MOTHER'S CORNER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9790, 5 March 1910, Page 11

MOTHER'S CORNER.

(Specially compiled for the " Star.") " Every home is a mint for the coining of character." The annual festival held'on February 10 was the inoftb Huccessful w© have-yet luul. The Cathedral service, - taken by the Bishop, mu attended, by. over 400 nwrabjWK, and at the otftenrjon gathering there wan aim a record number. Ihis wa« held hi Mrs Croxton's garden, Springfield IfcmftJ, and during the course of the aftoni<:<m the Rev C. Laws gave an elomiont and earnest address On the strength to ha 'tainod by the me of work, love and prayer. Owing to til* beauty of the day many country waioeon; y/.'-re able to uiaaiuV, ztzi. w«:« mother* Imng j» town, brought their Jittio onm, so could enjoy the afternoon freely, and a band, provided for by Mm Oracroft Witeon, added to the brightness of the afternoon by plaving at intervals from two till five o'clock'. A new branch has this week been formed in the Fendalton parish, and the prayers of all members are asked on its behalf. r S 7 P . romiße » Mothers' Union «+ 4. ? A e . arn wliat evcr may beef fat me to fulfil my part as a capable, wise and loving wife and mother." : ' Iho keynote of this promise .is the word learn." "How much there is to learn" is the first thought'of a mother, in despair over the manifold chances and changes of an infant's life, and not m lew despair over the mamvS , oontfadietorv counsels in every Oifficulty. But. all these lessons leafnt, all these difficulties vanguirfhod,' hei <*"« grows vigorous and healthy, full of hfo and energy, and the anxious mother is confronted daily with more problems, and findg that there are always fresh lessons to be mastered. Yet there is a royal road to this learning, and it lies plain and open before her: Love and Patience are the pavingstones underfoot, and it is lighted by the heaven-sent Wisdom, which God sheds where it is needed and called for by diligent prayer. Though the - direction is up-hill and the ascent toilsome every inch in the rise brings us to air more bracing, and on the heights we breathe the exhilarating breeze" of triumphant success. The first steps are easy, vet their mastery may cost an effort. The cleverest woman I ever knew tad to learn to sew to make her baby's clothes and it was the hardest lesson she had met with, and many an inexperienced cook must learn now for the first time the properties of foods and the mode of their preparation that she may give her child only what is wholesome and nutritious. But the child's needs do not end with clothes and food; . and another mother must Jearu to deu'v herself the pleasure indulged in. by her neighbours, of the afternoon spent in talking over the fire, or showing in town, for she knows that the fresh air of open spaces is necessary to bring the roses to the child's cheeks and. the warm hue of health to his limbs. The child grows m strength;, intelligence develops. Every common thing is deeply interesting and the subject of questioning, and no true mother can bear to chide a child, whose " What is that, mother?" should lead to knowledge acquired. Then., all too soon, come the child's schooldays, and the pleasure of a new book is doubled if his mother roads it with him. and if he may say to her next day's lesson. If a mother only realised how much this means to -a child's education,' what a help it is to the teacher who spends his life in trying to train and develop the gifts of children; she would not grudge a few minutes of her evening 1)0 look at "this hard sum," "such a lot of spelling,'' or " a very long p'ibce of poetry." The glance of iiiterest. besides awakening the mother's memories of school, dispels the cloud from the .puckered brow and brightens the mind with the relief of an obstacle removed. And, all the time, hew hard the mother must be learning how to keep the child, boside her in the path, and to chock it from straying into by-ways, where lurk the enemies who will delay and torment it, and, perhaps, prevent it from cominff back to her at all. _ The loving word whispered at the right moment, the encouraging smile when a word is not possible, the gentle reasoning reproof administered quietly, and alone with the child may often alter the whole course of his life. Many a, one has grown up to sigh with bitter, but unavailing, regret, " Mother never talked to me seriously," hut not one in his after-life has ever thought slightingly of such words, or smiles," or rebukes, while he knows in his heart, though he may never say so, how much they have done for him. What the mother has thus' learnt to do in his schooldays she will more easily continue to do when her child has left school to enter the "World—ulie World, not to be dissociated from the Flesh and the Devil. And happy the mother who, having met and conquered these enemies herself, knows hew to teach her child to do the same. All her earlier endeavours, all her struggles, are as nothing to the strife she must now wage on behalf of her child, beset'with foes on the rischt hand and on , the left, and only to be rescued by strenuous self-sacrifice on. her part. And. when the child's crisis''is passed'.and his character formpd, steadfast and strong, the mother ha-vine reached her <yoal. looks down, backward over each step of the path, pud, with brimming eves and burstiner heart, thanks God. who ; has blessed the lessons to her and hers.

"Do p.=i well as yon can to-day. and perhaps to-morrow you mav be able to do better."