The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1884-03-19
THE RISING GENERATION.


from Recent Sermon by DR.. H. W. Thomas,
of Chicagol
"Train up child in the way he should go;
and when he is ord he will not depart from IT,
-PrOu., IrH, q.
Shall the next generation be healthy, wise
and yirtuous, and shall learning, and piety,
and plenty abound to bless their lives; or shall
they be burdened with Ignorance, ana als-
ease, and sin? That is question TO be deter
mined by the training OF the children OF 10,
day; for whilst the laws OF God remain, ana
mankind must journey along the path marked
out, they may plant flowers or thorns by the
way; they may make their paths of song or Of
sorrow, OF peace or war, OF plenty or want.
1t is not necessary to. argue SO evident
proposition as that man is an educable being.
Nor will it be questioned that childhood is the
natural and hence the proper time to begin
the training that is to shape the future years.
BY the common consent OF all this IS 30. Ihe
early years are tender and impressible; and as
yet the mind Is Tree from pre'occupatlon OF
bias. Habits are yet uniformed, and the
young life may be easily cast into good or evll
mold.
This double possibility of shaping life for
good or evil is in itself twoiold argument
for early training The possible evil to be
avoided is worthy OF serious thought; not
only the injury that may come to the chlld
own nature and life in the form OF wasted OPP
: portunties and weakened powers but in the
power Of the young to inJure others. one
neglected and really bad boy may cause doz-
enassociates to go astray, and make far more
saving them from ruin. Nowhere, perhaps, is
it so true as in youth, that evil communlca-
tions corrupt good manners" And then, with
the precocity of our times, 1t Is TO be remem-
berel that the trial that is OFTEN decisive IN
character comes now in earlier years than
when we were children The amount or actual
crimes committed by those OF less than SIX
teen years, and the number OF arrests or mere
boys in our country, should cause the Thought
full minds no little concern. With such be-
ginning, with such habits forming SO early,
what may society not fear from these thou,
sands of young criminals twenty years hence!
But the other side of this double argument
is the possible good that might come to all
these neglected youth could they be properly
trained. What gentleness and sweetness OF
temper; what love of truth, and honesty, and
right; what noble resolves and habits might
soon be theirs-be part of themselves, were
their tender minds and hearts wisely directed
And, further, what good might result to socle
ty-not in the future alone, but now5 Child
hood and youth enter far more largely into
the work and happiness of the world than We
have thought They are only children, We
say: and that is so but how muoh OF the pres
ent happiness of the home, ana the school
and the community depends upon their Chill
dren Can any pillow give the mother rest i
the feet of her boy are entering upon MI
downward paths? Can wealth or bushes
Danish sorrow from the fathers heart II hi
son is growing up in ignorance and idlenes
and Fastening to prohigacy? Certainly not
Good children are the Joy OF nome ana TN
comfort of old age. And how much power i
there in the beauty and example OF life ear
ly trained in the right to influence others
And if the early years be well spent tor wha
good may society not hope when youth !
crowned with the added strength OF MANHOOD
And this argument for early training ma.
be carried further. Suppose that the neg
leoted youth may reform at the age of twenty
five; even then, SO many years have been los
and SO much evil has been done and suhereo
But the chances of reformation In after year
are not so encouraging as to be venture
upon. Take one illustration of this in, ou
own city. DR.. Earl, for many years the phys
clan of the Washingtonian Home, said In hi
annual report that of all the hundreds VIII
came to that home to be treated for intempel
ance seventy-fve out of every one hundred
after going out returned to their old habits
all that skill, and kindness, and persuasio
can do is done for those who enter its ope
doors. Habit, at first as easily worn or throw
OF as o garland of flowers, becomes at last
strong as fetterS OF steel
And thus 1t appears that as man is an edl
cable being, and youth the most opportun
period for beginning such education; and o
the present generation of men and wome
interests Of life 20 those now young, the dut
and responsibility of training them should b
our most serious concern.
Sometimes new or clearer meaning rise
up out of a Hebrew or Greek word or tex
1t is so in the text before u.s. DR.. Clarke give
this translation: "Initiate the child at til
opening of his path" The word translate
.'train means to "stuff into ones mouth {
jaws; or to give the palate taste; and
an easy metaphor is transferred TO the min
and hence means TO imbue, to initiate,
train. And thus we have the thought of
child standing before the open paths Of lif
but with tastes all uniform; and the idea
training Is to bring to the sense of tasting al
of mentally discovering those things 4
which the taste should be cultivated. III
simplest illustration may be drawn from
etc fn Vffintn III
appetite and ruin the health OF the child
filing its mouth with candies and pastrlt
and strong tea and coffee, and sometim
brandy. These delight the palate and n
ish for plain, healthy food is not found. b
we know q child win grow up with natur
and healthy tastes II it be fed on proper foe
And the same thing is true of the mind
lies before the mother or the teacher to
educated; and SO of the moral nature Pla
this mind and heart in the midst OF tende
ness, and beauty, and love, and purify, a
literature, and art and a desire for the
things naturally arises. Place before t
child the thoughts of industry, and econom
and the dignity of labor, and the duty
obedience, and the Joy OF doing right ana
feet will be inclined to run along these patl
Bring to the child the thoughts of a Heaye
ly Father, and His love- and of Heaven, a
the sense Of the Divine will appear, ana &C
science will awaken. But bring to the Y
formed tastes of rlIe child only the low q
coarse in language, and manners ana Ten
ers. and ain associations, and is it strange I'll
the youth should come TO love profamty, u
quarteling. and h1htlng. and falsenoou; 2
dishonesty--that the budding passions snot
be led on to thelife OF the impurer
And now. ehlarge the thought and you ma
not one child, but tmore than ten millions
children in this land standing at the openl
Of the paths to be trained. Their tastes are
their capacities to be unfolded;. and thu
lives for good or for evil to themselves a
the world, soon TO be actualized. That 1s I