OUR HOMES. 385 



' ' If parents combine to make the circle of home life beau- 

 tiful without and within, they will sow the seeds of truth, 

 kindness, honesty and fidelity in the hearts of their children. 

 The memory of a beautiful and happy home is one of the 

 richest legacies parents can leave their children." 



If taste and culture adorn our homes, and music adds its 

 charm, our children will find the pleasures of rural homes 

 more attractive than the glamour and whirl of city life. 



Again, make the home the centre of a happy, social life, 

 not entirely given up to the serious work or to the equally 

 wearing mental toil. 



Says Rev. James Q. Corning, " There is a law established 

 by our Creator. It is the law of recreation — if you please, 

 the law of play. It would be a physical error to regard 

 either sleep or play as unworthy of our care, since God has 

 ordained both. Those parents who restrain the recreative 

 propensities of their children by forcing their intellects to 

 precocious development do so in violation of God's laws, 

 and it is devoutly to be wished that parents would regard it 

 as a religious duty to care vastly more than they now do for 

 the physical education of their children. And let me add 

 that the chief way to do this is to obey the divine law which 

 has made play and pastime the grand preliminaries to a long, 

 active and useful life." 



We cannot chan<2re the fact that underlies the old adajze 

 that "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"; and 

 all play and no work makes Jack a wild boy. 



The joy of living, the exuberance of animal life, the need 

 and necessity of an overflow, in the good healthy boy, is as 

 natural as breathing and just as right ; but they belong 

 largely to that period. We rise above them ; the earnest 

 work of life comes in and supplants them, and the physical 

 nature is prepared to take it up with joyous strength. 



Zachariah, in prophetic vision of the restored Jerusalem, 

 gives us a pleasing picture of natural life when he says, 

 "And the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the 

 streets thereof" ; and the old prophet is dearer to us for 

 the simile. 



If mirthful recreation is essential to physical health, as it 

 surely is, then it cannot conflict in any way with the health 



