PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN.
By P. C. Rodman
[BRO. SMITH: The following advice I think may be read with profit by many a parent and child.
P. C. RODMAN.] There is nothing better, nothing safer, nothing so sure of bringing forth the fruit in the end, as truth. Tell him that obedience requires unpaid sacrifices. Tell him that he need not expect that a purse of gold will drop into his hand the moment he denies himself of a coveted pleasure. Tell him that the path of duty is often terribly hard, and seldom leads to an oil well, or a seat in Congress, or to a brown-stone-front house. Tell him that virtue sometimes brings thorns, enmities, neglect. But tell him that it is virtue, nevertheless: the brightest, the noblest, and the best of gifts, and whatever comes of goodness it is the one thing desirable, itself above all price. Make him feel that obedience is pleasure, that goodness is delight, that love is altogether lovely, and he will not expect to be paid for the smallest service and be tempted to withhold a kindness when he is not sure of a reward. Parents must cease appealing to the appetites and the avarice of their children if they would have them anything but selfish and sensual.