"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.' "Why should you think so?' "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. But 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 the limits of the play-ground, they need to be struct in the way preperity. And their self-interest demani- that they beed the recept. A young girl desired to attend a ball. Her inter repre tel 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 gut be a fi w professors of religion present, simply enough to give it a deceptive appearance of innocency, he knew that its further indungences might prove baneful to the purity of his daughter; ani so his app and to her reason by placing a coal in her pure hate', and then as its trates were visible and annoying, he enforced his desin that she might be kept from the contaminations which affet the hean. The is an age at which the blaze is a coveted deligin, but year- bilag an experience which acknowledges the danger of such an incalgeno. Parents usually are the most competent judges, and cloud be permitted to direct, in order that prosperity may use with it natural blessing. "But the highest prosperity do for og eis in material treasure. There is something to be desired more the flocks and loads. Di peace of mind, the absence of unavailing give and of cukering remorse. A friend comforted a bersavet young man by tombud. y him that he had done everything in compact with the wishes of his deceased parents. Ah,' said he, I thought I had, but now I see many, many instances where I was thoughts, solish and wilful."" In regard to your boy you w!! need to excrcise much judgment. patience and forbearance. The Baptist Reflector suggests rightly that you do not know what is in him. “Food him; clothe him; love him. He is a boy; and most boys are bad. You think hin. so light-hearted and fear he is light-headed as well. But reve mbr 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-ra Eng, playful, tho" ** less you almost despair. But don't be snappish and snar make him feel that you are disappointed in hin and you are to live in him. He bears your on down the stream of time. He inherits your fortune and fame, and is to transmit them to generations to come. "It cannot be otherwise. A daughter divides your fortune, transmits less of your fame, and loses your name. A boy is more nearly yourself than anything else can be. It is through your boy you go down in history; through your boy you are to live in the future; by him you are to act upon the generation that is to come. "It may be difficult to govern him; but be patient. He may seem averse to everything useful and good; but wait. No one can tell what is in a boy. He may surprise you some day. Hope. Let him grow. While his body grows larger and stronger, his mental and moral nature may "Educate your boy. money spent in vain. expand and improve. You may think money spent in that way is There is nothing in him; he has no pride, no ambition, no aspiration. You don't know. No one can tell what is in a boy. Beside, there may be an unkindled spark, an unfanned flame, a smouldering fire, a latent energy, which the teacher's rod may stir, the association with books may arouse and develop and direct, and thus start your boy agoing, with such energy and determination that no power on earth could stop him short of the topmost round in the ladder of fame. "If you cannot educate him, let him educate himself. That is the best way. That will make him strong, a giant with whom no one dare interfere. Such are the best men in the world. The greatest benefactors of the race have stooped their shoulders to bear burdens, have carried hands hardened with rough labor, have endured the fatigue of toil. Many such are in Labor omnia vincit-Labor conquers all things. was right. We see it in a thousand instances. man. No boy ever came to be a man, the noblest work of God, without labor. This is God's great law; there is a divine philosophy in it. Let your boy work; if he will not work, make him work. There is no progress, no development, no outcome, no true manhood without it. We must work. our minds now. The old Roman Labor makes the "Father, be kind to your boy. We know what a mother will do. Thank God! A mother's love, a mother's prayers follow us still; and the memory of her anxious tears shall never fade out during |