OUR BABIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume L, Issue 175, 25 October 1917, Page 2

OUR BABIES

. ——— By Sygeia; ■ Published uncler the auspices of the Royal New Zealand Society for th» Health ; l of- Women and Children. '"lt is wiser' to put up a fence at the top of a pi'ecipice than to maintain an ambulanca at the bottom. '' A "BABY-SUNDAY" SERVICE. At the City Temple, London, on Jul} 1, lv) 17. a beautiful sermon, in connection with the English Baby Week Campaign, was delivered by the Rev. Joseph Fort Newton, D.Litt., the eloquent American preacher, recently appointed as successor to the Rev. R. J. Campbell. From this sermon the following extracts are made. -.Dr. Newton ; took as Lis text, '•What Manner of Child slit, this be?" (Luke i, 66). THE CRADLE OP THE FUTURE. The sorrows of .the world-war are unutterable, its losses incalculable, its tragedy unspeakable. "It is ■■ the future dies!" aS he looked out over the wide-streTching .otesolation. (But it is not : ail'loss, not all' ruin, not all destruction. '. ". "- 'The nations are finding,.hot losing, their souls. •, ider sympathies- are growing lip, drawing'together peoples who have long lived aloof, and wise, plans are being laid lor a closer unity. .• . .■ Oddly pfioiigh, dark as the times are, everywhere 'one is aware' ot a - strange new hope and the promise of a better day- . >»e see .now that many evils, which we were 'half inclined \o regard" as ine%atable may be.byercome, or mitigated, by foresiffht and skill. Of course, the war di'd not create this attitude,' but.it has deepened it, just as it has' heightened what we may. pall a. sense of p'ubliomlndedhess. in us; : all—showing iis that we are bound' together, and that selfishness and' stupidity "are two words for the same thing. Also, it has brought a collective determination, to throw off-.our sloth of mind. and. body, our weakness of purpose and will, and do the things that need to be done for the common good. Men may differ in their views of iDivine providence, but they seem now to agree that there is such a thing as iluman providence, which must be- sagacious, forward-looking, laying plans not 'bnlv for ' the living but for those ye! unborn.' ON BEHALF OF THE BABY. ■Such is the newer feeling and the deeper insight back of the many-fronted, campaign beginning to-day on behalf of the babv. who is the fountain of life, trie fresh" spring whence flows the ■'streams *that brighten and sweeten the world. ~/-,, i_ The hope of the home, of the Church, of the State, of social beauty, national wen**"*, and human welfare is bound up in the child, who is the,.custodian of. whatever of truth Or beauty we are to bequeath to the race. At- last we must entrust into his hands all that we hold sacred, all that we have dreamed, all that we have laboured to achieve. In STm we live again, and he who takes liis- child Lsiaiobly,> and sweet:ly born does much :to r -bring the king---rrhT oT heaven unerirer .(to the ' earth—more, indeed, than many sermons. ■ ' No wonder Emerson, a s Holmes said of. him, went about'peeping into every cradle looking for a new Messiah. Todav 'in the cradles of, England "lie the sa»es, seers, and saints of to-morrow, who will sway men with their insight and eloquence, its prophets with sweet voices of comfort or command, its authentic singers of the old,, immortal song. _.'__. J. „. AND RELIGION AT ONE. '.'lndeed, it is a' fact of as John- Fiske pointed out, that it.is to the prolongation of infancy in our human worldl its h'elplessnes& and the which it .evoked, that, we pwe the birth and growth .of our finer, facilities, 'it created, the home and invested it.with sanctityj .It.rhade mar-» - permanent.» It :drew together the:grouj),; the...tribe, for purposes, .'pr'otec.tlyeVand: economic. '•.:. Indeed, .the 'baby' js: -the., very root'fact not.only of the' jipme.ind of. [ temple .of>.faith-T-as .we see in.the Cult 'of th e Child,' at the-.heart,-.of ..every ; lofty and ■ benign .Teligiori.' One sees.-the. same .fact iri .the gjiiety. :,of Ddonysius, in| th» %H%i ; . of ''■ the- • infant .Buddha, and i.in :the ineffable beauty of on e j'Who fou|id 'Hil-'Vradre*-among thekindly beasts *of ißethlehem. ■' Thus upon the baby, tiny as he is,'-Teste-the physi-: cal,..the social, -the ; political, and thei spiritual future of the race, andi-when we serve him and give him a chance: we serve all tha high interests of humanity. ' "■: - ;When we look at th© baby in this large way-eas Whitman did ih-ihis vision, of ".The-Cradle- Endlessly Rocking"—it; is clear-that infant-welfare "should not be- the■;monopoly of a few enthusiastic idealists,'''but -a chief concern -of * every one of us. It is in this -light,- too, that, the facts of infant mortality, as now brought out, are so ghastly. , DANGEROUS TO BE A BABY'. Actually, as a noble woman has pointed out, "it is mor e dangerous to be a baby in London than to be a - soldier in Flanders"!-and with such losses iri the front line arid -in the back line it is time we woke, up and looked about us. If in America we began to stir in our sleep' a few hours earlier, it was not inore far-seeing than the ; people/of England. Not that. lt«is because in a.new country, as George Eliot said it is with a new friend, we can begin so many new things... ~ Th e '.'mate of housing, for sxample, is very "difficult in a- very old community; but in a.newer country, wherecities ai'e still a-buildirig, much ihay be done in a little while. Alas ! it took the greatest war of all time to wake some of us up to many things which ought to have beeu obvious, but it mean s that we are awake at last. "SET :THY r HOUSE IN OB,DER." Nor must we ever again, nod' until the economic conditions,' to which this pitiful waste of precious child-life is in large . part due, are altered and at last removed. "'Of course, such a thing cannot be done all at once; but it must be one of our ,ultimat e objectives .in our way against ignorance, negligence, and misery. "Set thy house in. order, for thou ' shahV die and not live," was the prophetic word. to -the King of Judah. If Hezekiah had been a better housekeeper he might have averted the illness that threatened, him with early death. "Set ; thy house in order" is also a prophetic word to us, not because we

