Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time.
283
Children are like the to-morrow of society.
--_Whately._
284
Children think not of what is past, nor what is to come, but enjoy the present time, which few of us do.
--_Bruyere._
285
_Children_--I love these little people; and it is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from G.o.d, love us.
--_d.i.c.kens._
286
Love of children is always the indication of a genial nature, a pure and unselfish heart.
287
MY CHILDREN.
What use to me the gold and silver h.o.a.rd?
What use to me the gems most rich and rare?
Brighter by far--aye! bright beyond compare-- The joys my children to my heart afford!
288
Children need models rather than critics.
--_Joseph Joubert._
289
_Spurgeon said_: "With children we must mix gentleness with firmness; they must not always have their own way, but they must not always be thwarted. If we never have headaches through rebuking them, we shall have plenty of heartaches when they grow up. If you yield up your authority once, you will hardly ever get it again."
290
Parents deserve reproof when they refuse to benefit their children by proper discipline.
291
My dearest pastime is with children.
292
Children are poor men"s riches.
293
Nothing has a better effect upon children than praise.
--_Sir P. Sidney._
294
_Their Little Needs_--It is often a.s.serted that both men and women would be selfish beings but for children. They call out, and refine, and soften the best feelings of the parental heart. Their little needs are so many, and their simple ignorance so affecting, and their very caprices so winning, that love and attention flow out to them almost instinctively.
That must be a hardened nature which can be unmoved by the soft touch, the playful childishness, and the hundred little pranks of a baby.
--_Unknown._
295
You can not expect better manners from your children than you teach them. They imitate instinctively.
296
Children should be taught early to sympathize with the deformed, the crippled, and otherwise unfortunate beings: A little dwarfed girl in one of our great cities committed suicide a few years ago because she was so weary of being laughed at and ridiculed by her a.s.sociates in the streets and at school.
An old street pedlar was set upon by school children and so annoyed and misused that he became insane.
297
MY CHILDREN STILL.
A young preacher recently called upon an eminent Divine, and in the course of conversation asked him how many children he had. "Four, sir,"
was the reply. At the supper-table, the visitor perceived two beautiful children seated by the side of the mother. Turning to his host, he said, "I thought you had four children, sir: Where are the other two?" Lifting his eyes, the holy man of G.o.d pointed upwards, while a sweet smile broke over his countenance. "They are in Heaven," he repeated slowly and calmly; "yet my children still: not dead, but gone before."