Papers on Practical Religion

Liv dear Friends, — I feel a special interest in addressing you on the present occasion; a sort of family feeling resulting from a community of interests which is always inspiring. I have sometimes thought, when I have heard men talking to women on their duties as wives and mothers, their trials and difficulties, and so on — “Ah, it is all very good, but you don’t know much about it, after all.” Now, I do not come to speak to you to-night under this disadvantage, at any rate. I do know something of the things of which I speak; having had a large and young family, I have had some experience of the anxiety, toil, and diffi.culty required in the training and management of young children. It is because I am so well acquainted with the weight of the trials and duties of maternity that I sympathise so deeply with mothers, and would fain help to lighten their burdens by a little practical advice and instruction.

I presume that all here are agreed as to the responsibility devolving on parents to give some sort of training to their children. There is not a mother here who would think it right to leave her child to grow up without discipline or training of some kind! Then the question for us to consider is. What sort of training does God, and our duty to our children, require from

4 The Timulug of Children.

us? In order to get at the answer to this question, the first important matter for a parent to settle in her own mind, is this: To whom does this child belong? Is IT MINE, OR IS IT THE Lord’s? Surely, this question should not need any discussion, at least by Christian parents! For do we not recognise, even before they are born, that they are peculiarly and exclusively a heritage from the Lord; and when they came into the world, the first effort we put forth was to hold them up and offer them to Him? And again, in their Christening we acknowledged that they belonged to Him, and promised to train them for His glory. 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 mothers here, settle it in your minds that your child belongs absolutely to (rod, and not to you — that you are only stewards for God, holding your children to nurse them and train them for Him.

This responsibility arises, 1st. — Out of the command and ordination of iyoi. Both under the old and new dispensations, the Lord has, in the most emphatic and solemn manner, laid the obligation on parents to train their children for Him; lie commands it, to whom both parents and children exclusively belong.

Secondly. — This responsibility arises out of the nature of the relationship between parent and child. The parent is in the most complete sense the owner, the guardian, the director, and controller of the child; its utter helplessness and ignorance when it first comes into the world throws it completely under the

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power of, and at the discretion of, its parents. The poor little infant has no choice but to be led as its parents lead it — no option but to be directed, trained, and developed physically, mentally, and spiritually as its parents develop it; and it is during these early stages of helplessness and ignorance that the impetus is generally given to its future life. There is an old adage, that “They who rock the cradle rule the world,” and they certainly do; but I am afraid that the world has been very badly ruled, just because those who rock the cradle have not known how to train the child. Napoleon once said, that “the great want of France was mothers;” and I am afraid we may say to a greater extent than ever before in our history, that the great want of England is mothers — right-minded, able, competent, Christian mothers, who realise their responsibility to God and to their children, and who are resolved at all costs and sacrifices to discharge it.

Thirdly. — This responsibility arises out of our ability for the task. We are able to train our children in the way they should go, or God would not have enjoined it upon us. He required every father and mother in Israel to train their children for Him — He admitted of no exception, no excuse; and in the New Testament it is assumed as a first duty with believers to train up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” The training God requires is a moral training — THE INSPIKING OF THE CHILD WITH THE LOVE OF GOODNESS, TRUTH, AND RIGHTEOUSNESS, and leading him to its practice and exercise in all the duties and emergencies of life.

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. Training a child in the way he should go does not necessarily imply a scholastic training. All parents have not the power to educate their children, nor to do much for them temporally; they cannot put them in a position to get much of this world’s goods, but these things are not included in right training. A child may be trained for the highest moral and spiritual development without these; and, where there is natural ability, for the highest mental development also. This is abundantly established in the histories of some of our great men. We know what kind of homes some of them were trained in, what humble parentage some of them had, what little learning they had in their early days, but, nevertheless, they were trained in the way they should go, and having been set going in the right path, when they came to mature years they did not fail to help themselves. No poor parent need be discouraged because he cannot educate his children in the popular sense.

God does not require of us more than we can do, and if we train our children, as far as is possible to us, in the way they should go, they will then go in that way for themselves; God’s providence and spirit and their own bias will guide them on and on, as it has done many a son of poor parents, to prosperity, usefulness, and honour in this world, as well as to eternal glory in the next.

But, Fourthly — This responsibility is increased by the opportunity which parents possess, and especially

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mothers, to train their children. Being thrown constantly with them, having them continually under our eye by night and by day, when no one else is there, being acquainted with all their peculiarities of disposition, and entering into all their joys and sorrows, what splendid opportunities occur daily for pruning, correcting, inspiring, leading, and encouraging them, as the case may require.

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