A STRONG INFLUENCE FOR EVIL.
THE proverb, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it," expresses a truth which is older than Solomon. In every age and among every people its truth has been attested, or its opposite has been seen. "As the twig is bent the tree's inclined," is another truism. Because these are facts, the enemy of truth and righteousness has directed his campaign along the same lines. Said a Catholic clergyman, "Give me the child until he is twelve years old, and I care not what his surroundings may be after that." It is generally known that the early teaching of the child, the bent that is given to his thinking machine at that time, will, in a great measure, shape his whole future life. In view of these facts, how carefully should the parent deal with the little life that is committed to his or her care! How careful should the parent be of the mind food which the child is permitted to assimilate, as well as of the persons with whom the child associates! The whole course of his life is in the balance at that time. He may be given the artificial food which stimulates the skeptical side of the child's nature, or puts an unreal glow over everything of a material or spiritual nature; or he may be given the real food that will help him to come into the estate of a full-blown manhood. How great a responsibility rests upon the teacher in this matter, only the judgment can fully reveal. One of the most deplorable features of modern times is the frivolous, unreal, and even skeptical conception of life which we meet so frequently, especially on the part of those who have but recently come to the estate of manhood and womanhood—who have but recently graduated from our high schools, academies, and colleges. It is due in large measure to the stimulating, highly-seasoned dishes of fiction with which the curriculum is crowded. From the mythical follies of heathendom to the imaginary life of the novel's hero or heroine, the general trend of influence is the same. The air-castle conception of life which it breeds is carried into the married life, and becomes a fomenter of all kinds of domestic discord. The wife or the husband is not like the pen-creation of the story-book, the character of the husband is found to be very different from that of the god or demi-god of mythology, which had somehow woven itself, perhaps unconsciously, into the ideal of the other party; all dissimilar traits are marked, remarked, and magnified, till separation comes in one way or another. The disillusioned party considers himself or herself imposed upon; they have not found their affinity, and would seek again for the counterpart of that ideal which was conjured up in the mirage of their mind wanderings. But the delusion does not end in the sundering of the marriage ties. It is not aimed at that alone. The very transactions of every-day life, the purpose of life, the object in living, the conception of God, and the work of the Gospel—all are colored, disarranged, metamorphosed, by this lens of unreality through which the young of to-day are taught to look. The mirage is taken for the real, and the real is shrouded in a mist of unreality, designed by Satan to confuse, blind, and destroy. A Dangerous Food for Children.
One of the chief feeders of this dangerous stream is the fictitious literature which the pupils of our public schools are compelled to read and assimilate. Many thoughtful parents of all shades of religious beliefs, and some who have none, realize the grave danger in this modern method of giving pupils a "literary education." All the sophistry, mythology, and carnal philosophy of the ancients are bundled into the curriculum of our schools, till the minds of the children in this, their most plastic period, are stuffed and clogged with these worse than useless husks, and their fermentation is breeding the bacilli of insanity, suicide, recklessness, domestic discord, skepticism, and the wild theorizing of theosophy and evolution. The tendency is realized and deplored by many who feel their utter helplessness against it, knowing that the purpose of this increasing flood of evil is to turn a beneficial institution away from its legitimate purpose, and put within it the possibilities of incalculable harm. Many schoolteachers and not a few principals feel the danger of the present tendencies, but they feel unequal to the task of checking or altering the course of that dangerous flood. Were a healthy parental influence arrayed against it, these educators would be strengthened and encouraged to grapple with the evil; but the tide is strong, and the opposition unorganized. One of the most discouraging features of the situation is the fact that there are religious journals, that are supposedly set for the advancement of the cause of God in the earth, but yet are throwing the weight of their influence in favor of this fiction-education, both in the school and in the home. The child learns rapidly. What a responsibility there is, then, upon the shoulders of the parent and teacher, to see to it that what he learns is that which will help him toward a strong, Christian manhood. We have read of parents who have given their children beer and whisky. What these concoctions of evil are able to do against the physical side of the child's nature, the mythological, fiction-literature can do and does do against the child's moral and spiritual nature. It is a strong, undermining influence, and its powerful sweep and swirl are felt in every part of the world to-day.