or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundred fold, and shall inherit everlasting life." It This is indeed no balsam to the anxious heart. The duties of life are in fact a succession of trials. This supplies no excuse for wilful disobedience. applies to the case, where gratification would allure to obey, and suffering is the penalty of not obeying. If ease, or ambition, or passion prompt you to refuse submission; mistrust that prompter: lest it be found at the last, that you indeed have broken the commandments, in refusing to your superiors the honour God enjoins. Again this supplies no authority for rebellion, for revenge, or violent resistance: but for endurance only. The servants of God rebelled not against the Chaldean or the Median. Our Lord himself summoned not the twelve legions of angels to avenge him, when betrayed and oppressed. In his word all authority is classed with that of parents; and those who hold authority are called by the name of parents. Thus Joseph says God had 1 Abimelech, that common name of successive kings of the Philistines, signifies, "The king my father." An inventor of any art or science, seems also to be called father in Scripture, as Jabal is said to be the "father of them that dwell in tents," and Jubal, "the father of such as handle the harp and organ" (Gen. iv. 20, 21). And in a similar sense we are probably to understand our Saviour in the passage, "Call no man father upon earth, for one is our Father which is in heaven" (Matt. xxiii. 9). That is, do not yield yourselves to the doctrine of any man, as if he had the authority of a father or inventor of sacred knowledge, for one only has such, that is, God. Such a sense is consistent with the general purport of the chapter in which the precept occurs, and with the caution given elsewhere against those who taught for doctrines the commandments of men; and it is known that the Jews called their doctors and instructors by the name of father, and were prone to yield themselves without examination or contradiction to believe and follow their doctrines. The Apostle seems to have adopted the expression, when he calls Timothy his own son in the faith, and when he enjoins, "The elders entreat as fathers, and the elder women as mothers" (1 Tim. v. 1, 2). made him "a father to Pharaoh." Thus Job says he was "a father to the poor. Thus Micah bids the Levite be unto him "a father and a priest."3 Thus the servants of Naaman address him, My father." Thus Elisha cried to the prophet, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel."5 Thus the Apostle speaks to the Corinthians as "not having many fathers in Christ, for I have begotten you through the Gospel." Ministers of the Gospel are yet called fathers in many countries: public benefactors have been so styled in more. The government of every family has been described as a monarchy." Let a father beware of making it a tyranny. In a house, as in a state, subjects advanced in age and intelligence, demand a share in the councils and the government, to the support of which they lend their aid. 1 Gen. xlv. 8. 2 Job, xxix. 16. 4 2 Kings, xv. 3. Happy the monarch, who, in the state, or private family, has so ruled those under his care, as that they become prudent councillors, and faithful defenders of his throne. And this brings us to matters of more immediate import, the reciprocal duties of superiors. And first of parents to children. Helpless infancy stretching out her hands, and uttering cries of dependence, without any power to alarm jealousy, or guilt to alienate affection, at once tells the heart its duty. Tenderness grows by its own exercise; and the pleasure you communicate to a child, is soon reflected back upon yourself. It is true, there may be a parental, as well as a regal, tyrant. The latter exceeds in the number of his slaves: but the former in the misery his passions may inflict. Princes can seldom venture on those freaks of injustice, which may be indulged with impunity in the secrecy of a private abode. A father may divert his solitude by the rigour of his precepts, and the force of his commands. He may please himself with exciting terror, and inflicting pain. He may delight in imagining the desires that flutter on a tongue forbidden to utter them, or the yearnings that prey on a heart in which fear confines them. He may amuse himself with prohibitions, chidings, and punishments; and swell with exultation at the forced homage he receives. But if he can see submissive misery without relenting, and meet without emotion the eye that implores mercy, he has closed the avenues of domestic happiness in arming his heart against parental tenderness; and the fruits of his discipline can only be, a perverse temper, a deceitful disposition, or a broken and prostrate spirit in his child. The angels who attend the throne of divine majesty, are represented as watching likewise over the cradles, and faltering steps of children. And if such is God's regard for helpless infancy, that he charges the ministers of his own presence with |