THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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 ■? ',-
 
 TWIGS FOR NESTS 
 
 OR 
 
 NOTES ON NURSERY NURTURE.
 
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 TWIGS FOR NESTS 
 
 OR 
 
 Notes on Nursery Nurture 
 
 By tht' Author of ' The Expositions of the Cartoo?is of Raphael,' etc. 
 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS IN GRAPHOTYrE 
 
 LONDON 
 A NIKS NISBET & CO. BERNERS STREET 
 
 1866
 
 Printed by R. Clark, Edinbt
 
 711 
 
 SlSt 
 
 Betsicntcis 
 
 Eo ttje JHemorg of 
 
 3 JHotfjcr. 
 
 713707
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 ANY who have been happy enough to have received 
 Christian nurture themselves, and who have attempted 
 to repeat, in a home full of their own children, that 
 system of training, will have something to say which 
 any parents who are understanding and accepting their 
 parental responsibility will be glad to hear. 
 
 Only those, perhaps, who have been educated at 
 home, and whose profession has enabled them to con- 
 tinue an unbroken home life, will be allowed to speak as 
 those having authority on any of those home questions 
 which are admitted on all hands to be full of perplexity, 
 and about which there prevails so great a variety of 
 opinion and practice. 
 
 These " Notes on Nursery Nurture " are the result 
 of an intimate acquaintance with two generations of 
 children, and are presented without any pretence either 
 to originality or completeness. The writer has had no
 
 viii 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 intention of exhausting his subject. He speaks only of 
 those principles and plans which he has himself known, 
 and which he has himself tried ; and he offers the expe- 
 rience of his home life as a contribution to what he 
 conceives to be the most important branch of social 
 science. The reader will find on almost every page the 
 faith that " Twigs for Nests " are a growth and not a 
 manufacture, and the acknowledgment of the universal 
 
 law, that 
 
 " Except the Lord build the house 
 
 They labour in vain who build it." 
 Gospel Oak, N.W., 1866.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. Babies' Crying 
 II. Family Prayer 
 
 III. Nursery Nonsense 
 
 IV. Children's Birthdays 
 V. Children's Faults 
 
 VI. Children's Sundays . 
 VII. Children's Hobbies . 
 VIII. The Parent's Pattern 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 15 
 
 33 
 49 
 67 
 
 83 
 101 
 125
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 " To Everything there is a Season " 
 
 -▼ 
 
 Henry Rafter. . Fron 
 
 'ispiece. 
 
 The First Lesson .... 
 
 T. M. Zwecker . . V 
 
 ignetle. 
 
 A Concert ..... 
 
 H. W. Petherick . . 1 
 
 "age 3 
 
 " Asleep at Last " 
 
 ,, . 
 
 13 
 
 Coming down to Prayers 
 
 H. Fitzcook . 
 
 19 
 
 Children in Church 
 
 H. IV. Petherick . 
 
 25 
 
 "Tables" 
 
 )> 
 
 3i 
 
 Birds in Bonnets .... 
 
 H. K. Browne 
 
 35 
 
 Going to the Moon 
 
 j> 
 
 44 
 
 The Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds . 
 
 ?? • 
 
 47 
 
 The Nativity .... 
 
 H. W. Petherick . 
 
 5i 
 
 The Birthday Letter 
 
 Miss Helen A. J. Miles 
 
 60 
 
 "A Word in Season" . 
 
 H. W. Petherick . 
 
 63 
 
 The Lost Letter .... 
 
 fi • 
 
 76 
 
 Playing at Church .... 
 
 ) ) • 
 
 94 
 
 The Mother's Service 
 
 Miss Helen A. J. Miles 
 
 99 
 
 The Sunday Supper 
 
 Henry Rafter 
 
 100 
 
 Holiday Work .... 
 
 H. Filzcook . 
 
 • 103 
 
 A Hobby 
 
 L. C. Henley . 
 
 • 123 
 
 The Old Family Bible . 
 
 Henry Rafter 
 
 127 
 
 Sunset in Harvest .... 
 
 D. C. Hitchcock. . 
 
 Finis.
 
 TWIGS FOR NESTS. 
 
 I.— BABIES' CRYING. 
 
 " Of nature s tears 
 I would not rob thee • they invigorate virtue, 
 
 Soften at once and fortify tin- heart : 
 
 But wh-en they rise to speak this desperate language, 
 
 They then grow tears of weakness." 
 
 Thomson.
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 No. I.— BABIES' CRYING. 
 
 '• A tunc to cry." 
 
 Many, if not all of us, cry as we come into the world. Some 
 cry for a while, more or less, and then put away crying as a 
 childish thing ; others continue crying, and go through and go 
 out of the world as they came into it. They are permitted by 
 their friends, and they allow themselves, to repeat their first 
 act till it becomes a habit, and they remain babies as long as 
 they live.
 
 4 Ni T RSER V NUR TURK. 
 
 In most homes, even in those where there are no children, 
 a baby is to be found, young or old ; and as a rule the trouble- 
 someness of a baby increases with its years. A mother can 
 soon hush to sleep the little thing that is " mewling and puking" 
 in her arms; and a father, who is half a woman, may often 
 win golden opinions by his mesmeric gifts ; but a son or a 
 daughter will sometimes find greater difficulty in the manage- 
 ment of their parent than their child. You may listen with 
 admiring wonder to the large noise into which a small infant is 
 putting its temper, and you will be hardly able to restrain a 
 smile when, the art of coining noise into words being only 
 half-learnt, a curious medley of articulate and inarticulate 
 sounds greets your ear ; but you will be often tempted to cry 
 yourself if it be your lot to live with some one who has been 
 long able and willing to whimper and whine in plain English. 
 
 Every excuse is to be made for the first cry of a new-born 
 babe, and many excuses are to be found for much of the 
 peevishness of some of the fretful tribe ; but there is a great 
 amount of crying amongst babies of all ages which is criminal, 
 and some steps should be taken that it may be stopped. 
 Whatever our sex or our age, we were intended to be " men." 
 We are to learn to be quiet, and to bear our own burdens. 
 We may, if we will, groan and grumble with our cronies, but 
 we have no right to become crones. Our troubles are not to 
 form the topic for our conversations, nor the subject for our 
 letters. We may be out of health, but we need not be out of 
 -sorts. The sick, and the sorrowful, and the superannuated, are
 
 BABIES' CRYING. 5 
 
 not to fall into the sin that so easily besets them, and to be- 
 come a social nuisance. No member of a family, whatever be 
 their age or condition, has any right to make a home miser- 
 able. The crying in a cradle may, except a veto be put upon 
 it, lead to the croning in an old arm-chair. "Babies' crying" 
 is a matter which demands investigation, for there is much 
 that is criminal, and the sooner that it is acknowledged and 
 treated as such the better. 
 
 We anticipate, at the very outset, what will be said. We 
 fully admit that "there is a great difference in children." But 
 a protest may be made very fairly against the common custom 
 of avoiding the discussion of the principles of nursery nurture, 
 or the merits of some particular case, by the utterance of this 
 trite remark. Granted that there is a great difference in child- 
 ren, it is possible that this difference may be the result of 
 training. Every one knows that there are " good babies," just 
 as there are " happy children " and " pleasant old people.'' 
 The question is, whether we are to accept as incurable those 
 infirmities of temper which are found in the aged and the 
 young, and which may or may not be hereditary or constitu- 
 tional. We need to know, for instance, how it is that some 
 mothers can put their infants into their cots, when the little 
 things are wide awake, and they will lie of themselves " as good 
 as gold," and play with their fingers till they fall asleep, while 
 other women, who seem as if they ought to have been childless, 
 will be worn out, day after day, and night after night, with the 
 weeping and the wailing of their fractious babes. Do the
 
 6 NURSER Y NUR TURK. 
 
 infants that are laid down to get to sleep of themselves grow 
 into the children who go to bed without crying? Is it the 
 same child that cries to go to bed which cries to go to school ? 
 Are the good children and the pleasant people we meet with 
 those who have been taught and trained, from the very first, to 
 accept life and to do the things which have to be done 1 Have 
 the conduct and character of children any connection with the 
 conduct and the character of their parents? Can the way- 
 wardness of grown-up cry-babies be traced to the humouring 
 of their first childish whims ? Are the children " you can do 
 anything with " those who have been trained to have no will of 
 their own, and are those who are " always a trouble " such as 
 have been allowed to have their own way ? Answers to these 
 questions may be found by any who choose to take the trouble 
 to investigate nursery phenomena, and from what may be thus 
 certainly known we may form rules for our guidance in dealing 
 with " babies' crying " which will have all the exactness and 
 certainty of science. 
 
 This matter, as it first presents itself to us, is perfectly free 
 from either pain or perplexity. We have been expecting the 
 cry, and are only too thankful to hear it. We know what it is. 
 It is a sound signifying life. It is merely an animal sound, 
 inseparable from animal life. All young things cry. It is a 
 cry coming only out of the body, if indeed the tender organism 
 deserves such a substantial designation. There is no want of 
 food ; so, please, do not give it any. Above all, do not poison 
 this fresh spring of life with medicine. The cry is a cry of
 
 BABIES' CRYING. 7 
 
 relief ; and as you are doubtless too full of feeling to express 
 yourself, let the mouth of the babe and suckling speak for you. 
 The babe wants to breathe. Leave it alone. If you must say 
 something to it, you may begin to tell it, if you like, what you 
 will have to tell it, times without number, if it lives. " Don't 
 cry, you can do it." If you must do something, sing — 
 
 " ' 7 'is a lesson you should heed, 
 
 Try, try, try again ■ 
 If at first you don't succeed, 
 
 Try, etc. 
 Then your coin-age should appear ; 
 For if you will persevere, 
 You will eonquer, never fear, 
 
 Try, etc. 
 
 The breath and the cry come alike from the same organs. 
 There is a temporary confusion in the exercise of the lungs and 
 the larynx. It has to learn to breathe without crying. The 
 little thing has everything to learn. Before the day is out it 
 will have to try to get its own living, and it is as likely as not 
 that it will cry over its work. Alter the tearful time of teething 
 it will have to take to solid food, and then once and again, as 
 a tyro in eating, it will bite its tongue. It will have to learn to 
 stand by constantly falling, and if in the commencement of its 
 career it be not petted nor fondled after its failures, it will take 
 gradually as a matter of course the ups and downs of life. 
 After a while all these difficulties will be overcome, and if we 
 care enough about the child to hide our feelings, we shall saw
 
 8 NURSE R V NUR TURE. 
 
 it from belonging to the helpless and hopeless class of mortals 
 who cannot manage themselves and are constantly getting into 
 trouble, and letting their friends know all about it. 
 
 There are times, from the first to the last, in this mixed life 
 of ours, when the body will have its own way, and it may, and 
 it must be, allowed its liberty. There are times to cry. A good 
 cry is found, so it is said by some people, to be a great relief, 
 and we can understand that help may be gained in this way, 
 under the vexations as well as under the sorrows of life. We 
 are, however, to keep under the body, and to bring it into 
 subjection. There are many tears that may be prevented, and 
 there is much crying that should be stopped. We hold the 
 opinion that if there were better training there would be more 
 " good babies ;" and if the babies were better, there would, 
 we believe, be more good people. 
 
 Let us turn again to our new-born babe, and see what can 
 be done. Except it be sickly, if we understand and anticipate 
 its bodily wants — which, by-the-by, will involve no small amount 
 of study, patience, and devotion — we shall be able to say, what 
 many have said before us, who have nursed their babes from 
 the birth, " Our children never cry ! " The fact will prove that 
 we possess the genius for nursery nurture, at least so far as the 
 first few months are concerned. If the child be out of health, 
 we admit that the case is altered. There will be special diffi- 
 culties connected with its management, but these difficulties 
 must be met and mastered. We shall have many a weary day 
 and many a sleepless night, but yet there is something that we
 
 BABIES' CRYING. 9 
 
 can do for the child, and much that we can do for ourselves, 
 by intelligence and submission. Babies' cries differ, and they 
 must receive different treatment. In some' instances they are 
 to be met by fun, in others by philosophy. By fun, we mean 
 some harmless flash of humour, which is ever ready to show 
 itself in a holy home ; by philosophy we mean " the wisdom 
 that cometh from above," which we all lack, and which none 
 can receive except it be given by our Father in heaven. The 
 parents of a sick child must live very near to God, and learn of 
 Him that pity and patience which will be required for its nurture 
 and admonition. 
 
 Our healthy babe, however, except the greatest caution be 
 maintained, will imperceptibly acquire a habit of crying. If its 
 wants be misunderstood or neglected it will cry, and if the cry 
 be followed by help, it will soon understand the association, and 
 will learn to cry for anything that it wants. We have heard this 
 conduct justified : " What else, poor little thing, can it do 1 it 
 is its way of asking for what it wants." We do not accept as a 
 necessary home institution the chronic cry of a healthy babe. 
 Our belief is, that crying should be the exception, and not the 
 rule. The babe ought not to be left to cry for anything that it 
 really needs. If it be, then those who have it in charge have 
 failed in their duty ; and further (for it is in this way that the 
 child is the father of the man), if the little urchin finds, as it 
 will, that it can obtain anything it cries for, it will soon discover 
 
 the power it possesses in making itself disagreeable to others. 
 
 The babe will have been trained to be tiresome. It is in this
 
 i o NURSE R Y NURTURE. 
 
 way those children are reared whose gifts of teasing seem to 
 be almost preternatural, and who are often acknowledged to be 
 beyond human endurance. It is in these crying homes that you 
 may find the birthplaces of those miserable members of society 
 who are ever troubling others, in order that they may be com- 
 fortable themselves. 
 
