the parent whose chastisements become cruelties from excessive severity. The state or king. dom which is weak in the administration of just and proper laws, is as unkind as the state or kingdom which possesses cruel and sanguinary laws, and is revengefully bloody in their execution. Therefore, while kindness deprecates all cruelty, and is totally opposed to all pain resulting from a revengeful spirit and having no good object in view, it, at the same time, contends for all chastisement which is calculated to produce good as its ultimate effect. For when an individual is diseased with sin, kindness advocates the use of the probe and lancet of pain, in order to produce sound, moral health in him.This view accords with Christianity and sound philosophy.

In the Bible, punishment is represented as flowing from the purest kindness, and as aiming to produce reconciliation and obedience in him or them who are exercised by it. For while, in the voice of divine justice, it denounces chastisement upon all sinners, according to their criminality, it also affirms that the merciful wisdom and loving kindness of him who is Governor in all the earth, are manifested in that chastisement, by so arranging it that it shall ultimate in the reformation of its subjects. And as an illustration of its nature, the Saviour spoke of a wan

dering prodigal, who strayed from the house of his father, fell into sin, was punished, and was so subdued by it, that he returned home a repenThe following two passages are dis

tant son.

tinct in setting forth the character of punishment which the kindness of God administers." If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.”* "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." The teaching of these passages is too obvious to be mistaken. Formed in the faultless principles of infinite justice and love, it seeks to render substantial kindness to those who suffer it, by purging them of the evils of sin. And that this punishment, conjcined with heavenly truth, in the hands of the Saviour, will succeed in reforming all sinners according to the times of divine appointment, is demonstrated by the Scriptures.-" For it pleased the Father that in him (Christ) should all fulness

* Psalm lxxxix: 30-33.

† Hebrews xii : 11.

dwell; and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.' When this sublime and ever desirable work shall be accomplished, then the spirit-exciting declaration of John shall be fulfilled." And every creature which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever."t

Taking these views as the basis of kindness when connected with punishment, we discover the philosophy of divine justice and benevolence to be, the prevention of sin and the reformation of the offender. And no reflecting mind can fail of perceiving that this philosophy is rapidly manifesting itself in the government of nations, of schools, of families, and of criminals. dent Wayland remarked in an address to the Prison Discipline Society, "it is in vain to punish

Presi

men, unless you reform them." The world is rising up to this noble fact. Though a popular author has said, "to reform the criminal, to cure him of the moral disease which led him

* Colos. i: 19, 20. See also 1 Corin. xv: 24-28.

t Rev. v: 13.

See p. 163 of Ladies Repository, vol. ix.

into crime, to impart appropriate instruction to his mind, and to prepare the way for his restoration to society as a renovated character, are circumstances which seem to have been entirely overlooked in the arrangements connected with our criminal legislation,"* yet it is being more and more discovered, that not only do sanguinary, revengeful punishments fail of checking crime, but that mild and merciful laws, aiming to correct and reform offenders, are more salutary in their influence and more productive of good in their results. And it is a pleasing fact, that multitudes of parents and teachers, in governing their children and scholars, now see and are practicing the truth, that it is far better to administer the punishment which kindness dictates, than to administer the punishment which revenge suggests. An author, already quoted, says, "the great object of all civil punishments ought to be, not only the prevention of crimes, but also the reformation of the criminal, in order that a conviction of the evil of his conduct may be impressed upon his mind, and that he may be restored to society as a renovated character-when punishments are inflicted with a degree of severity beyond what is necessary to accomplish these ends, the code which sanctions

* Dick's Mental Illumination, p. 335

them, becomes an engine of cruelty and injustice."* Punishment, when cruel and revengeful, increases the very evil which it seeks to destroy. Hence, says the same writer: "This was strikingly exemplified in the reign of Henry VIII., remarkable for the abundance of its crimes, which certainly did not arise from the mildness of punishment. In that reign alone, says his historian, seventy-two thousand executions took place, for robberies alone, exclusive of the religious murders which are known to have been numerous,―amounting on an average, to six executions a day, Sundays included, during the whole reign of that monarch." The whole history of national, social, school,‡ and family

* Dick's Philosophy of Religion, p. 157. + Ibid, p. 158.

"EFFECTS OF KINDNESS.-In the Common School Journal, is an excellent article on the subject of Management of disobedient children,' a subject which few parents or instructors appear to understand. From this article we copy the fol lowing interesting anecdote:

'At a Common School Convention in Hampden county, we heard Rev. Dr. Cooley relate an anecdote strikingly illustrative of this principle. He said that, many years ago, a young man went into a district to keep school, and before he had been there a week, many persons came to see him, and kindly told him that there was one boy in the school whom it would be necessary to whip every day; leading him to infer that such was the custom of the school, and that the inference of injustice towards the boy would be drawn whenever he should escape, not when he should suffer. The teacher saw the affair in a different light. He treated the boy with signal kindness and attention. At first this novel course seemed to bewilder him. He could not divine its meaning. But when the persevering kindness of the teacher begot a kindred sentiment of