Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1877 — An Important Distinction. [ARTICLE]

An Important Distinction.

Mdl that law i. Train up uld go, says -selves with ace between leaching and training u recognized in all •docatUKi. It it commonly, though unafcllosophically, discriminated by the iersas theoretical and practical, in the -<we case the mind simply apprehends a itruth; in the other, under the influence «ff that truth, some organ of the mind or body is put into active exercise. A child la taught botany when she learns the ■ames of classes and genera, and the appellation of the various parts of the plant's anatomy, from her text book. When she goes out into the fields, picks for herself the flowers, analyzes them, ■examines their parts and assigns them places, she is training herself in botany. la the one case she is'simply informed of affect and quickly forgets it. In the other, she exercises her powers of per- ■ cep lion and Judgment; and, if this is repeated until it becomes a habit, to characterize every flower that she sees by its dam-name, she never wholly loses the poster thus acquired. Knowledge gained la soon host. Power once acquired is almost never wholly lost. Now apply this distinction. You may tell your child that it is exceedingly wicked to get angry, and accomplish nothing. But, if you can succeed in habituating him to control his temper when a child, you may rest perfectly secure that his temper will not control him when he becomes a man. Yon may teach him 4hat patience is a virtue, and he be none the better. But if you can develop within him the power of patiently bearing the hardens of childhood, he will never lose « that power in his manhood. You may tell him that God is very good, and that he ought to love him. ana yet the boy may grow up an atheist; but if you have the skill to inspire a childish love for God in his young heart, nothing can efface it. In a word, you may instruct your child in religious truth ana his manhood life reek with vice. But exercise his faculties in a religious life, <uid he never can lose the power which thus ho will have acquired. For character is the product of habit. We are what we have been accustomed to do. What the child does at first with difficulty he comes by repeated experience to do with ease. * What he habitu- - nllv does with ease he does at length un- . oo&ciously and by the necessity of his .nature. This is the meaning of the familiar proverbs, “ The childls father to the man;” “ Habit is second nature.” Instruction is like coloring put upon the surface of cloth—it fades with the first washing Habit is like a dye infused in■to the thread before the pattern is woven —nothing can extract it. The principles that are "learned in childhood are often left behind when the pupil leaves the achnoi-ioom. The habits, whether for good or evil, grow with his growth and strength- . eu with nis strength. We recognize this truth and we act upon it in all the lower realms. We understand that, as regards the use of the fingers and the feet, practice makes perfect. We understand that the child must not ooly comprehend the principles of nay art, but be versed in the practice. Beading a cookery book will not make a young girl a good housekeeper. Studying the principles of a thorough base will not make her a good musician. She must have her piano and practice her hour a day. If a boy is to learn to swim, he must go into the water and paddle till he learns. For the child acquires dexterity on the piano.by playing, in the kitchen by cooking, in the 'water by swimming, and dexterity thus acquired is never lost. It is not enough, then, that we teach our -children aright. Your boy may commit the catechism, and turn infidel. He may « repeat the Ten Commandments without . missing a word, and not obey one of them. He may be admirably versed in Scripture, and never follaw its guidance. Nay! his Bible may be more than a mere spellingbook to him; he may learn not only the text of the Ten Commandments, but their true significance, and yet depart very far from (hem. He may be able to repeat the first two commandments, and be a covetous man, which is an idolater; he may recite the third, and imerlard his speech with many oaths; the fourth, and tie an habitual Sabbath-breaker; the eighth, and die in the State's prison. A child may know to do right, and choose to do wrong; as one may be an adept in detecting counterfeit money, and yet habitually pass it. Nor yet is, it enough that we govern our children aright; that by the fear of punishment and the hope of a reward we keep them from wrong doing while they remain under our control. We must teach them to govern themselves, cast upon them responsibilities, allow them to act upon their own judgment, permit them to suffer the inconveniences of their own blunders. We must put the wheel in the child's own hand; and, standing by his side, and pointing out to him the rock on this side and the shore on that, and in the whirlpool the evidence of the sunken reef, teach him how to man his own helm. Then, when manhood comes, he will carry the bark safely between the Scylla -on the one side and Charybdis on "the -other. , tio interpreted, Solomon’s declaration is true, bo interpreted, it is God’s promise to the faithful r “ Train up a Mid in the wag it mould go, and when he it old he wiUnot depart from it." Anxious, wearied, fainting mother, lay bold upon that promise; ana, by patient labor of love, secure in the manhood life <of your perfected children its abundant uceward.— Ret. Lyman Abbott. *