 There is but a step between crying for everything and crying 
 for nothing ; the one leads to the other ; the force and impetus 
 of the habit are in this direction. Use breeds a fatal facility. 
 Babies' crying may become a vice. We all know the misery of 
 a home where any one of its members has fallen into evil ways. 
 The misery is often greater than it appears. Vicious habits 
 demoralise, for they take away the heart ; and it is not only the 
 transgressor who suffers ; the home being an organism, all the 
 members suffer with it. The little sinner who has been allowed 
 to fall into the habit of crying for nothing will not be alone in 
 its iniquity ; the other children will only too readily follow the 
 example of selfishness. Even the parents, though they may not 
 choose to acknowledge the fact, or may not, perhaps, be aware 
 of it, are not free from its influence. The difficulty becomes 
 a nuisance, and developes into a sin and the occasion of 
 sin. Because this iniquity abounds, the love of some fathers 
 has waxed cold, and " Babies' crying " has interfered with the 
 home habits of other men besides those who work for their 
 living. 
 
 If the first cry of the first child be responded to with alacrity 
 and intelligence, if it be regarded, as indeed it is, as the first
 
 BABIES' CRYING. u 
 
 oral summons to understand and sustain parental responsibility, 
 nursery nurture will never become invested with insuperable 
 difficulties, and nursery cries will never be uttered in vain. The 
 vocation will be received as a call from God, and that power 
 will be sought and obtained by which alone the courage will be 
 maintained in the face of any difficulty, and the temper will be 
 kept under any annoyance. 
 
 An infallible remedy for " babies' crying " is to let it alone. 
 If we are sure that the culprit has nothing to cry for, however 
 long and loudly it may squeal and squall, it will eventually tire 
 itself with its vociferations, and leave off when it discovers that 
 they are of no avail. The mother, or the father, or the grand- 
 mother, or some of its relations, will be almost certain to attempt 
 to interfere at a trying time, and except you care for the child 
 a great deal more than they do, you will give way to the pressure 
 that is put upon you, and the child will be comforted for its 
 crying, and will have cried in vain. One or two thorough doses 
 of this ' simple ' ensure a perfect and a lasting cure. No one 
 need fear any evil results on the child's feeling towards himself 
 if he has been careful to select the time for trying to teach his 
 child the lesson. We may learn from ourselves that they will 
 ever remember with love and gratitude those who have been 
 just and firm with them in the correction of their faults : — 
 
 " Few are the fragments left of follies past ; 
 For worthless things are transient. They that last 
 Have in them germs of an eternal spirit, 
 I ml oitt of good their permanence inherit."
 
 1 2 NURSE R V NUR TURE. 
 
 We shall have occasion once and again in these papers to 
 notice the sphere left for the exercise of humour in the manage- 
 ment of children. A laugh will often prevent a cry. It will 
 sometimes stop " babies' crying ;" and if it fails in these, it may 
 succeed in accomplishing another and almost as desirable an 
 effect. While it may not work out a way of escape, it will help 
 parents to bear the temptation. 
 
 A minister of our acquaintance had a course of wearisome 
 nights appointed to him, during the babyhood of his little girl 
 " Kate," and while aiding and abetting the mother in her 
 attempts to give the first lessons in patience to their child, he 
 was in the habit of trying to keep his own temper by looking 
 at the ludicrous side, which is easily to be found in trifling 
 grievances. The nursery rhyme which follows is now often 
 sung in his home, and was produced by him on the one night 
 of the week when he would have been the most thankful if 
 his little one had not lifted up her voice. We close our paper 
 with the hope that his example may stimulate some of our 
 readers, who may be placed in similar circumstances, to go and 
 do likewise. 
 
 SATURDAY NIGHT. 
 
 Conic, come, Utile Kitty, 
 P '11 sing you a ditty, 
 
 A ditty, if quiet you'll be ; 
 r in sure its a pity 
 Our dear Utile Kitty, 
 
 To wake your mother and me.
 
 BABIES' CRY IXC. 
 
 You know its not right, 
 On a Saturday night, 
 
 To make such an awful row. 
 Another night, f might strike a light, 
 But to-night it's out of the question quit, ; 
 
 Come, hush-a-by, baby, ?zow. 
 
 What! keeping up still > 
 I know you're not ill ! 
 
 What is tt all about ! 
 foe still, be still, or else I will, 
 Whether your mother will or nil, 
 
 From the window throw you out.
 
 TWIGS FOR NESTS. 
 
 II.— FAMILY PRAYER. 
 
 " Jl/ore things arc wrought by prayer 
 
 Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice 
 
 Rise like a fountain for me night and day ; 
 
 For what are men better than sheep or goats, 
 
 That nourish a blind life "without the brain ! 
 
 If knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer 
 
 Both for themselves and those who call them friend ' 
 
 For so the -whole -world round is every -way 
 
 Round by gold chains about the feet of God." 
 
 Tennyson.
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 No. II.— FAMILY PRAYER. 
 
 "Milk for Babes." 
 
 " Nursery Prayer " would have been given to this paper as 
 its title, if we had not been afraid lest the word "nursery" might 
 mislead some of our readers as to our opinion respecting the 
 place in children's homes where the common prayer should be 
 accustomed to be made. The word would doubtless have 
 suggested the idea which we have conceived of the present topic 
 — that the family prayer in children's homes should be a child's 
 service — but we decided upon retaining the more familiar and 
 comprehensive epithet, lest it should be supposed that we had 
 fallen into a great mistake. 
 
 The force of the adage, " a place for everything, and every- 
 thing in its place," is felt as much by those who have the 
 management of the young, as by any others whose business by 
 its extent and variety seems to demand the help of every con- 
 venience, and the strictest adherence to a settled system. The 
 place for children is the nursery, and if it be, as we imagine it 
 should be, the best room in the house, they will be found, as a 
 
 ^v 
 
 h 
 
 c
 
 1 8 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 rule, to be better and happier there than they are anywhere 
 else. 
 
 Children are, however, like ourselves. They are creatures 
 of circumstances. They have like feelings and passions with 
 us. We cannot afford to forget, in our own cases, that we form 
 associations. We cannot help the influence that some places 
 and scenes have over us. Certain trains of thought are sug- 
 gested which invariably lead away our minds, and there are 
 some feelings which seem to be inseparable from some rooms. 
 There must be a change of place if there is to be a change of 
 thought and feeling. We can only make the best of ourselves 
 when we make the best of our circumstances, and we shall have 
 to give our little ones every advantage if we are to succeed in 
 our present effort, which is to lead them to worship with us Him 
 who is a spirit, in spirit and in truth. Other things, besides the 
 adaptation of place, must combine to make the effort a success ; 
 anything, even a trifle, may render it a failure. 
 
 A nursery is a necessity. It is, like many other necessities, 
 a blessing in disguise. But it is to the little ones, though it may 
 be large and lofty, and full of playthings, what the school-room 
 is to the elder children, and what the shop, or the office, or the 
 study is to ourselves. The boy rushes out of the school-room, 
 the hands we employ drop their tools and leave the factory, at 
 the stroke of the hour for closing, and after the day's business 
 the master is only too ready to turn his back on the walls and 
 furniture of the office that he knows too well. Children are 
 always glad to leave the nursery and to come down-stairs.
 
 IAM11.Y PRAYER. 
 
 19 
 
 They are tired of it, and being tired, are sure to be tiresome. 
 The first step taken, then, in the direction of the family altar 
 
 is in our favour. We are often good when 
 
 we are happy, and the little ones, beim 
 
 pleased, are likely to behave themselves. 
 
 There is not only a present but a future benefit connected with 
 
 this change of place and scene. Having pleasant associations
 
 20 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 with the service, they may not only be induced to pray with us 
 but to pray by themselves, and when we are passed away to 
 pray with our children's children. 
 
 Coming into that part of the home which looks more like 
 " the Father's house," after having paid all that attention to 
 cleanliness which is next to godliness, which we feel to be due 
 to those who live with us and which they are taught to regard as 
 an absolute necessity ; rejoiced at being where we are, our 
 children will be as ready and able to worship with us, azteris 
 paribus, as we sometimes feel we shall be, when we are sum- 
 moned to leave this weary world, and, without spot or wrinkle, 
 or any such thing, shall see our Father in heaven, and be with 
 Him where He is. 
 
 The time for the service is to be chosen on the same prin- 
 ciple as the place. The circumstances of the children are to 
 be considered. In fact, in this as in all things, our cue is to 
 be taken from them. Our plans are to be accommodated to 
 their powers. A careful observation of the possibilities of 
 childhood, and the special limitations of each home, 'will easily 
 and certainly acquaint us with the best time for the commence - 
 ment and the close of such a service as we are contemplating. 
 It is as much from a want of thought as a lack of talent, that 
 many have experienced so much difficulty in sustaining the 
 interest of their households in family worship. Success in this, 
 as in most other undertakings, depends upon what those who 
 fail consider to be trifles. For instance, where the inmates of 
 a home are adults, the best time for prayer is before meals, but
 
 FAMILY PRAYER. 21 
 
 where there are children, and especially where there is a child 
 in arms, there is not much likelihood of securing quietness 
 except the little ones have eaten and drunk: — 
 
 " The veins unfilled, their blood is cold, and then 
 They pout upon the morning." 
 
 It is to be feared that there is some reason to believe in the 
 supposition that we are failing now-a-days in our family prayer. 
 In one or two instances we have known it to have been relin- 
 quished, the heads of the households confessing that it had 
 become in their homes a mockery. There are two cases in 
 which we could give evidence. In the one the children are 
 grown up ; in the other they are of tender years. While 
 believing in the necessary and intimate connection that exists 
 between family religion and family worship, we should shrink 
 from summarily settling these cases by attributing to a want of 
 home piety this absence of its manifestation. It is possible that 
 in some cases there may not have been that kind or measure of 
 religious feeling, which is required in all those who have to lead 
 the devotions of others. Any religious engagement which is 
 perpetually recurring at regular intervals, is a severe test of the 
 character of our Christianity. A daily service is very apt to 
 become a mere performance of a duty, and where there is a 
 possibility it will be omitted, the burden of perfunctoriness 
 being too heavy to be borne by those who officiate, and the 
 weariness and monotony becoming intolerable to those who 
 have been obliged to assist.
 
 2 2 NURSER V NUR TURK. 
 
 The canon of our Lord, " God is a spirit, and they who 
 worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth," is as 
 applicable to family prayer as it is to any other. If we are 
 not worshipping God in spirit in our homes, we are worshipping 
 Him in vain, and shall soon not worship Him at all. There is 
 more in these words of our Lord, as indeed there is in all that 
 came from His mouth, than we may at first suspect. The spirit 
 of prayer gives us not only power with God, but power with 
 others. Spiritual worship is not only acceptable to God, but it 
 is found to be acceptable to those who join in it. Further : 
 having the Spirit, Ave shall not only have power with God, and 
 with our little ones, knowing, as we shall presently see, what 
 things to pray for, and how to pray, as we ought ; but being 
 possessed by the Spirit, we shall be willing and able to cause 
 all things to work together for the success of our home wor- 
 ship. For instance, being led by the Spirit, we shall lead a 
 home life, in order that, little by little, we may accumulate 
 home knowledge and home power. We shall lay out ourselves 
 for our children with all that purpose, persistence, and genius 
 which ever characterise those who are in earnest. 
 
 Family prayer is one of the many branches of family religion, 
 and, like the rest, it will be fruitless, and soon wither and die, 
 if the root of the matter be not in the home. It is but one of 
 the many elements in Nursery Nurture, and as each division of 
 our subject comes under our consideration, we shall find that 
 while it comprises diversities of gifts, differences of administra- 
 tion, and diversities of operations, it is yet a unity, and that the
 
 FA MIL Y PR A YER. 2 3 
 
 same laws are to be seen in operation in its various spheres. 
 We live to learn that none of these laws can be disobeyed with 
 impunity, and that they are as inseparable as they are imperative. 
 If one part of Nursery Nurture suffers, the whole suffers with it. 
 
 Our choice of a house is to be determined by our children. 
 If they be young, there must be a nursery ; and as we shall 
 never regret making any known law our guiding principle, so, 
 as our children are ever to be to us in all things our first con- 
 sideration, the house is likely to become a home, if the turning 
 of our taking it has been decided by " the children's room." 
 
 The same law will be in operation if we are called to choose 
 our place of residence. Very few will find that they can afford 
 to live in the suburbs. Any whose business lies at home may 
 live almost anywhere they like, for it will never interfere with 
 their accumulation of home power, or prevent their exhibition of 
 home piety. But if a suburban life involves, as it mostly does, 
 our being with our children only one day in a week, why then, 
 together with other modern customs which can only be observed 
 at the expense of our homes, it must be avoided. We must live 
 with our children if we are to love them, and they are to love us. 
 If we were to become strangers at home, there would be many 
 things with which we could not intermeddle. Amongst these 
 would be family prayer. Perhaps this modern custom of living 
 away from business has had more influence than some imagine 
 on their home feeling, their home power, and their home religion. 
 Nothing is plainer than that it must affect the point before us — 
 the time of family prayer. Where the father leaves at so early
 
 24 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 an hour that there is either no time to hold the service at all, or 
 only to hold it in a hurry, and where he returns so late that 
 there is no possibility of holding it at night, the children being 
 tired or asleep, we can easily understand that the family altar is 
 never reared, or if the attempt be made, it is soon in ruins, the 
 fire being unfed with home feeling and ever going out. 
 
