Home Education
59
the results of her work are not apparent, angels of God are watching
the careworn mother, noting the burdens she carries from day to day.
Her name may never appear upon the records of history, or receive
the honor and applause of the world, as may that of the husband and
father; but it is immortalized in the book of God. She is doing what she
can, and her position in God’s sight is more exalted than that of a king
upon his throne; for she is dealing with character, she is fashioning
minds.
[70]
The mothers of the present day are making the society of the future.
How important that their children be so brought up that they shall be
able to resist the temptations they will meet on every side in later life!
Whatever may be his calling and its perplexities, let the father take
into his home the same smiling countenance and pleasant tones with
which he has all day greeted visitors and strangers. Let the wife feel
that she can lean upon the large affections of her husband,—that his
arms will strengthen and uphold her through all her toils and cares,
that his influence will sustain hers, and her burden will lose half its
weight. Are the children not his as well as hers?
Let the father seek to lighten the mother’s task. In the time that he
would devote to selfish enjoyment of leisure, let him seek to become
acquainted with his children—associate with them in their sports, in
their work. Let him point them to the beautiful flowers, the lofty trees,
in whose very leaves they can trace the work and love of God. He
should teach them that the God who made all these things loves the
beautiful and the good. Christ pointed his disciples to the lilies of the
field and the birds of the air, showing how God cares for them, and
presenting this as evidence that he will care for man, who is of higher
consequence than birds or flowers. Tell the children that however
much time may be wasted in attempts at display, our appearance can
never compare, for grace and beauty, with that of the simplest flowers
of the field. Thus their minds may be drawn from the artificial to the
natural. They may learn that God has given them all these beautiful
things to enjoy, and that he wants them to give him the heart’s best and
holiest affections.
Parents should seek to awaken in their children an interest in the
study of physiology. Youth need to be instructed in regard to their own
bodies. There are but few among the young who have any definite
knowledge of the mysteries of life. The study of the wonderful human
[71]