CHILDREN AND MORALS.

Thames Star, Volume LII, Issue 13818, 7 October 1918, Page 1

CHILDREN AND MORALS.

* (To the Editor.) j ' Sir, —Your correspondent, ''A Thames Mother," deads with, the' subject in your Saturday's issue, and ,in the main, I ami in agreement with w|hat she has written. Tlhere is, however, one passage in her letter to! which exception may justly be taken, I and that is where she says: "If tlhe parents are good moral people, the children will also be good if given a ' chance. Children represent^ our-1 selves." The writer here does a' positive injustice to many sorrowing' parents who, notwithstanding a careful religious training bestowed ujon their ctkildren, have had the dtep sorrow of seeing a loved son or daughter go astray. I have oven known of this happening in niote than one clergyman's family. It is cruej. to lay tjhis at the door of the afflicted {parents, vrho ha<ve done aji the^ could to give their children a proper up-bringing;. There are, however, some good Christian people who, like your, correspondent, lay all the blame on tihe unfortunate parents, and treat them as unworthy for decent society, instead of .showing them all the sympathy their case entitles! them to. And the man who (> may have been the means of leading a daughter astray, what of him? He is not shunned and made to feeTtih!a.t he is an object of disgrace. On the contrary, he is regarded as one who 'lias done no wrong, and tihe parents have to bear all the blame. A broader and saner view is needed in^this matter. Until the real aggressors are made to feel their position, things are not likely to improve. I am, yours etc.* JUSTICE.