 It is the old tale over again. Nothing can be done without 
 taking a great deal of pains. Everything, at any rate in Nursery 
 Nurture, is full of labour ; and those who will not accept this 
 ordinance will be always finding it a trouble, and be ever speak- 
 ing of their children as troublesome. 
 
 It is possible that there is less family prayer than we ima- 
 gine; it is certain that there is less than there appears to be. If 
 the nursery element is to enter into the home worship where 
 there are children, we are afraid that there are many homes 
 without family prayer. It is piteous to think of the wrongs of 
 the young. There are many children living in good houses who 
 have no homes. Many who are fed and clothed and educated 
 are suffering from parental neglect. There are other little 
 ones besides those in our factories who are treated as men and 
 women. Some pious parents and some Sunday-school teachers 
 will perhaps one day see that they will have much to answer 
 for. People with very good intentions may do very great harm. 
 The long services at which children are obliged by their elders 
 to assist, with nothing whatever to compensate them for their 
 struggle against their natural restlessness, may perhaps be of 
 some avail to adults, but they are certainly fraught with fatal
 
 FAMILY PRAYER. 
 
 25 
 
 influence upon the young. We shall have something presently 
 to say about " sitting still " and " keeping quiet ;" and we do not 
 ignore the fact that we cannot avoid doing some wrong when- 
 
 iTr • 
 
 ^•>~. 
 
 *§sj <v§> j<_ j'vw/ffU'z 
 
 ever we do right. But we would now, and with all the earnest- 
 ness with which we are capable, draw the attention of those of our 
 readers who have to conduct family worship to the fact, that 
 their success will depend not only upon the time and the place, 
 but the manner of their doing so. 
 
 We are of opinion that the admitted neglect of public wor- 
 ship, and the supposed neglect of family prayer, may be attri
 
 26 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 buted largely to the early recollections of weariness which are 
 associated in many minds with the worship of God. There 
 is a strange aversion that many have to enter the house of God, 
 and which more have to open His word, which cannot be satis- 
 factorily accounted for by the ordinary solution of the depravity 
 of our nature. It is well known that there are those who have 
 been so disgusted with some food, although it was good to eat, 
 when they were children and obliged to take it, that they never 
 touch it now, when they can eat what they like. To be forced, 
 as a Sunday scholar, to sit still for an hour and a half, after 
 having been kept for the same time at school ; — to be forced to 
 be quiet every day, and to appear to listen to reading and 
 prayer in a language which needs to be interpreted, is to be 
 placed in circumstances that are sure to be held in lasting 
 remembrance, and to be accompanied with pernicious and en- 
 during results. 
 
 Family prayer, where there are children, must be a child's 
 service. If the Bible is to be understood, it must be translated. 
 We must make or use a child's version of the Scriptures. There 
 should be milk for babes. Just as our Father uses our language 
 and our way of putting things when He puts His will before us, 
 so we must use our children's language ; we must speak as a 
 child if we would put His will before them. Here, again, is 
 the law of labour, and it is more difficult to be simple than some 
 may imagine. It is easy to be childish, but we must take some 
 pains to be childlike. 
 
 There must be a selection of passages as well as of words.
 
 FA MIL Y PRA YER. 2 7 
 
 Nothing, at first sight, seems to be a better plan than to read 
 the Bible through, just as it is, at family prayer. This is cer- 
 tainly an improvement on the system adopted, in a home we 
 know, of accompanying it with " Henry's Commentary." But 
 there is a more excellent way. There are portions of the Scrip- 
 tures which seem to have been written, and they doubtless were, 
 for children. Take for instance, those which contain the life 
 of our Lord. We venture upon offering an example of what we 
 
 mean : — 
 
 Mark v. 21-43. 
 
 " Jesus had been in a ship on the sea. And when He had 
 landed from the ship He found a great many people on the 
 shore, who came and crowded about Him. While He was talk- 
 ing and walking with the people, one of the great men who 
 lived at the place where he was, ran up to Him, and fell down 
 on his knees, and began to beg and to pray. He said : ' I have 
 a little girl at home, my own child, who is very ill, and is going 
 to die. Oh, will you come ! If you would only put your hands 
 on her, and touch her, she would get well. If you came she 
 would live.' So Jesus went with the man, and as He went the 
 crowds went with Him. Now while they were going on the 
 road to the great man's house, a poor woman, who had been ill 
 for twelve years, and had suffered a great many things from a 
 great many doctors, and had spent all her money and was no 
 better, but only worse, when she heard that Jesus was in the 
 crowd, she pushed through the people, and came behind and 
 laid hold of Christ's cloak, for she said, ' If I can but touch His
 
 2 8 NURSE R Y NUR TURE. 
 
 cloak, I shall get well.' And in a minute her sickness left her, 
 and she felt that she # was quite well. 
 
 " Jesus, knowing what had been done, turned round on the 
 crowd, and asked, 'Who touched my cloak V And His dis- 
 ciples said to Him, ' Why do you ask who touched you 1 do you 
 not see all the people pressing upon you?' And Jesus looked 
 round to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, 
 frightened and trembling, knowing that it was she, and that she 
 had stolen a blessing, came and fell down and told Him all the 
 truth. And Jesus said to her, ' Daughter, you believed that if 
 you could only touch my cloak you would get well : because 
 you believed, I forgive you : go in peace, and keep well.' 
 
 " While He was talking to the woman, some servants came 
 from the great man's house and told him that his little girl was 
 dead, and that it was of no use now for Jesus to go any farther. 
 As soon as Jesus heard the message, he said to the man, ' Do 
 not be frightened, only believe.' And Jesus would not let the 
 crowd follow Him, but only Peter and James, and John the 
 brother of James. And He came to the house, and He saw 
 crowds of people weeping and crying. And when He was come 
 in He said to them, ' Why do you make this noise ? why do you 
 cry 1 The little girl is not dead, she is asleep.' And all the 
 people laughed at Him. But when He had put them all out, 
 He took the father and the mother of the little girl, and the 
 disciples, and went into the room where the little girl was lying. 
 And He took the little girl by her hand and said to her, 'Talitha 
 cumi,' which means, ' Little darling, get up.' And in a moment
 
 FAMILY PRAYER. 29 
 
 the little girl got up and walked about, for she was twelve years 
 old. And they all cried out with wonder. And Jesus told 
 them to be quiet, and to give the little girl something to eat." 
 
 We are not willing to give a form of prayer. Speaking 
 broadly, we may say that we do not believe in forms, at any 
 rate in a home. Prayers, where there are children, are to be 
 offered on the same principle as the Scriptures are to be read, 
 and any parent who lives very near to God and very near to 
 his little ones, will find that he is able to pray with them. His 
 home life will fill his heart with an abundance of thought and 
 feeling which he will be only too ready to turn into prayer. If 
 we are training our children to believe that their real Father is 
 in heaven, and that we have nothing for them but what He gives, 
 if we are in the habit of associating everything with him, then 
 we shall find in the fulness and variety of every season, and of 
 every day, a well-spring of prayer which will be everlasting and 
 always fresh. 
 
 A particular and distinct recognition of the blessings which 
 we are ever receiving from the hand of God, and the sins we 
 are constantly committing, instead of any general acknowledg- 
 ment of these things, and a careful avoidance of vain repeti- 
 tions, will be found to awaken the attention and to sustain the 
 interest of our children. The amazing variety of events and 
 circumstances, within and without, and the analogies which 
 are authorised by revelation, will suffice to prevent the 
 service from becoming barren or monotonous. The snow
 
 3 o . \ 7 r RSER ) ' NUR TURE. 
 
 that has come down from heaven during the night, and which 
 has arrested their attention in the morning ; the discovery in 
 the spring that some of the things which they have sown in 
 their garden have sprung up, and they know not how ; the sun- 
 shine pouring through their windows ; the love that we have for 
 them, and that which they have for us ; their sickness or their 
 health ; the difficulty found by us all in ceasing to do evil, and 
 the common weariness in well-doing ; the school and its lessons ; 
 the good Book ; the Father and the home in heaven ; the life 
 and love of our Lord ; the movings of the Spirit in our hearts ; 
 the birthdays of the living and the dead ; the selfishness and 
 quarrelling ; the indolence and murmuring ; what we eat and 
 what we drink, and what we put on ;— " In all these things, by 
 prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, we may make our 
 wants known unto our God." 
 
 There is sometimes to be noticed in the inner life of our 
 homes, as well as in the outer life in our world, a curious mingling 
 of things grave and gay, of things sacred and things so-called 
 profane. Our last hint must be received with that recollection. 
 It is offered to those only who have homes, and who love them, 
 and who are led by their love to wish to be all together at the 
 times when the family meets. It is a hint about " sitting still" 
 and " keeping quiet." 
 
 We had not long been parents before we found " the diffi- 
 culty of the baby !" A while we submitted to its despotism, and 
 allowed ourselves to be the sport of its humours. Matters were, 
 however, becoming serious, when, on a day ever to be re-
 
 FAMILY PR A YER. 
 
 3i 
 
 membered, we lighted, by accident, on a discovery. The child 
 was laid, unwittingly, on its back on a table, and it seemed to 
 enjoy, for the nonce, the position. The moment was improved. 
 Efforts, the inspiration of the crisis, were made to occupy its 
 attention. They succeeded, and the child seemed to forget its 
 restlessness. This was the origin of one of our most useful home 
 institutions. Every child in the home has been thus induced 
 to be still. The name, familiar now in our mouth as a house- 
 hold word, given to this ordinance is " tables/" Many a time, 
 for the fun of the thing, at the magic sound, a whole string of 
 children have laid themselves flat on their backs on the floor, 
 and we have laughed who have won them to acquire a habit of 
 control over their natural restlessness. This precious gift of 
 " keeping still " will not have to rust in them unused in after- 
 life ; and it has, in combination with other things, rendered it 
 possible for us to have all our children around us when we have 
 our family prayer.
 
 TWIGS FOR NESTS. 
 
 III.— NURSERY NONSENSE. 
 
 " Women know 
 
 The way to rear up children (to be just) ; 
 
 They know a simple, merry, tender knack 
 
 Of lying sashes, fitting baby -shoes, 
 
 And stringing pretty words that make no sense, 
 
 And kissing full sense into empty words ; 
 
 Which things are corals to cut life upon, 
 
 Although such trifles ; children learn by such 
 
 Love's holy earnest in a pretty play, 
 
 And get not over-early solemnised ; 
 
 But seeing as in a rosebush love's design, 
 
 Which burn^ and hurts not — not a single bloom, 
 
 Become aware and unafraid of love. 
 
 Stuh good do mothers. 
 
 Eliz. Barrett Browning. 
 
 I)
 
 - **\«v^£=±2^fc 
 
 a 
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 NO. III.— NURSERY NONSENSE. 
 " A time (o laugh." 
 
 There is an apparent impropriety in discussing the topic of 
 Nursery Nonsense directly after discoursing upon Family Prayer. 
 Another arrangement in these notes might easily have been 
 made, but then we should have lost one of those opportunities 
 which are constantly occurring in our home life, of noticing and 
 dwelling for a moment upon the subtle harmony which exists 
 between its discordant engagements. The touch of nature in 
 the sequence of Babies' Crying, Family Prayer, and Nursery 
 Nonsense, will be felt at once by our readers, and will bring us 
 nearer together.
 
 36 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 Were we writing for any others but parents, or were We 
 careful about preserving our character for propriety, it would 
 have been policy to render the passage more easy by inter- 
 posing some subject which would serve to break the abrupt- 
 ness of the transition. Addressing ourselves, however, to those 
 who are wise enough to be sometimes fools, and who will judge 
 what we say, having understanding in all things relating to 
 children, we are not careful about being misunderstood. Their 
 ears will have been attuned, as well as our own, to the music of 
 our course of home duties as they follow each other in their 
 quick succession, endless variety, and different keys. 
 
 The step from the sublime to the ridiculous, must often be 
 taken by those who are leading divine and human lives. Those 
 who are striving to bring up their children in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord will be taking it, advisedly, many times 
 a-day. They will have sympathised with us, we trust, in our 
 effort to rear such an altar in our homes that our children can 
 really worship God, and as we turn now and take this step, they 
 will accompany us, without any of that fastidiousness which is 
 found in some families in reference to fun. 
 
 No difficulty will be felt except by those who have adopted 
 the heathen division of duties into sacred and secular, or who 
 are labouring under the Jewish delusion that men or things, 
 as God has made them, can be common or unclean. Accept- 
 ing equally from God, His own Son, as He freely offers Him 
 to us in the gospel, and our own children as He places them 
 in our arms, we shall find ourselves, easily and naturally, pass-
 
 NURSER Y NONSENSE. 3 7 
 
 ing in a moment from striving to please Him to striving to 
 please them. There will be doubtless an appearance of in- 
 congruity in our conduct, to those who are strangers to Chris- 
 tianity, just as to many in the time of our Lord, and to some 
 in our own day, the union of the divine and human natures 
 in Christ was and is a stumbling-block. Our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ commends Himself to us, because we find Him 
 to be man as well as God, and Christianity is, "without contro- 
 versy," the religion for us, since it recognises, without any re- 
 spect of duties, our whole life. " Whether we eat or drink, or 
 whatsoever we do, we may do all to the glory of God." 
 
