is offended, or is made weak." Says Shakspeare, "One drunkard loves another of the name." Says Dr. Young "Ambition fires ambition; love of gain Strikes like a pestilence from breast to breast; And inhumanity is caught from man, From smiling man." If such is the influence of example, we must admit the necessity of a true Christian example in the family. It is necessary because it is the condition of the efficacy of home-precepts. "During the minority of reason, imitation is the regent of the soul, and they who are least swayed by argument are most governed by example." We learn from example before we can speak. Hence if we would have our children walk in the way of God's commandments, we must go before them; we must take the lead; we must exemplify in our action what we incorporate in our oral instructions; our light must shine not only upon, but before them; they must see our good works as well as hear our good precepts. Said a man once to J. A. James, "I owe everything under God, to the eminent and consistent piety of my father. thoroughly consistent was he, that I could find nothing in the smallest degree at variance with his character as a professor of religion. This kept its hold upon me." It was the means of his conversion to God. So Thus children readily discern any discrepancy |