d the beginning of an evil habit?

"7. Have I suffered the indulgence of an evil habit through sloth or
discouragement?

"8. Have calmness and seriousness marked my looks, tones, and voice,
when inflicting punishment?

"9. Was my convenience, or the guilt of the child, the measure of its
punishment?

"10. Has punishment been sufficiently private, and have I tried to
affect the mind more than the body?

"11. Do my children see in me a self-command which is the effect of
principle?

"12. Have I, in my plans, my heart, and conduct, sought first for my
children the kingdom of God?

"13. Have I commended God to my children, and my children to God?

"14. Have I aimed to govern my children on the same principle and in the
same spirit which God adopts in the government of his creatures?

"15. Have I, in pursuance of the above resolution, acted in the spirit
of that prayer in God's word, 'Them that honor me, I will honor, and
they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed'?

"16. Have I aimed to secure the love and obedience of my children?

"17. Have I remembered that it is full time to make a child obey when it
knows enough to disobey?

"18. Do I realize that the fulfilment of covenant promises is dependent
on my fidelity? Gen. 18: 19.

"19. Have these resolutions been undertaken in the strength of Christ,
remembering 'I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me'?

"20. Have I labored to convince my child that its true character is
formed by its thoughts and affections?

"21. Do I daily realize that each of my children is a shapeless piece of
marble, capable, through my instrumentality, of being moulded into an
ornament for the palace of the King of kings?

"22. Do I, by my conversation and actions, teach my children that
character, and not wealth or connexions, constitutes respectability?

"23. Do I realize what circumstances are educating my children;--my
conversation, my pursuits, my likings, and dislikings?

"24. Do I realize that the most important book a child can and does
read, is its parents' daily deportment and example?

"25. Do my children feel they can do what they like, or that they must
do what they are commanded?

"26. Have I felt that a timid child is in great danger of being
insincere?

"27. Do I, as an antidote to timidity, cultivate the fear of God and
self-respect?

"28. Do I realize that I must meet each child at the judgment-seat, and
hear from it what my influenc