The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1870-02-03
A Friendly Talk with Parents.
BY REv. THEo. I. cuYLRR.

"His mother made him little coat" The
good mother who made the little mantle
was Hannah, hOnored among women. The
lad who wore it was Samuel, who grew
from beautiful childhood into the holy
prophet and the honest judge. Hannah
Iconsecrated him to God from infancy, and
placed him in the temple. Every year
she ''Inade 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
rdarling boy was sober and becoming one.
She did not make the child doll to be
overloaded with tinery. Samuel was too
sacred being for such PROCLAMATION, and
so are ali our children. know of thOus-
ands of parents who have received from
God child, and then they turn the young
immortal into dress-maker's doll AS if
God had not made the little creature beau
tiful enough, they must overload it with
upholsterings, of silks and Iaces, and then
torture its graceful freedom with TIE tongs
and screws of arbitrary fashion. I tell you
that this Over-dressing of the body strikes
through into the heart. 1t pOisOns the
mind with affectatiOns and most child-like
greed of admiration and vain-glOry. How
can stop ever be put to the crop of fops
and fashiOnists, if children are to be train
ed into fOppery aud coxcOmbry from their
cradles? How can our children be taught
self-denial, frugality, and spiritual mind
edness while theirgraceful forms are smOth-
cred under the artificial trappings of pride
and extravaganza? I am quite sure that
when the sensible Hebrew mother "made
a little coat" for her lovely boy, she re-
membered that he was dent unto the
! x,v.I - u -
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 character
Christianity is spoken of as a raiment; we
are exhOrted to "pWt on Christi to be
"clOthed with humility" and to keep our
garments unspOtted from the world. Nor
is it mere puma playing with sacred
words-to remind you that habit both sig
nities dress and signifies the disposition of
the mind and its tendency to good or evil.
The habit of doing right is the essence of
gOdliness.
! Now, we parents not only clotheour lit
tie ones; we also provide, in no small de-
gree, the habit of their souls. We help to
clOthe them in garments of light and love-
illness, or else in garments of sin and sor-
row and shame. We make for them coats
which no moth can consume-coats which
they shall be wearing after we have mOul-
Idered into dustl Our children put on the
example we set, and wear it. Not only
what we say, but what we do, will be re-
peated in their opinions and their conduct.
Our character streams into our children
It enters through their eyes and through
their ears every moment. How quick they
are to copy us! No Photographic plate is
more sensitive to the images which lodge
there. Our irritations irritate them. Our
dissimulatiOn make them tricky and de-
ceitful. If boy is handled harshly, and
ijerted into ODE Iience he will likely turn
out a sulky, obstinate creature; he will be
just what our impatient Fudeuess makes
/ him. If malicious tattle sour our
conversation at the table, our chill
dren's "teeth will be set on edge" If we
talk only "mOney, money, money!" they
will be greedy for sharp bargains. If we
talk horses, and base ball, and race cOurs-
es, etc, they Will be on fire with a rage for
sporting. If we give our boys a dollar for
the toy shop or the place of amusement,
and only a dime for the cOntribution-bOx,
we shall teach them that selEindulgence is
ten times more important than charity. If
we live for the world, they will die Of the
UorLd, and he lost forever! The mind
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
| His sons have learned to love it. They
take something stronger, and quite too
much of it! How does the father Ike the
coh which he made for his boys?
Brother B has insisted hat the thea
tire is ''nOt so bad place as the ministers
would make out" So he went OCCASION
ally, and took his sons, and daughters
! They grew fond Oft, and of the seductive
nuiities which disgrace the American
stage. His boys have been 'set on fire of
hell" they have been led by the theatre to
the saloon, and to the fashionable brothel
| How does brother B like the coat his
| boys are wearing?
Mrs. c. claims that the ballroom is
good place to learn graceful manners. So
] she sent her daughters. They have learn
ed everything the modern ballroom teach
es-everything mot excepting the inde-
cent Ground dances.'O Her daughters
waltz and dress superbly. But, as she
| looks at them from her dying bed. how
will she approve the moral apparel in
which she clothed them? I rather think
that ''the ornament of a meek and quiet
spirit" will look better than all the costly
paraphrernalia of the ballroom.
! My felIOw-parents we are weaving our
children's habits every hour. We do it as
clothes are made, stitch by stitch. We do
it by little things and through unconscious
influences. We are making the "little
coats" which shall he worn not only in
this world, but in the world to come! Oh,
how much it depends on us whether they
shall 'walk in white" among the glorified
in heaven! The property we can leave
our children may be small indeed. We
may not afferd them an expensive educa-
tiOn. But day by day we can be prayer
fully, patiently weaving for them that gar
ment of godliness which shall grow bright
or and brighter until they put on the
shining raiment like unto those before the
Throne e!-[Independent.