To Save Our Children by Mary C. Hanson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 1, 1912

To Save Our Children

By Mary C. Hanson

MARY C. HANSON

There never was a time in our experience when the children were led away by the pleasures of this world as they are now. This being true, it is most important for us as parents to be awake to the situation. Many of our people live in cities, where there are all kinds of attractions for the children and youth. Parents should exercise great caution in this matter, lest the children be permitted to form appetites for these attractions, which will result in the ruin of their souls. Every city has its quota of moving-picture shows and other cheap shows. We call them cheap, but they are not cheap. They are taking the children's hearts, which belong to God.

Many parents, I fear, will not realize this till it is too late. Some let their children go to the theaters; some even go themselves. My heart aches when I think of it. There are neighbors and friends about us, millions beyond the sea, who have never heard the message of our Saviour's soon coming. How much better it would be for us to spend the evenings at home with our children, trying to interest them in missionary work by reading to them or with them our good REVIEW and Signs, or in other pleasurable and profitable occupations.

I am thinking of an experience which one mother had with one of her older boys, who was a member of the church. He came to his mother's bedside after she had retired, and desired to be permitted to remain away from church the following Sabbath, because it was quarterly meeting, and he did not feel worthy to take part in the ordinances. The mother showed him that this was Satan's effort to gain a victory over him, and she set before him the urgent necessity of standing loyal and steadfast for God and truth in view of the nearness of the journey's end. He was admonished to confess his sins to God if he had done wrong, and to meet the tempter with the words used by the Saviour when tempted in the wilderness. The boy kissed his mother good-night, and retired; and she had the blessed assurance that the victory was won.

Would that mother have had that experience with her boy that night if she had been in attendance at some show or theater? I believe not. To her it was not to be compared with any number of shows.

Forest Grove, Oregon.