p. 303 | YOUR BOY

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 14, 1881

YOUR BOY.

You do not know what is in him. Bear with him; be patient; wait, feed him, clothe him, love him. He is a boy, and most boys are bad. You think him light-hearted, and fear he is light-headed as well. But remember he calls you father. When he played in your lap you fondly hoped he would some day be a great and useful man. Now that he has grown larger, and his young blood drives him into gleeful sport, and makes him impatient of serious things, rattling, playful, thoughtless, you almost despair. But don't be snappish and snarlish and make him feel that you are disappointed in him. He is your boy, and you are to live in him. He bears your name, and is to send it on down the stream of time. He inherits your fortune and fame, and is to transmit them to generations to come.

It cannot be otherwise. A daughter divides your fortune, transmits less of your fame, and loses your name. A boy is more nearly yourself than anything else can be. It is through your boy you go down in history; through your boy you are to act upon the generation that is to come.

It may be difficult to govern him, but be patient; he may seem averse to everything useful and good, but wait. No one can tell what is in a boy. He may surprise you some day. Hope. Let him grow. While his body grows larger and stronger, his mental and moral nature may expand and improve.

Some boys are men in stature but are still boys in mind. It may be so with your boy; and if so there is reason for hope. In such cases there is often great outcome. The body is the tree, the mind, the fruit. It is well for the tree to take deep root before it is loaded with fruit; then the fruit will be the more and better.

Educate your boy. You may think money spent in that way is money spent in vain. There is nothing in him; he has no pride, no ambition, no aspiration. You don't know. No one can tell what is in a boy. Besides, there may be an unkindled spark, an unfanned flame, a smouldering fire, a latent energy, which the teacher's rod may stir, the association with books and men may develop and direct, and thus start your boy a going, with such energy and determination, that no power on earth could stop him short of the topmost round in the ladder of fame.

If you cannot educate him, let him educate himself. That is the best way. That will make him strong, a giant with whom no one dare interfere. Such are the best men in the world. The greatest benefactors of the race have stooped their shoulders to bear burdens, have carried hands hardened with rough labor, have endured the fatigue of toil. Many such are in our minds now. Labor omnia vincit. “Labor conquers all things.” The old Roman was right. We see it in a thousand instances. Labor makes the man. No boy ever came to be a man, the noblest work of God, without labor. This is God's great law; there is a divine philosophy in it. Let your boy work; if he will not work, make him work. There is no progress, no development, no outcome, no true manhood without it. We must work.

A wild, rattling, thoughtless boy of the days of yore is in our mind's eye. Who would have thought it? He is a strong, active, efficient, untiring Baptist preacher, of large influence in another State. Another a successful physician, occupying a good position in this city, and a Christian gentleman.

Father, be kind to your boy. We know what a mother will do. Thank God, a mother's love, a mother's prayers follow us still; and the memory of her anxious tears shall never fade out during the succession of years. Finally, but not least, pray for your boy. God hears prayer. Do the best you can, commit all that you cannot do, to God, and hope. Never despair, for no one knows what is in a boy.—Reflector.