 We believe in what is called now-a-days the religion of com- 
 mon life, and that we may be continuously under divine direc- 
 tion, and that if we are so, we are always led by the same spirit 
 in the performance of all our engagements. Nothing that is 
 necessary will appear to us to be out of place. Christianity can 
 give that breadth to our life which characterises the picture of 
 a master, where the details are so treated that, instead of dis- 
 turbing and lessening, they are found rather to increase the unity 
 of the work. 
 
 The little Benjamin, as he sits on your knee when you read 
 the Bible at family prayer, may be so handled that he will not 
 interfere with the spirit of the service, though he is looking around 
 him with a comical quietness, first at one, and then at another 
 member of the circle. He is amusing himself, but he is not 
 amusing them. He will not hinder you, as you lead the devo- 
 tions of the home, though you may feel his fairy fingers playing
 
 38 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 with your watch-chain. We have discovered that we may safely 
 reward the urchin for his exemplary self-control by a piece of 
 quiet fun, which follows in our home immediately upon the 
 family "Amen." A special doddle is reserved for these sea- 
 sons, which by its quietness is evidently a source of exquisite 
 enjoyment to the babe, and by the science and strength which it 
 betrays, is as evidently the admiration and almost the envy of the 
 bystanders. All this may sound simple and childish, but we are 
 all very happy, and as most of us are children, we could not 
 perhaps adopt a better way of expressing the old experience, 
 that " happy is that people whose God is the Lord." 
 
 Whatever may be the philosophy, it is clearly the fact, that 
 instead of there being any inconsistency between religion and 
 amusement, they are closely connected. They are not only not 
 antagonistic, but they are even auxiliary. Holiness leads to 
 humour. Our best men are often our best wits. Those who 
 have read our old divines, and who have numbered among their 
 friends or relatives any who are thoroughly Christian, will under- 
 stand what we mean. 
 
 The good, according to the old adage, are happy, and are ever 
 ready for any good word or work ; and thus it is that they are 
 to be seen taking a little child, and doing or saying something 
 that will pass its time, or divert its attention from some trouble 
 into which it has fallen. 
 
 Children are ticklish in their mind as well as their body. 
 Like most young things, they are born with a disposition for 
 play. Even a babe possesses the sense of the ridiculous, and
 
 NURSERY NONSENSE. 39 
 
 responds at once to your touch, if you have wit enough to be able 
 to tickle its fancy. These gift's are surely not intended to be left 
 rusting in them unused. They must have been bestowed for 
 some purpose, and what that may be is presently discovered 
 by us, if we have much to do with their management. Without 
 going to any extremes, or suffering ourselves or others to abuse 
 " this good creature of God," we may safely and thankfully 
 receive it as a precious element in Nursery Nurture. 
 
 Good children are not always quiet, nor are we doing our best 
 for our little ones by always " minding" them and keeping them 
 still. They have to be left, at times, to themselves ; to be turned 
 loose into the nursery, if the weather be foul, or into the fields 
 if it be fa>'r ; and we may thus do something to prevent them be- 
 coming heavy and prosy and matter-of-fact, and adding, as they 
 grow up, to the decent dulness of the world. 
 
 There is to be, of course, a method in our madness, and the 
 nature and limitations of opportunities are to be studied. Nur- 
 sery nonsense will sometimes require to take the shape of frolic. 
 Our merry-making must be an embodiment. The fun must be 
 acted, and then we may be led, according to circumstances, in 
 the direction of gambols, pranks, antics, romps, even as far, if 
 we will, as high-jinks, only caring to keep ourselves and the 
 whole of the noisy crew so well in hand as to steer quite clear 
 of any practical jokes. Buffoonery and tomfoolery will be 
 found to be as unnecessary as they are vulgar. We may be 
 droll and full to overflowing with all kinds of pleasantry without 
 losing any of our own self-respect, or trenching in the least on
 
 4 o NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 the self-respect of one of the least of the little ones. There 
 may be ridiculousness without ridicule, and we may laugh as 
 much as we will with our children so long as we do not laugh 
 at them. 
 
 When matters are serious, and a cry has to be prevented, or 
 stopped, or turned into a smile, then our success will depend 
 upon our words rather than our works. A child that has had 
 a fall, or that has bit its tongue, or scratched its arm, is in no 
 humour either for noise or motion. It wants to be quiet and 
 to be cosseted. A little petting, under such circumstances, 
 may be a good thing, but we shall have to recollect that with 
 such handling, we shall be nursing the grievance as well as 
 nursing the child. There is a more excellent way. Nothing 
 perhaps can be done to divert the attention from the trouble, 
 but something may be said, and a comic tale at such a time 
 will not only quickly heal the wound, but will serve as a stone 
 in the foundation of the habit that we are wishing to form of 
 forgetting grievances, which in such a world as ours, where 
 offences must needs come, will be of no mean service. 
 
 A tale that is to give immediate relief to the patient, and 
 which is to effect a perfect cure, must be nonsensical. It 
 must possess, like all genuine nonsense, two apparently incon- 
 sistent characteristics. It must be so extraordinary as to arrest 
 the attention at once and completely carry away the mind, and 
 yet must refer to things familiar, and which already form a part 
 of nursery experience and nursery literature. It had best be 
 an old friend with a new face. Its power will lie in its grotesque-
 
 NURSERY NONSENSE. 41 
 
 ness, and there is nothing better, perhaps, to have in our mind's 
 eye, as we improvise it, than a gargoyle, in which the artist, 
 while giving the wildest play to his fancy, has yet preserved the 
 form of natural features. 
 
 Example is better than precept, and we select the following 
 tale as one that answered the end for which it was told. Our 
 little girl had to swallow a dose of medicine, and we promised 
 her that if she drank it off at once, we would tell her a story 
 that would take the taste out of her mouth. We seated her on 
 our knee, administered the draught, and began as follows : — ' 
 
 " Once upon a time, a long while ago, two little birds lived 
 in a nest in the country with their mother, and she used to give m 
 them a halfpenny a-week for pocket-money. At first they used 
 to spend their halfpennies in sweets, till their mother, who was 
 poor, asked them to save up their pocket-money and buy two 
 new bonnets. At the end of a year the two little birds had 
 money enough, and went off to the town to buy their bonnets. 
 When they got to the shop, the woman at the shop had plenty 
 of bonnets, bonnets for horses, bonnets for cows, bonnets for 
 pigs, and bonnets for dogs, but she was quite out of bonnets for 
 birds. When the two little birds found that she had no bonnets 
 for them, they looked very sad, and one of them was beginning 
 to cry, when the woman said 'Don't cry; go to London and buy 
 them : any one can get anything in London.' 
 
 " So the little birds flew off to London, found the bonnet 
 shop, and bought two beautiful bonnets. I can't tell you how 
 beautiful they were. Well, when the woman at the shop was
 
 42 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 fitting the bonnets on the birds, she told them that the Queen 
 had said, that if ever any birds came to London to buy any 
 bonnets she should be very glad to see them. So the woman 
 called a cab, and the birds hopped in, and they went off to the 
 Queen's house. And as soon as the Queen heard that the birds 
 in bonnets had come, she ran out and popped her head in at 
 the cab window, and said, ' Come in, come in ! ' So they went 
 in, and the Queen took them into a long room where there 
 were two long tables. Then the Queen called to her servants, 
 and they brought in sweets, and buns, and cakes, and cherries, 
 and currants, and liquorice, and all sorts of good things, and 
 the birds began to eat. One bird hopped up and down one 
 table, picking and eating, and the other bird hopped up and down 
 the other table, picking and eating. So when they had been 
 picking and eating a very great deal, and I think their mother 
 would say a very great deal too much, the Queen had two large 
 sacks brought in, and the servants filled the sacks with what 
 was left, that the birds might take it home to their mother. 
 
 " Then the Queen said to the little birds, ' Now is there any- 
 thing else that you would like V So they looked at each other, 
 and neither liked to say anything, till at last the bolder little 
 bird (the little bird that did not cry) spoke up and said, ' If you 
 please, ma'am, we should like to have a ride in your coach. 
 'Well,' said the Queen, ' and so you shall.' So she told all her 
 men to fetch all her horses, and the men put all the horses into 
 her coach, and brought it round to the door, and the birds 
 hopped in, and then the Queen put her head in at the window
 
 A 'URSER Y X OX SENSE. 43 
 
 and asked the little birds where they would like to go. The 
 little birds did not say anything : one was sitting on one cushion, 
 and one on the other ; and they looked at each other, till at last 
 the bolder bird spoke up : ' If you please, ma'am, when we have 
 been in our nest at night with our mother, we have often looked 
 up at the moon, and wished to go there, and we knew it was 
 too far for us to fly, but we knew that the Queen's coach could 
 go ; we should like, if you please, to go to the moon.' Now 
 this seemed to puzzle the Queen for a moment, but then in a 
 minute she said : ' Oh, I can manage it ; my horses cannot go, 
 but a little while since I had a present made to me of the cow 
 that jumped over the moon ; my men shall take the horses out 
 of the coach and put her in. So after all the men had taken 
 all the horses out of the coach, they all went off to catch the 
 cow. Oh, how the cow jumped and jumped ! No one could 
 catch her, till at last they got her into a field where there were 
 some very high trees, and they caught her and brought her and 
 put her in. ' Now,' says the Queen, ' you must be quick ; the 
 cow will stop for only a jiffy when she gets over the moon, 
 and one of you must fly out of one window, and the other fly 
 out of the other window.' So off went the cow with the coach, 
 just stopped for a jiffy when she got over the moon, and one 
 bird flew out of one window, and the other bird flew out of the 
 other, and then, alighting on the ground, they began to walk 
 about. 
 
 " Walking about, they came to a road, and at a little distance 
 they saw something lying in the road, and hopping up to it to
 
 44 
 
 NURSERY NURTURE 
 
 %&^\£zxx^ _^ 
 
 see what it was, they found it was a fiddle, and that out of one 
 of the small holes in the fiddle there was a long black thing 
 wagging to and fro. Now, when they were looking at the fiddle, 
 wondering what this black thing was, they heard a noise, 
 ' Meeaow, Mee-ee-aow, Mee-ee-ee-aow,' and there was the cat 
 in the fiddle ! But how the cat could have got into the fiddle, 
 or how the cat would get out, the birds could not tell, for the 
 holes were so small. Well, when the birds were standing by 
 the fiddle, wondering about the cat, they heard somebody 
 laughing as loud as he could. Now, there was a low wall run- 
 ning alongside the road, and the birds looking over, they saw a
 
 NURSERY NONSENSE. 45 
 
 little dog laughing, and he had laughed so heartily that he had 
 shaken off all the hair from his sides and tail, and there were 
 just a few hairs left on the top of his head and the top of his 
 back. Well, when they were looking at this little dog as he 
 was laughing and shaking off all his hair, they heard some one 
 coming as fast as he could, and they turned to see who it was, 
 but he had got so far away that they were obliged to fly after 
 him, and then they saw that it was the dish that had run away 
 with the spoon." 
 
 Garrick says : " Fun gives you a forcible hug, and shakes 
 laughter out of you, whether you will or no." Now, whether 
 we touch a child's body or mind, if we are able to lay hold of 
 either or both at those times when it begins to look as if it 
 were about to be possessed with some grievance, and by some- 
 thing or other that we say or do, shake out of it the beginnings 
 of the evil, we shall be very wise in our foolishness, and there 
 will be great sense in our nonsense. We have to remember 
 that we can hardly afford to miss any opportunity of pleasing 
 our children in trifles which they can understand and appre- 
 ciate, seeing that the heavy responsibilities resting upon us often 
 oblige us to curb and correct them, and cause our conduct to 
 wear the aspect of severity. It is comparatively easy to main- 
 tain the strictness of routine, or, on the other hand, to act in 
 such a way as to lose even the semblance of authority. We 
 have not to adopt either of these methods of management, but 
 both of them. This ought we to do, and not to leave the other 
 undone. The combination of these heterogeneous elements
 
 46 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 is impossible with man, but possible with God; and their union 
 affords that sign of genius to our children, which alone perhaps 
 will be sufficient to persuade our children that their parents 
 are teachers sent from God. 
 
 We have succeeded once and again, in mid-winter, when 
 the children have been shut up the whole day in the nursery 
 through the weather, in destroying the weariness and monotony 
 by putting in a sudden appearance, and singing something which 
 was composed for the occasion. The stillness and gloom have 
 been broken by a merry peal of laughter, which we were happy 
 enough to provoke by ringing some changes on one of our old 
 rhymes. 
 
 The couple of dozen of blackbirds, whose heroism and 
 loyalty have been sung for ages, have often furnished us with 
 topics for speculation, and they are now become well-nigh 
 historical characters in our homes. They have often been 
 quoted as worthy and remarkable instances of patience and 
 pluck, and we have turned, by the help of their example, a cry 
 into singing. Others, like ourselves, will have had access to 
 equally trustworthy records, and will be in possession of special 
 and original information, which, for the sake of the birds, to 
 say nothing of children, ought to be published. There must 
 be materials in existence, which, if they could be collected, 
 would furnish something like a complete history of the lives 
 and songs of these feathered heroes. We place at the service 
 of any who would undertake this labour of love these two 
 verses :—
 
 NURSER V NONSENSE. 
 
 47
 
 4 s 
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 The four-and-twenty blackbirds 
 Were, /uniting after snails, 
 
 The four-and-twenty pussy-cats 
 Were wagging all their tails. 
 
