The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-01-14


and polishing their lives, it is the
mothers privilege to hold the highest
and first place if she but seeks and de-
sires to occupy it.
Sometimes we gaze with rapt adj
miration upon the work of a sculptor
in marble, or thatof some great artist
on canvas. but how nsignifcant,
thong the best in art, when compared
with the mothers work. The one may
crumble and perish with time, and the
other he shattered faded and lost, but
the mother works upon a canvas that
shall not fail upon immortal minds
which shall bear for eternity the. i'm
press of a mothers guiding hand.
There is not, and cannot be any
prerogative to compare with mother
hood. How grand the result if she
uses her powers Alright and what
.marred, useless lives will follow, if she
neglects to fulfill her high and noble
commissions
81 There are, I believe, but few moth
.ers, who have notsat some time keenly
felt their solemn response ility, yet,
fear there are many who do not fully
carry it out The great number of
children wesee growing up unframed
and unrestrained show that mothers
have surely neglected their God-given
task. This am panied to say but my
observation has led me to believe that
they do not awaken to their RESPONSE
bility early enough. They think as
they look upon the little ones in the
cradle, as they watch their first totter-
ing foot steps, that when they grow
older, they will then need special care
and disciplinary guidance which
they are now too young to receive.
This I claim is a grave mistake. In
the infant lies wrapped the embryo Of
the man that is to be, just as the acorn
hold the embryo Of the giant oak.
The moulding rests chiefly with the
mother in the earlier years of child
hood. We know that a moments work
upon clay, tells far more than an
hours work upon marble, and our
children are like clay to receive i'm
pressions and like marble to retain
them. The first seven years OF a
l:child's life is the most impressible
period, yet, the majority Of mothers
l.seem to think that the only thing to
be done in those years is to see that
their time is>spent pleasantly and the
children are happy. Character form
ing and mind forming is left to chance.
# these impressionable years are not
improved there is no other period Of
| life when so much evil or so much
good can be done.
In the first years of babyhood a look,
a. word, or a tone may influence the
heartof the child for its whole life,
/ and from the ages of two to seven the
| possibilities which are stored up and
undeyeloped, which may be worked by
ljudicious mothers, are beyond belief.
One great writer has said that it is
impossible to correct in the fourth
year the wrong influence made upon
the child during the second and third
years Of its life. This may look or
sound extreme, yet, I believe it to be
true. The young mother will say, AS
soon as my child understands more I
shall teach it self CONTROL What a
mistake. The most important time of
all is thus lost.
| If obedience, neatness, order, self
control and other correct habits are
not implanted in the first years it will
be a most difficult task to uproot the
bad habits which have been formed to
lsupplant good ones. There are no years
iiof a child's life so pregnant with
golden opportunities for mothers as
their first years, yet, there is no period
of its existence more apt to be en-
trusted to the care of anybody and
everybody than this.
The nurse girl, the servant in the
kitchen or anyone that will amuse the
child while the mother perhaps is
depending her time in fashionable
society and worldly amusement. While
| the mother should have all the help
necessary in her household work, let it
be her duty first to keep her little ones
close to her, under her Watchful over
Isight. Her first duty is to her child
and nothing should be allowed to be-
come paramount to it.
But the mothers duty does not end
with childhood. All through growing
years of youth and maturity she must
know that continual vigilance is the
price of safety, and happy is the
mother that. has implanted in early
youth the seeds Of God and whoseonly
] work is to train, and prune and watch
that which is already planted. With
EVERY step in life the opportunities for
good and temptations for evil increase
and while the mother must endeavor
to keep safeguards, she must remem-