p. 399 | THE DUTY TO PRAISE

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 8, 1881

THE DUTY TO PRAISE.

In an essay on the "Duty to Praise," which we commend to all who have to do with children, Mr. William Matthews says that a certain amount of self-esteem seems absolutely necessary to keep men alive and in heart."

This trait makes it expedient that praise should be given where praise is due. Many men are not able, because they do not think themselves able. They need to be encouraged, in order to get the best work out of them.

Sir Godfrey Kneller was so eminent as a portrait painter that ten crowned heads and a score or more of princes sat to him. Men said he was vain, and he was; and what is more he knew it, and used his love of approbation to spur him to do his best.

"Praise me, Mr. Pope," he said to the poet, when he was sitting to him. "You know I can't do as well as I should unless you praise me."

Not a few boys have illustrated the proverb, "Give a dog a bad name and he will deserve it." The father of Dr. Adam Clarke, the Biblical commentator, seldom praised him, except for his ability to roll large stones. He thought his son a dunce, and said so. Of course the boy had no faith in himself.

But one day, a teacher called at the house, who knew that a little judicious praise went a great way toward making a man of a boy.

"That boy," said the father, "is very slow at learning; I fear you will not be able to do much with him."

Adam's heart sunk to a lower depth. But the wise teacher, laying his hand on his head, said:—

"This lad will make a good scholar yet."

Instantly, the sympathetic touch and word begot in the so-called dunce the hope that he too could learn.

The hope stimulated the unused mind. He became conscious of mental power. He learned his lessons with ease.

"I could have doubled the effort," he says, "had it been required."

That bit of judicious praise gave to the Methodist their famous Biblical commentator.—The Youth's Companion.