Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1875-03-06
HOME LIFE AND TRAINING.
The Home Should be Made Attructive---
Love Without Authority Better than Au-
th0rity Without I.0ve---All Innocent
Games TO be Allowed.

| The Home Should be Made Attructive---
Love Without Authority Better than Au-
thOrity Without I.Ove---All Innocent
Games TO be Allowed.
Rev. DIR. Bellows preached a sermon
on Family Life and Training" from
the text: "And ye, fathers, provoke not
your children to wrath +; but bring them
up in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord" There was a wide difference of
opinion, he said, as to the proper mode
of upholding parental authority and OBJ
tanning the obedience of children. Do
mestic authority once lost was seldom
regained, and obedience once refused
was as seldom recovered. 1t would not
do to wait until child was five or ten
years old before asserting authority over
it in such way as it could understand.
The lesson should be inculcated at the
earliest practicable moment, and should
never be relaxed. The sooner it was
taught the better for parent and child,
and the easier it would be for the parent
to exercise his authority and the child to
yield its obedience during succeeding
years. Authority and tenderness were
compatible with each other, and should
be blended together. Affection some
times blinded the judgment, and tender
ness frequently weakened authority; but
when this was the case it was q sign of
feebleness of mind on the part of the
parent that should be displaced by
sense of duty. The yielding of parent
to the unreasonable wishes of a child was
an injury to both, and was q mistaken
indulgence that the child would not thank
the parent for in after years. The exer-
else of proper authority by parent over
child was true kindness to the child
True love was at the bottom of well-di-
rected authority, and children would be
quick to see the inspiring motive that
required their obedience and, seeing
this, submission was rendered an easy
task. Children should both fear and
love their parents, and would do both
with proper training. Children who
feared without loving obeyed under pro-
test, and grew up wayward and undisci-
pined. Love was the cornerstone of
family life, but it must, to be effectual,
be tempered with frmness.
Love made authority acceptable and
submission sweet. Parents did not al
ways love their children sufficiently to
take pains to keep them in due obedi-
ence. Parents were too frequently cold
and Indifferent toward their children,
and thus alienated their affections.
Children were more estranged by cold
indifference than by the exercise of even
stern control over them. A father who
preferred his newspaper to the hearing
of the conversation of his child, or
wrapped himself up in selfish quiet, ex
pressing annoyance at the natural exu-
berance of his children, aienated and
soured their feelings, and was gener-
ating within them rebellious dispositions
and dislike of home surroundings. Love
without authority was better than ati-
thority without love, buta proper blend
ing of the two was the grand object to
be attained, and it could only be reached
by strict self-disoipline. A home where
authority gave wisdom to gentleness,
and where love showed that authority
was used for the benefit of those it was
was exercised upon was the true para
disc on earth. Parents should cultivate
confidence on the part of their children,
and make it plain to them that they sym
pathized in all their little troubles.
Children were fond of activity and va
riety, and these natural wishes should
be respected. Parents should, oftener
than they did, remember what they
wanted when children, and meet and
crafty all the proper wants of their
offspring. The cold formality, silence,
stupidity, and lack of pleasant social sur
roundings so prevalent in many houses
they could not be Justly called homes
repelled children, and proved as great a
| loss to the parent as to the child. All
} innocent games should be encouraged in
the family circle. The reading aloud of
interesting books and periodicals, ex-
} hibitions of the stereoscope, micro.
scope, and other objects of interest to
children would be time we'll spent. So
ciety at home should be encouraged, and
childrens playmates should oftener visit
the homes of their young friends. Re
fined pleasures at home would make
vicious companions abroad repugnant,
and children would naturally prefer a
happy home and it's surroundings to any
thing they could find elsewhere. All the
studying of children should be done in
school. Six hours head work day was
: all that should be put upon child, and
J time out of school hours should be de-
voted to innocent recreations of mind
and body. The faculty of observation
in children should be cultivated and
1 directed. Children's imaginations re-
J quire cultivation.
How TO Alleviate Cough.
The London Lancet, which ought to
be good authority, says: Anodynes, mar
cotics, cough mixtures and lozenges, are
, practically of no good, and but too often
| increasa.tha debility and hasten the fatal