The national leader., 1889-03-09

comes dashing into the parlor, throws down his
| coat on the floor OF the nall and off again with
a rush to play. His mother shouts after him:
| 'Walter Walter, come here!" The obedient
boy at once returns to his mothers presence.
She says: "Walter, my boy, you ought not to
have thrown your coat on the floor; please do
not do it again." In the meantime, however,
she has picked it up herself. She has made a
mistake; she has notgone quite far enough. She
i has simply taught, not trained Walter. If she
had said walter, you will be good enough to
| hang that coat in its proper place" She has
shown him how to carry out her wishes. She
had trained her boy into the act of doing prop
| erly his duty.
| And we thus see profound difference be-
| tween merely telling a child what to do, an |
having him do it on the spot. 1t is the differ
| ence between teaching and training. The text
| does not say 'Teach," but ''Train." The latter
method, therefore, is the method of the text,
and doubtless were this more literally carried
| out we would find very few persons who would
| take exception to this portion of Holy Writ.
I But ed children can be trained. Is this
/ fact? Yes. We have just been noticing this
very point. Children can be trained. When
| children are born into the world they are born
! with all the latent powers of manhood within
| them. Time and nature are required to de-
velop those powers and bring them into play.
All the physical, mental and moral properties
are there Objectively they require cultivation;
subjectively they can not help developing they
will do so in one of two directions, either to-
wards the goal of excellence, which alone is
found in the path of duty, or towards the high
way of worthlessness and vagabondism, which
| ends in nothing good. There are in every child
/ great possibilities. Let us never forget this
| fact. The college president raised his hat to
| the student because he saw in him the posi-
bilities of future President of the Republic
recognized this idea. The brain with all its fire
| is Gagged in little spark that time alone and
| the world by its brightness. History abundant
ly proves the truth of this position.
| What is true of the physical and mental, is
/ equally true of the moral. Certain causes pro-
duce certain effects. Just so; if invlgorating
! influences are brought to bear upon the physi-
cal development of the child, so shall the body
| be properly matured, and healthy i'll its man
hood, making due allowance of course, as al
ready indicated, for hereditary taint or pre-
monitory disposition. 1t is training, however,
| oftentimeS the training of nature alone, that
makes, in a large sense. the healthy body. 1t is
| simply surprising how much can be done for
| the body diseased by inheritance. The science
| OfgymnasticS the laws of hygiene, ETC., are
now so well understood that even an unhealthy
! body can be much longer kept in connection
with the soul than people generally imagine
1t is wonderful how by attention to the sim
! pie laws OF healthy living in the training of a
child with tendency, for instance, TO con-
be warded off to an indefinite period. Nor is all
| this whit less true, as we have seen, in rela-
! ton to the mind, nor less worthy our belief
when argued in reference to the soul. 1t is ma
| tural for the youth TO learn; he must either
grow up in solid know edge or stolid ignor-
! ance.
If good, true know Z lge is laid before his
mental vision he will come scholar; il only
rubbish is presented L. his mind, such as dime
novels and other trashy literature, then secular
! ignorance, but devilish knowledge will be the
result. He mus, either grow upward or down
ward; natura l. he dOwncourse is his choice
| He requires NJ in that direction; upward,
however, he rr,i les guidance, 1. e.. training.
1t is remark -..,. .ct that no race or sect of
people has ever .l found where develop
ment upward was.....,ieYed without external
assistance: in Otncr WOE without communica-
ton with an outside nadon or nations higher
up in the scale of civilization.
[ am aware that Sir John Lubbock has en-
| deavored to prove the contrary in his book on
/ The races" )" but Professor Flint, of Edinburgh,
! in his new book on "Theism," has completely
demolished his premises, ami shown that he en-
| tirely begged the question. What is true of the
races is true of the individual, for individuals,
compose the races. Training, then, is neces-
sary External effort must be brought TO bear
upon the child physically, mentally, morally,
| if you would securea rounded culture in these
various channels of education or development,
for the true derivation of education is--E-dlcO,
1. G., Il lead out" A child may be trainedleither
way, up or down. Our text very strongly i'm
plies the fact. God would not have placed on
record the language before US, Train up
child, etc" if it were not So 1t is train up"
Your child then being susceptible of training,
let him b. early set in the proper path and he
will cont iue to walk therein
Ii he is taught early to desire God he will al
| ways be an admirer and a dOer of it. Habit
| will hnpOmn second nature Good habits
be learned as well aS bad ones, bltt not so eISitJ
Train up child in the way he should go, and
when he is old he will not depart from it,"
But, again, the text suggests also that youth
is the time to train, and strongly implies that
no other time will 90.
1t says, Train up child" not a full-grown
person; such would be absurd. 1t would be in
| conflict not only with the conclusions of cx-
perieuce, but with the actual laws of nature.
''As the bough is bent the tree is inclined" Isl
well-known saying. If you bend the twig when
it is green it will grow us bent; you cannot pos
sibly bend ful-grown tree. If you wish to
train horse it is necessary that you begin with
| the colt. Begin then the work of culture
mental and Spiritual-Or as some people call it,
moral-in youth This is most emphatically
the period of life referred to in the text. 1t is
clearly shown, not only by these words, but by
actual experience, that youth is the BEST in
fact, the only time to train in VISIONS ways,
whose ways are ways of pleasantness, ETC." A
child can be taught almost anything in infancy
He can be taught also TO avoid and overcome
| as well as by neglect of teaching, to cherish
that which is evil and degrading.
If the child has the tendencies in him after
that which is vicious, you may root them out
in youth, or at least so effectually subdue them
that the better principles inculcated will pre-
| vail. You cannot do so, however, in after life,
| When the tareS and the wheat have become SO
| thoroughly Incorporated that tn tires have
| the upperhand, there Is mucl q. niger of de-
stroyng the valuable cereal i'll the effort to up
root the useless wild growth. Discover, then,
in time the evil, and commence the wedding
| process in childhood. The boy who is selfish
with his brother or sister will likely be so as a
man. Root it out. Teach him generosity and
magnanimity early. Again, the boy who steals
his mothers apples and pears or even his
mothers sugar. in childhood is in danger of be-
coming largely dishonest in after life. Again,
/ say: Root il out! Train the children to shun
the very appearance of evil. Show them what
! is light and wrong nOlr, else you may depend
| upon it, you can not do it when they are old.
Youth is the only time to bend the boys will or
the girls nature. Train the children TO tell the
truth. Train them to lore it. If this is done
they will be truthful in manhood and woman
hood. If this is neglected they will, perhaps,
! be liars, and universally mstrusted. Disregard
| for truth, for ones word is a terrible failing.
Some one has said: "a liar is worse than thief,
| YOU can hold the hands of the latter, but you
| cannot control the tongue of him whose false
| hood is matter of common report" The law
reaches the one, and scarcely touches the