The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-04-28

1890 - 5000 Az ~
government. The father will be tempt
ed to too great rigor. The mother will
be tempted to too great leniency. Her
tenderness will overcome her. Her voice
is a little softer; her hand seems better
fitted to pull out a thorn and soothe a
pang. Children wanting anything from
the mother cry for Il. They hope TO
dissolve her with tears. But the mother
must not interfere, must not oak of,
must not beg for the child when the
hour comes for the assertion of paren-
tai supremacy and the subjugation of
a child's temper. There comes in the
history of every child an hour when il
is tested whether the parents shall rule
or the child shall rule. Tina is the
crucial hour II the child triumphs in
that hour, then he will some day make
you crouch. 1t is a horrible scene. I
have witnessed it-a mother come 10 old
age, shivering with terror in the pres
ence of a son who crushed her gray
hairs and Knocked her wrinkled face
and begrudged her the crust she
munched with her toothless gums,
it is
To have a thankless child.
But, on the other hand, too great
rigor must be avoided. 1t is a sad thing
when domestic government becomes
NOlo oCSpOLlSlI. 1idDDGIS Ol
the prairie fight fire with fire, but you
cannot successful fight your child's
bad temper with your Own bad tenn
per. We must not be too minute in our
inspection. We cannot expect our chill
dren to be perfect. We must not see
everything. Since we have two or
three faults Of our own, We ought not
to be rough when We discover tina our
children have as many If tradition be
true, when We We're children We were
not all little Samuels, and our parents
were not fearful lest they could not
raise us because of our premature
goodness. You cannot scold or pound
your children into 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 children is one good,
round, old fashioned application of the
slipper! That minister of the gospel
Of whom We read in the
hat he whipped his child to death be-
cause he would not say his prayers
will never come to canOniZation. The
arithmetics cannot calculate 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 CT
the sacrificed. In this important mat
ter, seek divine, direction, o father, o
mother!
Some one asked the mother of Lord
Chief Justice Mansfield if she was not
proud to hav three such eminent sons,
and all of them so good. NO" she
said; sit is nothing to be proud of, but
something for which to be very CRATE
full"
SACRIFICE TO WORLDLINESS.
Again, there are many who are sac
rificing their children to a spirit of
WOr1dliness. Some one asked a 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, I prayed that
they might be washed in the fountain
of a Saviour's mercy. When I put On
their garments, I prayed hat they
might be arrayed in the robe of a Saw
food, I prayed that they might be fed
with mamma from heaven. When I
started them on the road to school, I
| prayed that their path might be as thu
shining light, brighter and brighter to
the perfect day. When I put them to
sleep, I prayed that they might be en-
folded in the Saviour's arms" "Oh,"
you say, that was very old fashion
ed!' 1t was quite old fashioned. But
do you uppose hat a child under
such nurture as that ever turned out
bad?
In our day most boys start out with
no idea higher than the all encompass
ing dollar. They start in an age which
| boasts it can scratch the Lords Prayer
on a 10 cent piece and the Ten Com
mandment on a 10 cent piece. Chill
dren are taught to reduce morals and
religion, time and eternity, to vulgar
fractions. 1t seems to be their chief at
ta1nment that 10 cents make a dime
n 10 dimes make a dollar. How to
get money is only equaled by the other
art-how to keep it. Tell me, We who
know, what chance there is for those
who start out in life with such per-
verted sentiments! The money market
resounds again and again with the
downfall of such people. If I had a
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 ara
taught to be in sympathy with all the
artificialties of society. They are in
Quoted into all the hollowness of what
is called fashionable life. They are
taught to believe that history is dry,
but that so cent stories of adventurous
love are delicious. With capacity that
might nave r1Valed a Florence Night
ingale in heavenly ministries or made
the fathers house glad with filial and
sisterly demeanor, their life is a waste
their beauty a curse, their eternity a
demolition.
SACRIFICE AT MARRIAGE ALTAR
In the siege Of Charleston, during
our civil war, a 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 VOW:
Of marriage. A bombshell struck the
roof, dropped into the group, and lii
were wounded and slain, among thu
wounded to death the bride. While tn,
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 departure, and when the ministe.
said, wilt thou be faithful unit
death?" with her dying lips she said
It WILL and in two hours she had de
parted. That was the slaughter and rht
sacrifice Of the body, but at thousand
of marriage affairs there are daughter
| slain for time and slain for eternity