MORAL TRAINING.— A MOTHER'S WORK.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVI, Issue 4119, 3 November 1870, Page 3

MORAL TRAINING. — A MOTHER'S WORK.

"Shall moral training be the work of the common-school teacher, the minister who is the spiritual adviser of t'-e family, or is it the peculiar work and duty of the mother ?" The answer must be, "The mother at borne." Yes, the mother at home, if the father be incapable ; but is it nob a mistake to divide the interest, to throw all responsibility on the mother, to ignore the father's duties, to let him off " scot-free "in fact? It has too long been the fashion to cultivate morality in woman, and to look on man as perfect or past hope. Such one-sided policy is not without bitter fruits. The father ought, not to desire to shirk any responsibility, no matter how competent the mother may be. The parental mind must be and is one where moral training is perfect. My own fathei*'s influence was unbounded in his family, and he had enough to exercise it on, for I am one of his seventeen children, and way say without fear of contradiction that I am the worst of the branch. His unwearied industry, unswerving integrity, unwavering love, with a singularly happy temperament, and broad unsectarian piety, made it quite impossible for his children to choose an evil course. In his family his lips were beautifully silent on religion : he just lived Christ, and had the rare grace to let his life do all the talking. And his life ii possible to all. No marvel if I think meanly of men generally, with such a father ever before my mind. It is strange to mark how vexed a question education is, but that men are so slow to acknowledge how worse than useless mere lip i*eligion is : it will make rank infidels of our children. There is no natural love for divine truth: then why force ifc, rather than win the child's love to it by the silent eloquence of a beautiful life ? The child is so quick to detect the ring of base metal — so keen to mark inconsistencies*that unless it sees religion embodied in a loved form, \>& it fa-thev. mother, brother, sister, or friend, it will have no abiding influence. There are thousands outside the Church who can teach religion better in this, way than any of the straitest sect of the orthodox, even though he should not subscribe to the Thirtynine Articles in Church or dissent. I cannot believe a living man who really loves hia Bible would be willing to have it made a lesson book, nor do I believe a single soul ever got good out of it when so used|; it ia a tremendous blunder. An earnest-hearted teacher, deeply imbued with love of truth, who accepts his work as God-given, will, all unconsciously it may be, yet none the less potently, inspire his pupils with a love of holy principles. It is what we are, not what we teach, carries conviction. In some families you will find father or mother, sometimes alas both, preaching-mad, and as a matter of course the children will be preach-ing-sick: the result we know only too .well it is so much easier to preach religion than to lore it, Again I say, never, never, make the Bible drudgery.~A Woius.

Son Vmdku Down,— Zf you feel ttot it ia your duty to ileep in ohurob, all right i but It wrtlfti toiaeft wit^ wit pidM down. '