News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-04-13
TRAINING CHILDREN.
Too Much Fault-11nding and not
Enough encouragement for
the Little Ones.

Enough Encouragement for
the Little Ones.
DEAR MADAM Supposing a per
son has committed an error and ac
knowledged it and believes himself for
given, will the knowledge that because
OF this fault his every action and word
are watched with suspicion, and, if pos.
slble, contorted into something wrong,
act as stimulus to do right, or as q
temptation to do wrong, either in the
same way or some other. IF you were
training a child would you cultivate
honesty and truthfulness by allowing
him to see that you did not trust and be-
lieve BIN, and by telling him he spoke
untruths, and by suggesting wrong mo-
tives for his actions p"
It is a sad fact that these questions
are very pertinent, and that a great
many parents train their children as
though the affirmative answer to them
was the correct one. There are very
few children, and very few grown peo-
pie either, for that matter, who "can-
not tell lie, who cannot deceive, who
cannot depart, in one way or another,
from the line of strict integrity, and it is
very little help, when one is overtaken
in a fault, and is sincerely sorry, or
might be, with proper treatment, to be
told There, that's just like you |"
81 knew you would do just So" ST
told you so.
'The way of the transgressor is hard"
and in nothing harder than in the diff
fculty of getting entirely away from it,
and forming new habits, new associa-
tons, new horizons. The environ
ment of crime clings to the vicious with
such pertinacity that reform becomes
possible only when partially or wholly
new surroundings are formed. We
strive, when reclaiming the inebriate,
to take him away from his old associ-
ates and to surround him with new ones.
We do not taunt him with being slave
to his appetite, and with all the dread
full consequences that slavery entails
on him; he knows the truth already,
and too well; but we strive to make
him forget the things that are past, and
reach forward to the good things the |
man may enjoy. If on occa'
sion he is overpowered by the might of |
his thirst for alcohol, we lead him gent
y back and throw around him such |
safeguards as we hope may keep him
rom falling again into temptation. He
1eeds no reminders of the dreadful fate
Of the drunkard, of his misery, his
degradation he needs to look away
rom that, and to forget it in the strug-
gle to go forward and away from it.
Those, young or old, who wish to lead |
/ new life, must be treated in the same |
way. The vice of lying or deceiving !
IAN be rooted out of the ch aracter, not |
~ keeping 1t before the eye, but by |
it in the pursuit of what is |
rue, honest, trustworthy. And SO of |
my other vice. GAS a man thinketh in |
his heart, SO is he" There is no:surer
way of making liars of children than by
.ccusing them OF lying, and allowing
hem to feel that they are believed to be
lars. There is no surer way of making
hem disobedient than by accusing them
# disobedience and making them regard
themselves as disobedient. On the con-
rary, those who intelligently cultivate
n their children truthfulness, obedi-
nee, fidelity, are very slow to admit
Intentional departures from perfect rec
itude in these respects. And when
uch departures occur they are met not
nth taunts but with tears, with sorrow,
nd with earnest endeavor to induce the
ransgressor to "wipe out the slate" to
turn over new leaf," and begin again.
That petition of the Lords Prayer,
Lead us not into temptation, is never
bsent from the mind of the thoughtful
aren't. He removes so far as possible
from the path of the child,
q builds around him bulwarks to keep
i'm in the path of right, and, so far as
lay be, the path of right is made pleas
mt to the feet. Its rugged places are
moothed by sympathetic companion
hip, by cheering words, by inspiring
opes, by sunny and serene atmos.
here.
The fact that child is trusted wi
ften make him worthy of trust, ever
hough he may have many times failed {
i guarding trusts confined to him.
low does God deal with us Does He
asst us off when we have sinned once or
vice We are to forgive the trespasses
another against US though they be
evenly times seven. God does not I
cunt the number of times He forgives !
8. Whenever we turn toward Him
18th penitent hearts He is ready to re-
eive us. He never tauntsI us with our
our ingratitude, our trans
ressions, but showers His mercies on
he evil and the good, the just and the
MUST. Here is an example.
Children may be stimulated to the
ultivation of the highest virtue by
eading the lives of great men, and the
istory of great actions, and, being thus
fled out of the region of. petty deceit
nd envy, they breathe the air that
lakes heroes and noblemen.- Weekly
ribaaae.