A question is often asked, why young men do not more frequently attend
church services. May not one of these reasons be traced to neglect and
carelessness on the part of the parents? Nothing in the religious world
can be more important than the proper training of young men. It is said
that the only place where real religion can be taught is in the home.
By this it is not meant religious forms, but real religion. To go to
church every Sunday and sing religious hymns and listen to eloquent
sermons is not all there is to religion. The formation of character,
the stimulus of the moral sentiments must be done largely outside of
the doors of the church. To assist in building up the boy who roams our
streets at will, and to take an interest in and to encourage the boy
to live up to and follow the instructions he receives at his home, is,
indeed, to practice real religion.
It is a well-known fact, often repeated by the guards at our
penitentiaries, that no man ever entered these institutions but what at
sometime or other declared that, if he had followed the admonition and
religious instructions of his father and mother, his life would have
been different. If father and mother do not practice in their daily
lives this real religion, and if the boy is not brought up to believe
that some people are to be avoided, and held in contempt, all the
churches in the world cannot correct such mistakes, because they have
but few hours one day in a week to accomplish what six days can undo.
It will be seen, then, how important it is that the boy on the street,
whether he comes from a good religious home or a bad home, should be
watched and carefully guided and taught.
Our work in the garden is not to pull out onions, radishes, tomato
plants, but carefully to destroy the weeds, and not only those weeds
that are crowding the tender plants, but all weeds. Get the wild
sprouts out, pull up the weeds by the roots and throw them away. This a
good gardener will do, and he will carefully pull the soft, rich earth
around the plants to brace them up.
[Illustration: “I WILL BUY FROM THE LITTLE FELLOW.”]
[Illustration: WAITING FOR THE LAST EDITION.]
If the same interest is taken in our newsboys, to pull out the weeds
so that the boy can grow, it will be doing what the preacher often
says: “A good man’s goodness lies not hid in himself alone; but when he
endeavors to strengthen his weaker brother.”