Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1880-07-01
A Word to Mothers.

Johnston, in Harper's Magazine for June.
A Word to Mothers.
Not long since there came to our
knowledge an instance of young life
blighted for want of that confidence
which should exist between mothers
and daughters. Could this girl, at
whose character the poisoned arrow of
suspicion had been unjustly aimed, have
found confdant in her mother. the
ranking wound she received might
have been medicated and healed. AS
it was, she brooded in silence over the
sorrow she could not intrude upon an
other, and under the pressure of her
mental sufferings broke down both in
mind and body and became an invalid
for years. One plain, kind, frank talk
with her mother, or with some friend
capable of unders landing and sympa-
thizing with her trouble and of medica-
ting sympathy with wise counsel would
have saved her untold agony of mind
and suffering of body.
There are a great many mothers who
think that when child is rightly fed
and clothed and put in the way of get
ting good education the mothers duty
IS discharged. They do not recognize
themselves as the custodians Of the
souls of their children. They do not
make themselves the mirror Of their
children's hearts, and see reflected in
their own consciousness and knowledge
day by day whatever goes on in those
hearts. They do not cultivate that
openness of communion and commune
cation between themselves and their
children that renders all concealments
impossible. Now we believe that the
mother should be as cogniZant of the
growth and condition of her child spir-
itually and intellectually as she is phys
ically. She knows his clothes must be
enlarged as his body enlarges, and that
his diet must be changed as he grows
older. Is it not more important that she
should know when and where and how
to enlarge the bounds of his spiritual
nature and to give it room to expand
and develop and rise higher and higher?
There are children SO open-hearted
and outspoken and care-fTee that there
is little danger that " cOncealment, like
a worm in the bud will feed" on tn cir
vitals. And there are reticent children,
brooding children, sensitive children,
of whose interior life it is almost i'm
possible to get a glimpse. What low
ing, tender, constant, wholesome SYM
pathy such children need, but how often
they are left to themselves to be-
come morbid, unhealthy, cankered and
spoiled. If some gentle but firm hand
"a mothers hand-would insist on
opening the closed doors of their hearts,
on letting the light of sympathy and the
IF
hidden recesses of their souls, the dark
ness of their thoughts would vanish,
perplexing questions would be solved,
the spectres of doubt and discourage
ment that haunt them would be laid.
That girl who finds confidant in her
mother is safe. That hoy whose heart
is an open book to his mother is safe.
More than this, the wise and skillful
mother will learn how to possess herself
in such way of the heart of her child,
that all the secret recesses of that heart
will be opened to her. And it is of in
finitely more importance to the child that
his best friend should have pass-key
to unlock every innermost apartment
of his spiritual nature than that the
body should be nurtured ever so care
fully.
"These things We should have done
and not have left the others undone."
1t often happens that the father is TO
the child what we have idealized the
mother rs being. 1t matters little which
parent becomes the custodian of the
young emotional and intellectual nature.
Happy is the son and happier is the
daughter who finds in both parents adj
wiser, counsellor, confidant, friend.
That parent who wisely improves the
opportunities that daily arise in the Or
binary course of life to elicit the opin-
ions, experiences, ideas, hopes, fears,
ambitions, of the children under his or
her care will have no difficulty in read
ing them as an open page. Children
should be encouraged to express them
selves freely to their parents; to tell
their dreams even, both waking and
sleeping; to talk about their religious
views and thoughts; to ask God aloud
for what they need with as little shame
facedness as they ask their parents for
bread or clothes or toys. Young hearts
that thus lie open to the sunshine of
sympathy and of appreciation, will not
be corroded by fostering cares or griefs
and will readily recover from those
wounds and bruises which none subject
to mortal ills can escape. IN y Trib-
u7e.