The reason of this was that a benevolent spirit is of more value to us than treasures of silver and gold, and none are so poor as not to need to cultivate this spirit. Now a person who spends all she gets on herself, loses one chance to cultivate this generous and benevolent spirit, which is so precious in God’s sight, and so needful to our own best good.
I hope, therefore, you will feel a pleasure in economizing, that you may thus increase your means, not only of providing for your own future independence and comfort, but also that you may have something to give to relieve many, who are suffering for the want of the comforts of this life, and still more for want of
good hope of a better life to come. Give something then, every year, to promote both the temporal and spiritual good of your fellow creatures, and thus also secure the great benefit to yourself, which results from the exercise of a generous and benevolent spirit.
LETTER XV.
ON THE CARE OF CHILDREN.
Patience very needful. Offering rewards. Never shame children for their faults. Never deceive them. Set an example of honesty and modesty.
My Friends:
I wish you could realize the great influence which you always must exert over the character and welfare of children, for then what I am now going to write, would secure a deep interest in your minds.
Children are creatures of imitation and sympathy, and they always feel and act very much as those do about them. Thus they are daily forming their tastes, habits and character from the pattern of those who are most with them. And their happiness, for time and eternity, is decided by the good or evil that thus surrounds them.