Discipline in Our Schools
By F. G.
OBEDIENCE is the first law of liberty, and he is in the deepest bondage who is the furthest from obeying. A cardinal principle of Froebel’s teaching was that children were to be taught to obey because of the righteousness of obedience. Children should be taught this in the home and in the school. This teaching is to be given, not alone when the child is inclined to be disobedient, but just as much or more so when he feels obedient and is obeying. A parent or teacher does not have to seek far for illustrations of the benefits of obedience and the ills resulting from disobedience. Even nature in all its various forms teaches this very lesson of obedience. Every flower, shrub, and tree, and even the great earth itself, obey the law of God. From nearly everything taught the child this lesson may be drawn, and it may be taught effectively if it is wisely and aptly presented. If our Bible work should be made to teach any one lesson of worth more than another, it is this one of obedience. Abraham became the father of the faithful because he required obedience on the part of his children. “And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” But Abraham could successfully teach obedience to his children only because he himself had first learned obedience. “By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.” The results of the lessons of obedience which Abraham received and taught to his children were seen in Isaac, and how fully they were learned is revealed by the following words:— “At the appointed place they built the altar, and laid the wood upon it. Then, with trembling voice, Abraham unfolded to his son the divine message. It was with terror and amazement that Isaac learned his fate; but he offered no resistance. He could have escaped his doom, had he chosen to do so; the grief-stricken old man, exhausted with the struggle of those three terrible days, could not have opposed the will of the vigorous youth. But Isaac had been trained from childhood to ready, trusting obedience, and as the purpose of God was opened before him, he yielded a willing submission. He was a sharer in Abraham’s faith, and he felt that he was honored in being called to give his life as an offering to God. He tenderly seeks to lighten the father’s grief, and encourages his nerveless hands to bind the cords that confine him to the altar.” Now God is no respecter of persons,21and he will do for any who obey him as faithfully as did Abraham, all that he did for him. It is the privilege of parents and teachers to see the children whom God has given them possessed of a cheerful, obedient spirit in all matters, both to God and man. F. G.