The national leader., 1889-03-09

! cur cir, unrtances than many of US generally
| imagine. While circumstances do not form,
! they in very emphatic sense confirm charac-
| ter But to illustrate the point more fully and
show the absurdity of such reasoning, let me
remark that have heard people say 81 believe
| those children who are allowed to grow up, re-
| gardless of the laws of healthful attention.
| those children who seem to roll mostly in the
mud who are continually exposed to the ele-
ments ETC.; who are not kept covered with
warm clothing and supplied with the other
essentials to healthy existence, turn out the
| hardest and the strongest" FallaciOuS reason
| ing. have not the slightest doubt that chill
dren who survive such unnatural treatment are
| really healthy robust and strong. Otherwise
| they must have died.
In making such declarations as we have re-
ferred to, I. e., that toughest treatment makes
| the strongest children, we are too often guided
| by particular, not general observation. We do
not allow our vision to include sufficient terri
| tory. Our promises are wrong to begin with,
| therefore our conclusions cannot possibly be
correct. We forgot the hundreds and thou
sands-aye! tens of thousands of children who
have died from such neglect and exposure 1t
really requires strong, healthy children physi-
cally, to withstand such treatment and am
very much impressed with the thought that
the children who survive such monstrous deal
ing are about one in every hundred of those so
exposed, while the ninety and nine succumb to
the neglect of natures laws and lie concealed
within the tomb, and far enough away from
human observation.
There is very large portion of our race
about one-half-which does not survive the age
of fUe, and if the cause of death were really as
certained (as it cannot be by mann, it would,
doubtless, be found that neglect on the part of
parents and nurses to pay proper attention to
the demands of physical law in the care of the
infants had mnch tn do with the fatal results.
l venture to affirm that the exercise of a little
study of the science of hygiene and the uses and
effects of oxygen and carbon, together with
very large allowance of common sense on the
part of those entrusted with the care of chill
dren of tender growth, would lead to large
decrease in the ratio of infantile mortality
What 1 have been saying in regard to the
body, / also plead in reference to the higher,
the intellectual and spiritual parts of the child
Parents, guardians, teachers, all connected
with the education of the young, see to it that
you are using every means to train them up
not in the way they lCOuld, but Sin the way
they should go. The text is addressed to y0u:
| Who else can it mean?
Those who have been instructed with the in
tellectual and moral training of immortal
think of it-never-dying souls should realize,
without delay, their great responsibility. The
text is for gOlG Listen to its voice! Use every
effort to obey its teaching.
And now that we have considered the in
junction of the text let us proceed to examine
the important-yea, the practical query: What
are few of the ways in which we may be able
to ''tran up a child in the way he should go?"
that is, as L understand it, in the narrow way
| that leadeth unto everlasting life, for that is
ever the idea OF the Word OF God
Let us apply our minds to this one thought,
for it is really the sine qua nOp-the Summlnl
bOnltn of all our effort in the cultivation of the
child c., the whole child, intellect, affections,
will
1t is of the highest importance before COM
mencing to work on anything, that we should
discover, if possible, its value, e. O., worker
in gold or precious stones of any kind is more
careful of the materials than an artificer in
brass or iron would be. jewelers. require to be
skilled workmen. Every particle of refuse
made is precious therefore, they must be care
full in handling, or in the effort to improve, not
to lose any of the value of the MATERIAL they
must be careful in the selection and use of
! their tools; they must understand the intrinsic
worth of that on which they are at work. Just
so spiritually. Before applying the spiritual
| tools, 1. G., the Divinely ordained means (and
God works by means-human instrumental
| ties it is well that we should understand the
value of the soul. And what is that? 1t is sim
ply incalculable. No human arithmetic may
discover the answer to our question; the
science of mathematics is speechless in the
presence of our problem. We must alone seek
the answer in the Book of Holy Light. ''What
shall it profit man if he shall gain the whole
world and lose his own soul?'' or 'What shall
a man give in exchange for his soul?'
These children of yours and mine, as we re-
marked moment ago, have immortal never
dying souls. Do you realize it Whether you
do so or not such is the fact. These precious,
| invaluable souls ere destined to live forever,
either IN peace or misery, in happiness or woe,
| in Heaven or Hell.
IT you are satisfied, then, concerning the i'm
pOrtance of your charge, kindly do not allow
the following hints to fall unheeded on your
| ears.
| First Have your own soul safe, my brother
or sisterl Be sure your own salvation is secure
/ Without this you wild have no knowledge or
how to conduct the higher spiritual education
of your offspring. If you cannot speak French,
| or do not know the language yourself, you
| cannot teach it to your chdren. If you have
never studied the art OF chirOgraphy yourself,
! it is not within the range of possibility that
| you will be able to lead your offspring to dis
| tinctOn in the science of calgraphy, or even to
master the common rules of writing. The same,
! spiritually.
! IT you do not possess an experimental ac-
| quain tance with Christ as a personal Saviour
! as he is revealed in the Gospel, you do not
know hOlU to serve Him, and cannot tell to
others the wondrous story of redeeming grace.
| You cannot strain your child to love Him.
| Secure, then, your own salvation. snake
your (own) calling and election sure"
and then begin with family worship, This will
have wonderful effect Never miss day. If
you cannot pray ut the family altar, learn to-
! Never say can't Christ can make you able Il
| can do all things, through Christ who strength
| eneth me-" says the apostle of the Gentiles. So
may every believer also say. Hear again the
promise, my grace is sufficient"
! If it is q very heavy burden for you to pray
alone and extempore, get a good edition of
family prayers and read one every morning
| and evening.
! If read in the proper spirit, why should not
| this be an excellent plea? Have singing also in
! your worship. Your child will be greatly i'm
! pressed by this. Do not forget to train the
! young heart to love the praises of the Lord,
and of lions Courts The power of song is be-
| ing felt in our religious work, but not sufi-
ciently so. notice that in great many homes
| singing in family worship is neglected. With
out this such worship may be very dry, tedious
and uninteresting to the young.
| most emphatically urge this part of the SER
| vice. Sometimes we hear complaints that con-
| gregational singing is being neglected in our
| churches, and blame is laid upon the we'll
trained choir. Is it not possible-yea, probable.
| that we are putting the blame Cn the wrong
| shoulders?
| May it not be that the passing away in a
| large measure of the habit of the fathers to
| give praise its proper place in family worship
| is the most largely responsible for the lack of
| interest taken in the public singing of the
| sanctuary?
| Is not this a reasonable suggestion? But