The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-07-19

| want to rush ahead OF q pace which
| will leave them learned but %invallds,
hold them back; 4 true education is
not a long fever. Here and there q
child may need to be urged on a little,
! but I frankly confess that under the
high pressure of our public schools L
| would take the children's side in their
little plots to stay away q day from
| school when they have been hard at
work for many days. I like to plot
| with them; their success pleaseS me
more th9n their failure.
In the culture of the heart, also, we
must lead on softly. I can no more be-
| lieve that hard and cruel thoughts Of
| God will be good for my children than
I can believe in hard and cruel words
and blows. and l have no doubt there
are more so-called infdels made, and
confirmed to that end, by fathers who
| thought they were doing Gods service
than there are of any other type. Such
| thoughts may be but theology to the
father, but they are very often grim,
hard, real biting torment to the tender
child. 1t shuts out Heaven and opens
hell to him: it is cruel as the kissing
| and biting Of serpentS to some delicate
| small souls. I suffered more agony at
one time in my childhood when a re-
vivalist got hold of me and made me
believe I might wake up in hell when
I laid my poor little head on the pillow
than from any other thing that ever
struck me. There lies the way to do a
fatal mischief, the way the seeds Of in
c1o1s4- o-o o1,-r IN roOnu n nnh1n no.,
ture. 1t is simply the revolt at. the re-
sistapce to, and the rejection Of, a God
their nature is too large and sweet and
tender to tolerate. If in these early
days there is no day star of a lovelier
light, no dawning for the small, bright
soul Of q better day, then there may be
no chance for that soul to pass into the
kingdom until it has passed out Of the
world.
When we quote the Scripture: Train
up a child in the way he should 60" We
must still take heed to our ways lest
we think more of the Scripture than
we think of the child-fx our mind and
purpose on the other rather than the
hither end Of the way and train him
for what he should be at forty rather
than what he must be in childhood and
youth. We must answer for what is
written in the book of the life of our
children. 1 must lay the patriarch's
gentle purpose to my heart: The
children are tender, I will lead on
SOFTLY" for these in my care, who
also have the long hard journey before
them.
If this is true of the shadow. how
true it must be of the light. If ours
is a hard and poor lot, no man or
woman. father or mother, need ever
fear the children will fail to look back
ward to the early years with a tender
love, if by all the means in u power
we make good for them the patriarch's
purpose. I think, indeed, our love for
the old home is very often deepest and
purest in those who have had to face
the hardest times if we have fought
through them in this bright, good way,
and led the children on softly. There
were homes in this country fifty, sixty,
seventy years ago bare of all things
save this one secret-they are the dear
est places on the earth to-day in mem
ory of men and women who have every
thing now the heart can desire. And
when we have done this, what better
can we do than put the whole wealth
of our endeavor in trust into the hands
Of God.