FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 233 



How many parents have an ideal in their minds when rearing their 

 -children, and give to each child the greatest care, thought and consider- 

 iition from its conception until it is the fully developed man or woman? 



Every child is entitled to a good birth, a royal welcome, the best train- 

 ing and wisest care its parents can give; God pity the child who does not 

 receive this. 



Mothers, are you using the greatest care in selecting your children's 

 associates? Keep your little children at home nights, and have other 

 mothers keep their's at home. As they are growing up, are you still 

 careful of their companions; are you making them strong morally, to 

 meet the evil that will come, so that they can stand strong and clean, and 

 be a help to those who need it? 



I am glad to see so many girls here this afternoon. I like to talk to 

 them — to help them and strengthen them. I know you are brave; love 

 makes us all brave, ^ome girls think they can "keep company" with a 

 young man who chews, smokes, swears, drinks, and by that wonderful 

 power of love reform him. He tells you you can. My dear girls, you may, 

 but the chances are largely against you that you will not. Ninety-niue 

 times out of a hundred, the kind of a man you marry is the man you will 

 live with; can you afford to take the chances? 



Mothers, are you teaching these daughters the meaning of marriage, 

 true marriage? It means thinking together, working together, praying 

 together, living together for a high and holy purpose. 



Give your daughters the best possible chance. Teach them that they 

 are children of a King; let them bear upon heart and face His image. 

 Teach your sons what is wrong in their sister is just as wrong for them, 

 no matter who they may be. Teach them if they debase themselves and 

 their manhood, they are destroying the very functions of their being. 

 God never meant a woman for womanhood any more than He meant a 

 father for fatherhood. 



Mrs. Laura Haviland : The responsibilities of young women are great. 

 Call for pure young men to be your associates. Discourage evil in young 

 men; your influence is beyond conception. The time is coming when 

 purity in young men will be demanded as well as in young women. 

 Humanity is groaning to be uplifted, and you young women must come 

 up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. 



Mrs. Davis : O, mothers, mothers, I must say something to you today. 

 I am an old lady, and I speak what I know. There comes a time in your 

 daughter's life, and it seems to come so soon, when somebody, some 

 young man, sees that you have a daughter, bright of eye, fair of face, and 

 such delightful company. They come to call, and they call again and 

 again, and pretty soon they are known as their "beaus." Now, when 

 this happens, as it will, then is when your daughter needs your confi- 

 dence and your help. 



I have known girls who tried to tell their mothers what these 

 young men said to them, and their mothers would not listen. They said, 

 ^*Go away with your foolishness; I don't want to hear it." and they went 

 away, and they listened more and more, and some they ought not to 

 have heard. Do you think they could or would go to their mothers and 

 tell them again? No, they would not. 

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