f mind that he has to warn them
solemnly of the fearful example of the old Israelites, who perished in
the wilderness for their sins--as they will perish, he hints, unless they
mend.

And yet he begins by thanking God for them, by speaking of them, and to
them, in this cheerful and hopeful tone.

Does that seem strange? Why should it seem strange, my friends, to us,
if we are in the habit of training our children, and rebuking our
children, as we ought? If we have to rebuke our children for doing
wrong, do we begin by trying to break their hearts? by raking up old
offences, by reproaching them with all the wrong they ever did in their
lives, and giving them to understand that they are thoroughly bad, and
have altogether lost our love, so that we will have nothing more to do
with them unless they mend? Or do we begin by making them feel that
however grieved we are with them, we love them still; that however wrong
they have been, there is right feeling left in them still; and by giving
them credit for whatever good there is in them--by appealing to that;
calling on them to act up to that; to be true to themselves, and to their
better nature; saying, You can do right in one thing--then do right in
another--and do right in all? If we do not do this we do wrong; we
destroy our children's self-respect, we make them despair of improving,
we make them fancy themselves bad children: that is the very surest plan
we can take to make them bad children, by making them reckless.

But if we be wise parents--such parents to our children as St Paul was to
his spiritual children, the Corinthians--we shall do by them just what St
Paul did by these Corinthians. Before he says one harsh word to them, he
will awaken in them faith and love. He will make them trust him and love
him, all the more because he knows that through false teaching they do
not trust and love him as they used to do. But till they do, he knows
that there is no use in rebuking them. Till they trust him and love him,
they will not listen to him. And how does he try to bring them round to
him? By praising them:--by telling them that he trusts them and loves
them, because in spite of all their faults there is something in them
worthy to be loved and trusted. He begins by giving them credit for
whatever good there is in them. They are rich in all utterance and all
knowledge; that is, they are very brilliant and eloquent talkers ab