are witnesses that the recognition of parental responsibility in its highest aspects does not destroy, but heightens the innocent enjoyments of home. Writing of himself in the company of his children, Foster says, "I never mind how much din is made by them, if it is not absolutely in the room where I am at work. When I am with them, I am apt to make them, and join in making them, make a still bigger tumult and noise; so that their mother complains that we all want whipping together. I have a great dislike to all stiff, and formal, and unnecessary gravity; if it were not so, I should be to children quite an old man, and could have no easy companionship with them." "In no respect," writes his biographer, "did Dr. Chalmers present a more attractive example of all that is kind and lovely than in the bosom of his own family. His children were young, but they were to him objects of daily and most affectionate interest; he was playful amongst them, even to occasional romping. His smile of fatherly love was ever ready to encourage their approaches ; and when absent for a few weeks, he printed little letters for their acceptance. I can hardly trust myself, even at the distance of so many years, with detailed references to that once happy and precious home in which it was my lot to spend several months.'

Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, "at the time of his hardest work in London," retained a fresh and unfailing interest in home-life, and "would often, on his way to the House, buy pictures, and conceal them in his waste paper basket, to enjoy the glee of his younger children, and their daily renewed astonishment at discovering them there in the morning." His manner to them, as

Dr. Smyth, quoted in "Memoirs of Dr. Chalmers."

they grew older, is shown in the following casual mention of it by one of his sons, then a mere boy.

"I cannot help being struck with the exquisite tenderness of heart which my father always displays; his unwillingness to debar us from pleasure, the zeal with which he will make any sacrifice or take any trouble to gratify us, is most surprising. One little example will describe his whole conduct. He, being really unwell, was lying nearly asleep on the sofa, and observing me upon another, with my feet hanging over the side, he quietly got up, placed a chair under them, and then lay down again. His whole appearance, with his worn and thoughtful face, is so much that of a man whom one would approach with some sensation of awe, that these small though exquisite acts of tenderness are the more unexpected, and consequently the more pleasing." We are not surprised that his home was a happy one, when such tender thoughtfulness, such genial affection was united with true piety. After a visit to his house, the Rev. Charles Simeon, of Cambridge, thus writes :

"Certainly if I should live to visit your house again, I shall do it with no little joy, for I do not expect to see in this world a brighter image of heaven than I was there privileged to behold. A sweet savour of love remained upon my spirit for a long time after, and I am not sure that it has quite evaporated yet.”

"All my recollections of my early home," wrote Dr. Morison, in 1833, "are of the most pleasurable kind. Never was union of heart and purpose more happily displayed. My mother was a pattern of all that was gentle and kind in the female character, and my 'Life of Sir T. F. Buxton, by his Son.

father was so wise, so prudent, so mild in his family rule, so guileless in the expression of all his social affections, that a note of discord was never heard in our little peaceful circle. While memory holds her seat, I can never forget the remarkable degree in which my beloved parents were made to bless each other, by the spontaneous and warm reciprocation of every domestic and lovely virtue."1

The name of Legh Richmond will be long remembered for his successful efforts to secure for his children a happy home-life, in which the religious element should be predominant. While he ever kept before him the great object of the Christian parent, the true conversion of his children to God, he showed in himself, and in his family order and arrangements, that true piety and true happiness were one. "It was," says Mr. Bickersteth, in his "Domestic Portraiture," "my friend's anxious desire and sedulous endeavour to get the heart on the side of truth, to infuse an innocent prepossession in its favour, and to make duty enjoyment. It was often said by the members of his family, 'We love religion, because we see papa so lovely and happy under its influence.'

His letters to his children bear witness to the affectionate sympathy which existed between them, and to the wise earnestness with which he sought their highest welfare. "While at home, as well as when abroad, he kept up a correspondence with his family, which he used to call his Home Mission; and to these notes he requested a reply." A spirit of the deepest tenderness breathes in these letters, as well as in those which were written on special occasions and for special pur

1

Life of Dr. Morison, by Rev. J. Kennedy.

poses of instruction or admonition.

One specimen

must suffice; it will fully show how familiarly and lovingly he associated piety with the pursuits and enjoyments of home.

"Perhaps my dear little C-thought she was too young to receive a letter, but you see I have not forgotten you, nor L either, for whom you may tear off the other half of this sheet, and if he cannot read it himself, some one will read it to him. I wish very much to know how you are behaving since I saw you what character will your pen and your needle give of you when I ask them? And what will your book say? Your playthings, perhaps, will whisper that you have been very fond of them; well, a little fond of them you may be, but you must not think only of them, my little nursery queen. There are better things than playthings in the world ;— there are mammas and mammas' commandments; and papas and papas' wishes; and sisters and sisters' instructions; and there is the Bible and the God of the Bible, and Jesus Christ and his salvation. My little girl must think of these things, and be an example to her young brothers in order, obedience, and good manners.

"You are now at that age when Jesus 'increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.' Meditate on this. I am glad to think you are acquiring knowledge; but ever keep in mind that all other knowledge is valuable or not, just so far as it is united to spiritual knowledge. The word of God and its blessings form the highest study of man. May my children grow in such knowledge. Farewell, my child, and try in everything to please,-"Your dear Papa."

All his domestic arrangements for their studies and for their amusements were made in this spirit. He never lost sight of their highest welfare. Yet there was nothing obtrusive or repelling in his method. He sought to win them to Christ, and to make all their home-life subservient to this end. It is not wonderful that of a home thus regulated one of his children could afterwards write, "Our dear father had succeeded in making his home dear to all his children. Home was never talked of without emotion by any of them. They left it with regret. They returned to it with the fondest affection, and connected with it every endearing association. Our beloved parents' integrity and uniform consistency engaged our esteem, and the multiplied resources of innocent gratification which surrounded us, won our regard."

With his own expression of his wishes and hopes in this matter, wishes and hopes which God so graciously enabled him to fulfil, we may close this notice of his "piety at home."

"Some may think I am too fond of seeing my children around me: if it be a weakness, I must plead guilty to it. From their infancy I have looked forward, as far as providential circumstances would permit, to find comfort, support, and companionship in my children. It has ever been my heart's desire and prayer to give them a useful, happy, exemplary home; were I to fail here, life would indeed become a blank to me."

The precise forms in which the responsibilities of the family relationship are to be developed, so as to secure a happy home-life, must, of course, differ according to external circumstances. The accidents