It is, however, far better for married people to take pride in their children than to be as indifferent to them as was a certain old lady who had brought up a family of children near a river. A gentleman once said to her, "I should think you would have lived in constant fear that some of them would have got drowned." "Oh no," responded the old lady, "we only lost three or four in that way."
What is the use of a child? Not very much unless its parents accept it, not as a plaything, much less as a nuisance, but as a most sacred trust—a talent to be put to the best account. It is neither to be spoiled nor buried in the earth—how many careless mothers do this literally!—but to be made the most of for God and for man. Perhaps there was only One who perfectly understood the use of a child. "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." In some lines to a child Longfellow has well answered the question we have been considering.
"Enough! I will not play the Seer;
I will no longer strive to ope
The mystic volume, where appear
The herald Hope, forerunning Fear,
And Fear, the pursuivant of Hope.
Thy destiny remains untold."
In the next chapter we shall point out how useful children are in educating their parents.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE EDUCATION OF PARENTS.
"O dearest, dearest boy! my heart
For better lore would seldom yearn,
Could I but teach the hundredth part
Of what from thee I learn."—Wordsworth.
"How admirable is the arrangement through which human beings are led by their strongest affections to subject themselves to a discipline they would else elude."—Herbert Spencer.