Connecticut western news., 1882-05-03
E s.s HOW ITO RAISE CHILDREN.
Gentleness and Patience Recom- mended in the Treatment of Lit tie Ones-Discourse by Rev. Mr. COllyer

le Ones-D1sSourse by Rev. MT.
 Collyer.
 The Rev. Robert Collyer discoursed Sunday on the subject of "How to Raise Little Children" He said:-It was one of the secrets of my craft, in the old times, when I wanted to weld iron and steel and make a good ax and hammer, to begin gently, for found out in time that if began to strike hard at first might make bad job where I ought to make good one. So found it was the first condition of good work to begin gently, then by and by could come down with m ore forcible stroke. And used to notice this trouble in the great iron mills, and I found that the reason why the great hammers could come down so gently as not to crack an egg and then come down like an earth quake was that there must be in the machinery a combination of force and gentleness to be effective. MT. Collyer argued that machinery in the hands of the mechanic was his child in certain sense. If there was a screw loose he got little purchase to turn it to the right, and so at last it worked we'll and there was no trouble. Gentleness was master of the situation. So, said the preacher, have taken note of this as have watched the development of little children. There must be right way and wrong one to train little children. They must not seem to us like wrought iron, or brutes that we can break to will. Children are tender; you must lead them tenderly on. Solomon's doctrine, ''Spare the rod and spoil the child" is an abhorrent doctrine to me-a doctrine that will not have about my house. l took it out of my eldest son when he was little fellow, thinking he had told me lie, and felt as if some one would take 1t out of me, and I found at the end of the week that the child had told me the exact and simple truth. We should cultivate the virtue of the wisdom of infinite love with little children. Chil- dren are not things, but human beings, possessing power we cannot even guess at. We bend over these little ones and seek our image in them. If we detect fault we probably say, "Oh, he has taken that from his mother" We always walk softly when we don't know our way, and particularly when we walk in shadows. The child is tender, we should lead on softly. Hold your hand if you must whip somebody turn the lash on your own shoulder. Don't sap the flower in their lives by trying to pluck out the weeds. A great many fathers and mothers lay heavy burdens upon the backs of their children. Iremem- Der when I was child how glad I used to be to get half day to go into the woods to cut hazel rods for our master. We knew what they were for, but we didn't care. Children will sometimes get into little mischief. Now, I have known children when they did wrong to go and tell their father and mother. We'll, was never addicted to that. Children, no more than grown up peo- pie, like to be caught ID a naughty get. Sometimes parents are inhuman when they detect their children in wrong do- ing. l said to Lucretia Mott once, ''How do you manage your children ?'' "Well," the old lady said, CT never touch them with my hand, but tell them to go into the room, and, after refec- tion, tell me what they think about it.. y In all our dealings with little children we must be gentle, patient and forgiv- ing; win them with our love and not terrify and repel them with harshness or severity.