The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-05-26
Train Up a Child.

ty-one years. With the ancient Israel
ties, child was not of legal age until
he was thirty years old, and up to that
time he was subject to his parents. ~
and they were responsible for him.
During this long period, more than p
third OF his life, the training he was to
receive is thus summarized by the great
Law-glver: "And these words (com-
mandments, statutes and iudgments)
which command thee this day, shall
be IN thine heart, and thou shalt teach
them diligently to thy children, and
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in
thine house, and when thou walkest bv
the way, and when thou lest down,
and when thou risest up And thou
shalt bind them for a sign upon thine
hand, and they shall be as frontlets be-
tween thine eyes. And thou shalt write
them upon the posts of thine house, and
on thy gates" 1t would hardly sur
prise one that child trained for thirty
years in such a way as this should
when he was sold, not depart from it. ="
If we analyze this teaching, we find in
the first place that these words" were
to be sin thine heart" that as nat
ural consequence of this they would be
and were to be taught diligently to the
children at all hours of the day, that
they were to guide the hand in all its
work, and the eye in all its seeing, and
to be as pictures upon the walls, con-
slant presence and a reminder of the
obligations imposed.
We know very well that children are
but the reflection of their parents. Es-
pecially is this true of the mother, in
whose hands the child is as clay in the
hands of the potter. If she endeavor to
teach her child truth, honesty, order,
charity, reverence for God, unless these
virtues are first in her own heart, are
taught first by example and afterward
by precept, she cannot hope for success
in impressing them on the mind of her
child. She must first be what she wishes
her child to become, and then her ex-
ample will reinforce the teaching which
flows spontaneously from her lips and
fasten it as ga nail in a sure place"
Example speaks louder than words "
The boy who is taught by precept that
he must be honest, and yet sees his
father cheat neighbor or defraud a
widow, or refuse to fulfill lawful con-
tract, or trifle with the truth, will follow
the example and ignore the precept.
The example creates an atmosphere
about the child which is resistless. The
air of London has injured the obelisk on
the bank of the Thames more in the few
years it has stood there than did the
thousands of years it stood on the bank
of the Nile. "The atmosphere which
seems to be nothing" but which is in
fact 1.-The laboratory of the universe" is
one of the most subtle and powerful of
all agencies. And this is as true of
moral atmospheres as of physical.
There is, perhaps, no more obdurate
granite than the sienite of which our
obelisk in Central Park and the obelisk
in London are made, and how long
either can withstand the foreign at
mospheres into which they are trans
planted is a problem for experts.
II is vastly easier..to train some chill
dren than others. There are children
who seem made of fine steel, with such
difficulty can they be made to respond
to training. Their wills are indomit-
able, their tendencies irresistible, and
are made on them with the
utmost difficulty. But even these can
be trained by long and patient and per-
sistent and loving fidelity. When rightly
trained they become the most valuable
of men and of citizens. There are other
children who respond at once to discip-
line, as wax to the mould, and in the
first heat of passion lose every impress
sion made on them and take the mould
of present circumstance. Even these
are not hopeless, for in time their char
acters will harden into something like
consistency if they are patiently waited
for.
Parents need constantly to remember
the fable of the sun and the wind. What
cannot be accomplished by command,
by entreaty, by punishment, can often
be accomplished by the long and steady
warmth of love, The child conscious
of the tender affection of its father and
mother cannot willfully and knowingly
grieve them persistently. The parent
too often takes it for. granted that the
child knows he is loved and withholds
outward manifestations of his affection
to the great injury of the child.
In the nursery the old maXlmS, 'Be
virtuous and you'll be happy" should
be reversed and he made to read, ''Be
happy and you'll be virtuous." Happy
children are in the main good children.
Abundant and agreeable occupation, in
the shape of suitable toys, tools, books,
pictures, will keep little children hap
by, and larger ones can be made to find
genuine happiness in the different and
faithful performance of stated tasks and
duties. ''Satan finds some mischief
still for idle hands to do, whether those
hands belong to the child or to the adult.
The sooner child begins to bear bur
dens proportionate to his strength and
intelligence, the better, the stronger
and the happier will he be-
Some parents seem to ignore the fact
that their children will ever be men and
women; the wise parent will never for
get this fact, but will so shape all his
training of the child that sense of per-
sonal responsibility will be awakened at
the earliest possible period in the child,
and he will learn to bear himself as a
man even while he is a boy.
The influence of the books that are
put into the hands of children cannot
be estimated. They may antidote ut
terly the best instruction from parental