How to Teach Children to Be Quiet in Church
By Mrs. S. N. Haskell
There are few things more annoying than to try to speak to a company where some child is making a noise and bringing in confusion. Some parents will sit apparently unconscious of surroundings while their child is making noise enough to rob half the people in the room of any benefit of the discourse. About fifteen years ago I was connected with a church where a good brother and sister had a family of five or six children that were proverbial for their disorderly conduct in church. The parents wished to be gone from home for several months, and engaged a good sister to stay in the house and look after the family during their absence. The first Sabbath after the parents went away, we were all surprised to see all the children quiet during service, with the sister in charge of them. We supposed that they felt strange at first, and thought of course that they would be noisy next Sabbath; but no, to the surprise of every one, Sabbath after Sabbath passed, and those children that had been such a trial to us all continued to be models of propriety during service. My curiosity was aroused; I went to the sister and asked her how she managed to keep all those active children quiet during service. “O,” she replied, “from the first we required them to be quiet during morning and evening worship, at home. Children that are kept quiet during family worship at home will be quiet in church.” She had brought up a family of children of her own, and knew what she was talking about. Since that time I have visited in many homes, and met with many companies; and I have found that the good sister’s rule always holds true. I once knew a man and his wife who had one child. They said it was nervous, and nearly every Sabbath one of the parents or grandparents stayed at home with the child. They were all earnest Christians, and I never knew the secret of the child’s nervousness in church, until I chanced to meet one morning with the family around the family altar. While the Word of God was being read, no attention was paid to the child; it was playing and making as much noise as it liked. When we knelt to pray, the grandfather led in prayer; and while he was praying, the little child climbed upon his back, and sprang up and down, making believe that he was a hobby-horse. When we rose from prayer, instead of reproving the child, both the parents and grandparents laughed heartily at what they thought the child’s cuteness. I did not wonder that the child had little respect for the worship of the Lord in his house, when it was encouraged in showing such disrespect for the worship of God at the family altar. I remember in one family where I often called there was an especially active child; he never seemed quiet for one minute during the day, and yet on the Sabbath during service he was always quiet. I was invited to spend a few days with the family, and as we gathered around the family altar, I discovered the secret of the active child’s quietness in church. When the family assembled for worship, a footstool was placed by the mother’s chair, and the little man seated upon it. As an older child distributed the Bibles to the older members of the family, a book (not a Bible) was given to the smallest child. He took the book and quietly amused himself with it; occasionally he would start from the footstool, but the mother’s hand, laid firmly upon him, soon quieted him. One morning he did not heed her gentle admonition, and insisted upon moving about. The mother quietly took him from the room, and settled the question with him alone; and when they returned, he was well content to sit quietly. He was taught that reading the Bible was God talking to us, and praying was talking to the Lord, and that it was disrespectful to God to be noisy during worship. I have never found children troublesome in church that were required to respect the daily worship of God at the family altar. “Children that are kept quiet during family worship at home will be quiet in church.”