p. 15 | Danger for the Young by Carrie R. Moon

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 10, 1914

Danger for the Young

By Carrie R. Moon

MRS. CARRIE R. MOON

PAUL, in writing to Timothy, said: “In the last days perilous times shall come. . . . Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”

Many parents do not know how wickedness has increased since the days when they were young. In the innocence of their own hearts, they see only good in others, and for that reason they do not realize the dangers that surround their boys and girls.

Perhaps many who have read, in “Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. VI, the following words, do not really sense the dangers that led to their being given: “Work as if working for your lives to save your children from being drowned in the polluting, corrupting influences of the world.”

Constant care on the part of parents is the price that must be paid if they would have their children grow up with pure minds in these evil days. The children must be guarded from evil associations while they are too young to have settled principles. Some parents allow their children to play on the streets with a promiscuous company of other children, even remaining out in the evening. Many learn in this way their first lessons in evil. As Elizabeth Rosser truly said,—

“The night is falling, When gilded sin doth walk about the streets.”

“Come, shut the door, and gather round the hearthstone. Are all the children in?”

A practice which is not uncommon in some families is that of allowing children to spend the night with schoolmates or other young friends. If the parents could know the foul poisons that are often breathed into the pure minds of their children at such times, they would shudder at the thought.

But even the greatest care is not enough to insure safety. The children must be instructed. There must be so close a bond of companionship between parents and children that Satan will not be able to get in between them. Those children who feel perfectly free to come to their parents with questions concerning all that they wish to know, knowing that their questions will be answered truthfully, and who can come freely and tell anything that occurs in their associations with others, are not likely to be led far astray. Mothers should learn how to tell the story of life to their children in such a way as to impress the young hearts with a sense of the sacredness of the bodies that God has given them. Children who have thus been taught will go to the mother instead of to other children for conversation upon such topics.

An incident illustrating the awful consequences of a lack of care on the part of parents occurred only a few months ago in an American town. Eleven young people, between the ages of fourteen and twenty years, all children of respectable families, were arrested, accused of a long list of crimes. Rigid examination brought confessions which revealed the fact that this was one of the most perfectly organized gangs for the commission of petty crimes that was ever known in that vicinity. Three members of the gang were girls, the youngest being only fourteen years of age. The girls confessed that they had made a practice of meeting the boys at dance halls, and staying with them till two or three o’clock in the morning, sleeping in barns and other rendezvous, while their mothers believed that they were spending the night at the home of some of their girl friends. The account of the affair published in the daily paper ended with these words, which will touch a sympathetic chord in the heart of every mother: “There were heart-rending scenes at the police station today. Mothers came to see their children, and when told of the serious crimes which their children had confessed, broke down and sobbed. With a maternal love that causes them to doubt that their sons and daughters are guilty, they kissed their children, and departed with eyes blinded with tears.” Comment is unnecessary. The story carries its own sad lesson.

Another of Satan’s workshops is the city parks. Those who sit in one of our public parks for a little while in the late afternoon will see things that will make them long to put protecting arms around those young girls and warn them of their danger—yes, and to warn the boys also, for they need a mother’s loving counsel just as much as the girls do.

“It is a critical time for children. Influences will be thrown around them to wean them from you, which you must counteract. Teach them to make you their confidant. Let them whisper in your ear their trials and joys. By encouraging this, you will save them from many a snare that Satan has prepared for their inexperienced feet. . . . Satan and his host are making most powerful efforts to sway the minds of the children, and they must be treated with candor, Christian tenderness, and love. This will give you a strong influence over them.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. I, page 387.

Satan is working with all his power to destroy all the young people of these last days, and more especially the children of Seventh-day Adventists; but at the same time “angels are watching the children with the deepest interest to see what characters they develop.” It is the duty and privilege of parents to help their boys and girls in this work of character building. Parents should remember that they cannot always keep their children with them under their personal care and influence. The children must go out from the home nest and battle with the world alone. To prepare them for this should be the daily effort of the parents. The mother of Moses should be an example to all mothers in this respect. She knew that her son was to be taken from her while he was yet a child and be surrounded by all the vices and alluring temptations that a king’s court could offer. With the greatest earnestness she improved the few years of his earliest childhood that were allowed her to instill into his heart such principles as would make it possible for him to be true to God and to his own manhood in the midst of such influences. His after life of service to God was the result of his mother’s efforts for him.

To mothers is given the most sacred responsibility and the greatest privilege ever given to mortals. How thankful they should be that to them is given the privilege of giving to these little ones their first education—of molding the plastic clay before any less loving hands have come in contact with it! How carefully they should guard their dear ones from evil, train them to live by principle, and pray that the Lord will seal them for his own throughout eternity—“that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a palace”! Mothers who allow anything to come between them and this duty to their children may have years of sorrow when it is too late to correct their fatal mistake.

“O mother, guard the feet of inexperience, Too prone to wander in the paths of sin. O, shut the door of love against temptations! Are all the children in?”

South Bend, Ind.