EARLY EDUCATION THE BASIS OF CHARACTER. A Sermon Preached by Rev. Alexan- der Alison, Pastor of the Alex- ander Presbyterian Church, Nineteenth and Green Sts, Philadelphia. TEXT ~“Train up a Child in the way he should go : and when he is old, he will not depart from ¢.— Proverbs xxii. 6. If any one should ask the question, “Why do I lay so much emphasis upon the training of the young?" as I shall hope to develop in the course of this address, I would be constrained to reply, because I beliove that such teaching lies at the very foundation of all spiritual character; and because I feel in my own heart the benefit of such instruction, There is, perhaps, no text of scripture of more vital importance to parents, guardians, and those who are in any way connected with the training of the young, than this one. It not only establishes a fact, but also conveys a promise. Jam aware that there are those who have taken exception to this passage of the in- spired Canon. Thereare those who say that in some cases the text is untrue. How can any one, who believes the Bible to be the inspired Word of the living God do this? It may be that we imagine a possible excep- tion, because we have not examined the sub- jeot in its every aspect. This fact will probably discover itself as wo proceed. People may argue, If they will, that in some cases children are so naturally prone to evil that all efforts to train them in the paths of rectitude and virtue will be futile: but I feel quite sure they cannot prove their point; they cannot establish their premise. No deviation ever took place from the de- claration of the text. NO one can prove that a child trained up in the way he should go ever departed from it in after life. But, methinks, 1 hear the remark: “Have not the children of pious parents, ministers of the I. for instance, departed in manhood and womanhood from the way of truth, religion and virtue?” Admitted. FORM parted from the way in which they were trained. Ministers, like other people, are hu- man, and, therefore, liable to err in the train ing of their little ones. They are apt to be inconsiderate in their af- fection; and by excessive indulgence, perhaps, their children in the way of wrong. It is pos. sible to hurt, yea, even as the says, “to kill with kindness." I have heard a minister of my acquaintance say, “I believe it is our true wisdom to always exercise the spirit of forgiveness ance when they err, thor than to punish.” This may be true, and doubtless is =o certain sense, but not so altogother. the sacred writer? “He that spareth the hateth his child,” i. ¢., his child will grow upto draw out his hatred and dislike: and “sparing the rod” it an evidence of love, converse, more forcible than moral. from our Heavenly Father's those who are His believing children, who i8 ever considerate in His love and affec- tion for the heirs of glory * He loves,” and yet, on the other hand also informed, * children, so the Him." If the rod is spared, the child know how casy and lenient guardian, and fear (i ¢., being absent, he indulges in kinds of disobedience, mischief and pranks. It of the attributes of the Christian nat “fear God" as well as “keep His © mente." Not with a timid fear, but wit coming reverence an fear and fear that is dev a def respect. planted in th earthly parent A parent wi WEYS Most resp. . teacher, whether in school, althe t COUrse, very Where proper seipl will respect rity withou except there has been 8 violation of the law ; and if the girl knows assuredly that penalty will certainly be enforced when laws are broker nds set at variance, he or she will soon « » to avoid the repeti. tion of those offences which are displeas. to the parent, and if allowed to go un. “the little foxes that spoil the sn Let us learn a lesson dealings with we Like as Lord pitieth them that fear i soon comes to the parent or t for his laws is repel Various is on ure mmand ha be 1 godly awe ne is on ant afraid, Fite Oy OF little ing pu inished, are Yies, Children often know more, and are sharper and shrewder than we give them credit for. They soon discover whether we are inclined to indulge th n their faults and little follies, or to psy out the full penalty of their childish indiscretions: and as surely as they do in infancy, ely shall they carry tone dencies inte ont and womanhood. There is no doubt at all of the truth of our text. It 18 Just as grout 4 truism 88 Solomon or any one ever uttered. “Train up a child in the way be should go, and when be is ald he will not de part from i But some one may remark: “What are i going to make of diggreition r “Well, I besieve there is much, very much, in the influence of disposition. 