Connecticut western news., 1899-04-20

IS tested whether the parents shall rule )r the child shall rule. That is the .rucial hour. If the child triumphs in
 hat hour, then he will some day make you crouch. It is a horrible scene. l have witnessed it-a mother come to old lge, shivering with terror in the pres 9nce of son who cursed her gray hairs and mocked her wrinkled face and be- grudged her the crust she munched with her toothless gumsl
 How sharper than serpent's tooth it is
 To have thankless child
 But, on the other hand, too great rigor must be avoided. It is sad thing when domestic government becomes cold military despotism. Trappers on the prairie fight fire with fire, but you can not successfully fight your child's bad temper with your own bad temper. We must not be too minute in our inspec- tion. We cannot expect our children to 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 discover that our children have as many. If tradition be true, when we were children we were not all little Samuels, and our parents were not fearful lest they could not raise us because of CUT premature goodness. You cannot scold or pound your children in- to nobility of character. The bloom of a child's heart can never be seen under a cold drizzle. Above all, avoid fretting and scolding in the household. Better than ten years of fretting at your chill dren is one good, round, old fashioned application of the slipper That minis ter of the gospel of whom we read in the newspapers that he whipped his child to death because he would not say his prayers will never come to canon ization. The arithmetics cannot calcu- late how many thousands of children have been ruined forever either through too great rigor or too great leniency. The heavens and the earth are filled with the groan of the sacrificed. In this important matter, seek divine, direc- tion, Q father, O motherl
 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. "No," she said; Git is nothing to be proud of, but something for which to be very grate- full " s
 Sacrifice to worIdIiness.
 Again, there are many who are sac rifcing their children to a spirit of worldliness. Some one asked mother whose children had turned out very we'll 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, prayed that they might be washed in the fountain of Saviour's mercy. Wien put on their garments, prayed that they might be arrayed in the robe of Saw four righteousness. When I gave them food, I prayed that they might be fed with mama from heaven. When l started them on the road to school, prayed that their path might be as the shining light, brighter and brightes to the perfect day. When put them to sleep, prayed that they might be en- folded in the Saviours arms. !" "Oh. " you say, "that was very old fashionedl" It was quite old fashioned. But do you suppose that child under such nurture as that ever turned out bad?
 In our day most boys start out with no idea higher than the all encompassing dollar. They start in an age which boasts it can scratch the Lords Prayer on 10 cent piece and the Ten Con- mandments on 10 cent piece. Chil- dren are taught to reduce morals and religion, time and eternity, to vulgar Tk l. o,, ol, oe o& tainment that 10 cents make a dime and 10 dimes make a dollar. How to get money is only equaled by the other art-how to keep it. Tell me, ye who know, what chance there is for those who start out in life with such per verted sentimentsl The money market resounds again and again with the downfall of such people. If l had drop of blood on the tip of a pen, I would tell you by what awful tragedy many of the youth of this country are ruined.
 Further on, thousands and tens of thousands of the daughters of America are sacrificed to worldliness. They are taught to be in sympathy with all the artifcialties of society. They are in- ducted into all the hollowness of what is called fashionable life. They are taught to believe that history is dry, but that 50 cent stories of adventurous love are delicious With capacity that might have rivaled Florence Night ingale in heavenly ministries or made the fathers house glad with filial and sisterly demeanor, their life is a waste, their beauty curse, their eternity demolition.
 Sacrifice at Marriage Altar.
 In the siege of Charleston, during our civil war, lieutenant of the army stood on the floor beside the daughter of the ex-governor of the state of South Carolina. They were taking the VOWS If marriage. A bombshell struck the roof, dropped into the group, and nine were wounded and slain, among the wounded to death the bride. While the bridegroom knelt on the carpet trying to stanch the wounds the bride de- manded that the ceremony be complet- ed. that she might take the VOWS before her departEre, and when the minister said, "Wilt thou be faithful unto deathf" with her dying lips she said, 1T will" and in two hours she had de- l parted. That was the slaughter and the sacrifice of the body, but at thousands of marriage altars there are daughters slain for time and slain for eternity. It is not marriage. It is a massacre. Affianced to some one who is only waiting until his father dies so he can get the property; then a little while they swing around in the circles, bril- liant circles; then the property is gone, and having no power to earn liveli- hood, the twain sink into some corner of society, the husband an idler and a sot, the wife drudge, a slave and sacrifice. An, spare your denunciations from Jephthah's head and expend them ! all on this wholesale modern martyr