ONCE, AND ONLY ONCE

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 28, 1861

ONCE, AND ONLY ONCE.

OnCE is enough, all-sufficient, better than a thousand. Parents, never allow your little ones to disobey or trample on the first moving muscle, the slightest wink, the least nod of parental requisition. Make no requests of your children, give no commands to them but such as are just, right, and reasonable, such as can be complied with and ought to be complied with; then let it be fully understood, the command given is to be obeyed, cheerfully, unhesitatingly, the very instant the word falls from your lips.

Children, even little children, are eagle-eyed; they read the eye of the parent, his every look, the tone of his voice, the manner of his expression; they very soon learn whether or not the parent is in good earnest and intends to be obeyed. Beloved, do you request a child of yours to rise in the morning at a specific time, come to the altar of prayer, the breakfast-table, to do this or that? What now?—slacken the reins, repeat and re-repeat your requisitions; permit your little ones to obey or disobey at their own will and pleasure? Very soon you reap the fruits of this tardiness or parental slackness. What you sow you reap. Sow to the wind, you reap the whirlwind. It is utterly impossible to have clock-work in doors, or out, in the kitchen or in the parlor; quiet, order, peaceful harmony, good will, at table, around the family altar, where this repetition is allowed for a moment. Besides, this one deviation from family order is the letting out of water, the stepping-stone to more general and perpetual deviations, to more startling, headstrong, reckless out-breaks; till the family (instead of an Eden of paradise) becomes a little bedlam, a scene of disorder and confusion.—Golden Rule.