1 believe there is more tr uth than poetry in the well-known adage, “Blood wili tell.” 1 believe, also, that the same theories that prevail among men in regard to the bumbler members of the animal kingdom, will not be found absurd when ap- plied to God's highest création-man. If a gentleman desires a valuable horse, he is anx- ious ~earnestly so, to know 11s antecedents, its pedigree. Nor does this prevent his exercising great diligence in the training of the colt. He does not allow the animal to grow up merely trusting to its record for admirable results, No! he uses, if anything, more care in such a vase, believing that bis attention to the laws of equestrian culture and development will be more richly rewarded than in ordinary cases, But with an animal of good disposition Ine herited from a noble sire, or dam, he knows how comparatively easy is the work of produc ing a pleasing eect, Bo it is with the gems homo, Where od and stable chara by one’s parents and grand-parents, the work of fulfilling the text is comparatively easy. Whore, however, nosuch thing exists the faith. ful training of the godly parent or guawdian will undoubtedly produ. o marvelous results in proof the statement found in the text, “Train up a child, ete.” But | cannotdwell. Time will not permit mo to consider as fully as might be desired the subject of matural disposition that is, the die position inherited—-asa factor in the education of the child, It is proper, however, to say in leaving this part of our subject, that the man or woman who fully understands the idea involved in the fs BO thos of the study of the child, his disposition. Every. thing depends on the discovery of this. Buch knowledge 18 to the work of education, or Slonding out” what the foundation is to a house. No two children are alike, and here is the point where they mainly differ, especially in the moral aspect of the question. But a word ere | pass to the more pat ticular elucidation of the text on what wo sometimes hear said about the children of ministers and other prominent workers. Some one says, “Minister's sons are the hard- rut cases.” Is this true? Statistics have shown that windy-siz per cont. of the sons of the Manse turn out fine Christian men, a large number of them, like ther fathers, ministers, Of the four per cent. who do not, it Is sald that three-fourths of that four per gent. go down by reason of strong drink 4 #, outside influ. ence which cannot be entirely guarded against, The same high rates hold good conversely in the ranks of those who are from parents of vicious habits and blunted moral sensibilitios, ‘Why then do people talk so about the children of ministers? Because they hess more about them and thelr households, doubtioss, In leav. ing this, let me ask you individually to think of the number of minister's children you have to the bad. You will find the # “Teach a child in the way, ote.” No, 1° is “Train.” Now, what is the difference? Its very striking! I will use a Bomely, yet, I think, #p- propriate Hustration, Walter, we shall suppose comes dashing into the parlor, throws down his coat on the floor of the ball and off again with a rush to play. His mother shouts after him: “Walter, Walter, come here!” The obedient boy at once returns to his mother's presence, She says: “Walter, my boy, you ought not to have thrown your coat on the floor; ploase do not do it again.” In the meantime, however, she has picked it up herself. She has mado a mistake; she has not gone quite far enough. She has simply taught, not “tralned’’ Walter. If she had sald “Walter, you will be good enough to hang that coat in its proper place.” Bho has shown him how to carry out her wishes. Bhe had trained her boy into the act of doing prop- erly his duty. And we thus see a profound difference be- tween merely telling a child what to do, an! having him do it on the spot. It is the diffor- once botwoen teaching and training. The text does not say “Teach,” but “Train.” The latter method, therefore, is the method the text, and doubtless wore this more Hterally carried out we would find very few persons who would take exception to this portion of Holy Writ, But (2d) children can be trained. Is thisa fact? Yes. We havo just been noticing this very point. Children can bo trained. When children are born into the world they wre born with all the latent powers of manhood within them. Time and nature are roquired to de velop those powers and bring them into pay. All the physical, mental and moral propo: tics aro there, subjectively they can not help developing: they will do 80 In one of two directions, either to wards the goal of excellence, which alone is or towards the high- which ends in nothing good. There are in every child Let us never forget this TH fact. The college the student because he saw in him the possi. President of the Republie, recognized this idea. The brain with ull its fire park that time a and into a flame that wil mine History abundant- YI may fan the world by its brightness, ly proves the truth of this position. What Is true of the physical and mental, is equally true of the moral. Certain causes pro- certain effects, Just so; if mating influences are brought to bear upon the physi- y 50 shall the body be properly mature a, and healthy in its man