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Fundamentals of Christian Education
is not so. Though 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
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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.
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 presented this as an evidence that He will care for man, who
is of higher consequence than birds and 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
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knowledge of the mysteries of life. The study of the wonderful human