The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-09-11
The Sorrows Of Children.

days" This is great and almost uni
yersal mistake. The fact is, childhood
and youth are particularly trying sea-
sons. Our best days are when we are
sure of ourselves. When we know what
we are, to some extent, and what we
can do; when we have learned the
world in the true sense, and have found
out that it is our beautiful schoOlhOuSe,
and that the Maker and Ruler of it Is
our tender sympathetic Father. Ar
rived at this stage of our development,
we are independent, and independence
is the first condition of happiness-real
independence, / mean; the kind which
slave may possess and king may be
entirely destitute of. 1t is the depend
ence of children that constitutes their
strongest claim upon our sympathy and
tender consideration. The loneliness of
a sensitive child placed in unsympathet-
lie conditions no one can imagine who
has not experienced it. His sense of
helplessness is crushing. He is a little
| stranger in vast unmapped country,
and who so forlorn if his guides be for
him no guides at all.
The passionate love and gratitude
which children give to those who are
| truly "goodn to them shows the rari-
ty of that kind of goodness. The child
| is not grateful to those who yield unduly
! to him, but to those who really help
him. Every child is in certain sense
the victim of himself. The true lover of
children helps the little warriors in their
inevitable battles, and loves them all the
time, and pities them in proportion as
the naughty spirit gets the upper hand
But these generals of the army of child
hood must be heroic self-cOnquerors,
and alas, how few they are.
But without being able to do the best
for children, it is a great thing to have
our eyes open to the fact of their needs.
In the first place, we do not half appre-
ciate what little things they are. We ex-
pect far too much of them Neither do
we half appreciate their quality-their
tenderness, their pride, their generosity,
and their sensitiveness.
81 would do any thing to please my
MOTHER said bright 10-year-old girl,
her face flushing, and the tears coming
| to her eyes; 90 but of course | am care
less, and forget, and then she scolds,
and-and- know"
Yes, knew. The child was warm
hearted and generous, but she was a
child. The loving heart, the eager de-
| sire, the pent-up tenderness went for
nothing; the carelessness, the folly, the
| childishness were made much of. Two
years after, this same girl said: 81 have
made up my mind that my mother
doesn't love me- She couldn't help
showing it sometimes if she did," But
the mother loved her child, only it was
an ideal child--she had neither patience
nor faith for the real one.
| We must love our children in their
childishness, and in spite of it, and show
that we love them, or their tender hearts
will weary of being hurt, and will close
to us, and open elsewhere.
| To be understood is the sweetest thing
in life. When the right time comes for
us to truly SO find God" how exquisite is
the Joy of giving the heart to one who
| loves us as we are-who can see the
breadth with the littleness, the intention
with the expression. The heart opens
to the uttermost in that great indulgent
Presence, because we are certain that
whatever may be exposed the love will
suffice for all.
So to a child that friend is dearest who
lets him be himself, and often the sweet
ness of confidence betrays the unsus-
pecting child-heart into fatal dangers.
School-days at Rugby" contains a
mine of wisdom for every one who has
to do with children. When 'Tom
Brown" and his friends get lost at
''hare and hounds" and coming to the
school-quarters, after hours in a desper-
ate plight, are sent up to the good Doc
! tor, he meets them with dear, fatherly
face, and GO Well, well, my little fell
lows" and sends them to supper COM
forted. Afterwards Tom " disObeys a
rule of the school with malice afOre-
thought, and is soundly punished by the
terrible Doctor.
The beloved master of Rugby OBJ
tanned his wonderful empire over the
hearts of hundreds of rough, daring
English boys, because, being the manli-
est of men, he could fully sympathize
with the most boyish of boys; because,
also, he sets his foot with terrible earn
estness upon evil, first in himself and
then in those under him. But with
faults incident to immaturity he had I'M
firing patience. He expected boy to
be boy, and, while he was the master
he was equally the friend. And this is
one of the grievOus sorrows of youth, to
be pushed off, and held in disgrace for
being what God made them. You do
not hold an animal responsible for dep
relations in your lush clover and well
grown corn, and what is bOy-what
are most children, but bundles of emo
tons and desires-unknOwing animals,
swayed by blind impulses? Potentially
they are much more, but not practically
81 am willing to be punished when
do wrong" says my boy-friend, his
bosom heaying with the feeling that he
| is determined shall not rise to his eyes.
In other words, he is willing to be pun
ished when he means wrong. "But,"
| he adds, ''it's all the same to father If
there's any mischief done, no matter
how good feller's intentions are"
Sometimes boy is no more blame
worthy for being careless than the March
wind. Carelessness is elemental in the
boy nature. Are you going to gain any
thing by quarreling with the elements?
If you will not have the spring neither
shall you have the summer Be patient
with the clustering temper of March,
and you shall be repaid by the roses of
June Sacred is the unripe fruit for
what it shall be. Do not cause it to fall
aforetime through your impotence.
God created the tree and the sun for this
same acrid, good-for-nOthing fruit, and
all things exist for these little ones with
whom you are sometimes at such cruel
odds because they are not at once men
and women-lrs. ". +. Butts, iH the
| Christian TniO1