The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-09-17
DEACON ON CHILD TRAINING.

81 should like" said the deacon, Ito
start a new society: it should be called,
The society to prevent kindness to child
rem"
"Why, Amos Goodenoughr' said his
wife.
think it is as near as | ever heard the
deacon's wife come, in public, dissenting
from an opinion expressed by the deacon.
How much she may dissent in private | do
not know. She is an Independent little
knows how to express it when there is
| occasion.
81 have no Doubt" continued the dea-
con, not replying to his wife, and apparent
ly not hearing the interruption, "that in
what are called the lower classes of society
children suffer very often from cruelty and
neglect; but | am sure that in the cir
Giles represented in this club our children
suffer a great deal more from over-carc
and mista ken Kindness"
"That is just my opinion" said Mr..
Hardcap; 81 often tell my wife, spare the
the rod and spoil the child. but she don't
b'lieve me. am glad to hear you say so,
deacon, and hope Elizy1l take it to heart"
"You know, Mr.. Hardcap,". said the dea-
con, that the revlsers had discovered that
that's a wrong translation, or a wrong
reading of that passage. They are going
to give us a new reading. In the now re-
vision it's going to read, Spoil the rod
and spare the child, and | think myself
that it will be a great Improvement
There was a ripple of laughter at this
new revision, which we all recognized as
the deacon's own, all except Mr.. Hardcap,
who did not lessen tho ripple by his solemn
protest.
81 don't b'lieve in these newlangled
readin's of Scripter," said he; 81 jest wish
they would leave it as it is. | think the
Bible is good enough jest as the Lord gave
it to us. 1t don't want no improvin'."
But deacon said Jenny, pray tell us
what you mean. Do you really think We
can love our children too much, or do too
much for them?'
"We can make idols of our children,
certainly, said the parson.
mo" said the deacon; II don't believe
we can. We can love God too little, and
truth and righteousness TO little; but we
can't love our children too mnch. But
we can love them not wisely, and can kill
them by mistaken kindness"
ST. ..zlou - .o;I 7 e., aao. &Lo4
illustrates that | had a friend some years
ago who had a son, a little boy of five or
six years old, whom he idoliZed. He could
not bear to deny him anything. One hot
summer evening the family had cncumbcrs
for tea. The boy wanted some. The
mother said no; he appealed TO his father;
the father could not dare to deny him, the
son ate a saucer of cucumbers, drank his
morbus in the night and was dead in
twenty-four hours"
"But that's an extreme case don't you
think so ?" said Mr.. Grier.
"Yes," said the deacon, that is an ex-
trcmo case. Most parents look ahead as
far as twenty-fonr or forty eight hours;
but a good many parents do not look ahead
much further. The true secret of child
nature is given in the text, Train up a
child in the way he should go Look a.
head. Sec what sort of a man you want
your son to be, and train in him the quail
ties yon want in him in his manhood"
Il wish you would tell me- said Mr..
Wheaton, ''how to cure my boy being late
to breakfast. He never comes down until
breakfast is half over. | have told him
hundreds of times that he never can get on
unless he is punctual, but it does not make
any differcnce-not a bit"
Suppose you had a clerk" said the
deacon, ''who was regularly late to the
bank what would you do ?"
"IIe wouldn't have the chance to be late
but three tines said Mr.. Wheaton. ''rhe
fourth day when he came to his desk he
would find his discharge on it"
Exactly" said the deacon. "And by
suffering your boy to be regularly late to
breakfast yon are preparing him to get his
discharge whenever he begins TO work
where men have to live up to law or leave.
You can't discharge your son, but if you
carried the same spirit into your house
that you carried into your bank you would
o cure him of his lateness."
'.I'd take that nonsense out of him very
soon if he was my boy" said Mr.. Ilardcap.
with a good dose of switch applied exter-
nally."
"Do you believe, Deacon" said Mrs.
IIardcap, timidly and a%ppealingly, lin
| whipping children for every oGense? It
seems to me very hard; and they are so
| ignorant, and we have our faults too. |
| can't bear it,"
Il should have supposed myself" y said
the deacon, chat any Christian man liv-
ing in this nineteenth century, and posses
sing an average degree of intelligence,
could be able to find some less brutal and
barbaric way of governing his children
than flogging them. But it seems that
there are some who can't"
at was Solomon's way" said MIR. Hard
cap, d~oggedly; 'and Solomon's way is
good enough for me-
T IN -.s1 41N l ..:4f1a