The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1869-11-04
From the Independent.
A FRIENDLY TALK WITH PA.
RENTS.
BY REV. THEo. l.. CUYLER.

WOIueH. lie Islu "Ho WoiCi ~ "tso'1u"'-
uel, who grew from a beautiful child
hood into the holy prophet aud the
honest judge. Hannah consecrated
him to God from infancy, aud placed
him in the temple. Every year she
"made him little coat,' and took it up
to Shiloh when she went to offer her
annual sacrifice.
will answer for it that the garment
which this sensible mother wove for her
darling boy was sober and becoming
one. She did not make her child doll
to be overloaded with finery. Samuel
was too sacred a being for such profana-
ton, and so are all our children. l
know of thousands Of parents who have
received from God a child, and then
they turn the young immortal into u
dressmaker's doll! AS If God had not
made the little creature beautiful
enough, they must overload it with
upholstriings of silk and laces, and then
torture its graceful freedoms into the
tongs and screws of arbitrary fashion.
On certain Sabbath these parents
brought their children to church, and
formally devoted them to the Lord in
baptism. But all the rest Of the time
they are consecrating their offering to
that other trinity-fashion, finery and
folly! tell you that this overdressing
of the body strikes through into the
heart. 1t poisons the mind with affec-
'tations and most unchildlike greed of
admiration and vain glory. How can u
stIp he ever put to the crop Of fops and
and fashionists, if children are to be
trained into foppery aud coxcombery
from their cradles? How can our chill
dren be taught clf-dcnial, frugality,
humanity, and spiritual mindedness
while their graceful forms are smother
ed under the artificial trappings of pride
and extravaganza: lam quite sure that
when the sensible Hebrew mother
"made little coat' for her lovely boy
she remembered that he was "lent to
the Lord;n and not to the "lust of the
eye and the pride of life"
But there is another meaning which
wish to give to this little coat" In
the Bible dress Is an emblem of char
acter. Christianity is spoken of as a
raiment; we are exhorted to ''put on
Christ" to be "clothed with humanity
and to keep our garments unspotted
r
a playing with sacred words to remind
you that habit both signifies dress and
the disposition of the mind
and its tendency to good or evil. The
haiti of doing right is the essence Of
godliDess.
Now we parents not only clothe our
little ones: we also provide, in no small
degree, the habits of their souls. We
help to clothe them in garments Of light
and loveliness, or else in garments of
sin and sorrow and shame. We make
for them coats which no moth can con-
me-coats which they shall be wear
ing after we have moldered into dust -
set, and wear it. Not only what we say
but what We do, will be repeated in
their opinions and their conduct. Our
character streams into our children. 1t
enters through their eyes and through
their cars every moment. How quick
they are to copy US! No Photographic
plate more sensitive to the images
viii ch lodge there. Our irritations ir
ritate them. Our dissimulations make
them tricky and deccitful. If boy
is handled harshly, and jerhed into obc-
dicnce, he will likely turn out sulky,
obstinate creature; he will be just what
our impatient rudeness makes him. Ii
at the table, our children's teeth will
be set on edge.,' Ii we talk only money,
money, money, they will he greedy for
sharp bargains. If we talk ''horses, ="
and "base ball." aud racecourses, etc,
they will be on fire with rage Of sport
ing. If we give our boys a dollar for
the toy shop or the place Of an1usement,
and only a dime for the contribution
boy, we shall teach them that self in
ahlgence is Of ten times more impor-
tance than charity. II we live for the
world, they will die of the world, and
he lost forever! The mind d-garments
which we weave they will wear. Long
after we are dead, our children will be
clothed in the habits we helped to fash
ion.
Mr.. A. has always thought it
genteel and hospitable to offer wine at
his table. They take something strong
er and quite too much of it! How does
the father like the coat which he made
for his boys? f
Brother b has insisted that the
theatre is not so bad place as the min
listers would make out: So he went oc-
casionally, and took his sons and daugh
ters. They grew fond of it, and Of the
seductive nudities which disgrace the
American stage. His sons have been
''sc, on fire of hell;n they have been led
by the theatre to the saloon, and to the
fashionable brothel! How does Broth
er RI like the coat his bows are