When he was a boy, and should have breathed Condemn your children only when they are really wrong, and commend them heartily when right. Don't magnify trifling faults into grave offenses. Don't attribute bad motives to the thoughtless little transgressors. Unfair suspicion has ruined many an innocent little life. Fear not that you will exercise too much genuine charity. Blame less, praise more. Some parents and teachers seem to think praise a dangerous thing for children. "We know," says the Youth's Companion, "that it is risky to add to an old saw, but if such would digest this nursery rhyme they would be more popular with youth: 'All work and no play "One of the greatest of English divines, Isaac Barrows, received in his boyhood only blame from his father, who thought him stupid. He used to express his contempt for him by saying that if it pleased God to take from him any of his children, he hoped it might be Isaac. Yet when the University of Cambridge sought for a successor to the great Newton, stupid Isaac Barrows was the man they selected. Mr. William Matthews tells an anecdote which illustrates the stupidity of some parents and teachers. A boy was brought one day to Gen. Salem Towne, labelled as an incorrigible dunce. No master had been able to make him learn, and if Mr. Towne couldn't he should be apprenticed to a trade. Mr. Towne proceeded to examine him. The boy soon made a mistake and instantly dodged, as if frightened. "Why do you do that?' asked the master. "Because I was afraid you were going to strike me.’ "Because I have always been struck whenever I made a mistake.' "You need never fear being struck by me,' said Mr. Towne. That is not my way of treating boys who do as well as they can.' "Under the wise teacher's judicious encouragement the boy showed so much intelligence that he was sent to college. In after years he became a lawyer, an editor, a judge, a governor, United States Senator, and Secretary of War and State. That boy was William L. Marcy, of New York.” "Give the young," says the New York Advocate, "safe views of the value and usefulness of wealth. Most parents have a natural and laudable desire that their offspring shall possess its comforts and advantages. It is a mighty power for good or for evil, and our duty lies in so training our youth that they may know how to make it a blessing. Teach them how to earn it, how to save it, and how to spend it. "Inspire in them noble ambitions and lofty purposes, and so shape their minds that they will instinctively shun any action that looks solely to mere personal gratification. Teach them to 'Count each day lost whose low-descending sun You want your children to prosper; guide them, then, in a prosperous way. Most will agree with Rev. Dr. W. W. Ramsey, that age, experience, love, are the important factors in this relation. Every child needs direction-first in reference to education; secondly, in reference to moral character; thirdly, in reference to worldly enterprise. In none of these is the young person sufficient, and in each there is the probability that obedience will secure prosperity. Parents know better what studies the child should take up, and what associations he should have, and what investments he should make. Their solicitude may not always be wisely directed, but the probabilities are that it will lead to success. it is in the department of morals we would speak with most of emphasis. It is here that undisciplined wilfulness is most frequently apparent. Because the fearful harvests of incipient sins are hidden away behind the years, children refuse to recognize their possibility. Because their observation cannot introspect more than But the limits of the play-ground, they need to be instructed in the way of prosperity. And their self-interest demands that they heed the precept. A young girl desired to attend a ball. Her father represented that it would be perilous to do so. He knew that such institutions were arranged by persons who had no reverence for the Saviour, nor sacred things, and that while there might be a few professors of religion present, simply enough to give it a deceptive appearance of innocency, he knew that its further indulgences might prove baneful to the purity of his daughter; and so he appealed to her reason by placing a coal in her pure hand, and then as its traces were visible and annoying, he enforced his desire that she might be kept from the contaminations which affect the heart. There is an age at which the blaze is à coveted delight, but years bring an experience which acknowledges the danger of such an indulgence. Parents usually are the most competent judges, and should be permitted to direct, in order that prosperity may ensue with its natural blessing. "But the highest prosperity does not consist in material treasure. There is something to be desired more than flocks and lands. It is peace of mind, the absence of unavailing regrets and of cankering remorse. A friend comforted a bereaved young man by reminding him that he had done everything in compliance with the wishes of his deceased parents. 'Ah,' said he, 'I thought I had, but now I see many, many instances where I was thoughtless, selfish and wilful.'" But remember In regard to your boy you will need to exercise much judgment, patience and forbearance. The Baptist Reflector suggests rightly that you do not know what is in him. "Feed him; clothe him; love him. He is a boy; and most boys are bad. You think him so light-hearted and fear he is light-headed as well. he calls you father. When he played in your lap, you fondly hoped he would some day be a great and useful man. Now that he has grown larger, and his young blood drives him into gleeful sport, and makes him impatient of serious things-rattling, playful, thoughtless-you almost despair. But don't be snappish and snarlish, and make him feel that you are disappointed in him. He is your boy, and you are to live in him. He bears your name, and is to send it will know how and have the will heartily to help himself when the years of mature life are on him. Take care of your conversation before your children. See that no unseemly word mar its purity, or breath of unkindness disturb its peacefulness. Talk so as to be instructive. Say things worth hearing and your children will listen to you and respect you. Some one truthfully observes, that children hunger perpetually for new ideas. They will learn with pleasure from the lips of parents what they deem drudgery to study in books; and even if they have the misfortune to be deprived of many educational advantages, they will grow up intelligent if they enjoy in childhood the privilege of listening daily to the conversation of intelligent people. We sometimes see parents who are the life of every company which they enter, dull, silent, and uninteresting at home among their children. If they have not mental activity and mental stores sufficient for both, let them first use what they have for their own household. A silent home is a dull place for young people, a place from which they will escape if they can. much useful information on the other hand, is often given in pleasant family conversation, and what conscious, but excellent mental training is lively, social argument! Cultivate to the utmost the graces of conversation. How Respect your children's rights in matters of possession. These tender plants are human beings. For their existence, under God, you are responsible, and certain great principles of life are as sacred to them as to you. Let them know the difference between mine and thine. They have a keen native sense of right and wrong, which only needs early direction to become perfectly settled and clear. "If you respect their rights of property, it will be easy to teach them to respect the rights of others. Children have rights as to one another-in their books, pictures, playthings, etc. them to respect each other's rights. Train "Never compel a child to give up his rights in any of these things -in whatever is his-to another, because that other wants it, and cries for it. In so doing you violate his sense of justice, and leave a scar on his moral nature that, perhaps, never can be healed. All over our country good men lament the widespread corruption of |