Or, perhaps, on the other hand, the father is loving and tender, yet firm; fully aware that foolish and injudicious indulgence, although for the present gratifying, will in the end work out, not the peaceable fruits of righteousness, but, for the children, years of sin and sorrow; for the parents, wretchedness, tribulation, and anguish. With a father whose constant thought is to seek the best interest of his children, even though it can be obtained only at the expense of some self-denial, if the mother co-operates, the training of their family will be a labor full of love and gladness. When both parents see eye to eye, and seek God’s blessing on every step, they may rest assured that their children, thus led in the way they should go, will, in mature age, rise up and call them blessed. It is very strange that parents, with so many examples which should on the one hand warn them against over-indulgence, and on the other encourage them in the administration of all needed discipline, should not learn to avoid disputes or discussion in the presence of their families. When they so far forget their children’s best interests as to wrangle and dispute whenever a case of discipline is necessary, and allow children and servants to hear and see the whole, they not only lose the respect of those who should naturally look to them for guidance and help, but, more than all, they do lasting injury to those whom they should protect and love. One or two specimens of divided counsels and the mischief is done. Children are quick to observe; they turn to the parent who they learn will be most ready to hide their faults or overlook their short-comings for help to escape punishment, or to secure the gratification of every childish whim; but they soon learn to care little for either parent, for the selfish love of a child who has lost respect and reverence for father or mother is of little value. If the father commands and the mother, openly or privately, cancels the injunction, or the mother permits an indulgence and the father revokes the permission, the child will soon become angry and stubborn; and even if not daring to utter reproach and insolence openly, the spirit of bitterness and revolt is aroused. If parents were seeking to destroy their children, they could scarcely find any means so well calculated to accomplish the object. But the mischief does not end here; the parents themselves become embittered by such dissensions. Sometimes it leads to disputes and quarrels, and sometimes to partisanship; and thus the child’s selfishness, jealousy, and mercenary nature are cultivated. In such divided households better far are early deaths than life and health for children that must otherwise grow up under such malign influences.