 These four-and-twenty blackbirds, 
 
 They went to see the Queen, 
 And she came out, and looked about, 
 
 And found them on the green. 
 And in and out, and round about, 
 
 They sat them in a ring ; 
 When she came out and looked about, 
 
 They all began to sing.
 
 TWIGS FOR NESTS. 
 
 IV.— CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAYS. 
 
 O thou bright thing, fresh from the hand of God, 
 
 The motions of thy dancing limbs are swayed 
 
 By the unceasing music of thy being! 
 
 A T earer I seem to God when I look on thee. 
 
 ' Tis ages since he made his youngest star : 
 
 His hand was on thee as 'twere yesterday, 
 
 Thou later revelation ! Silver stream, 
 
 Breaking with laughter from the lake divine, 
 
 Whence all things flow ! O bright and singing babe. 
 
 What wilt thou be hereafter?" 
 
 Smith.
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 No. IV.— CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAYS. 
 
 ' ' Unto us a child is born, 
 Unto ns a son is given.'' 1 
 
 It may be thought, at first sight, that these words of the prophet 
 Isaiah are wrested, by turning them into a motto for a paper 
 upon Children's Birthdays. At least, those who have never 
 been awaiting the advent of a child, or who have not accepted, 
 in all its fulness, the revelation of the Fatherhood of God, may 
 be unable or unwilling to admit the propriety of this adaptation. 
 We have placed them where they are, because they were the
 
 52 Nl 'RSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 first words that occurred to us when our first child was born, 
 and others, Ave should imagine, must have thus appropriated 
 them, or will be ready to do so, if their circumstances resemble 
 our own. 
 
 There are times when our feelings can only find their ex- 
 pression in the words of the Bible, and we may safely give vent 
 to them by these utterances, when we are led to do so by the 
 consciousness that our God is not very far from us, and that we 
 are not very far from Him. When, as in the birth of a child, 
 we have stood still and seen Him working wondrously, we are 
 not likely to be content with any other vehicle for a description 
 of His works than His own words. Our friends may say — 
 
 " The Lord hath done great things for them ; " 
 
 and we may reply — 
 
 " The Lord hath done great things for us ; 
 Whereof we are glad." 
 
 ' ' This is the day 'which the Lord hath made ; 
 We will rejoice, and be glad in it." 
 
 The passage in the prophecies of Isaiah refers to the Mes- 
 siah, and it is one of the many which declare that God has 
 given to us His own Son ; but there are other passages in Holy 
 Writ which assure us that our children are also His offspring, 
 and that the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, is the God and Father of those who are bone of our 
 bone, and flesh of our flesh. Having known and believed the 
 love of God to the world, as it has been manifested in the gift 
 of his only-begotten Son, we may be forgiven if We take from
 
 CHILDREN'S BIRTH DA VS. 53 
 
 Him, as a later and more personal revelation of His love to 
 ourselves, the gift of our own children. There is no ground for 
 any charge of ignorance or irreverence, for had we not known 
 and loved Christ we should never have known or loved the 
 Father, and it is probable — perhaps it is certain — that this know- 
 ledge and love are to be alike exalted and increased through our 
 parenthood. 
 
 We have found children's birthdays to be holy-days. They 
 may not be equally regarded as such by all, and after a while 
 the anniversaries may be kept, like other anniversaries of holy- 
 days, as holidays ; but throughout Christendom, even in those 
 homes where there is not at any other time any recognition of 
 religion, there will be found even a superstitious importance 
 attached to the season of childbirth, and to the necessity of 
 making some public acknowledgment of the existence and 
 interference of Almighty God. We have known several parents 
 who never enter any place of divine worship except after the 
 birth of their children, or at Christmas. This conduct reminds 
 us of some of the traditions which have prevailed respecting 
 the time when our Lord was born : — 
 
 ' ' Some say, that ever ' 'gainst that season comes 
 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
 The bird of dawning siugelh all night long : 
 And then they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ; 
 The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike, 
 No fairy lakes, nor witch hath power to charm, — 
 So hallovfd, and so gracious is the time.'''' 
 
 Holy-days are days of God and days of the Son of Man.
 
 54 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 Our Lord promised before he went away that he would come 
 again and again, and that the Father would come and manifest 
 himself to us. It is this coming of our Lord that gives the 
 holiness to His day in our week, and as it approaches we wait 
 and look for His appearing. Our God is ever coming to us at 
 divers times and in different ways, as our Father in heaven, 
 bringing good and perfect gifts. There are holy hours in each 
 day when we are watching unto prayer, and it is then we receive 
 the strength and the counsel and the comfort which the day 
 demands. These hours and days are common to us and to 
 others, but there are, in addition, seasons of special and personal 
 significance, — for instance, of natural and spiritual birth ; and 
 while we keep holy the Lord's day and the common times of 
 prayer, and thus have communion with the universal church, we 
 set apart as individual anniversaries the times when God brought 
 new life into our hearts, or new life into our homes. 
 
 If the gospel of the Fatherhood of God be true, it is worthy 
 our entire and hearty reception. If God be the Father of our 
 children, then it is of the utmost moment that we recognise 
 this fact from the very first ; and if we do this, we shall find that, 
 as in other holy-days, we feel His power as well as see His glory. 
 So when God puts the little one into our arms to nurse for Him, 
 we shall discover that He works mightily in us, because of our 
 faith, giving us the determination and the ability to rear it in 
 the nurture and admonition of the Lord. If these things be so, — 
 if when a child is born we are wise enough to understand this 
 fresh evidence of the loving-kindness of our God to us ; if we
 
 CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAYS. 55 
 
 have married in the Lord, and, as husband and wife, are of one 
 mind and one spirit ; — then, when the travail is over, and a child 
 is born into the world, and we feel a new tie binding us each 
 to the other, and both of us to the babe and its Father in heaven, 
 we may with all reverence give expression to our joy in the 
 
 " Unto its a child is born, 
 Unto us a son is given. " 
 
 There is, without doubt, a sacredness in these seasons, and 
 it is for us to preserve, as long as we can, their hallowed influ- 
 ence. In the early years of a home, as in the early days of a 
 week, the effect of the holy-day may be often deeply felt and 
 plainly seen. There is often, for instance, an expression of 
 divinity to be found in the faces of the young mother and the 
 young children. The mother, for a few years, looks as if she 
 had been pondering over the facts and the truths contained in 
 the gospels of the Fatherhood of God and the Infancy of our 
 Saviour, and had laid them up in her heart. The countenances 
 of the little ones seem to expound some of the meaning in the 
 words of our Lord, " of children is the kingdom of heaven." 
 Days and years, however, often deaden our conviction, and by 
 the middle of the week, and the middle of life, we are, alas ! 
 perceptibly moved away from our faith and hope. We have 
 left our first love. We are apt to forget that we live under the 
 law of renewal, and that day by day, week by week, year by 
 year, our souls need to be restored. All of us who are in the 
 habit of examining ourselves must be conscious of the waste, 
 demoralization, and corruption, which are to be constantly dis-
 
 5 6 NURSER V NUR TURE. 
 
 covered in our better thoughts and feelings. We cannot con- 
 tinue in one stay. " In us there dwelleth no good thing." 
 
 This deterioration is as manifest in our conduct as parents 
 as it is in our other spheres of duty, and as we contrast ourselves 
 with what we were, we hear the voice, " Remember therefore 
 from whence thou hast fallen, and repent, and do thy first work." 
 We are often revived by our minds being stirred by way of re- 
 membrance, and perhaps there is no surer means of our hearts 
 being turned again to our children, than by calling to remem- 
 brance the former times, and keeping the anniversaries, as we 
 kept the birthdays, as holy to the Lord. If our little ones are 
 to answer the end for which they were born, and to fulfil the 
 purpose for which they came into the world, there must be, at 
 any rate on our part, a remembrance of the great truths which 
 we accepted at the first, year by year, continually. 
 
 We must take heed to ourselves and to our gospels, we 
 must continue in them ; and in doing this we shall both save 
 ourselves and those who belong to us. We cannot afford to 
 misspend a birthday, any more than a Sunday. We need every 
 opportunity for our children, as much as we do for ourselves. 
 Our power in our heart and our power in our home will be 
 found to be in proportion to the regularity of our spiritual life. 
 If, for instance, we have been happy enough to feel aright, and 
 to feel deeply, from the first, and have in principle kept the 
 early birthdays of a child to the Lord, we shall find that in the 
 two or three years, when but little apparently can be done and 
 nothing can be said, our faith and hope in the Fatherhood
 
 CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAYS. 57 
 
 of God will have silently and surely struck their roots into our 
 heart and all that is within us. Our early and sustained con- 
 victions will save us from being eventually weary in well-doing. 
 We shall endure the heat and the burden of the day. If, on the 
 other hand, the tap-root be broken, our leaf will wither, and we 
 shall not bring forth fruit in due season, and many things that 
 we do will not prosper. 
 
 This early, persistent, and continuous course of action will 
 not only give us that power that will prevail over ourselves, but 
 that power that will prevail with our God and our children. 
 Every year our position will become stronger at a throne of 
 grace, and we shall learn that " the effectual fervent prayer of 
 a righteous man availeth much." When the time has come that 
 we may plead with our little ones, the words will come from 
 our hearts and not from our mouths, and the accumulated 
 abundance of thought and feeling will furnish us with arguments 
 which may perhaps win them at once to the love and service 
 of God. If they are not to be persuaded by us in their youth ; 
 if, growing up, they leave our homes and appear to be beyond our 
 further influence; or if we die; — we may, living or dying, possess 
 our souls in patience, for we have not only the word of God, 
 which guarantees that we shall reap as we have sown, and that 
 our children shall grow up as they have been trained (" and the 
 scripture cannnot be broken "), but we have also the witness in 
 ourselves. Those of us who were constrained to arise and go 
 to our Father, long after we had left our homes, by the latent 
 force of early nurture, and who find that to be a present means
 
 5 8 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 of grace which a generation since was a means of conversion, 
 may well believe that God cannot be mocked, that none spend 
 their strength for nought who labour under his direction, and 
 that He ashames and confounds none who put their trust in him. 
 
 " O Lord, thou art not fickle, 
 Our hope is not in vain ; 
 The harvest for the sickle 
 Will ripen yet again." 
 
 The first birthdays of our children are to be holy-days to 
 us, but they must be holidays to them. We have to nourish and 
 cherish in our own hearts the conviction that their birth was a 
 blessing, and we must sow this good seed in the hearts of our 
 children before the enemy comes with his tares, trying to raise 
 within them suspicions and doubts respecting the reality of the 
 boon of existence. Well-spent birthdays will do much to pre- 
 serve our homes from the scepticism and infidelity which pre- 
 vail about " children " being " the heritage of the Lord," and if 
 these anniversaries are amongst the earliest and the happiest of 
 their associations, we shall have furnished them with abiding 
 arguments against ever arriving at the miserable conclusion that 
 their life is a mistake or a mystery. 
 
 Where there is more than one child the first anniversary of 
 the fresh life may be openly kept. The day is to be anticipated, 
 and time, and thought, and money are to be spent in securing 
 the most acceptable gifts. The gifts are to be given together, 
 and when they have possessed sound, motion, and colour, we 
 have fancied that we have seen the monotonousness of babyhood
 
 CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAYS. 59 
 
 broken, and, if only for a moment or two, the gifts have made 
 room in a heart that is only a year old. We have been quietly 
 watching, this very day, a little thing that is just three years of 
 age, and who has passed, if large eyes full of fun, unceasing 
 prattle, and a thousand antics, are any criteria, the happiest 
 day of her life. She has lived to learn the meaning of a birth- 
 day ; and as the impression which is evidently made is not the 
 result of expensive presents or a children's party, but is the 
 simple effect of the day, we imagine this " new sensation " will 
 not be forgotten. She has just been into our study for a kiss 
 on her way to bed, and as we knelt together for a minute and 
 thanked the Father in heaven for her by name, and for the day, 
 it is possible that she may connect her coming into our home, 
 in some childish way of her own, with Him, notwithstanding she 
 was threading her little fingers into the canework of the chair 
 at which we bent. 
 
 We acknowledge that we have never been tempted with the 
 morbid feeling that we were not wanted in the world, and we 
 have been in the habit of attributing this happy deliverance, in 
 some measure, to a dressing-table which we found, as soon as 
 we were old enough to get out of bed by ourselves, laden 
 with birthday presents. We have even now as we write, tingling 
 in our fingers' ends, the sensation with which we touched the 
 gifts, as we tried to find out, before the dawn, the secrets which 
 had been so long and so faithfully kept. The letters which in 
 after years came with the presents were read at the break of 
 the day, and whether it was prejudice or not, there was always
 
 CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAYS. 61 
 
 one letter which was read twice, and one gift which seemed to 
 be more precious than the others. Perhaps there is a world of 
 truth in the line of the old play — 
 
 " The mother in her office holds the key of the soul." 
 
 If it be the will of God that none of our little ones should 
 perish, and if He has given to us " the nurture and admonition 
 of the Lord," as the means by which they shall eventually be 
 brought to know Him, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, and 
 if we have believed in these truths to the uttermost, then we 
 shall be training our children in the sure and certain hope 
 that they will not become the children of this world, but the 
 children of God. As long as they continue in the nursery, we 
 shall have many things to say to them which they will not be 
 able to receive, but as they increase in years we shall be able, 
 little by little, to unfold to them the faith and hope of the gospel. 
 Year by year, birthday after birthday, we shall have been making 
 good some ground on which we may stand as we plead with 
 them that our Father may be their Father, and our God their 
 God. 
 
