Year: 1874

or all of these practices, or others lik'
them, remember, dear sir, your boy
whom you love so dearly and whose fu
ture you have found such glorious expec
tations; your boy may enter upon life
with the same tendencies; same in kline
perhaps more intense in degree Dea
gently with him for he carries his father:
sins; he is the scape-goat that must beal
into this wilderness world, fathers in
iquities. If there is parent who is will
ling to entail such a burden of crime
upon his little child, let him speak, fol
him do address.


l repeat again, any child born into
this world has right to fair start ir
life. right to the best physical, mental
and moral endowment, which it is possi
BILE for him to have, right to be nobly
equipped, that if he fail in the great bat
tie of life, it will be through no lack oi
original powers, but because of his own
carelessness or willfulness. No child has
justice done him until thus endowed.


Every child has right to pleasant
home. Your children will soon leave
| you. Ere you know it, they have grown
up to manhood and womanhood, and are
| gone out into the world to build homes
for themselves. Their childhood home
should have been so pleasant that their
highest ideal now sould be to fashion
their own like it. They could pay their
parents no higher compliment. L know
one thing which will tend more to bring
a wayward and recreant boy back to
duty and to God, than the remembrance
of pleasant home he has left behind
| him. As its hallowed memories come
trooping across the mind, more than one
prodigal has resolved, Il will arise and
go to my father" Whatever others may
think of him, he knows he is loved there.
Other ears may be shut to his entreaties,
but mot ler's heart is not shut against
his cries. Elsewhere he may be forgot
ten, but there is one altar where unceas-
! ing prayers go up for him. God setteth
the solitary in families that through their
well-ordering they may learn the way to
everlasting life. The inspired writets
use the family more than any one thing
| to. represent to US the heavenly world
and our relation to it, How much some
people can put into that prayer, "Our
! Father who art in heaven" What
troops of memories cluster about u.s. and
what tears of regret start up as we think
of the old father, kind, thankful, patient,
and forgiving who for many years sat
in that old chair; but one morning when
we looked for him he ,Oas not, for God
| had taken him. As we learn of heaven
| ly Father, who is infinitely kinder and
more tender than the one we had lost,
how can we think of Him other than as
the blessed One who loves all and seeks
their welfare. But if you and l have
lived in homes that 1 have seen; if the
one who should have been father, was
a severe, tyrannical, unloving, wicked
man; if the mother, who should have
been our best and nearest friend, was
one who knew no God higher than her
self, no pleasure beyond appetite. What
would father and home mean to us
Places of anguish and sorrow; fountains
of crime and wickedness How glad
when we could get away from home and
only sorry when circumstances seemed
to drive US thither again How crush
ing are such remembrances, and how
! fearfuly cruel must be those who either
carelessly or consciously inflict such
sorrow.


Home cannot be made happy and
pleasant without labor. The greatest
blessings of this life do not usually come
unsought. Pleasant homes are the re-
suit of patient prayerful effort. There is
ness does not prevail. If impatient, fret
full, fault-fnding has entered into either
parents heart, peace and quiet will soon
| desert that household. Let the good
angel of kindness hover over that circle
and it shall become a charmed one !;
each one will bear another's burden, and
add to each others joys.


! Children cannot be still; they should
not if they could hence some employ
ment must be found for them. Many
mothers are fretted, harsh words are said
whose effects never die, simply because
the little ones are instinctively meeting
the demands of their natures. Employ
them. and save their own feelings and
your temper. As l write, a vision of the
past comes up before me. When young
man, unblessed with wife or child of my
own, l taught an academy in a western
State. l boarded with a family who
treated me kindly, but who had no idea
of child-training. One day while busy
with my books, heard womans voice,
but the tones were far from subdued:
willie, if you don't be quiet I'll knock
your head off Poor headless Willie.
Ny first thought was to rush down, and
if possible, prevent this murderous de-
capitation. But in a moment l saw that
Willie, child as he was, understood him
| self, and also his mother, and felt in no
more danger of losing his head than 1
did. Think of a child reared amid such
influences, daily hearing such language,
and that from a mothers lips; not wo-
man of mean associations, but one who
moved in what is often wrongly called
the best circles of society. What high
appreciation that boy must have of his
mothers word and his mothers culture,
if he be living to-day. Your observations
no doubt, have revealed to you many SIM


liar examples. Provide your children