Year: 1874

is neither. Many parents fail in this


they either seek to manage all then
:children in the same way, or to deal with
them as they were dealt with. Each
child is a new being. In some respects
unlike any other that ever preceded OF
any that shall come after it. Find its
nature, its wants, and meet them.


There is no pleasant home where there
is no God worshipped. l do not believe
it possible to rear children in the atmos
phere of kindness, love, and forbearance
of which ] have spoken, unless there is
daily communion with Divine Power.
Says Josh Billings, who, with all his fool
ish sayings has some wise ones, ''if you
want your children to take any road,
sometimes. walk that way yourself.
Children, if taught by precept and exam
/ pie, to reverance heavenly father, will
! have more love for the earthly. The
| father who recognizes his relations to a
divine power, who knows something OF
| the responsibilities that rest upon him !;
when he remembers that the destlnies





be more prudent himself, more care
full of his own example, and more solicit
Gus for the well-ordering of his house
hold, than a man regardless of such re-
lations.


Your children have right at your
hands to a pure, wholesome literature.
So many parents forget that their child
rem have minds as well as bodies. Most
of them are careful to provide food and
raiment for the body, while the mind is
allowed to go hungry and naked, or if
fed, it is upon husks which have no
nourishment You need to develop in
in these little ones love for books and
papers, and then provide them with the
best your means will allow. A love of
reading is one of the most efficient incen-
tives to action, and one of the best pre-
ventives of crime. This is not born with
US, but needs to be cultivated, as does
the other powers of our nature. If you
do not select the reading matter for your
children they will select it for themselves,
and at this age, they are not the best
judges of what they need. You can
readily find what will meet their wants
This age is especially privileged in the
matter of children's literature. Books,
magazines, and papers, designed for the
young, and edited by the best talent in
the land, can be had in great abundance,
and at small cost The world never saw
such facilities for home enjoyment and
home culture as now. 1t will make you
better to thus provide for them, for you
will need to read yourself, so as to enter
into their pursuits, By doing this your
children will have no need to go outside
of their own quiet home to find enjoy
ment and profit. You will not gather
your boys from the street corners and
groceries, and your girls from neigh
boris house, but they shall dwell around
your own freside and grow up intelligent
and celebrated.citizens


Perhaps the worst thing in the world is
a bad book. A bad companion can not
always be with you, but bad book is a
pocket companion. 1t is with you dur
ing the day and leaves you not at night
How many who have become lost to all
purity and goodness have been started
in their downward career by some i'm
pure thought, some blasphemous re-
mark, first seen in bad book. How
many boys have carried such with them
from place to place, shown them to their
companions, and all this time their i'm
pure thoughts were burning themselves
into their very being. If you would save
your children. see what they read. Bad
books, filthy, indecent, blasphemous
newspapers, are published. and the
devils colporteur is always in the land
distributing them. When you least ex-
pect it, a sheet is thrust into your boys
face his curiosity is aroused, he reads,
and the blush ofinnocence soon ceases to
glow upon his countenance. Keep your
children away from such trash by giving
:hem pure, healthful reading. Ifyou fail
here, you have failed entirely. You may
talk and advise, you may demonstrate
and warn, but if children's minds are to
be the sewers for the filth and garbage
of unclean publishers, then woe be to
you and your children. An Egyptian
plague of locusts, and lice, and frogs COM
bined would be blessing compared with
that.


In an admirable address before the
"Chatauqua S. S. Assembly" Mrs. Emf
ly Huntington Miller, uttered the follow
ing precious thought, which l wish to
commend to your attention;


"You who choose so carefully the food
which your child eats, and the loving
companions which surround him, must
learn to give equal consideration to that
which feeds and stimulates his thoughts
to the silent companions that give i'm
pulse and direction to the very purpose
of his soul. Will you let your child
drift away from you under the guidance
of a strange pilot rather than put your
own hand to the helm? 1t is for you
to shape his literary tastes from the
| hour he sits upon your knee and listens,
wondering, and but half comprehending,
to the sweetest story your lips can tell,
the blessed miracle of Bethlehem. 1t is
for you to chose his books, and so win
his confidence, that you may be his safe
and beloved guide through the dangers
that threaten him. This deadly appetite
for sensational reading begins in the
home with the books, the papers, the
magazines, whose aim is to amuse; and
it must be fought at home if we would
keep the poison out of our s. S. itera-
ture"


! This will take money, you say, and you
have none to spend No money for the
| mental and moral welfare of vour child