 The birthday, when we find that the first full revelation may 
 be made to our children of the purpose of God in our relation- 
 ship to them, will be anticipated by us with unaccustomed pre- 
 paration. It will come, of course, earlier or later, according to 
 the development of the child, and the effort " to deliver our 
 soul" will vary with the difference in ourselves and in our child- 
 ren. Such an opportunity may possibly present itself on any 
 ordinary day in the year, and we shall only too readily avail
 
 62 NURSE R V NUR TURE. 
 
 ourselves of it ; but, as a rule, we believe that there is a reserve, 
 where there is much deep feeling, which seems to require the 
 justification of some special season for its being broken. Those 
 who are in the habit of respecting their children, and who never 
 have taken any liberties with them, will be conscious of a holy 
 awe, and that rightly, as they take the first steps which they 
 hope will bring them into a child's heart. It is possible that 
 this mode of approach will have some influence on the opening 
 of the door. 
 
 Circumstances sometimes will seem to be propitious, though 
 it may be said about this, as about other undertakings, " Where 
 there's a will there's a way." We knew, for instance, where the 
 child happened to be away from the home, on its birthday, a 
 journey of 200 miles was taken which the girl felt was taken 
 specially out of honour and regard for her. The father had 
 found that the time had come when a turning would be taken 
 either to the right or to the left. He had been waiting and 
 watching for «« Thc dap mck /u Time , s yestkss whed 
 
 For each one's good, when which nick comes, it strikes. " 
 
 He saw at once that his daughter would appreciate the feel- 
 ing which led him to travel so far in order that they might 
 spend the birthday together, and that the very distance which had 
 been between them might be utilized for his purpose. The day 
 passed, and they were much together, but nothing was said. It 
 was midsummer, and the birthday-evening seemed to have been 
 made for the occasion. He spoke, and found it to be one of the 
 
 "Mollia tempora fandi"
 
 CHILD KENS' BIRTHDAYS. 
 
 63 
 
 We are not going to break confidence, nor perhaps would it 
 be possible to put into words the particulars of such an inter- 
 
 view. We know that there was a fresh bond binding the girl 
 to her father on earth, and we believe that when he left her she 
 discovered and acknowledged the tie connecting her with her 
 Father in heaven. Birthdays may be tiroes when children are 
 born again. 
 
 Days when children have been brought into our homes will 
 remind some of days when they have been taken away. We
 
 6 4 NURSER V NUR TURE. 
 
 will not trust ourselves to speak of what we have felt in the 
 past, or what we feel now. There is, and ever has been, to us 
 a mystery about these early deaths, and, recognizing as we do, 
 the organic unity of the relationship which we sustain to our 
 children, and which they sustain to each other and to us, we hold 
 our peace, believing that what we know not now we shall know 
 hereafter. The accompanying lines of George E. Shirley have 
 helped us, and perhaps may help others : — 
 
 " Are all the memories of life 
 Buried when life has fled 1 
 Are we forbid to keep again 
 The birthdays of the dead ? 
 
 Time was when each successive year 
 Brought one bright day of mirth, — 
 
 The look'd-for anniversary 
 Of some belov'd otters birth. 
 
 The birthday feasts of childhood's age, 
 
 The feasts of riper years, 
 Remind us of like youthful joys, 
 
 Remembered now with tears. 
 
 For they with whom those days were spent 
 
 Have done with all on earth ; 
 The fond home-circle's broken up 
 
 That hailed each day of birth. 
 
 Yet as the days come round again 
 
 Marked with affection's seal, 
 Once i7ior e we think of those we've lost, 
 
 Once more their presence feel.
 
 CHILDREN'S BIRTHDA VS. 
 
 65 
 
 The blessed spirits now in heaven 
 
 May not such cycles keep ; 
 Time makes not out their happiness ; 
 
 They know not night or sleep. 
 
 i 'et may they still retain the thoughts 
 
 Commemorating birth, 
 And haply still they keep in heaven 
 
 The calendar of earth. 
 
 Far off are they, but still towards them 
 Our loving arms we spread, 
 
 And ever in our hearts we'' 11 keep 
 The birthdays of the dead.
 
 TWIGS FOR NESTS. 
 
 V.— CHILDREN'S FAULTS. 
 
 " Parents are o'er seen, 
 When, tuith too strict a rein, they do hold in 
 Their child's affections ; and control that love 
 Which the pozvers divine instruct them with : 
 When in their shallow judgments, they may know, 
 Affection crossed, brings misery and woe.'''' 
 
 Robert Taylour.
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 No. V.— CHILDREN'S FAULTS. 
 
 ' ' A time to keep silent, 
 And a time to speak.'''' 
 
 However carefully we may have been trained, none of us 
 are without some unhappy and abiding remembrances of unfair 
 or unwise treatment which we received when we were young. 
 All could quote instances in which they were punished unjustly, 
 some manifestation of nature having been corrected as a fault, 
 or some fault having been mistaken for a sin. These offences 
 are to be attributed to the imperfection that necessarily belongs 
 to the best of parents, and will long have been forgiven by us, 
 but we can never forget the spasm of pain with which we re- 
 ceived the revelation that our father or mother was not perfect, 
 and the wounds must ever remain as scars. We shall not have 
 suffered in vain if we utilize our childish sorrows, and are led 
 by these painful memories to keep our hearts and hold our 
 tongues with all diligence. We shall not succeed, after all our 
 superior advantages, in preventing other sad associations in the 
 minds of our little ones, but we cannot err in regarding these
 
 70 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 records as having been written on the tablet of memory for our 
 admonition. 
 
 Without anticipating what we shall have to say in our last 
 paper, " The Parent's Pattern," we may here express our convic- 
 tion that we shall always do well if we be slow to anger ; and 
 if we are forced sometimes to chide, we must never upbraid. 
 We must pity our children, as the Lord pities those who fear 
 Him, knowing their frame, and remembering that they are but 
 dust. The exhortation of the apostle, with its hint as to the 
 sin which easily besets us, may be taken as a lamp to our feet 
 and a light to our path. " Fathers, provoke not your children, 
 lest they be discouraged, but bring them up in the nurture and 
 admonition of the Lord." 
 
 This holy reticence and divine silence will lead to thought, 
 and upon reflection we shall discover that we have often 
 been saved from weakening our authority and marring our work, 
 by a. thoughtless reproof of innocence, or a foolish effort to 
 suppress nature. We have already acknowledged that there 
 are times when children have to be quiet, but these times are 
 to be few and far between. We may be nervous, and put our 
 veto upon noise ; but in doing so, we shall wrong our children 
 and Him who made them. It may be very provoking to us to 
 be constantly disturbed by the constant chattering, or the oc- 
 casional racket and uproar of the little tribe, but we have only 
 to blame ourselves if we be annoyed by these things. God 
 has connected noise and children, and what He has joined to- 
 gether no one must put asunder. We may be overworking
 
 CHILDREN'S FA UL TS. 7 1 
 
 ourselves day after day, and oversleeping ourselves morning after 
 morning, but these are no reasons why our children should lie 
 still in their beds for hours after they have awaked, or be always 
 told to be quiet whenever they are in our company. Quietness 
 is to be the exception and not the rule, and we are to save some 
 of our nervous energy for home expenditure, and may listen to 
 the morning song as a call to rise. 
 
 Children are naturally as full of motion as of sound, and if 
 they be in good health they will be restless as well as noisy. 
 They were not intended to remain for any length of time in one 
 position, and if they be required to stand or sit still, as indeed 
 they, must many times a-day, we shall have to accept the 
 muscular irritation which finds its way of escape in the exercise 
 of their hands and feet. The nurse is more to blame, as a rule, 
 than the child, against whom she brings an evil report of its 
 conduct under the process of washing, brushing, and dressing. 
 It would be doubtless easier to comb a wig on a block, or to 
 dress a child if it stood as still as a post, but we must dismiss 
 the case if we find on inquiry, as in all probability we shall, 
 that the child has fulfilled its mission, and that the servant has 
 failed in hers. 
 
 The proverbial carelessness of children is often spoken of 
 with regret, and is often considered to be a fault as well as a 
 misfortune. They might indeed be more frequently left to 
 themselves without their getting into mischief, if we could suc- 
 ceed in putting old heads upon young shoulders, but it would 
 remain to be seen whether this unnatural combination would
 
 72 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 be an improvement. Of course, to noise and motion, as to all 
 natural instincts, there is a limit, and when the boundary is 
 passed the transgression becomes a fault or a sin ; but there is 
 nothing in nature that is wrong, and nothing to be regretted ; 
 and this gift of carelessness is one, as we may see, that is to be 
 pruned and trained. It will bring forth fruit. 
 
 Children are not necessarily naughty when they are careless. 
 Whosoever will observe the disposition in children to be care- 
 less, may discern in it, as in all other divine institutions, the 
 loving-kindness of God. The carelessness of children supposes 
 the carefulness of parents, and it is evidently designed, amongst 
 many other arrangements and ordinances, to turn the hearts of 
 the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to 
 their parents. We come into the world careful for nothing, 
 taking no thought for the morrow, but letting the morrow care 
 for the things of itself, and we might retain this happy propen- 
 sity, if those who had the early management of us had only 
 the eyes to see and the heart to understand how we might be 
 • trained to be children in anxiety as long as we live. 
 
 It is evident that we may, except we be constantly upon our 
 guard, mistake some manifestation of nature in our child for a 
 fault. There is no need to make children worse than they are. 
 We shall too soon discover the mind that is in them, for while 
 they retain much that is innocent, and by many of their words 
 and acts, as well as looks, remind us of their divine origin, we 
 shall have early proofs of their sharing with us the damage 
 of the fall. They are not long with us before doing wrong ;
 
 CHILDREN'S FAULTS. 73 
 
 they are soon old enough to transgress law, but it will be a 
 long time — say a year and a half — before they are to be corrected. 
 Look at that baby-girl, for instance, angry without a cause (that 
 is, as far as we know), and slapping her mother's face — 
 
 " A rosebud set with little ivilful thorns, 
 But sweet as English air can make her.'" 
 
 You cannot punish a child in arms ; you can only divert its 
 attention, and lay up the remembrance of the development, and 
 ponder and pray over it in your heart. 
 
 The toddler of a year old, who is making after his sister's 
 doll with tottering steps, and wreaking his puny vengeance upon 
 her cherished toy, will not understand either a lecture or a punish- 
 ment ( < An i n f ant j s a selfish sprite, 
 
 But what of that 1 The siueet delight 
 
 Which from participation springs, 
 
 Is quite unknown to these young things. 
 
 We elder children then will smile 
 
 At our dear little John awhile, 
 
 And bear with him, until he see 
 
 There is a stueet felicity 
 
 In pleasing more than only one — 
 
 Dear little, craving, selfish John." 
 
 Even when " the time to keep silence " has elapsed, and 
 " the time to speak " has come, we shall have to pass over many 
 transgressions. If we are strict to mark all wrong-doing, we 
 shall be always finding fault, and our children will be in a con- 
 dition of chronic naughtiness and perpetual disgrace. If, in 
 addition to this severity, we are severe in our words and our 
 punishments, we shall find that all the self-respect, and sense
 
 74 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 of truth, and honour in our children will be destroyed. We 
 shall find ourselves, eventually, surrounded by little liars and 
 hypocrites and slaves. 
 
 The evil that is in children is no more to be eradicated by 
 fault-finding and force than it is in adults. It is only by the 
 goodness of our heavenly Father that we are led to repentance, 
 and it is only little by little that old things pass away, and all 
 things become new. The much-desired reform is to be a life- 
 work ; and just as we shall succeed in their mental education by 
 striving to make them students rather than scholars, so our nur- 
 sery nurture is to be in the direction of character rather than 
 conduct, and it will be so if it be the nurture and admonition 
 of the Lord. 
 
 Forced obedience and premature piety have not been with- 
 out their influence on the tone of the Christianity of the day. 
 There is a finality in its practice, and a hardness in its theology, 
 which may be very easily traced to the spirit of bondage which 
 has possessed many a religious home. The commandments of 
 God are often interpreted by fear, and attempted to be kept 
 from policy. Thus it may be that there are those who are 
 already well-nigh tired of their religion, and feel but little more 
 interest in it, than in the studies which they finished when they 
 left school. Any training that may induce within our children 
 the love of truth, will be likely to lend them an impetus that 
 will lead them all through their lives to continue in the pursuit 
 of knowledge, and it will be only so far as we have succeeded 
 in bringing before them the love of God, that they will know 
 anything of a happy and endless career of spiritual progress.
 
 CHILDREN'S FAULTS. 75 
 
 Nursery nurture is a growth and not a manufacture. There 
 is, after all, but little that we can do for our children ; there is 
 always very much that must be done for them by God. We 
 may be afraid to sit still and do nothing, and this may lead us 
 to speak, though we know that talking will do more harm than 
 good, or it may lead us to do something, because we feel that 
 something should be done. We cannot, however, manufacture 
 good children, any more than we can make that which has been 
 sown in their hearts to spring forth. Mending matters often 
 makes matters worse. Gathering up the tares, as the sad 
 experience of some pious parents has proved, only leads to 
 the rooting up also of the wheat with them. 
 
