TRAINING OP CHILDREN. 721 



less suffering, but often endangers health and life itself. The best 

 method for overcoming this fear is for the parent to accompany the 

 child into some one of the worst of the conditions producing this fear 

 and there telling the child about God, about His presence there and 

 everywhere all the time, that absolutely nothing happens without the 

 will of God, and reasoning upon this and similar topics until trust 

 takes the place of fear. A few repetitions of this, and advising the 

 child to try spending a few minutes alone in some very dark fear-y 

 place, will suffice. But on no account should the parent ever seek to 

 compel the child to go into the dark or fearsome place. Reason 

 with it patiently until it is willing to go of its own accord. 



To Overcome Yanity in Children. The very reprehensible 

 habit of praising the child before visitors, commenting upon its pretty 

 clothes or pretty appearance or behavior, is probably the foundation of 

 more vanity and more selfishness than any other one thing. When a 

 spirit of vanity has thus been cultivated in a child, it is hard indeed 

 to repair the mischief. Vanity has become a part of its mental make- 

 up, and it almost needs to be born again to get rid of it. It will be a 

 handicap throughout life unless the parents begin early to eradicate 

 the evil by systematic cultivation of unselfish feeling and training of 

 the intellect and heart by the reading of good books and association 

 with unselfish and broad-minded people. 



How to Teach a Child Courage. Some children are by nature 

 timid and need to be taught courage and self-reliance. One parent of 

 our acquaintance, whose son was very timid and unassertive, came 

 home from school twice with the complaint that some companion had 

 pitched upon him and pounded him. " Now," said his father, " I 

 have bought a ' blacksnake,' and next time a boy pounds you I will 

 give you a severe whipping with this. I don't want you to invite 

 attack or pick a quarrel, but if any boy insults you or strikes you I 

 want you to pitch into him and whip him." He had no further com- 

 plaints from the son, who grew up to be a self-reliant, courageous 

 young man. 



The Parent's Obligations. In conclusion we desire to call 

 the reader's attention to the fact that while a mutual obligation 

 exists, namely, the obligation of the child to the parent and of the 

 parent to the child, as it is recognized in the law of the land, still 

 ethically considered the first and greater obligation rests with the 

 parent. The child had nothing whatever to say about its coming into 

 the world; the parents did. The child is wholly ignorant of the ways 

 of life and the demands of society. The parents have both knowledge 

 and experience. The child is by right entitled to inherit a healthy 

 body and clean mind and suffers from the lack of these through no 

 faults of its own. Hence it seems to be the parent's natural duty to 

 use every intelligent effort to enable his child to reach manhood or 

 womanhood with a sound body and a clear, clean, well-informed mind. 

 Very important as a religious education must be, for we cannot forget 

 that the child also has a spiritual nature to be cultivated and developed- 



