To whom does my child belong? Is it mine, or is it the lord's? Surely this question should not need any discussion by Christian parents! For do we not recognize, even before they are born, that they are peculiarly and exclusively a heritage from the Lord? And when they come into the world, the first effort we put forth is to hold them up and offer them to Him. Now, the keeping of this one fact before the mind of a mother will be the best guiding principle in training, and it is because Christian parents so often forget whose their children are, that they make such mistakes in training them. I say then to you here, mothers, settle it in your minds that your child belongs absolutely to God, and not to you-that you are only stewards for God, holding your children to nurse them and train them for Him.
Now any parent, however poor, unlearned, or occupied, can do this, if only she has the grace of God in her heart, and will take the TROUBLE. A little child who has been rightly trained has unbounded, unquestioning confidence in its parents. What father or mother says, is, to it, an end of all controversy; it never seeks for further proof. This influence, wisely used, will never wear out, but will spread like an atmosphere around the child's moral nature, molding and fashioning all its future life.
I sometimes meet with parents who tell me that at the age of sixteen or seventeen their children have become quite unmanageable, and that they have lost all their influence over them. I cannot tell you which I pity most, such children, or such parents. One of the worst signs of our times is the little respect which children seem to have for their parents. There are numbers of boys and girls of from twelve to seventeen years of age, over whom their parents have little or no control. But how has this come to pass ? Did these children leap all at once from the restraints and barriers of parental affection and authority? Oh, no; it has been the result of the imperceptible growth of years of insubordination and want of proper discipline-the gradual loss of parental influence until they have thrown it off altogether, and resolved to do as they please. Hence the terrible exhibitions we frequently have of youthful depravity, lawlessness, and rebellion.
Well, I think I hear some mother say, "I see; I feel my responsibility, and long to train my children in the way they should go, but-
How am I to do it ? "
First let us look at the meaning of the word "train." It does not mean merely to teach. Some parents seem to have the notion that all they have to do in training their children aright is to teach them; so they cram them with religious sentiment and truth, making them commit to memory the Catechism, large portions of Scripture, a great many hymns, and so on. All very good as far as it goes, but which may all be done without a single stroke of real training such as God requires and such as the hearts of our children need. Nay, this mere teaching, informing the head without interesting or influencing the heart, frequently drives children off from God and goodness, and makes them hate, instead of love, everything connected with Christ.
In the early part of my married life, when my dear husband was traveling very much from place to place, I was frequently thrown into the houses of religious families for three or four weeks at a time, and I used to say to myself, "How is it that these children seem frequently to have a more inveterate dislike for religion and religious things than the children of worldly people who make no profession? Subsequent observation and experience have shown me the reason. It is because such parents inform the head without training the heart. They teach what they neither practice themselves nor take the trouble to see that their children practice, and the children see through the hollow sham, and learn to despise both their parents and their religion.
Mother, if you want to train your child, you must practice what you teach, and you must show him how to practice it also, and you must, at all costs of trouble and care, see that he does it.
Suppose, by way of illustration, that you have a vine, and that this vine is endowed with reason, and will, and moral sense. You say to your vine-dresser, "Now, I want that vine trained"-1:e., made to grow in a particular way, so that it may bear the largest amount of fruit possible to it. Suppose your vine dresser goes to your vine every morning and says to it, "Now, you must let that branch grow in this direction, and that branch grow in another; you are not to put forth too many shoots here, nor too many tendrils there; you must not waste your sap in too many leaves "-and having told it what to do and how to grow, he leaves it to itself.
This is precisely the way many good people act towards their children. But lo! the vine "grows as it likes:nature is too strong for mere theory; words will not curb its exuberance, nor check its waywardness. Your vine-dresser must do something more effectual than talking. He must fasten that branch where he wishes it to grow; he must cut away what he sees to be superfluous; he must lop, and prune, and dress it, if it is to be trained for beauty and for fruitfulness. And just so, mother, if you want your child to be trained for God and righteousness, you must prune, and curb, and propel, and lead it in the way in which it should go.
But some mother says, "What a deal of trouble!"
Ah, that is just why many parents fail:they are afraid of trouble; but, as Mrs. Stowe says, " If you will not take the trouble to train Charlie when he is a little boy, he will give you a great deal more trouble when he is a big one." Many a foolish mother, to spare herself trouble, has left her children to themselves, and "a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame!" Many parents teach their children in theory the right way, but, by their negligence and indifference, train them in just the opposite.
See that mother seated at some important piece of work which she is anxious to finish; her three little children are playing around her-one with his picture-book, another with his horse and cart, and baby with her doll. It is Monday afternoon, and only yesterday she was giving those children a lesson on the importance of love and goodwill amongst themselves:that was the teaching, now comes the training. Presently Charlie gets tired of his pictures, and without asking permission, takes the horse and cart from his younger brother, whereupon there is a scream, and presently a fight. Instead of laying aside her work, restoring the rightful property, explaining to Charlie that it is unjust and unkind to take his brother's toys, and to the younger one that he should rather suffer wrong than scream and fight, she goes on with her work, telling Charlie that he is a "very naughty boy, "and making the very common remark, that she thinks there never were such troublesome children as hers!
Now, who cannot see the different effect it would have had on these children if that mother had taken the trouble to make them realize and confess their faults, and voluntarily exchange the kiss of reconciliation and brotherly affection? What if it had taken half-an-hour of her precious time, would not the gain be greater than that which would accrue from any other occupation, however important? Mothers, if you want your children to walk in the way they should go, you must not only teach, you must be at the trouble to train.
The first and most important point is to secure obedience. Obedience to properly constituted authority is the foundation of all moral excellence, not only in childhood, but all the way through life. And the secret of a great deal of the lawlessness of these times, both towards God and man, is, that when children, these people were never taught to submit to the authority of their parents; and now you may convince them ever, so clearly that it is their duty, and would be their happiness, to submit to God, but their unrestrained, unsubdued wills have never been accustomed to submit to anybody, and it is like beginning to break in a wild horse in old age. Well may the Prophet inquire, '' Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil ?" God has laid it on parents to begin the work of bringing the will into subjection in childhood and to help us in doing it, He has put in all children a tendency to obey. Watch any young child, and you will find that, as a rule, his instincts lead him to submit. Insubordination is the exception, until this tendency has been trifled with by those who have the care of him. Now, how important it is, in right training, to take advantage of this tendency to obedience, and not on any account allow it to be weakened by encouraging exceptional rebellion! In order to do this, you must begin early enough. This is where multitudes of mothers miss their mark; they begin too late. The great majority of children are ruined for the formation of character before they are five years old by the foolish indulgence of mothers.
(To be concluded in our next number, D. V.)