 God sends seasons for silence and He gives times in which 
 we may speak. He guides us, according to His promise, with 
 His counsel ; and when we are taught of Him we shall know 
 when and how to address ourselves to our children. The fol- 
 lowing case would seem to suggest that we may, as parents, 
 safely rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him, and that one 
 of the ordinary instances of carelessness in a child may become 
 an opportunity, when wisely taken, of occupying a place in the 
 heart and memory which we may keep for ever. It happened 
 thus : — A father who was busy preparing for a public meeting 
 was writing letters to the friends whose presence was expected, 
 and summoning one of his children, gave her the letters in good 
 time for the morning post. The whole tribe were on the point 
 of starting for their morning walk and ride, and with the usual 
 glee and careless fun the cavalcade went on its way. After ten
 
 7 6 
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 Si 
 
 
 - 
 
 i -■;■ 
 
 II — 
 
 
 f ." i 
 
 /^r>W?^ 
 
 minutes or so, the girl who had been 
 entrusted with the errand returned, 
 and, knocking at the study door, 
 announced the loss of one of the 
 letters. Not a word was spoken, 
 and the lost letter was re-written, 
 the child having had the sense to 
 bring back with her the letters that 
 remained. The post was saved, and 
 the father having been kept from
 
 CHILDREN'S FAULTS. 77 
 
 upbraiding his child, determined, after seeking counsel and help, 
 to make this instance of carelessness a special case. The fault 
 having been committed before all, the dinner-time was chosen as 
 the time for the remarks he had decided to make. " Maria," said 
 he, " it was very clever of you to bring back those letters, and to 
 bring them back at once, for had you posted them I could not 
 have told which was the letter you had lost, and had you delayed 
 I could not have sent any of them before the evening. I have 
 often myself forgotten to post letters, and have found that I 
 have been carrying them about with me in my pocket ; now, 
 having learnt a lesson from my carelessness, I keep them in 
 my hand, and I make my way at once to the office, and I dare 
 say, after what has happened this morning, you will agree with 
 me that this is the best plan to adopt. Then, again, you will 
 have learnt that when we get ourselves into any trouble there 
 is often something that we may do, if we have our wits about 
 us. However bad matters may be, there is a way of making the 
 best of them. I was glad, very glad, Maria, that you were not 
 afraid to come at once and tell me ; and if ever, even when 
 you are a woman, you get into trouble, come at once to me, 
 and if you cannot come, always write. But there, Maria,' I 
 may be gone where no letter will reach me ; and I have been 
 thinking that perhaps God kept me from speaking quickly and 
 harshly to you this morning, that you might be disposed not 
 only to trust and to come to me, but, what is far better, to 
 trust to Him and to go boldly to His throne of grace." 
 
 The fewer words we utter, and the fewer laws we make,
 
 78 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 the fewer faults we shall find in our children. Wherever there 
 is authority there is sure to be disobedience, and if anything 
 be within the reach of a child, it is almost certain to be touched 
 or taken. Prevention is better than cure, and with a wise 
 foresight and loving providence, knowing what is in them, 
 we may often succeed in keeping forbidden things out of 
 sight and out of mind. Petty larcenies will be of rare occur- 
 rence where there is pocket-money, and telling tales or making 
 excuses will never become habits in homes where the parents 
 are " slow to speak, slow to wrath." 
 
 Children, as well as adults, are to be treated as innocent 
 till they are proved to be guilty, and before the execution of 
 any punishment, we must be in the possession of the evidence 
 of the wrong-doing and be able to bring it home to the little 
 culprit, and to justify its infliction to the conscience of the 
 whole home. We have, rankling in our memory, an incident 
 that we have often recurred to with wonder and regret. Moving 
 from London into the country, we inhabited a house that had 
 a garden attached to it, in which were some apple-trees. Soon 
 after our removal, an uncle, who was as great a Cockney as 
 any of us, came on a visit, and brought us into the following 
 trouble : — We had been playing, as a boy, before breakfast, in 
 the garden, the morning after his arrival, and on his coming 
 out in his slippers to spy out the land, he found under one of 
 the trees a large codlin apple lying on the ground, and taxed 
 us with knocking it off the tree. He had never, it would 
 appear, met with such a thing as a windfall, and, unfortu-
 
 CHILDREN'S FAULTS. 79 
 
 nately for us, the experience of our parents was equally limited. 
 We were convicted on circumstantial evidence, and suffered 
 punishment, because there was more in nature than was 
 dreamt of in our home philosophy. We remember that we 
 were finally pardoned at the intercession of our uncle, and 
 that we received the announcement with ill-suppressed anger. 
 
 There is an instinct in us, as well as in our children, which 
 seems to resent the interference of any with the home discipline 
 who do not belong to it, and it would seem advisable to give 
 some consideration to these hints ; at any rate, if we are ever 
 called to act judicially on the testimony of a stranger, we should 
 take special precaution that we do not act under a mistake. 
 
 If the case be clear against a child, and its own welfare and 
 that of the home demands punishment, then the character of 
 the punishment should be determined by the disposition and 
 temperament of the child, and the particular need of the home. 
 The proportion of the punishment is to be in some keeping 
 with the nature of the offence. It is possible that the exigencies 
 of the home, in the following case, required that some exhibition 
 should be made as a warning to others, but Ave have never been 
 able to understand, much less to accept, the justice of another 
 of the sentences which was passed upon us in our boyhood. 
 We had gone with our younger brother on our weekly errand, 
 to take a newspaper to a neighbouring farm-house. It was the 
 first of September, and we arrived at the door just as the farmer 
 and the landlord, with their guns and dogs, were turning out for 
 their day's shooting. We were invited to join the sport, and in
 
 80 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 an evil moment accepted the invitation. It was a bright, happy, 
 red-letter day for us ; but on reaching home in the evening, we 
 found that we had done wrong, for we ought to have come 
 back and asked permission, and after an address, in which the 
 judge laboured to prove the enormity of the offence, we were 
 confined for two days to our bed-room. This was no instance 
 of playing truant, for it was not school-time ; and we imagine 
 that we might fairly have been excused, not only on the ground 
 that we were boys, but that if we had returned to ask leave we 
 should have lost our chance. 
 
 At school we expect more injustice than at home, and while 
 we may, choosing, as we are constantly obliged to do, between 
 two evils, decide to expose our boy to the wrongs which are 
 connected with a public education, we cannot but regret their 
 existence. A friend told us the other day of what had just 
 happened to his lad, who had been for a year or two at one of 
 the London collegiate institutions, and had taken and kept, 
 till this event occurred, the first place. A certain number of 
 good marks were given for punctual attendance, and for the 
 preparation at home of a Greek exercise. The boy, as usual, 
 was in time, and he had his exercise in his satchel. Being sent 
 away by one of the ushers, immediately on his arrival in the 
 school-room, to some other part of the premises, he left his 
 satchel behind him for the moment, and on his return he found 
 that one of his mates had taken out his exercise and was 
 engaged in copying it. At this juncture the master arrived, 
 and his eye caught and understood the transaction. The sen-
 
 CHILDREN S FAULTS. Si 
 
 tence was passed without the case being heard. Each of the 
 boys.was to lose five marks, and thus the charm of the school 
 life of my friend's boy was broken, for he had never before been 
 in any disgrace. Further, in the course of the morning the boy 
 who had stolen the exercise was rewarded ; the exercise was 
 found to be correct, and all correct exercises were counted 
 worthy of merit. 
 
 Any one who will take the pains to make inquiries, will find 
 that nearly every one whom he meets can tell him some tale of 
 injustice from which they suffered when they were young, and 
 that an analysis of the various cases will show that we are very 
 likely to err in finding fault through haste, ignorance, or anger. 
 Giving a child the benefit of a doubt will often secure the 
 ends of justice, and may preserve their recollection of our good 
 name from any slur. 
 
 It may be well, for another reason, to pass over children's 
 faults without much notice, or at any rate without severity, for 
 there are children's sins and children's crimes ; and 
 
 " If little faults, proceeding on distemper, 
 Shall not be winked at, how shall we stretch our eye 
 When capital crimes, chewed, swallowed, and digested, 
 Appear before us ? " 
 
 4 
 
 G
 
 TWIGS FOR NESTS. 
 
 VI.— CHILDREN'S SUNDAYS. 
 
 " The Sundays of man's life, 
 Threaded together on Time's string, 
 
 Make bracelets to adorn the wife 
 Of the eternal, glorious King. 
 
 On Sunday, heaverfs gate stands ope, 
 Blessings are plentiful and ripe, 
 
 More plentiful than hope.'" 
 
 Herbert.
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 No. VI.— CHILDREN'S SUNDAYS. 
 
 " Mercy and not sacrifice.'''' 
 
 The Sunday question, happily for our children, is one of the 
 questions of the day which has been fairly re-opened for dis- 
 cussion, and there is no class in the country which will derive 
 greater advantages, if the investigation should lead to a better 
 understanding of the origin, and the obligation, and the ob- 
 servance of the Lord's Day. 
 
 The soundness of the scholarship, and the breadth of the 
 piety of those who are taking the first part in the debate, are 
 guarantees for our being eventually put into possession of the 
 truth, and if perplexity and difficulty have prevailed as widely 
 as is supposed amongst those who have had the management 
 of children in homes and schools, parents and teachers will be 
 among the foremost to return their thanks for any results which 
 will throw a clearer and steadier light upon their duty. 
 
 For some years matters have been in a most unsatisfactory 
 state, and the most pernicious effects have been the consequence. 
 When the puritanical theory and practice respecting the day 
 were honestly accepted as the standards of opinion and con-
 
 86 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 duct, false and impracticable though they were, those who 
 adopted them had yet the merit and power which belong to 
 all who have principles and act upon them. There has been, 
 however, for the last generation or more, a secret suspicion that 
 the Sunday is not the Sabbath, and this smothered doubt being 
 ignored, with some others, by religious teachers, has been left 
 to smoulder, demoralizing those who have been obliged to con- 
 tinue a course of training in which they did not fully believe, 
 and preventing, in those who have been brought up during the 
 interval, the formation of any early faith in the sacredness of 
 the institution. 
 
 We are just now between two evils : on the one hand there 
 are good and earnest people who, through ignorance or timidity, 
 would strive to preserve the past by enforcing the judaistic 
 observance of the Lord's Day; and on the other hand, there are 
 some who will evidently do their utmost, in this period of 
 transition, to introduce the continental Sunday. There is 
 nothing to fear if there be amongst us a belief and love of the 
 truth, and while it is not given to many to guide and form 
 general opinion, none of us are without our influence upon 
 popular movements; and of all those who are interested in 
 Christianity, none can render greater service than those who 
 have the opportunity of giving to the next generation their first 
 impressions. 
 
 As parents, we cannot afford to wait the issue of the present 
 discussion, allowing the question to remain open, for it presses 
 upon us for immediate settlement. The Sunday difficulty re-
 
 CHILDREN'S SUXDA VS. 87 
 
 turns regularly every week. We must make up our minds at 
 once whether we shall keep a Jewish Sabbath, or the Lord's Day, 
 or a holiday. The children, for instance, will be getting out their 
 playthings, or if we should put their toys where they cannot be 
 found, they will be improvising games, and creating amusement 
 out of nothing. Are we to teach the catechism — Q. " Can 
 those be thought to keep holy the Sabbath-day who play upon 
 it?" — A. "By no means." Are they to learn the hymn in which 
 they are taught that to play on Sundays is a sin 1 
 
 We have either to put a veto upon the playfulness of our 
 children, or to tolerate and guide it. If we interfere with their 
 amusements, they will look to us, and that rightly, for a reason 
 of our doing so. If we permit their play to pass without re- 
 proof, we shall injure ourselves as well as them, if we believe 
 that little children who play on Sundays are Sabbath-breakers, 
 for we shall sin against our own consciences, and we shall also 
 show our children that we are careless about their committing 
 what we consider to be a crime. If it be the nurture and the 
 admonition of the Lord that this propensity is to be wholly 
 subdued by our little ones once a-week for a whole day, 
 then we must begin their training in this matter from their 
 cradle ; no time is to be lost if they are ever to attain to this 
 condition of self-control. We shall then have to mind our 
 children the whole day, or set others to watch them, for they 
 will begin to play as soon as they are left to themselves, and 
 will be always forgetting, with their proverbial carelessness, any 
 prohibition or punishment they may have received. They will
 
 88 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 play at home if we leave them behind us when we go to a place 
 of worship ; they will play in church if we take them there ; and 
 if they have nothing better to amuse them, they will play at 
 church between the services. 
 
 The instinct which leads little children to play will develope 
 when they become boys and girls into a disposition to enjoy 
 themselves. All children, whatever their age, have a tendency 
 to be happy, and we shall find the Sunday difficulty will increase 
 with the increase of years. A family is never more likely to be 
 happy than when they are all together, and as the children be- 
 come old enough to go to school, and the father is from home 
 every other day in the week, it will be only on the Sunday that 
 they all meet, and there will be little probability of its sabbatical 
 observance except in those homes where the children have 
 never played on that day. 
 
 If children are good on the Sunday only when they are 
 quiet, we may make up our minds that our children will be as 
 naughty as we were when we were young. They will play, as 
 we did, with fingers, or buttons, or strings, when forced to sit 
 still ; and we shall find that, with the same forecast as we 
 manifested, they have hidden some plaything in their pocket, 
 and are whiling away the time by fingering the forbidden toy. 
 They will be as deceitful and as unhappy as we remember to 
 have been, and will be equally as glad when the congregation 
 breaks up and the Sabbath has an end. 
 
