Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-03-26


ed, but he damned religion down my
throat when 1 was a boy until got
Disguised with it, and l haven't want
ed any of it since" That father erred
on one side.
why Discipline Fails.
Then the discipline is an entire fail
ure in many households because the IA
ther pulls one way and the mother
pulls the other way. The father says,
My son, l told you if ever found you
guilty of falsehood again l would chas-
tise you, and 1 am going to keep my
promise" The mother says: Don't!
Let him off this time
A father says: II have seen SO many
that make mistake by too great severi-
ty in the rearing of their children.
Now, [ will let my boy do as he pleases.
He shall have full swing. Here, my
son, are tickets to the theater and op
era. If you want to play cards, do so;
if you don't want to play cards, you
need not to play them. Go when you
want and come back when you want
to. Have a good time. Go it!' Give
a boy plenty of money and ask him not
what he does with it, and you pay his
way straight to perdition. But after
awhile the lad thinks he ought to have
a still larger supply. He has been
treated, and he must treat. He must
have wine suppers. There are larger
and larger expenses.
After awhile one day a messenger
from the bank over the way calls in
and says to the father of the house
hold of which l am speaking, ''The Of
ficers of the bank would like to have
you step over a minute" The father
steps over, and a bank officer says, 'Is
that your check?' NO" he says;
that is not my check. [ never make
an H in that way; l never put a curl
to the " in that way. That is not my
writing. That is not my signature.
That is a counterfeit. Send for the po
lice" "Stop!' says the bank officer.
your son wrote that
Now the father and mother are wait
ing for the son to come home at night.
1t is - o'clock, it is half past u
o'clock, it is 1 o'clock. The son comes
through the hallway. The father says:
my son, what does all this mean? I
gave you every opportunity. l gave
you all the money you wanted, and
here in my old days 1 find that you
have become a spendthrift, a libertine
and a sot." The son says: "Now, ia
Their, what is the use of your talking
that way? You told me to go it, and
l just took your suggestion" And so
to strike the medium between severity
and too great leniency, to strike the
happy medium between the two and
to train our children for God and for
heaven, is the anxiety of every intelli-
gent parent.
Childish SinfuIness.
Another great solicitude is in the fact
that SO early is developed childish sin
fulness. Morning glories put out their
bloom in the early part of the day, but
as the hot sun comes on they close up.
While there are other flowers that
blaze their beauty along the Amazon
for q week at time without closing,
yet the morning glory does it's work as
certainly as Victoria regia. So there
are some children that just put forth
their bloom, and they close and they
are gone. There is something super
natural about them while they tarry,
and there is an ethereal appearance
about them. There is a wonderful
depth to their eye, and they are gone.
They are too delicate plant for this
world. The Heavenly Gardener sees
them, and he takes them in.
But for the most part the children
that live sometimes get cross and pick
up bad words in the street or are dis
posed to quarrel with brother or sister
see them in the Sabbath school class.
They are SO sunshiny and bright you
would think they were always so, but
the mother looking over at them re-
members what an awful time she had
to get them ready. Time passes on.
They get considerably older, and the
son comes in from the street from a
pugilistic encounter bearing on his ap-
pearance the marks of defeat, or the
daughter practices some little decep-
ton in the household. The mother
says, Il can't always be scolding and
fretting and finding fault, but this
must be stopped" So in many house
hold there is the sign of sin, the sign
of the truthfulness of what the Bible
says when it declares, 'They go astray
as soon as they be born, speaking
les
Some go to work and try to correct
all this, and the boy is picked at and
picked at and picked at. That always
is ruinOus. There is more help in one
good thunderstorm than in five days Of
cold drizz1e. Better the old fashioned
style of chastisement, if that be neces-
sary. than the fretting and the scold-
ing which have destroyed so many.
There is also a cause of great solicit
tude sometimes because our young peo-
pie are surrounded by SO many tempta-