Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1874-02-11
To Whom il May Concern.

ITl0uS, Wulit Il TtDtdI tutLl.
at is fearful responsibility to
give birth to living soul and having
done so, it is fearful crime to deny it
every help it is in your power to give,
towards the fullest and freest develop
ment. To every father, every mother
who fails to do this, a voice comes down
through the ages, crying sadly,-Inas-
much as We did it not unto the least of
these my brethren, We did it not unto
me-"
So much has been written, first and
last, upon the obligations of children
to their parents-upon the enormous
debt of gratitude owned by the former
to those who gave them being-that
we are apt to forget that there is at least
an equal obligation on the other side.
Is it for their own sakes that children
are brought into the world L? Do fathers
and mothers become such simply from
grand, unselfish desire to add to the
number OF Gods immOrtals? ? Grant that
the instinct of motherhood is so strong
in the breasts of most women that they
are willing to go down into the Valley
of the Shdow of Death, if, haply, they
may bring back with them a soft, pink
dewy-eyed darling to lie upon their
bosoms, to feel their heart-strings with
its tiny fingers, to be their very own,
flesh of their flesh and bone of their
bone, Grant that most men have a
strong and instructive desire to become
fathers-to perpetuate their name and
race-to leave their fortunes, if they
have any, to their own children, or, to
.o1G.l.I- -
and fair daughters of their own to love
and to cherish, and of whom they may
be proud. Grant the existence of his
over-ruling instinct or passion. Yet is
it for the children's sake, or for the
parents own sake, that children are
desired?
And, to seek the pain truth in the
serious, reyerent spirit without which
no mortal should dare to approach the
temple of the Divine Mysteries, do not
children, in a vast majority of cases,
come into the world without any direct
volition on the part of either parent
Do they not, in far too many instances,
come unwelcomed and undesired p
Thank God the little creatures bring
the love with them, even in such sad
cases; so that the mother who does not
love her babe is an anomaly, mOnstro-
sity at which nature shudders and stands
aghast. But, as far as the mere fact of
birth is concerned,-even admitting
life to be a blessing-how many children
are under any vast degree of obligation
to their parents?
''But he is your father" said a person,
- II
father, either through Ignorance, or
blindness, or willful negligence, had
grossly failed in his duty to his family.
'He is your father, you know, and you
must not fail IN your obligations to
him." -.......
She replied, not pertly, not arrogantly,
not defantly, but slowly and calmly, as
if giving the result of long and serious
thought
81 did not wish to be born. / did
not seek existence. 1t was not for my
sake that my parents gave me life and
being, and it has been no blessing to
me. | have wished hundreds of times
that never had been born. How then
am L under obligations to them just
because / happen to be alive? l fail to
see it: and my father, has given me
little beyond mere physical life to be
thankful for"
1t seems to me one of the sad3est
things on earth that boy or girl, stand
ing upon the verge of manhood or
womanhood, and looking back through
a vista of dwarfed and blighted years
to dreary, sunless childhood, should
be willing or able to say Just that. 1t
is very possible, very probable, perhaps,
that she was morbid, and it may be,
unjust. And l am by no means over
looking or forgetting the truth that be-
hind all human passions and instincts
and yearnings, lies the Supreme will, the
fatherly care to Him without whose
not even a aparrow falleth /
to the ground. But that in no way
affects our responsibility it in no way
our children life we have given them a
curse or a blessing, depends very largely |
upon what we make of that life for them,
and what we teach them to make of it /
for themselves. If we have given them I
a curse, is it well for us to fold our 1
hands, talk mournfully of |
their folly and ingratitude, and piously |
quote scripture to prove that it is the |
duty of children to honor their parents
"Honor thy father and thy mother"
should, it is true be written in letters
of gold above every hearthstone. But
side by side with it should be these |
other words, ,-"He that provideth not
for his own is worse than an infidel."
The one compliments the other. The
one obligation presupposes and balances |
the other. I
We are all seeking together for the
better way; and we compare notes and /
charts as we 60 along, that haply we |
may sometimes help each other on. |
And oh do we not all know so many /
homes where the young souls that |
should be so tenderly helped and 1
are in state of spiritual /
There are so many men /
and women who do not know the mean
ing of the words fatherhood and mother /
hood, in any true spiritual sense. They
have given their children physical life /;
and having done this, no idea of the /
intense significance, the overwhelming
mystery of the spiritual life it symbo-
Lies, seems ever to have dawned upon
them.
What are you going to do with the
money you lay up from year to year? =?
Leave it to your children when you die
For Gods sake-for their souls sake
use at least part of it for their good
now. Use it to make of them, strong,
cultivated men and women.
No repletion hereafter-when you are
dead and gone-can make amends for
starvation now.- If 1 could only help /
you to see that you have no right to
from these young souls any
thing it is in your power to give them,
that shall be for their best and highest
good THE Household. .-....l |