A Book to be Read.

White Ribbon, Issue 1, 1 July 1895, Page 2

A Book to be Read.

By A. W.

-THb: CHILI' AM) CHILD-NATURE."

hi BaaoNiss M\kknholt/ Bulow

This admirable little book, which is an exposition >.t FrcebeTl method of education, should be read by all mothers, and indeed, by all who have in any degree the responsibility of the training of children. Motherhood, it plainly shows, should be a profession than which there is none more exalted. The life entrusted to the mother's care is threefold in its relations to nature, humanity, and God. What culture, then.on the mother's part, is demanded to mould the plastic young mind in the perfect shape. The child is a product of nature There is constantly an interchange of material botwe n man and nature, and nature and man, from birth to the grave, In the kingdoms of nature there is but one law which governs all, man in no n < \< 1 pttd. It is In •( ause the spirit of God lives in nature, and in the human soul, that man is able to understand her. She is God's great interprets. The need then that the child should early be initiated into nature's marvels is evident. Flow and fruits, trees and shrubs, the sea, the dry land, mountains and valleys, rivers and streams, the clouds and air, rain and storm, wind and bree/.e, light, heat, colour, sound, all readily appeal to the sympathies of the child. By their means his faculties of observation are cultivated, and reverence for the marvellous revelations of God in his handiwork is instilled. Having eyes, he shall see, having ears, lie shall hear, having a voice he shall proclaim the glories of God. I child of humanity his relation as part of a living organisation —society— must be borne in upon him. The constant interaction of his influence on others, and others' influence on him, must be revealed to him and the need of selfconquest urged ever on him. M By gentle, gradual sieps, through the rudest and simplest modes of sensual perception to the manifestation of divine beauty in \rt and of divine truth in the Word, has God, the Great Educator, led His human children." So shall we do His will, if we follow never so feebly His guidance. T hirdly, in every human being is there the divine spark which must be fanned into flame ? To place ourselves in

harmony with God'i law, which is without shadow of turning, is to find the peace which cannot be liled. Such is an outline of the ] taught by the book, which by its practical ugg itiom entitled tO our reverent study.