Cheraw gazette. [volume] (Cheraw, S.C.) 1835-1838, 1836-04-19

! But not so With children; untaught and
unsuspecting, they believe men are what
they appear to be. Accustomed to look
up to their parents as superatively excellent,
and wise, and good, they are startled, and
confounded, at the first discovery OF an
inconsistency.
The humility ofa little child is proverbial.
They feel that they have been in the world
but little while--that they have done little
that they know but little. But, o, their
anticipations! O, the glory of being men
and women! The child supposes that
there is something-a very vast some where,
or something, that he shall then know all
about; and he exults in tho prospect, with
something Of the feeling of our first parents
when they ate the forbidden fruit, upon the
promise of being us gods. knowing good and
evil. Well, now the child looks upon his
parents as having entered the mighty field,
and as having, in consequence, knowledge,
motives, principles, designs, and pleasures,
which he knows nothing about, and with all
the curiosity ofhis first mother, he employs
all his ingenuity to get glimpse into the
mysterious inclosure.
In this enterprise nothing is lostp over
looked. The words, the looks, the con.
duct of the parents, in all the circumstances
of life; in the time Of case or pleasure as
well as in the hour of sickness, Of danger,
Of trying emergency,all arc watched and
remembered, every scrap is treasured up,
and, at a convenient season, all an called
forth, made to pass iu careful reves COM
pared, reasoned upon, and when the results
are made out, are dismissed, only to be
recalled ut another time, to pass, perhaps, a
sterner ordeal. Now imagine the chlld'
while engaged in this research, to have dis.
covered in his mothers conduct or instruc-
tons, some inconsistency, or contradiction.
He is confounded. lie had heretofore sup
posed that she could not do wrong. lie
does not now believe it. The recent oc-
currcncc is compared with all his former
observations, and the result ofevery former
analysis is recollected. He is in state OF
painful inccrtitude. In this dilemma anoth-
er discrepancy is discovered. The fact,
| which he dared not before suspect, is now
forced upon his mind, and the novel idea OF
his mothers carcelessness, or deception, or
fraud, is entertained without feeling OF
guilt. Subsequent discoveries only confirm
the truth OF his suspicious; until he knows
| and feols that his mother, whom ne had sup.
posed righteous in all her judgments, and
perfect in all her ways, is caprlcious, or
hypocrticul, or passionate, like himself.
Thus falls a mothers influence, and great: :ls
the fall of it; and most ruinous, for 1t de-
stroys her children.
The mother is most careful to provide
books for her child, and to secure hun from
corrupting scenes, and company; but let
her remember, that her countenance Is his
first book, and her example his first lesson.
o mother! anexpression of imPatlence in
thine eye, or al angry word from thy l!Ip'
will make an impression on the heart OF thy
child: which no tears Of thine can ever
effacc. Go, mother, if thou wilt, deceive,
misslead, corrupt thy neiShbor, thy friend,
the husband of thy youth; but o, spare,
spare thy little one. Thou has given him
an immortal existence. WouldSt thou
make that existence for ever miserable? ?
Better plunge thy daggcrin his infant bosom,
than, by thine own carelessness, caprice, or
wicked indulgence, to prepare his heart for
the sword Of his heavenly Fathers ven
geancc.
would now mention some of the points
where parents arc in most danger Of in.
consistency. speak to Christian parents,
for It is they who leel most interested in this
subject, and, with humiliation be it express
ed,) it is their inconsistencies which are so
palpable, and so ruinous to their children.
It is the immense disparity between the pro-
fessed principles, instructions, and prayers
of the parent, and her daily conduct, her
habits of feeling and expression, that per-
plexes the child, and is an obstacle over
which no is perpetually stumbling. This
incongruity is at once mysterious and pain
full. He watches, compares, and endeavors,
but vainly, to reconcile the principles and
practice of his parent until, weary, dis
susted, and distressed, he banishes the sub
icct from his mind, pronounces his mother
hvpocrite, despises her instructions,
Ioathes, her prayers, ,contemns her Blble,and
renounces her God. Give me the child of
an Arab, or Hindoo; but Q, save me
from the fearful responsibility ofthat mother
who has dcalened her children with cx-
hortations and prayers, and yet has, as 1t
were, forced them into the path of death, by
shutting up, with her own example, the gate
of life.
Children notice Htze things. Their feel
ing Of right and wrong is sensitive IN the
extreme, and Christian mother may murder
the soul of her child, and then cNolaim,
/ -.