committee either, and to abide by their decision; but all this avails nothing. I have even offered to let my speeches be printed as they were taken down, according to Lloyd Jones's most unreasonable and unjust demand; and I now repeat the offer, provided Lloyd Jones will allow his speeches to be printed as they were taken down, without any addition from Lloyd Jones's old books. But I expect it is of no use offering anything. Lloyd Jones knows that his speeches have no argument in them, and that when read, they will prove nothing but the badness of his own cause, and produce no other effect than disgust at his false, his blasphemous, his audacious and unconscionable assertions. And in the report of the speeches there will not be even a clenched fist, or a look of affected confidence to pass them off. Every thing must stand on its own merits; truth and argument alone must triumph. P. S. I have just now (Tuesday, April 2) learnt from my printers that Lloyd Jones consents to allow the printing to go on, with the necessary corrections of my speeches from the reporter's notes. Perhaps the report of the Discussion, therefore, may be published after all. REVIEWS. The Student's Manual: designed, by specific directions, to aid in forming and strengthening the intellectual and moral character and habits of the student. By John Todd, pastor of the Edwards Church, Northampton, author of "Lectures to Children," "The Sunday School Teacher," &c. Reprinted from the seventh American edition. London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co. 1839. THIS is a very excellent work, and it would be well if a copy could be got into the hands of every young man who is desirous to improve his mind. The sentiments are good, and well ex pressed, and illustrated and enforced by abundance of appropriate facts. No young man can read it, I think, without being both pleased and profited. If he is not a student, it is calculated to make him one; and if he be a student, it is calculated to make him study to the best advantage. The present edition is printed and published by L. and R. Willan, Lancaster: it is nicely got up, and is about as cheap again as the former English edition. I intend to purchase about fifty copies, to sell to my young friends at a low price. I should think I may get them to sell under two shillings. I will try, and mention the result in an after number of this work. Published by I. DAVIS, 22, Grosvenor-street, Stalybridge; Bancks and Co., Exchange-street; Heywood, Oldham-street, Manchester; R. Groombridge, 6, Panyer Alley, Paternoster Row, London; and may be had of all Booksellers [CAVE and SEVER, Printers, Manchester.] EVANGELICAL REFORMER, AND YOUNG MAN'S GUIDE. BY JOSEPH BARKER. Published every Saturday.-Price One Penny, or in Monthly Parts, price Four-pence half-penny. No. 2. SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 1839. VOL. III. That the Characters of Children are formed in a great measure by the Examples of their Parents. (Continued from No. 34, Vol. 2.) They copy the whole of our behaviour, and they take it as a hardship if in any thing they are not allowed to follow us. If a parent curse and swear, you may hear his little ones mixing oaths and curses with their words, as soon as they can speak; but where the parents sing and pray, their little ones begin the work of devotion as soon as they can feel and understand. They breathe our spirit, they inherit our friendships and antipathies, they adopt our tastes and pursuits. Our fear of God, our gratitude for his mercies, our love of his worship, our delight in his Sabbaths and in his sanctuary, awaken similar affections in them. If the parent be affected with the thoughts of eternity, if he speak of the future world as the most important of all things, and make a preparation for it the most serious business of his life,-if he seem but little affected with the affairs of time, and anxious only to be approved of God, and useful to mankind, and ready for a change of worlds; the child also will muse upon eternal things, and very likely seek, along with his godly parents, a home and a portion in the skies. And so will the dispositions and behaviour of our little ones towards others, be influenced by what they see in us. If they see the tear start into our eye, or the sigh heave our breast, when the poor and the friendless stand before us, their hearts will feel the tenderness of pity; and if they see our hands stretched out to supply their wants, and mitigate their sufferings, they will learn from us the art of doing good. A A good example operates in a great variety of ways, and possesses advantages as a means of influencing the character, especially in the case of children and youth, which other means do not possess. The influence of example can be exerted upon the child from the earliest period, before instruction can be imparted by words. A good example operates insensibly, and does not allow of any precautions to avoid or to resist its influence. good example is always in season. The child is not always in a fit state to be spoken with on serious subjects, and the parent is not always prepared and at leisure to offer instruction. The time, the place, and the company may all, in their turns, be unfriendly to the communication of instruction by words; but these things do not interfere with the instruction and influence