I are about to die, but because we wish those who come after us "to live, and :to;iive well" —which is the reason given 'by Aristotle why a State should exist. The matter- of. infant welfare is all a problem of good community housekeeping/: and the advent of women into a larger field, both political and so.cial, ought to do much towards solvoing it. Not only ought to do so hut manifestlv will do so, as ■ has been shown in many ways in actual practice. THE RELIC lON OF THE BODY. i Meantime—an J, truly, it is a mean ; time—while slowly digging dpwn, to re,- [ move the cause, we must do all within our power- -to mitigate the results. Science, so amazingly fertile in invent-" > ing engines of. destruction, is no less "rich in its- ministry of blessing. Hencethis nation-wide effort on behalf of the spread of knowledge to mothers, fathers," arid those who have little- lives in their care. So many 'such-deaths are preventable,, so many are due to ignoi'- - ance of the rnost' rnditrientary matters ; of hygiene, that it ought to; be possible :- .'to do a great- deal of/ gbodi'-by- -su^h concerted- and ..intelligent labour. 'That'. , is why the City Temple- devotes to-day to' this cause, not ioisH*- because' it is a humane jaiid''.patfiotic--'campaign,' but - also vbecause. 1 it is-' a- part'- of 'what we - may call ,the religion of the body, in I which the Master' was so • He did not divide .life, ras.-we are apt - to do, into physical, .moral, ;-and, spiri- ' tual, but. revealed. -His, real greatness in . the unity arid-simplicity :in ~>yhich .He j held all "the-ideals, and airiis of jlife. By - the sarhe token, ,if it is vitally import- - ant that the child should be- pbysicaliy : fit. it, ,is. equally important that: he Be ; morally fit, and spifitually alive.