hood, making due allowance, of course, as al- for hereditary taint or pro- monitory disposition. It is training, however, ng of nature alone, that makes, in a large sense, the healthy body. Its duce invige The science of gymnastics, the laws of hygiene, ete, are now so well understood that even an unhealthy body can be mu with the soul than It is wo ple nwa i chiid people generally imagine v by attention to the sim. living in the training of a witha te: ney, for instance, to cone sumption, the evil day—the day of death-—can be warded off to an indefinite period. Nor fs all this a whit less true, as we have seen, to the mind, wthy our belief when argued {a reference to the soul tural for the youth to leam: be grow up in solid knowledge or nor less wi must cither stadid lend SOO, If good, true know mental vision he will rubbish is presented is and ot} ther grow upward or d is ns choloo ion: upward, Wi. the dow noou rs : of education i “I lead out.” A child may be tral oy th Ys upordown. Our text very sin plies the fact, God w ord the an child, ete,” if it Your child then let him be early set in the pr will conti ue to walk therein. If be is taught carly to desire God he will al. wars be an admirer and a doer of it. Habit will become second nature. Goosd habits can be legmed as wei wd ones, bul not wo easily i n up a child in the way he should go, and “Tral i not depart from it. ngly lm before Train up a “train JUAgT wig being susce pt when he is old hie wi Bat, agein, the toxt suggests also th y is the time to train, and strongly mph no other time will o It says, “Train up a child fot som; such would be ard. It iflt not only with the cone perience, but with the actual laws of nature “ As the bough is bent, the tree is inclined.” fsa well-known saying. If you bend the twig when i: is green it wili grow as bent: You cannot pos. bend a fullgrown tree, If you wish to nth os that a full-grown would be in fusions of ex. per abe LO iy our circurmtances than many of us generally imagine, While circumstances do not form, thoy in a very emphatic sense confirin charmo- tor. But to {llustrate the point more fully and show the absurdity of such reasoning. let me remark that I have heard people say: “1 believe those children who are allowed to grow up, re- gardless of the laws of healthful attention; those children who seem to roll mostly in the mud: who are continually exposed to the ele ments eto; who are not kept covered with warm clothing and supplied with tho other esscntinls to a healthy existence, turn out the hardiest and the strongest.” Fallaclous reason ing. 1 have not the slightest doubt that chil. dren who survive such unnatural treatment are really healthy, robust and strong. Otherwise they must have died. In making such declarations ag we have re- ferred to, 1. ¢., that roughest treatment makes the strongest children, we are too often guided by particular, notgeneral observation, We do not allow our vision to include sufficient terri- tory. Our promises are wrong to begin with, therefore our conclusions cannot possibly be correct. We forgot the hundreds and thou- sands-aye! tens of thousands of children who have died from such neglect and exposure. It really requires strong, healthy children physi- cally, to withstand such treatment, and I am very much impressed with the thought that the children who survive euch monstrous deal- ing are about one in every hundred of those go exposed, while the ninety and ninesucoumb to the neglect of nature's laws and He concealed within the tomb, and far enough away from There isa very large portion of our race i f + Begin then the work of culture mental and spiritual--or as some people call it, in yout bh. This is most emphatically the period of life referred to in the text. [tis clearly shown, not only by these words, but by actual experience, that youth is the best, in fact, the only time to train in “wisdom's ways, whose ways are ways of pleasantoes, ote.” A child can be taught almost anything in infancy He can be taught also to avoid and overcome tae COIL that which ls eviland degrading, If the child has the tendencies in him after that which is vigions, you may root them out in youth, or at least so effectually subdue them that the better principles inculoated will pre vail. You eannot do so, however, in after life, When the tares and the wheat have become so thoroughly the upperhand, there Is much danger of de- stroying the valuable cereal in the effort to up- root the useless wild growth, Discover, then, in time man, Again, the boy who steals his mother's apples and pears, or even his coming largely dishonest in after life. Again, 1 say. Hoot it outl Train the children to shun the very appearance of evil. Show them what is right and wrong now, olse you may depend the girl's nature. ‘Train the children to teil the truth. Train them to love it. If this is done they will be truthful in manhood and woman hood. If this is neglected they will, perhaps, be liars, and uoiversally migtrusted. Disregard for truth, for one’s word Is a terrible failing. Some one has said: “A Har is worse than a thief; you can hold the hands of the latter, but you cannot control the tongue of him whose false. hood is matter of common report.” The law reaches the one, and soarcely touches the other. But, this 1s not all. Our text leads us to cone sider another point of great importance, “It says “Train wp a child in the way he should go,” 4. 