Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old he
will not depart from it.--_Prov. 22, 6._
It has grown to be a custom to speak at this time a few words
concerning our youth. No one, I trust, will dispute the wisdom, nor
question the appropriateness of this. After months of relaxation
and rest our little ones have returned to the walls and duties of
school life. God grant His blessing that they may become intelligent
citizens, worthy and useful members of the commonwealth. That is our
pious wish and prayer, and for such wish we have reason abundant.
Perhaps there has been no time when the matter of education and
bringing up of our children has called for so much thought and
concern as at the present. Statisticians tell us what startling
conditions prevail in our country in respect to wrongdoing, that
murders, unchastity, forgeries like a tidal wave are sweeping our
land far above what it is in other countries, and that a large
percentage of these crimes are being perpetuated by mere striplings
of boys. By far the larger number of the inmates of our penal
institutions--work-house and penitentiary--are young men. Our reform
schools--Good Shepherd institutions and similar places--house
boys and girls by the hundreds, causing one to heave a sigh of
inexpressible sadness. Look over the docket of our Juvenile Court,
and it convinces you beyond cavil that there is enough to justify
its existence; and then we have said nothing about the stubbornness
against parents and superiors, flippancy, and other sins of youth
daily on the increase. And who is to blame? Said an honorable judge
of this city lately: "I do say that there is a fearful amount of
depravity among the children in the cities of this country, and
I don't blame the children as much as those who put them into
existence, the parents;" and continuing, he says: "We are prating
entirely too much about the unreal and unsubstantial. After all, the
real questions are the ones that affect the homes and the children
in the homes, and because we have neglected them, we are reaping
the ill results." The testimony of thousands of others could be
quoted to the same effect. Sufficient reason, accordingly, why we
should direct attention to this vital subject. God blessing His word
spoken, let us regard the text which reads: "Train up a child in the
way he should go," noticing that this is done, _I. By instruction_,
_II. by example_, _III. by discipline_.
First in order to a proper training of the young belongs
instruction, and by that we mean religious instruction, education
not of the mind only, but of the heart. We have no quarrel with
education of the mind, the culture of our children in all the
accomplishments and acquisitions of facts and sciences; on the
contrary, we regard intellectual knowledge, to speak with King
Solomon, as more precious than rubies and more to be chosen than
fine gold; we hail with delight every facility and agency that would
make our children just as bright as possible, and commend the spirit
that makes our schools among the most elegant and conspicuous of
public buildings. And yet, education of the mind alone will not
do; we might point in evidence of that to the refined nations of
antiquity. Is not ancient Greece with its music, painting, poetry,
and the arts the model of modern states? And who has not heard
and read of the Romans and the ancient Egyptians and Persians? Go
to your public libraries and see the books on its shelves and the
mutilated statues of Apollo, Juno, and the like that tell of their
genius. Why did these nations not last? Why did the fabric of their
grandeur crumble to pieces? Because it was not combined with the
unperishable principle of virtue, and their want of virtue resulted
from their want of religion.
Far more simple, however, is the consideration that man is not only
mind, but soul, and that this soul is preeminently what makes the
man, here and hereafter; that it is upon the attention given to
that soul that man's happiness, or the reverse, depends. Hence, the
importance and duty of educating the soul. And that duty--where does
it begin? Most assuredly where God first put the children--that
is the home. At as early a period as possible, as soon as the
little ones begin to think and to reason, it is for us to bring
them into uninterrupted contact with the sublime and simple truths
of God's Word. You cannot begin too early. From veriest infancy
let them breathe the air of a religious atmosphere. The names of
God, Jesus, heavenly Father, words like heaven, angels, Bible,
church, and others of this kind, let them be used over and over,
constantly in the hearing of the child. At first they convey but
little meaning to it. But the brain retains even what it at first
does not understand, and day by day the impression deepens and the
understanding grows. Moreover, parents cannot begin too early to
teach the child to abhor sin. Mothers should give especial attention
to their little daughters and train them in maidenly modesty and
chastity, reticence and reserve. And this home education does not
cease when the children at tender age are sent to the Sunday-school
and the parochial school. What great things are expected from that
short lesson on a Sunday morning! How unreasonable to look for
results of any amount unless there be the cooperation of the parents
with the teachers. How many parents cooperate with the Christian
instructors? How often do parents inquire about the Catechism and
Bible history lesson? sing with their children the religious songs
taught? If parents fail to interest themselves in what is going
on in this way, never speak to the little ones about their work,
of what little value must this appear to the children. It needs
the earnest and ardent cooperation of the parents. And so when it
comes to confirmation. What is confirmation? A course of religious
instruction by the pastor. My beloved, have you ever reflected what
a most excellent appointment that is? What would our Lutheran Church
be and do with it? Those few months spent in personal instruction
with the pastor have been the most fruitful period of many a life,
have laid a foundation, solid and impenetrable--and God prevent the
day that parents would begrudge the hours devoted to that purpose,
or regard the securing of a public school diploma higher than the
Certificate of Confirmation. As the new term is about to open, let
parents and sponsors carefully weigh this matter!--We train the
children, in the first place, by religious instruction.
