Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1896-08-28

The child's beauty does not depend upon
form or feature CT complexion or apparel.
That destitute one that yOd saw on the
street, bruised with unkindness and in
rags, has charm about her even under
her destitutiOn. You have forgotten a
great many persons whom you met, of
finely cut features and with erect posture
and with faultless complexion, while you
will always remember the poor girl who,
on cold, moonlight night, as you were
passing late home, in her thin shawl and
barefoot on the pavement, put out her
hand and said, "Please to give me n pen
ny2" All, how often we have walked on
and said, "Oh, that is nothing but street
vagabOndismP but after we got a block
or two on VIC stopped and said "Ah. that
is not rightr' and we passed up that same
way and dropped a mite into that suffer
ing hand as though it were not matter
of second thought, so ashamed were we of
our hard hcartedness
With what admiration we all look upon
a group Of children on the playground or
in the school, and VIC clap our hands al
most invOluntarily and say, "How beau
tifulW All stiffness and dignity are gone,
and your shout is heard with theirs, and
you trundle their hoop, and fly their kite,
and strike their ball, and all your wariness
and anxiety are gone as when child you
bounded over the playground yourself
That father who stands rigid and unsym-
pathetic amid the spOrtfulness Of children
ought never to have been tempted out of
crusty and unredeemable sOlitariness. The
waters leap down the rocks, but they have
not the graceful step Of childhood. The
morning comes out of the gates of the east,
throwing its silver on the lake and its gold
on the towers and it's fire on the cloud, but
it is not so bright and beautiful as the
morning of life. There is no light like
that which is kindled In child's eye, no
color like that which blooms ON a child's
cheek, no music like the sound Of a ohild's
voice Its face in the poorest picture re-
deems any imperfection in art When we
ore weary with toll, their little hands pull
the burdens off our back. Oh, what a
dull, stale, mean world this would be with
out the sportfulness of childreni When
dnd people that do not like children, i'm,
mediately doubt their moral and Christian
character. But when the grace Of God
comes upon child how unspeakably at
tractivel When Samuel begins to pray,
and Timothy begins to read the Scriptures,
and Joseph shows himself invulnerable to
how beautiful the scenel I
know that parents sometimes get nervous
when their children become pious, because
they have the idea that good children al
ways die The strange questions about
God and eternity and the dead excite APP
prehension in the parental mind rather
than congratulatiOn. Indeed, there are
some people that seem marked for heaven.
This world is too poor a garden for them to
H., ~ n "a
petals
There is something about their fore
head that makes you think that the hand
Of Christ has been on it, saying, Let this
one come To me, and let 1t come to me
sOon" While that one tarried in the house |
you felt there was an angel in the room,
and you thought that every sickness would |
be the last, and when finally the winds of |
death did scatter the leaves you were no |
more surprised than to see a star come out |
above the cloud ON a dark night, for you |
had often said to your companion, My |
dear, we shall never raise that child. But !
scout the idea that good children always |
die Samuel the pious boy became Samuel |
the great prophet. Christian Timothy be- |
came minister at Ephesus. Young Dan
lei, cOnsecrated to God, became prime min |
ster of all the realm, and there are In |
hundreds of the schools and families o.
this country today children who love God /
and keep his commandments, and who are |
n he foremost among the Christians, and /
The philanthropists, and the reformers Of
the next century The grace of God never
kills any one, A child will be more apt to
grow up with religion than it viii be apt
70 grow up without It, Length of days /
IS promised to the righteous The religion
If Christ does not cramp the chest or curve
he spine or weaken the nor, es, There are
no lnalarias floating up from the river of
life. The religion Of Christ throws over
Inc heart and life of a child a supcrnal
beauty Her ways are ways OF pleasant
ness, and all her paths arc peace
Susceptibility Of Childhood.
1 pass on to consider the susceptibility i
II childhood. Men pride themselves on
heir uncbangeability. They will mako an
argument 70 prove that then