imparted by example. The child can always see how we act, and we may always act before it as becometh the Gospel. Every situation, and almost every event, calls to the discharge of some duty, and requires the exercise of some Christian grace; and so affords an opportunity of exhibiting some portion of the Christian character. In health and in sickness, in company and alone, when favoured with prosperity and when visited with adversity, we may still be preaching silently to them by our conduct, the great and solemn truths of piety. In speaking to our children, there is often danger of excess, but there is no danger of excess in presenting to their view the temper and behaviour of the Christian in our lives. Words enter by the ear, and affect the mind more faintly; actions and tears strike the eye, and reach the heart more quickly, and affect it more. Children can better remember what they see than what they hear. They may often forget what we tell them, but they will seldom forget what they see us do. I sup pose I shall never forget a remark once made to me, by a kind and prudent friend in Staffordshire. I had been doing something, not exactly consistent with my calling as a Christian minister, and he was speaking with me on the subject. He said several things that were very good, I believe, but there is only this one that I remember:-"Whether people pay attention to what you say in the pulpit or not," said he, " they are sure to notice what you do; and though they may forget your sermons, they will not forget any thing they may see amiss in your behaviour." I believe that what my friend spoke was true; and I believe it is true in every case. Children will not be inattentive to what you do, however inattentive they may be to what you say. And if they see any thing amiss in you, it will probably remain with them as long as they live. Example is better understood than instruction. Children may be puzzled enough to comprehend some of the subjects in the catechism, but they will find no difficulty in comprehending the prayerful, the temperate, the kind, and the godlike behaviour of their parents. In Paul's written Epistles, there were many things hard to be understood; but in the good lives of Christians, which he called his living Epistles, every thing was plain. These were read and known of all men. Parents must be living catechisms; they must move up and down before the eyes of their children as a constant sermon, a ceaseless illustration and enforcement of religion, as a visible system of practical and experimental Christianity. It is much more easy, and much more pleasant also, to follow an example, than to follow merely verbal directions. Every one that ever had to ask his way on a strange road, will recollect how difficult it was to learn the road to any place, from mere directions. The ideas communicated by mere directions, are faint and indistinct: we remember them with difficulty, and we follow them with fear and doubtfulness; and when we come to some unlooked-for turn or branching of the road, we are put to a stand. But how should we feel if we had to find our way through the length of a strange land by mere instructions? We should have little comfort in our journey, and we should often miss our way. But let us have a guide in whom we can confide, to go before us, and the difficulty and unpleasantness of the road are forgotten, and we go on our way rejoicing. So it is in religion. Mere directions only puzzle us; and we go on with fear and trembling when alone. But let us have a guide-let some one in whom we can place confidence go before us, and we follow cheerfully. The ways of religion become ways of pleasantness, and its paths become paths of peace. You may see us, when thus favoured with a skilful and loving leader— "Cheerful and blythe our way pursue, And, with the promised land in view, There is in pious parents every thing that can increase the force of example, and there is in children every thing that can increase their eagerness to imitate. The love of the parents for their children, shown in a thousand ways, and assuming from day to day all kinds of interesting forms, gives to the parents' actions a peculiar comeliness in the eyes of their children; while the children's affection for their parents, doubles the effect, and makes them follow with delight wherever their parents lead the way. A child forms a most prodigious estimate of the wis dom of its parents, and can hardly be brought to think that they are ever wrong: and what it sees them do, it is pre-disposed to think right, though it has no other reason for thinking so, than that they did it. Children have unbounded confidence in their parents, and regard them with feelings of profound respect and reverence: and where parents maintain a proper character, they can hardly fail of having their children active and lovely imitators of their graces. The child is entirely dependent on his parents; he is ever in their company; and the influence of their example suffers little interruption. Godly parents will have for intimate friends persons of like character with themselves, and thus their example will be strengthened in its influence, by the good example of their friends. A pious parent is closely allied to God, and when the child beholds him on his knees, and hears him in converse with his Maker, God's own glorious majesty and |