suspicion of parents, at a very early age. Sentiments, principles, and practices, that will follow the child through life, grow with its growth, and fatally counteract all that its parents can do for its salvation. It is as much the duty of parents to intrust their children to none but truly virtuous domestics, to secure in their service, if possible, persons of known and sterling piety, and amiable tempers, and pure habits, — as to teach them virtue and religion themselves. If they cannot secure such, let them forego other demands, and give their own time more unreservedly to their children. The children of ungodly and wicked parents, who never bestow a thought upon the religious culture of their children, have sometimes been secured to virtue and piety by the happy influence of a pious and faithful domestic, to which they were intrusted; while, on the other hand, the children of pious parents have sometimes been ruined, by being committed to a domestic of the opposite character. If you would not have your children visit you with the future retributions of reproach, connected with their ruin, you must 4 INFLUENCE OF EARLY INSTRUCTIONS. do as David did, when he said, "Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me. He that walk eth in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell in my house; he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight." "I'll purge my family around, So shall my house be ever found If you are under obligations to perform a piece of work, it is either your duty to do the whole yourself, or to secure good workmen to be associated with you. If the work is spoiled by bad workmen which you have employed, the responsibility is yours. If it is your duty to train up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, it is equally your duty to see that none but faithful and good persons are employed in your service. 4. Some parents overdo in their attempts to train up their children in religion. They talk so much to them in a direct and severe manner upon the subject, as to create disgust. Perhaps I should better express my meaning here by saying, that they do not so much overdo as misdo their work. The most powerful and effective parental influence, as to direct appeal, is in a great measure silent, gentle, and unnoticed, except in its results. Parents may safely speak much of religion, if they do it discreetly, in presence of their children, they may and should dilate upon its excellence and worth, they should speak of the certainty of the miseries of perdition for the wicked, and of the glories of heaven for the righteous, they should, from time to time, unfold all the great doctrines and duties of Christianity in the hearing of their children. They should express their strong disapprobation of wicked men, and dwell in terms of strong commendation upon the characters of truly excellent and pious men. They should speak of the great happiness which the parents of children who have become pious must feel in the event, and in all these ways endeavor to make their children see how God, and how their parents, and how all the truly good and wise, regard the importance of their becoming pious. But they should exercise caution not to say too much directly to them in the way of dictation. This caution is, however, the more needful after they have passed their earlier years. They are then more liable to be disgusted and repelled from religion by being constantly assailed upon the subject. 5. Another point in which some parents fail, is that of being |