Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-04-27
A REBUKE TO PARENTS.
REV. SAMUEL McLANAHAN SPEAKS OF
MODERN EVIL-REARING
CHIIDREN

|
CHILDREN.
How shall we order the child, and
/ how shall we do unto him?' the ques-
tion of Manoah, expresses the earnest
longing of every true parent" said the
Rev Samuel McLanahan in his night
sermon to parents at Lafayette Square
Presbyterian Church in Baltimore,
Sunday, April 10th. 1.-The answer can
come from God alone,' he continued.
| ''One cannot read what the Scriptures
say of children and not be struck by
the sharp contrast which they present
to the view quite common in modern
conversation, literature and even some
social science. In the Bible children
are from the Lord, are chief blessings,
Denediction. Today it is not uncom-
mon to hear children spoken of as a
necessary evil, an encumbrance. Par
ents of large families are cOmmiserated
by their friends and neighbors. Pha-
raoh was all right, therefore, in trying
to prevent overpopulation; he was only
somewhat mistaken in the way to go
about it.
Doubtless the conditions of our
modern life foster this view. AS the
herdsman, the farmer of Israel, so the
poor man to-day is helped by the labor
of his children; those in other Occupa-
tions and better circumstances now
must support and educate their chill
dren until the years of manhood and
wOmanhood without return. But
practical atheism, ignoring Gods pecu-
liar relation to every human being and
a materialistic selfishness, which seeks
only present personal ease and pleas
ure, are at the bottom of this false view
concerning children.
1.-The views are bad enough, but the
practices to which they lead are infin
itely worse. We hold up our hands in
holy horror at parents burning their
children to Moloch, casting them out
to die on Mt. Taygetus or throwing
them into the Gauges. While abund-
ant and competent medical testimony
declares that an alarming number of
parents in our very midst, to avoid the
cares and duties of parentage, are u.s.
ing means to murder their own off
spring before birth. This is said to be
found not so much among the igno-
rant, the degraded, the very poor, as
among the well-to-do, the intelligent,
the respectable classes. 1t is q sin of
those who pass for Protestants. He
brews and Catholics are free from it.
Surely it must, in some measure, at
least, be due to real ignorance or to
false views of this horrible crime
against nature and natures God;
against revelation and the God of reve-
latiOn. There is, s,therefOre, reason, nay
duty, in the demand that the Protest
ant pulpit should not be silent upon
this theme.
"To those who believe in a God who
created man in His own image, in ser
vice, not selfishness, as the rule of life,
in character as the supreme achieve
ment and blessed Immortality as the
greatest boon, the gift of a child can
be counted nothing other than bless
ing. Whatever of trouble is associated
with parentage there is more than COM
pensating joy. A child will enrich,
soften, ennoble the life of every true
parent. He who loves his kind will
find in his own children the nearest,
the greatest opportunity to do good.
In the child received from God the
Christian parent has his most intimate,
sacred and tender opportunity to serve
| Christ.
1.-The duty which fathers and moth
ers owe their children takes precedence
of all other human duties save those
due to each other. 1t includes heri-
tage, care, teaching and training. The
most important inheritance is not that
of position or wealth, but of nature and
grace. By what they are, by what
they make of themselves physically,
mentally, morally, the parents give to
their child traits and tendencies, weak
ness or strength. By what they are re-
| ligiously, they secure or forfeit privi-
leges of grace for it. Care for the
child's physical welfare is the impulse
of parental instinct. Teaching is not
only a personal work; it includes the
education to be secured at school. A
true parent will need no compulsory
education law. Manual training is
scriptural as well as wise. Learning
how to make living is, however, less
important than learning how to live.
For this the Bible is the perfect text
book. The church, with it's preaching
service and school, is meant to supple
ment, not to supplant, the religious
teaching, for which parents have the
primary responsibility.
Training covers the discipline and
control of children. 1t is the most diff
cult of all in practice. The Scriptures
insist that authority must be maintain
ed, and justify punishment for wrong
doing. Weak indulgence is cruelty to
parent and child. Injustice will pro
woke to wrath, not good words. Par
tiality is disastrous to the favored child
as well as to the neglected one. II
sunders the ties of family affection
The mightiest power over their chill
dren which parents possess is found in
what they themselves are. 1t is to be
exerted through sympathetic inter
course. We should live with our chill
dren. A true Christian character vii
not only insure the best possible inner
itance; it will hallow all the loving care
put meaning into the teaching an6
give effect to the training. The char
acter of parents makes the home at
mosphere."