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What Shall Our Children Read?
111
We are constantly surrounded by unbelief. The very atmosphere
seems charged with it. Only by constant effort can we resist its
power. Those who value their salvation should shun infidel writings
as they would shun the leprosy.
Preoccupy the Soil
The best way to prevent the growth of evil is to preoccupy the soil.
Instead of recommending your children to read
Robinson Crusoe
,
or fascinating stories of real life, such as
Uncle Tom’s Cabin
, open
the Scriptures to them, and spend some time each day in reading
and studying God’s word. The mental tastes must be disciplined and
educated with the greatest care. Parents must begin early to unfold
the Scriptures to the expanding minds of their children, that proper
habits of thought may be formed.
No effort should be spared to establish right habits of study. If
the mind wanders, bring it back. If the intellectual and moral tastes
have been perverted by overwrought and exciting tales of fiction, so
that there is a disinclination to apply the mind, there is a battle to be
fought to overcome this habit. A love for fictitious reading should
be overcome at once. Rigid rules should be enforced to hold the
mind in the proper channel.
Between an uncultivated field and an untrained mind there is a
striking similarity. In the minds of children and youth the enemy
sows tares, and unless parents keep watchful guard, these will spring
up to bear their evil fruit. Unceasing care is needed in cultivating the
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soil of the mind and sowing it with the precious seed of Bible truth.
Children should be taught to reject trashy, exciting tales, and to turn
to sensible reading, which will lead the mind to take an interest in
Bible story, history, and argument. Reading that will throw light
upon the Sacred Volume and quicken the desire to study it is not
dangerous, but beneficial.
The Sabbath School Lesson
The Sabbath school affords to parents and children an opportu-
nity for the study of God’s word. But in order for them to gain that
benefit which they should gain in the Sabbath school, both parents