Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1901-04-18

By FRANCES Il. WILLARD.

By FRANCES u. WILLARD.
The following 10 an appeal to
mothers, written some years ago by
Frances Z. Willard which 10 % APP
plicable to the situation now as il
was then.
Best Beloved Of Human Hearts
-Evermore have you been held by
me in most worshipful sancitity az
patron saints of the dearest temple,
on this earth-the home. In you
l have beheld my own blessed
mother, and her face has mirrored
every other true mothers face to
me. Nor would here or elsewhere
think that had right to come to
you with loving exhortation did ]
not know that |, too, have q mother
heart-one that has always loved,
cherished and ached for that most
winsome and most wayward Of ell
children gone astray-humauity.
Let me then come to you with
trust and tenderness, about the
juvenilet.emperance work, and may
Gods Spirit help me to lay that
wonderful work upon your hearts.
For | have learned in these thirteen
years of constant journeyings, 10
which the obstacles tn it's success
have become known to me in q
thousand different towns and cities,
that chief among them all 10 the
indifference Of mothers, and next,
the difficulty Of getting grown PEG
pie to conduct the juvinile society.
Not in single instance has it been
reported "the children didn't want
q society. and wouldn't come"
The little enthusiasts we're always
ready, l mean, as q class, and when
the society suspended, as it often
did, for the two reasons just given,
they would stop the temperance
ladies on the street and say, "when
will the Loyal Legion begin again ?"
But let me show you how the moth.
er's indifference has blocked our
progress, and ] will quote just what
mothers have said until their
words have passed into uncanny
proverbs among our workers. al
connot take my boy from play, he
has so little recreation ;" 81 can
tell Johnny that he shall 90, and
then he will, but he likes to be out
doors, and forgets the time of
meeting, aud / cannot undertake
to tell him :" "My child belongs
to SO many societies already that
hardly ever see him, and | want
him all to myself once in awhile :"
81 am so bus9 that l really can't
remember when this meeting
comes"
Now, mother dear, it seems to
me that for all these excuses there
is one explanation, and you don't
know how pitiful that explain alton
is: A lack of interest in the tenn
Perance training Of the little one.
founded upon q failure to appre
ciate the relation Of that training
to the child's character and useful
ness in future life. never allow
myself to believe that any mother
is really careless about the best in
terests OF those who are her nearest
and her dearest. But she lacks
"the arrest Of thought )" She has
not appreciated at its true value
the systematic drill that would
have fortified her children agsins,
temptation and made them practi-
Cal workers in philanthropy from
the outset Of their lives.
Ii she can but perceive aud feel
the truth about this training, she
will henceforth count the gospel
temperance education of her little
ones second to nothing, except her
own religious teachings in the
home. She will see that whoever
takes the pains to teach them that
the body 10 the Temple of Gods
Spirit, and that pure habits are the
basis of pure religion. is the best
friend they have next to their par
ents; that "thus saith I ma, ure.
thus saith reason" and "thus
saith the Lord" for total abstin.
ence from alcoholic liquors, tobacco
and profanity. drilled into the
forming brain of childhood and
hidden in lite plastic heart, means
christian manhood and womanhood,
and christian citizenship, too,
when childhood 10 outgrown.