strictly honest, and they see it. You do your earthly masters' work with eye-service, and are negligent when their backs are turned. Your children know it. And if their teachers tell them that it is wicked to do such things, they think within themselves that it cannot be so, because you, their beloved parents, do it. Thus they learn to do as you do. Perhaps you come home disguised with liquor. They see it; and, though they read in the New Testament that drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God, they will not believe that a parent they love can lose his soul for ever. Thus they learn to explain away the words. They learn also to walk in your steps, and perhaps die in a state of drunkenness. You neglect your Church. Your children notice it, and say "Surely, our parents cannot be serious when they bid us go to Church, otherwise they would go to Church themselves."

But

Now, if you conduct yourselves in this way, and know that your children observe you, how can you be said to care for their souls? You do not care for your own souls, that is certain. that is not what I am speaking of. I am endeavouring to shew that, whatever professions of love you may make for your children, they are empty and vain. They must be empty and

vain, or you would act very differently in your children's presence.

O, parents! again and again I entreat you, beware how you set your children a bad example. Even a heathen could tell you that they learn ten times more from what you Do than from what you say. If you do set them a bad example, and lead them astray, depend upon it you will have the loss of their souls to answer for as well as your own. You must be prepared to meet with a severer judgment. If your children have learned to sin from your example-I repeat itif you have not rather dissuaded them from sin, how can you expect to be spared? When the Lord comes to require an account of what He has intrusted to you, how can you hope to be delivered from the wrath to come? I speak to those parents, above all, who are not content with neglecting their children, but actually set them against those who are striving to direct them in the good and right way. How can you expect to escape the damnation of hell? If Jesus encouraged parents to bring their children to Him, what will He, at the judgment-day, say to those parents who have actually kept them from Him? O, what will He say to those parents! It is, indeed, an awful thought! I would have concluded with these words; but

I do not like to leave you speaking only of the

terrors of the Lord. No, my friends, I will adopt a different method. I will make a last trial, and endeavour to persuade you to do your duty by your children, by reminding you of the blessings that attend those who bring them up to lead a holy and religious life. Not to tell, then, of the mercies of Christ in another world, of that unspeakable blessing which awaits those who bring up their children as a people prepared for the Lord, is there no reward to God-fearing parents in this life? Is there no comfort in having obedient and dutiful children? Is there no pleasure in beholding the foot quick to run at your word, and the hand ready to act-the eye that sees almost before you see-the heart and will that outstrip your very thoughts-that when you are in trouble watch you with anxious and tearful eye, and try to repay you for the cares you have once undergone for them by every instance of affection and love that would lighten your sorrows by shewing, in every way they can, how truly they partake in them? Is there no comfort in knowing that you have brought up your children to be such children? But, above every other consideration that can be named, let me speak of the hour of death, and of the day of judgment! Is it nothing to have your sick bed surrounded by

those who can respond to the prayers of the Church with an heartfelt Amen, who can receive with you the last pledges of your dying Saviour's love, and have that perfect communion with you therein, which none but the saints of God can enjoy? Is it nothing to die in the arms of such children? And, after death! at that awful hour when you shall be summoned to meet your Judge, will it be nothing to be able to say, Here I am, Lord, and the children whom Thou hast given me? Will it be nothing to be received into the glories of heaven, together with those you have so dearly loved on earth?

My dear friends, I entreat you, if there be any consolation, any comfort in such reflections, I entreat you to think on these things. And now commending you to Him and to the word of His grace, who is able to do exceeding abundantly for you above all that you can ask or think—who, you will ask Him, will by His Spirit "enable you to bring up your children in His faith and fear;" commending you to Him,

if

I remain,

Your faithful Friend,

A VILLAGE PASTOR.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFord and London.

THE MODERN MARTYR.

A TRUE TALE.

ONE very painful characteristic of the great difference which there exists between ancient and modern Christianity, is, the apathy and unconcern which people feel respecting their brethren in the faith. When we remember that all Christians are members of one great family, whose Head is Christ, and whose most prominent rule is that if one suffer all should suffer with him, it is difficult to account for our forgetfulness or blindness in this respect, except by the supposition that our zeal is less earnest and our charity less warm than in other days. How frequently one is doomed to hear well-meaning people talk as if the Gospel were confined within the limits of this island, and as if there were no Christians in the world except ourselves. We never enquire about them or sympathize with them, and therefore many of us are perhaps even ignorant of their very existence. The other day a large number of our brethren at Aleppo were