Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-06-16

But sweeten faiths endurance
A day of triumph nears,
When Christ, His trophies bringing,
Will call from pain and strife.
r. Receive xf; e' the cpoxn se Of nifs,
IN. Y. Examiner.
MORAL TRAINING THE NEED OF
THE HOUR.
Rev. Arthur Little, of the New En-
gland Congregational Church, Chicago,
on q recent Sunday preached on the
subject: "a Trained Moral Nature
Necessary to ll-Grown Manhood"
taking for his text the following:
I But strong meat ~belongeth to them that are
Of full age, even those who by reason of
use have their senses exercised to discern
both good and evil.-HebretDs .. IA.
The following extracts are taken
from the reverend gentleman's dis
course
Quite enough inclined are we to put our
trust IN trained intellect. Indeed, there are
and worshiped. If we fail as a people 1t will
not be for lack Of knowledge.
This is, indeed, an era when manual train
be a necessity: The right. hand is learning a
cunning in all workmanship it never knew
before. There is no department in business
t pay for skill. If we are to have mechanics,
we expect to train them. If we are to have
book-keepers and accountants, We expect to
train them: If we are to have architects, en-
gineers, millers, railroad officials, detectives,
salesmen. teachers, musicians. orators, law
yers, doctors, we expect to train them. The
question which l am concerned to ask is:
that one may be a mechanic, artisan, soldier,
editor, doctor, publicist, orator, etc., without
being a ~man-whether our fondness for
sISsd snd a %ay a0s make IKE g thou aFSini I wo onsi
emphasize is that the whole man must be ex-
ercised and trained, Or there can be no .valu-
able, reliable manhood. The man who is
here in Chicago. Moral rectitude oompen-
safes for many deficiencies elsewhere.
We could perhaps get along for awhile with
with whom success is everything and honor
nothing, provided we could increase the num-
Der of thoroughly reliable, trustworthy men,
with whom it would be safe to leave the books,
home for q few hours-men who would have
some slight preference as to the character OF
the clients whom, as attorneys, they defend
perfume Of the orange blossoms has departed,
before asking for a d~ivorce-men who would
enjoy money honestly obtained better than
moral nature can be trained. We may have a
responsive to the light, the lungs to pure air,
the ear to music, than an incipie4nt moral nat
trained. The demand for the hour is 'stal.
The ethical faculty can be trained to alert.
ness, to reliability in its announcements, to
swift and unerring decisions. to clear discern.
ment of things that differ.
comes. "ThOse who by reason of use have
their senses exercised to discern both good
favorite word and signifies habit-the result of
long and careful exercise-gymnastic activity.
1t is fatal to suppose that the moral natur
does not need as constant and careful train.
down as q certainty that a neglected moral
nature will be q distorted. misleading moral
nature whose end will be blindness. blunder-
ing. disaster, death: It is by long usage of the
exercised to discern both good and evil.
Habits form early. Therefore the work of
moral training must begin very young and be
continued with utmost assiduity and faithful.
ness. Nothing else deserves to be called train.
ing except the steady, firm handling of the
child from the first moments of dawning con
The danger is that the lower nature-the un.
rnly masses-wM early get the ~ascendency.
That is the trouble with the children of our
time. They have either been neglected or
pampered and INDUCED until the attesting and
protesting voice of conscience is silenced and
the appetites and desires nave the place of
supremacy. 1t almost surely forbodes evil
other powers either of the body or mind in ad.
vance of the moral and spiritual. The moral
sense ought to be exercising itself as soon, at
Eier5 az as th aay yra G1 II in T his c %as the b suRrs% ne
New England. Duty was the first, middle and
last word heard by the child. II ought" and
II not" were very familiar phrases: At
at the expense of the feelings. This was q
mistake. The New England parent would
have been wiser # he had given more
quent appeals to the affections, striven
IN the home. But duty was the watch
G Gopa and w usefulness snnssga thu, end End IN life.
emotions, aPpetites. and passions. But
now children have what they w%ant-what is
pleasant for the hour. The moral develop.
tho social, the intellectual. tits dwarfed. The
other parts of the wondrous child nature are
too'rapidly pushed towards maturity. If 1t is
smoke; but they want to. and so they Do. If
it is ever right to drink, it is certainly not
right for children to drink; but they want to,
a noar 50 + they SI' 90 n,ob # it. its is e eyer right to keep late
good to &c, to the theater. it is not a very good
Place ths fo &c ehi &5en but they want to go. and
held in, restrained, exercised in moral gym
nastics. They chafe under it. Hence the
juvenile crime. Hence the great mass of mon
who have almost no moral nature to which an
appeal can be made-men to whom it signifies
nothing to tell them rthey ought" Their re-
ply is: I'VE don't feel like tive don't
want TO-" Hence. under powerful temptation
they fail, unable to bear the strain. Hence.
when q religious life is or seems to be SUPER
induced upon the former life, there is no basis,
no substratum to build upon, no moral fiber
and the zealou laborer for souls violates the
laws of God and maj by forming an unhai-
lowed alliance with Il convert.
Doubtless a well disciplined ethical nature
10 not Christianity, but it is a splendid founda-
ton upon which to build-a toneless. fberless
nature touched and sutfused with a momen-
tary gush of religious sunshine is q Dangerous
character.
This training means thai children shall be
taken young, very young, and exercised like a
gymnast. In right-choosing, in self-restraint. in
obedience to all riyhtful authorities. in self
surrender, in keeping the body under. in al
lenc1ng the clamors of appetite, in ringing
out an tmperious NO to the demands Of
passion, in ~self-content, in stoutly refusinp to
it is right. ~ on'
Only so can one get a sense of self-masterv.
Only 50 can one be a man. Only so can one
secure q robust, Trustworthy moral nature
ethical habit-thatw will be his unfailinr friend
and stand him in good stead amid the heavy
and frequent assaults of temptation. We are
wing In an era of oyclonic temptations. in
whose awful swirl men go down. They think
Tor the moment that there fs somethine
easier and better than to do right. We ieeis.
!ate IN the interests of morality and and thai
nnhndV 10 nfAtack a. - - sOe