FAMILY LIFE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1027, 17 January 1911, Page 9

FAMILY LIFE.

. ; AN APPEAL AND WARNING. Writing on the disintegration of family life, Mary E. Sumner, foundress of. tlio Mothers' Union, says: Instead of looking upon children as a blessing, they are treated by certain modern parents as necessary encumbrances, as checks to young, gay mothers in their career , oftrivolity and.amusement, an ' additional expense in their lives of luxury; and; ah added burden, to be borne as lightly and. irresponsibly as is possible, and shifted' on to. nurses, governesses, and schools from mtancy to manhood. ■"-There-is.a call for serious thought on the part of all, who love their country and Wish it well, for the prosperity and stability of a nation depend on the faithfnlness of married life and tho true discharge of home duties as concerns husbands and children. - It'would- be well indeed,if parents . realise that the character of .the nation i, formed by them in the home, and that the influonco of tho school and tho State .ultimately depend on it. • Homo.'is.the one. -social institution uponwhich almost all' the others depend, And tho character of the pooplo reflects the condition of tho family life. " Modern restlessness, selWndulgenee, tho' pursuit of pletisuro and ease, and the neglect of religion is making home duties barren and' distasteful. Mothers are giv nig up their mighty powder as character trainers of the nation, and in tco mamcases thoy are despising a sphere of i„. tluence which is acknowledged to be-the most powerful in the world. There nothing more important than to have chargo of human life, nn< t a mother has tlio charge of her child in the years when the mind is like wax and can .be moulded to bccome noble, sclf-control-led. and .obedient to the laws of God wife'ind a mother's, trim sphere is one of profound honour, responsibility, and ma».mtude. Old proverbs remind us -that tW«wi , V! rh ? t n ™» n , n makes him;" that What is learnt in the orpdJo is cirK J nHitV™™- 1 "' and , that "Who,no is a mint for coining character.