Year: 1873

Safeguards to Purity.


There are many parents who fancy that
they can bring up their children, and es-
pecially their daughters, in large degree,
ignorant of the evil that is in the world
AS the king in the fairy tale banished all
spinning wheels from his dominions, that
his daughter might not wound her fingers
with spindle, and realize the prophecy of
the spiteful old fairy at her christening,
even so mothers withhold useful and neces-
sary knowledge from their daughters, lest
with it may be mingled something leading
to harm And even as this charming prin.
cess, Notwithstanding every precaution, as
by accident came upon the only spinning
wheel in the realm, was wounded by the
spindle, and fell into her hundred years
slumber, so often does the young lady una
wares, stumble upon experiences OF whose
possible existence she never dreamed and
which are far more disastrous to her than
those that befell the sleeping beauty.


Boys and girls as they grow will learn the
ins and outs of the wicked world. If their
parents do not give them this knowledge,
somebody else will, and the manner in which
the information is given is in all moral re-
spects vastly more important than the mat
ter The parent may instruct the child in
everything it should know, satisfy its curiosi-
ty within proper limits, and thus preoccupy
the ground that otherwise would be sown by
chance cultivators more with tares Of vice
tLaw with the WHEAT cf LnoUledgs.


1t is simply astonishing how soon young
children pick up slang words. vile words,
profane words, and attach to them meanings
1t is equally surprising how instinctively
they conceal all this knowledge from their
parents, and while the mother thinks her
little girl a model Of innocence and purity,
her neighbor may know that such is very
far from being the case Therefore it is
not possible for the mother to cultivate too
great an intimacy with her child. She should
have the juvenile heart spread out before
her as a mirror, rejecting every thought
every passion of the child Thus she will
be able Judiciously to administer antidotes
to vice and build up safeguards to virtue.


Girls are as general rule brought up in
ignorance of very much which it most con-
Germs them to know. Many young lady
dances on the verge OF precipice, not
knowing her danger, and many fall from
virtue because their mothers had not the
COURAGE to warn them of the pitfalls in their
pathway and the steps leading thitherward.
The love of purity, like the love Of knowl-
edge and the love of tame, grows by what
it feeds on, and dies if ii have not suitable
nutriment. The gira and boy who have
steadily held up before their eyes an ideal
of heb and pure womanhood and manhood,
who are taug hit from early childhood that
their soals are alike sacred to purity, will
hardly fail to realize in maturity the highest
wishes of their parents in these respects
Heroic virtue is never the result of ignn-
rance in man or woman. We who know
the shoals along the entrance to mature hlc
should build lighthouses on sunken reefs,
plant buoys in dangerous places, and build
life. boats for the rescue of the shipwrecked.


In his prayer for his disciples, Christ
said IL pray not that thou shouldst take
them out Of the world, but that thou shouldst
keep them from the evil" Purity is not
Inconsistent with knowledge of evil, and as
soon as child is old enough to wander from
the right way, he should be instructed in
the dangers that arc most likely to befall
him, and the way in which it can be avoid
ed.


When there is a perfect understanding
between parents and children; when the
daughter feels that she can confde every
thought and desire of her heart to her moth
er, and the son is in full sympathy and
counsel with his father, there is little dan
ger that the happiness Of the parents will
be wrecked by the proAigacy of their chill
dren. Many grown people seem to think
there is no harm done in evading questions
asked by children, or in giving such answers
as totally mislead and confuse them. This
is wolul mistake, and most disastrous con-
sequences follow it. Truth never Injuries
any nybody, and though it may be diluted, so
to speak when given to children, any false
hood mingled with it is deadly poison. The
ranks of fallen women in our great cities are
LARGELY recruited from the country. Rarely
does any young woman knowing her danger
become identified with this unfortunate class,
and Young men who have been forewarned
by judcous parents of the allurng tempta
tions which seek them out on every hand
are too wise to wander far from the paths OF
virtue.


\ tea made of peach leaves is sure cure
for kidney difficulty