Wesley Corpus

Is there nothing in their temper or behaviour that gives you pain? nothing which you wish to have altered P Are you a parent yourself? Parents in general are not apt to think too meanly of their own dear offspring. And, probably, at some times you admire yours more than enough; you think there are none such. But do you think so upon cool reflection? Is the behaviour of all your children, of most, of any of them, just such as you would desire, toward yourself, toward each other, and toward all men ? Are their tempers just such as you would wish; loving, modest, mild, and teachable? Do you observe no self will, no passion, no stubbornness, no ill-nature or surliness among them? Did you not observe more or less of these in every one of them, before they were two years old? And have not those seeds ever since grown up with them, till they have brought forth a plentiful harvest? Your servants, or apprentices, are probably older than your children. And are they wiser and better? Of all those who have succeeded each other for twenty years, how many were good servants? How many of them did their work “unto the Lord, not as pleasing man, but God?” How many did the same work, and in as exact a manner, behind your back as before your face? They that did not were knaves; they had no religion; they had no morality. Which of them studied your interest in all things, just as if it had been his own? I am afraid, as long as you have lived in the world you have seen few of these black swans yet. Have you had better success with the journeymen and labour ers whom you occasionally employ? Will they do the same work if you are at a distance, which they do while you are stand ing by ? Can you depend upon their using you, as they would you should use them? And will they do this, not so much for gain, as for conscience sake? Can you trust them as to the price of their labour? Will they never charge more than it is fairly worth?