The Penn's Grove record., 1893-08-04

health, who are now turned out In the after
moo pale faced, irritated, asthmatic, old be.
fore their time. 1t Is one of the saddest
sights on earth. an old-mannish boy or al
old-womanish girl.
Girls 10 years OF ago studying algebra
Boys 10 years OF age racking their brains
over trigonometry! Children unacquainted
with their mother tongue crying over theil
Latin. French and German lessonsl All the
vivaoity of their nature beaten out OF them
by the heavy beetle of a Greek lexicon And
you doctor them for this. and you give
them a little medicine for that, and you
wonder what Is the matter with them. ]
Will tell you what Is the matter with them
they are finishing their education.
In my parish in Philadelphia n child was
40 pushed at school that she was thrown into
! fever. and in her dying delirium, all night
long. she was trying to recite the multiplied
ton table. In my boyhooi I remember that
in our class at schoolt there was one lad who
Knew more than all Of US put together. II
we were fast In our arithmetic, he extrlcated
IS. When we stood up for the spelling class,
he was almost always the head of the class.
Visitors came to his fathers house, and he
| was almost always brought in rs a prodigy.
| At 10 years of age he was an idiot. He lived
10 years an idiot and died an idiot, not know
ing his right hand from his left. or day from
night. The parents and the teachers made
! hin an idiot.
You may fiatter your pride by forcing your
| children to know more than any other chill
| 1ren, but you are making a sacrifice of that
| shild If by the additions to its intelligence
| you are making a subtraction from Its fu-
ture. The child will go away from sucn NAL
| :reatment with 10 exuberance TO fight the
battle of life. Such children may get along
| very well while you take care of them, but
when you are old and dead, alas for them
II through the wrong system OF education
which you adopted, they have no swarthi-
cess or force Of character to take care OF
themselves. De careful how you make the
| child's head ache or It's heart futter.
/ hear a great deal about black mems rights
and Chinamen's rights and Indians rights
| and women's rights. Would God that some
body would rise to plead for children's right !
| The C~arthaginians used to sacrifice their
shildren by putting them into thearms of an
IDOL which thrust forth Its hand. The child
vas put into the arms of the idol, and no
Fooner touched the arms than 1t dropped into
he fire. But 1t was the art of the mothers
| % keep the children smiling and laughing
Until the moment they died. There may be
| , fascination and a hilarity about the styles
If education of which 1 am speaking, but 1t
g only laughter at the moment OF sacrifice.
Would God there were only N Jephthath's
laughter.
Again, there are many parents who are
| sacrificing their children with wrong sys-
| ems OF discipline-too great rigor or too
| great leniency. There are children in fam
lies who rule the household. They come to
| he al authority. The high chair In which the
| n.ant sits is the throne, and the rattle is the
| icepter, and the other childen make up the
parliament where father IN mother AVE no
| tote' Such children come up to be mis-
.reants.
There is no chance in this world for a child
hat has never learned to mind. Such peo-
| Die become the botheration of the church of
| Tod and the pest of the world. Children
hat do not learn to obey human authority
IRE unwilling to learn to obey Divine author
ty. Children will not respect parents whose
authority they do not respect. Who are those
Young men that swagser through the street,
With their thumbs in their vest, talking
,bout their father as 1.-THE old man."
Did chap" or their mother as ''the
Did woman They are those who In youth,
n childhood. never learned to respect au-
| ;hority. Eli, having heard that his sonH had
lied In their wickedness, fell over backward
and broke his neck and died. Well he might.
What is life to a father whose sons are de-
| 1auched2 The dust of the valley is pleasant
% his taste, and the driving rains that
"trip through the ROOT of the sepulcher are
l,weeter than the wines of Helbon.
| There must be harmony between the
,ather's government and the mothers gov
eminent. The father will be tempted to too
great vigor. The mother will be tempted to
90 great leniency. Her tenderness will
overcome her. Her voice Is q little softer ;
Ter hand seems better fit to pull out a thorn
and soothe a pang. Children wanting any
hing from the mother cry for 1t. They hope
% dissolve her will with tears. But the moth
,r must not interfere, must not coax of,
must not beg for the child when the
TOUR comes for the assertion OF parental
supremacy and the subjugation Of q
| ,hild's temper. There comes in the history
If every child an hour when 1t Is tested
whether the parents shall rule or the child
, hall rule. That Is the crucial hour. II the
| ,hild triumphs In that hour, then he will
| ZONE day make you crouch. 1t is o horrible
,cene. / have witnessed it-a mother come
| % old age, shivering with terror In the pres
,nce of a SON who cursed her gray hairs and
nocked her wrinkled face andbegrudged her
he crust she nunched with her toothless
vums'
How sharper than a serpent's tooth i'll
To have a thankless child!
But. on the other hand, too great rigor
must be avoided. It Is a sad thing when do
| nestle government becomes cold military
iespotism. Trappers on the prairie fight fire
| with fire, but you cannot successfully fight
your child's bad temper with your own bad
temper. We must not be too minute In our
Inspection. We cannot expect our children
20 be perfect. We must not see everything.
| Since we have two or three faults of our own,
we ought not to be too rough when we dis
cover that our children have as many. If
| tradition be true, when we were children we
| were not all little Samuels, and our parents
we're not fearful lest they could not raise US
because OF our premature goodness.
You annot scold or pound your children
into nobility of character. The bloom OF a
l ,hiIAfa hanrt ran nayaF he gaan mnNAF n rOld
drizzle. Above all, avoid fretting and
| scolding In the household. Better b 10
| years of fretting at your children Is one
good, round, old fashioned application OF
the slipper That minister of tine Gospel oil
| whom we read in the newspapers that he
whipped his child to death because he would
not say his prayers will never come to can
onization. The arithmetics cannot cal
cuiste how many thousands of children
nave been ruined forever either through too
| great rigor or too great leniency. The heav-
| ems and the earth are filed with the groan OF
the sacrificed. In this important matter seek
divine direction, o father, o mother. Some
| one asked the mother of Lord Chief Justice
| Mansfield If she was not proud to have three
| such eminent sons and all Of them so good.
mo" she said, sit Is nothing to be proud Of,
but something for which to be very grateful. "
Again, there are many who are sacrificing
their children TO . spirit OF worldliness.
Some one asked q m0tner whose cnlluren
had turned out very well what was the secret
by which she prepared them for usefulness
and for the Christian life, and she said
''This was the secret. When In the morning
I washed my children, 1 prayed that they
might be washed in the fountain of a
Saviour's mercy. When l put on their gar
ments, 1 prayed that they might be arrayed
In the robe of a S~aviour's righteousness.
When I gave them food, l prayed that
they might be fed with mama from heaven.
When I started them on the road to school, ]
| prayed that their path might be as the shin
ing light, brighter and brighter to the per-
feet day. When I put them to sleep, prayed
that they might be EMBODIED In the Sayiour's
arms" "oh." you say, ''that was very old
fashioned" 1t was quite old fashioned. Bel
do you suppose that a child under such
nurture as that ever turned out bad?
In our day most boys staS out with no
idea higher than the all encompassing dol
lar. They start in an age which boasts it can
scratch the Lords Prayer on a 10 cent piece,
and the Ten Commandments on a 10 cent
piece. Children are taught to reduce morals
and religion, time and eternity, TO vulgar
fractions. 1t seems to be their chief attain
ment that 10 cents make adime, and 10 dimes
make q dollar. How to get money is only
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