6. not in the way he would go. It requires no labor to train in the way he would go. it is moat e iy nothing but labor if wa would train them bs Ways our toxt, fe, Yap” as i hel “should go.” Idron require 80 attention at all to grow as they would; but that is down. Let them alone and they will go in that direotion naturally. But someone argues thus: “I have soen chil dren grow by their pareats, and tum a Bf smitted. They domg. times no thank Jutrends for The circumstances around them have boon tan ireatie forranmtely Ambibed those Ti not cde rE they reevived them | MOTE eRe, 3 Puthaps, bave mor reason tot nk God frequently fer of five, and if the cause of death were really ns. coertained (as it cannot be by man), it would, doubtless, be found that neglect on the part of parents and nurses to pay proper attention to the demands of physical law in the care of the h to do with the fatal results rm that the exercise nee of hyg I venture to study of the sc and the usesand rether with a fee 11 SCnRe with will, win those dren of a tender gr decreas What body, of entrusted the onre of chil ead to a larg mortality. in regard to ference Wo in the ratio of I have been sas I also plead in nr thie eotual and spiritual parts Parents ardians, teachers, with the education of the young, soe you are using every means to ‘train not in the WAY thoy “in the they should go. The text wid to ¥ Who else can it mean? Those who have been instructed with the and moral training of ome Yad nover-dying souls should rea without delay, their great ress sibility text is for pow’ Listen to its voioe! fort to obey its teach And now that we have consi Junction of the text, kt us prox yea, the practios ways in which we may be he infantil the phen, hild, connpeted that up" iy ing the hig of the « all to it them WOH is addres ng. fered the iIn- ood to exa Ww t able should gor” NALTOW WAY asting Mfe, for that is Goad, i query area few of the to “train up a «< that is, as I under that leadeth unto « ever the idea of the Word of fill in the way stand it, fry the verl y our minds to this one tho ally the sine qua nor num of all our effort in the id “fe i frst ; the the whole oh is of the ng tow over, if pos ble ingoid or preci fil of it highest Importan tk on anything, its vaiu yal SLOTION ¢ the materials ths Id be. Jewelers Every part therefore, the fort Lirass or | £1 We killed on eis precious the ¢ ot ago. b wala, D } yOu re w not, such is the f invaluable souls are m peace or misery, i in Heaven or Hell If you are satisfod, portance of your charge, Kindly do not the following hinta to fall unheeded on Cars, First. Have your own soul ! Be sure your owe hout this you will di how to cond tL the higher spur tual odie of your offs g. lH youen or do aot know the language cannot teach it to your childrea. If you have pever studied the art of chirography yourself, it is not within the mange of possibility that you will be abies to lead your offspring to dis. tinction in the scicnoe of omligraphy.or oven to tnaster the oommon ruled of writing. The same, spiritually If you do not possess quaintance with as he is revealed in know how fo sorye others the wonder Y ou cannot “train” § destined either then, con rT Tn safe, 1salvat "wo now ledg Or sister Wit 0 §& sex jon not speak French, yourself, you an experimental ao- Christas a personal Saviour the Gospel, you do not Him, and cannot tell to sis story of redeeming grace, our child to love Him Secure, then, your own vation. “Make your (own) calling and election sure” and then begin with family worship, This will have a wonderful effect. Never misma day. If learn to, Never say can’t. Christ can make you able, “I can do all things, through Christ, who strength. says the apostio of the Gentiles, also say. Hear again the nd “No If it ia a very heavy burden for you to pray good edition family prayers, and read one every and evening. If rend in the proper spirit, why should not Have singing also in Your child will be greatly im- Do not forget to train the young beart to love the praises of the Lond, The power of song is be. but not suf. I notice that in a great many homes With. ciently so. singing in family worship is neglected, and uninteresting to the young. I most emphatically urge this part of the sere vice, Sometimes we hoar complaints that con. grogational singing is being neglected in our churches, and blame fs laid upon the well. trained choir. Is it not possiblo—yea, probable, that we are putting the blame on the wrong shoulders? May it not be that the pas