Again, it has been stated, by example. To bring up a child in
the way it should go, you should go that way yourself. An ounce
of example is better than a pound of precept. If children are to
honor parents, parents ought to honor themselves and each other. If
father and mother are rude to each other, no wonder if the example
be soon followed. If father and mother are unpunctual in their
hours, irreverent and vulgar in gesture and speech, it needs no
sage to tell what the effect would be. Children need models more
than criticism. Boys do not learn honesty and girls modesty so much
from text-books--the parents are the best living encyclopedia of
practical morality. What can one expect where the father is heard
blaspheming his Creator, lives in debauchery, drowning his reason
in liquor, spending his time and his earnings for purposes and in
places unbecoming. How many a boy's soul has been poisoned by filthy
talk heard from an adult's lips! An irreverent joke on some Bible
story has well-nigh shattered the faith of many a lad!
And it will never improve the moral condition of the young where the
mothers are "white" liars, practice deception upon their husbands,
and indulge in eavesdropping and gossip and find their chief delight
with the world, its amusements and pleasures. It well becomes us to
examine ourselves and our homes in this respect.
Two things in particular have tended to break down the religious
prestige of parents and to make our homes irreligious homes. The
first is this: the lack of family worship and prayer. In many, aye,
most cases the family altar has, to quote the language of another,
"been carried to the woodshed, and there demolished for kindling."
What multitude of homes are veritable boarding houses! Each member
of the household comes, goes, eats, and sleeps at will. When you
add to that the rush and push of modern business life, the spirit
of the age, which regards religion lightly, the multiplied evening
enjoyments, we have no time for family worship. But right there we
are making an irreparable mistake--as foolish and worse than taking
the roof off our house. Dear Christian parent, put that Bible back
where it belongs; let never a day pass but a chapter is heard in
your dwelling. Consider what I say, and the Lord grant you courage
and blessing!
Parents who do not fear and love God and live according to His
commandments, what reason have they to complain when their children,
misled by them, fail to fear and love God and live according to His
commandments?
So the second means of training up a child in the way he should go
is by example.
The third is discipline. Foolishness is in the heart of a child.
"The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth," says the
Bible, and this foolish and evil heart shows itself very early and
ugly betimes, and then needs restraint. Children must be trained in
the way they should go, also in this particular; namely, to control
their passions, to master their self-will; to render obedience,
respect, deference to parents and all elders. A child is in a very
precarious condition if it has gained the impression that it is too
much for papa and mamma, and that it cannot be made to mind, and
that papa and mamma cannot do a thing with it. And if the parents
unfailingly take the side of their children when something comes up
between them and some other party, as the teachers and neighbors,
they may be certain that they are making all around good-for-nothing
children of them. Children should be compelled to curb themselves,
and not allow ugly words to come over their lips, or to frown, and
scowl, and get into a fit of anger whenever they receive an order,
or are reprimanded.--And how are parents to overcome disrespect and
insubordination of children? First of all, they must cease to coddle
their children, and connive at their faults, or laugh at their
rudeness and misbehavior.
Again, God, by the pen of Solomon, has set down a word in the Bible
which needs mentioning to-day: "He that spareth the rod hateth
his son; but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes." The rod
indeed should be used with caution and good common sense, and only
in extreme cases of disobedience and wickedness. Parents should be
heedful in this respect. When a child does a trifling wrong, not out
of malice, but out of mischief or thoughtlessness, parents must not
resort to extreme severity. Parents should take the trouble to train
their children, to talk to them, to explain what is right and wrong,
to get the consent of their will, and persuade them to obey, and it
is only after all patience and clemency has been exhausted and the
child remains intractable that the rod will come in for its share
of training. It is a well-known dictum of Luther, that the apple
and the rod must go together, that is, love must be combined with
justice, otherwise children feel abused, and become embittered.--But
neither must we refrain from using the rod for the good of the
child, nor can we begin too early.
And one thing more do we emphasize in this important matter of
children's training: Keep your child out of bad company. Boys and
girls are often allowed to run wild, early and late, with all
kinds of companions, in all sorts of places, and this has marked
the beginning of many a boy's and girl's downfall. You would not
suffer your little ones in the company of children infected with
some malignant disease. But some parents seem to dread such ailments
more than the vicious and degrading influence of ill-trained
children; they never inquire about the character of their children's
playmates, about the nature of the games indulged in. On a Sunday
morning parents will leave their children at home, feasting on
the comic section of the Sunday paper, a flagrant exhibition of
the criminal meanness and spitefulness of some bad boy. To pass by
other things, the five-cent theaters, or nickelodeons, may present
wholesome pictures at times, but enough has been said and written
to convince us that the nature of the entertainment offered is in
many cases, if not in the most, of a low and trivial order. It is
certainly a training in the wrong direction if children can talk
fluently about plays, actors, and actresses. Let a child taste that
sort of opiate, and life elsewhere will seem dull and insipid, and
the outcome far from the paths of righteousness and religion.
May God, according to the riches of His mercy, bless the words
spoken so that they may arouse us parents to renewed endeavors,
multiplied zeal, and irresistible enthusiasm in our duties over
against our youth. To His great Parent heart and Parent care we
commend them and us. Amen.