The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-06-02
ON CHILDREN.
BY THE RIGHT Rev. A. W. THoRoLD, ID. D.,
BISHOP OF ROCHESTER, ENGLAND.
1t is blessed thing to own children;
it is hard to part from them.

1t is blessed thing to own children;
it is hard to part from them.
All preciousness
To mortal hearts is guarded by a fear;
ALI love fears loss.
There are many ways of parting;
some gratuitous, some with real COM
pensations, some inevitable, all with
just tinge Of sadness. Before, how
ever, we talk about parting from them,
let US first inquire if we are getting all
the happiness we might and ought to
get out of them while still they are all
ours. They are not sent to be a burden,
but to be a joy.
The first parting-for which, indeed,
there has been secret preparation ever
since the moment Of births when
the child, at the watershed of it's con-
scious personality, recognizes it's indi-
viduality, with more or less tact and
resolution, asserts it, in course of time,
proceeds to put it into practice, and
ultimately, whether in the choice of
profession, or in the formation of
friendship, or in the revolt of opinion,
or in the change of faith, or in the
leaving of home, or-by the passing in
to the invisible-departs, whether in
body or soul, or both, and the parents
stay behind. Too much patience, and
skill and gentle considerateness can
hardly!be given to this difficult transit
tion-time, when freedom and authority,
the growing rights of life and the I'M
repealed laws Of parenthood, have to
be recognized and reconciled. Some
features of this time must not be taken
too seriously. From others there will
be reaction presently, and an equilib-
rum found again. Let parent offer
friendship. 1t will not always be &C
cepted, it can not be quite practicable,
for real friendship requires equality,
and parents and children never can be
quite equal, never can walk together
on level ground. Still, it is right to
offer it, and it brings sense of relief.
Change in religion-especially if before
maturity-is the hardest trial; the love
may still remain, as true though not as
delightful as before; but there are cir
cumstances under which a changed
faith means-chasm. There are part
ings which are but the extension Of the
family life and the multiplication of
the family joy. Occasionally they
bring unmixed happiness; sometimes
the joy is very mixed indeed on one
side, while reasonable and even beauti-
full on the other. When an attractive
wolf in mans clothing climbs over
into our quiet sheepfold and attracts
Red Riding Hood away, it does come
quantity home to US, that once we did
the same thing ourselves years ago, and
we felt neither injustice nor shame.
Here, too, there is compensation.
When we are gone-and after sixty the
secret heart often counts the waning
years in front, and wonders, not with
out little natural sadness, what these
dear bright hearts will do without
those to whom they have gone for
everything land got i'll ever since the
beginning of their life-it may be a
comfort to be assured that they will be
cared for, and still loved; that though
their fathers chair be empty, and no
mother is left to smile her tender wis
dom, some one else has offered to take
and fill that place, SO far as it can be
filed. Besides, there may be now op-
portunity of learning, what Victor
Hugo has pleasantly called "l'art d'etre
grandpere." OF all delightful relation
ships under the sun, can there be any
so entirely delightful as that of grand
parent, or so Irresponsible
LIE Maistre has observed, "there are
only two real evils, remorse and dis
ease" OF all kinds of remorse, can
any be more poignant or shameful than
parents remorse for negligence or
unkindness to child? 10 have
brought a child into the world, and
then to have grudged it maintenance,
or schooling, or example, or kindness,
is crime. Disease is something out
of our reach, though also sometimes
traceable to our own misconduct; and
when child is ill, God speaks to it
and to us in very deep and real way.
What the little one feels, thinks,
breads, wishes, we may not always
know. Probably the angels are very
close to it. Just before it passes,
again and again we are made sure that
a divine face hangs over it, which our
mortal eyes may not see, but which
lights up its dying features with awed
ecstacy. Even long before he sends
his presence is manifest to the soul.
Sometimes they get better and
sometimes they die. The treasures on
earth then become the treasures in
heaven; and one more link is broken
which fastens us here. 1t must be a
wonderful transition for any of us to
pass from earth into the splendor of
the heavenly places. To have children
there before us anticipating our coming
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