 There are many other difficulties which have been found to 
 belong to Sundays in their relation to children, but before
 
 CHILDREN S SUN DA VS. 89 
 
 touching them it may be worth our while to inquire whether 
 this first embarrassment has any necessary existence. We may 
 fairly argue that we must have missed our way, if we find our- 
 selves at the very outset of our career in a ad de sac, and that 
 we must have made some very great mistake about our vocation 
 if we seem to be called to do despite to the instincts of nature, 
 or to sin against our conscience. It is probable, and we believe 
 it is certain, that if we turn to the law and to the testimony, 
 and take the trouble to think, and have the moral courage 
 to act upon our convictions, we shall discover we have erred, 
 because we have not known the Scriptures nor the power of 
 God, and that there are no insuperable difficulties in the man- 
 agement of our children on this or any other day of the week. 
 Admitting, as we have done, once and again, our grave respon- 
 sibilities as parents, and the ceaseless care and devotion 
 demanded by our children, we still hold the opinion that there 
 is nothing that we are called to do for them, from their birth to 
 their marriage, which needs to be regarded as perplexing or 
 impossible. If we intend to spare ourselves, or if we have any 
 ideas and plans of our own which we have determined to carry 
 out at all hazards, or if we suffer ourselves to be hampered 
 by some of the religious and social opinions which prevail 
 around us — if, in short, we are unlearned or unstable, and wrest 
 the Scriptures, or make them void through the traditions of the 
 elders, then our home-life will be full of difficulties, and we shall 
 be often brought by them to our wit's end. But receiving our 
 children as a trust from God, understanding and remembering
 
 9o . W A'. SE R V NUR TURE. 
 
 the subordinate position in which we stand to Him, and taking 
 His word as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path as we 
 nurse them for Him, we shall be from time to time relieved 
 from any perplexity by the revelation of His will, and delivered 
 from all fear by the assurance of His love. His word, His grace, 
 and His providence will be sufficient for us. 
 
 The supposition that " children must not play on Sundays," 
 with other kindred opinions respecting the proper observance 
 of the Lord's Day, may be easily traced to the confusion that 
 has existed between the Sunday and the Sabbath. Now we 
 know from the Scriptures that the Lord's Day was acknow- 
 ledged and observed by the apostles and the early church as 
 distinct from the Sabbath, and that the followers of Christ were 
 expressly forbidden to keep the Jewish day.* We may learn 
 also from the earliest ecclesiastical records that the Christian 
 and Mosaic institutions were never confounded, and that the 
 confusion between the Sunday and the Sabbath commenced 
 at the time when the church became connected with the state, 
 under Constantine. The civil legislation of the 5th century, 
 the casuistry of the middle ages, and the reaction from the 
 Reformation, seem to be the sources of our Sabbatarianism. It 
 was left, however, for the Puritans to make most of the ground 
 which is held by many in our day for the observance of Sunday 
 as a Sabbath. The publication of the Book of Sports, legalizing 
 certain games, drove those wise men mad, and in their zeal for 
 God they wrested the Scriptures concerning the seventh day of 
 
 * Col. ii. 16.
 
 CHILDREN'S SUN DA \ 'V. 9 1 
 
 the week and applied them to the first, adding, in the spirit of 
 the Scribes and Pharisees, their own commandments, and turn- 
 ing the day which the early church welcomed with singing and 
 observed with joy into an institution too grievous to be borne. 
 We need not notice, as far as our present purpose is concerned, 
 their idea that "any presumptuous profanation of the Lord's 
 Day should be punished with death," but in their prohibition — 
 " No one shall run on the Sabbath-day, or walk in his garden 
 or elsewhere, except reverently to and from meeting' 1 '' — we may 
 perhaps perceive the origin of the opinions that "going for 
 a walk " and " children playing on Sundays " are inconsistent 
 with the spirit in which the Lord's Day should be observed. 
 
 It might be of some moment for us to consider how far the 
 present disregard of the Lord's Day, the neglect of public 
 worship, and the well-known but unacknowledged weariness 
 and ennui of the Sunday, are to be attributed to the teaching 
 and the training of the past generation. The utter neglect by 
 many of the Lord's Day, may possibly be explained by the fact 
 that they were forced when they were children to keep it with 
 more than the strictness of a Jewish Sabbath. The masses 
 who turn the day into a holiday may have amongst them those 
 who sat in weary rows assisting at religious services which were 
 intended only for adults. A search amongst the crowds of 
 Sunday pleasure-seekers might result in the discovery of the 
 lost tribes of Sabbath-school children. 
 
 Those who make the weather, or any other such hindrance, 
 an excuse for their absence from the house of God, who look
 
 92 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 round at the clock during divine service, and whose religious- 
 ness, such as it is, is a matter of duty rather than love, may not 
 be far wrong in attributing the fact that they have " enough 
 religion to make them miserable, and not enough to make 
 them happy," to their having been unfortunately the children 
 of parents who belonged to the straitest sect of the Pharisees. 
 Even those of us who only in adult life have been brought 
 to the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God, must not resolve 
 entirely the hateful and hated sluggishness of our hearts into 
 the remains of their natural depravity, if our parents acted as 
 schoolmasters in their efforts to bring us to Christ. We shall 
 be often creeping unwillingly into our closets, and shall catch 
 ourselves in the old habit of looking at the length of the chapter 
 in our daily portion, even till the day of our death, if we have 
 had our tasks given us out of the Word of God, and have been 
 sent as children back to our bedrooms to say our prayers when 
 we had omitted the duty. 
 
 We are forming the religious tastes and opinions and habits 
 of our children by the training we are giving them, and as we 
 who are now old find that we cannot depart from the way in 
 which we were first taught to tread except by the greatest effort, 
 and even then that we are constantly returning to the old paths, 
 we may see that we can hardly inflict a greater injury upon our 
 little ones than teaching for doctrines the commandments of 
 men. 
 
 The words of our Lord — " the Sabbath was made for man, 
 and not man for the Sabbath " — though uttered in reference to
 
 CHILDREN'S SUNDA VS. 93 
 
 the Jewish Sabbath, will furnish us with all the light we need in 
 reference to " Children's Sundays." If the Sabbath was to be 
 subservient to human needs, much more may the Lord's Day 
 be regarded as an institution of mercy rather than sacrifice. If 
 the weakness and wants of adults were considered under the 
 first dispensation, the instincts of children are certainly recog- 
 nised by Christianity. If men were not, because they could 
 not, wholly to abstain from all work on the Sabbath, children 
 are not wholly to abstain from all play on the Sunday. There 
 is always a certain amount of work that is done in every 
 Christian home on the Lord's Day, and if there be children in 
 it, there must be a certain amount of playfulness. We need 
 not, except we choose, make it a sin for children to play on 
 Sundays, any more than the Puritans were under any obliga- 
 tion to legislate that " no one shall travel, cook victuals, make 
 beds, sweep house, cut hair, or shave on the Sabbath-day." 
 
 The Lord's Day is a day that the Lord hath made, in which 
 we may rejoice and be glad, and if we love Him, our little 
 ones will soon learn and will never forget its origin ; and if we 
 spend it in harmony with the remembrance of His resurrection 
 from the dead, and in the expectation of His coming to us 
 week after week, they will have an early and an abiding con- 
 viction of the sacredness of Sunday. 
 
 There is no necessity for the children's Sunday to be a 
 holiday any more than a Sabbath. We need not encourage, 
 much less enforce games. There is no need to issue a book of 
 sports either in a country or a home. The children will be
 
 94 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 happy enough if the disposition that leads them to play be only 
 acknowledged and guided. Again, and again during the day 
 they may, as indeed they must, be left to themselves, and as it 
 is their custom to turn all their experience of life into nursery 
 plays, you must not be surprised if you find that some stray 
 doll is being taught a hymn and examined in its knowledge of 
 Scripture, nor must you be shocked if the sounds of singing and 
 preaching make you aware that a service is being held in the 
 nursery. If we know how to conduct a child's service that is 
 equally or more popular, we need not be jealous of" the influence 
 of these young preachers. They may, one day, become 
 preachers indeed, and their early gifts of talking to vacant 
 chairs may eventually be of some use to them, when, on wet 
 Sundays, they will have to preach to empty pews. 
 
 It must not be our aim in nursery nurture to make our 
 children keep the Sunday in the same manner as ourselves. 
 We have never to treat them as if they were adults. This 
 canon seems to be constantly forgotten, both in their religious 
 and secular education. We have to work for future rather 
 than present results, and we fulfil our mission, for instance, in 
 reference to Sundays, if we can make it the happiest day of 
 their week. At first this will be accomplished by new frocks, 
 new hats and bonnets, and new shoes ; by the whole home 
 dining together, and some special dish marking the day. In 
 our case it is a " Sunday pudding." Sunday dessert is almost 
 a sine qua ne/i, and if the little ones are sent in turns, as we 
 were, with portions for the servants, the Sunday is likely to be re-
 
 CHILDREN'S SUNDAYS. 97 
 
 membered, not only by the strangers within the house, but by the 
 little ones who are trained, week by week, to be givers of gifts. 
 
 Our Sunday leisure is to be occupied by extra nursing, and 
 if a fresh comer has occupied the throne of the old baby, and 
 you have been in the habit of taking the little thing who has 
 been deposed on this day on your knee, you will find that it 
 will become a red-letter day in his calendar. It is at these 
 times, on Sunday afternoons, when we have our childreh in our 
 arms, that we may begin to speak of Him who spoke of child- 
 ren, as He took them up, as belonging to the kingdom of 
 heaven. A few coloured Bible pictures, a child's hymn sung 
 to a child's tune, and a child's prayer, will answer the highest 
 purposes. A Sunday with such an hour in it will never be re- 
 garded either as a weariness or a holiday. 
 
 As the children increase in years, our work will become 
 more easy. They will be old enough to walk with us to a 
 place of worship, and if we are wise enough to choose our 
 minister as we choose our house, they will soon begin to listen 
 to what they hear, and, listening, they will not find much diffi- 
 culty in keeping still. If we are obliged to take them where 
 there is but little or nothing in the service that they can under- 
 stand, we must take them but once a-day, and they must have 
 a service at home. 
 
 The day is to be occupied, as far as it can be, as an oppor- 
 tunity for setting forth Christ evidently before our children. It 
 is to be emphatically the Lord's Day. He is to be expected. 
 His coming is to be the common topic. Who He is and what 
 
 H
 
 98 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 He has done is to be the subject of conversation. The child- 
 ren's Bible is to be the four gospels. Week after week, by 
 pictures, by prayers, by maps, by pleadings, by harmonies, by 
 all and every means, the life and love of our adorable Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ are to be commended to the consciences 
 of our little ones as in the sight of God. Their adult faith in 
 Christ is likely to be unfeigned, if they are taught from their 
 youth up the Scriptures that testify of Him. 
 
 Sunday tasks and Sunday lessons, while of use in occupying 
 part of the Lord's Day, may perhaps be regarded as doing more 
 harm than good. We believe that in very many things child- 
 ren are much better when they are left to themselves. An 
 acquaintance with the Word of God is, of course, to be en- 
 couraged, but it is a question whether any portion of it should 
 be given them to learn. The Bible is not to become a common 
 lesson-book. The Sunday is to be so far a holiday that there 
 is to be no school. Any voluntary work, either in writing out, 
 or learning or harmonising Scripture, will of course be hailed 
 with great delight, and the practice can be readily sustained 
 without any compulsion. The voluntaryism of Christianity, 
 however, is one of the first truths which we have to teach. 
 
 It is not given to all to gain grace and favour with children. 
 There are diversities of gifts, and where one of the parents is 
 the more richly endowed, then the question as to the leadership 
 of the home service is settled. In our case it was conducted 
 by the mother, and as it was anticipated week after week with 
 pleasure, and has been for years remembered with gratitude,
 
 CHILDREN'S SUNDA VS. 
 
 99 
 
 we are able to repro- 
 duce the scene and the 
 service, though the old house has been long pulled down, 
 and the voice that first found a way to our heart is now to be 
 heard only by ourselves. The time was Sunday evening. The 
 place was one of a suite of wainscoted rooms which was never 
 entered by any one but our mother, and which may be best 
 described by the term " closet," if the word be received in 
 the Saviour's sense. It was a place where prayer was wont to 
 be made, and, like other such places, it was a place where 
 prayer was wont to be answered. It was here that one and 
 another heart was opened, so that they attended to the things 
 which were spoken. The duodecimo edition of Draper's Bible
 
 IOO 
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 Stories was the nominal text-book, but while for the first few 
 moments we might be looking at the picture, we soon became 
 interested in the teaching, and were eventually carried away by 
 the passionate pleading which followed. The effect seemed to 
 be the same on all ; and we feel as we write the hot tear that 
 fell on our hand as the mother poured out her soul in prayer. 
 
 The service was followed by a supper, which consisted 
 almost entirely of things which she had made on purpose for 
 us, and our Sundays always closed at a round table, at which 
 all the children were seated, and the mother waited as a servant.
 
 TWIGS FOR NESTS. 
 
 VII.— CHILDREN'S HOBBIES. 
 
 " Yet of the various tasks mankind employ 
 'Tis sure the hardest, leisure to enjoy ; 
 For one who knoios to taste this godlike bliss, 
 What countless swarms of vain pretenders miss ! 
 Though each dull plodding thing, to ape the wise, 
 Ridiculously grave, for leisure sighs 
 (His boasted wish from busy scenes to run), 
 Grant him that leisure, and the fool's undone. " 
 
 Melmoth.
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 No. VII.— CHILDREN'S HOBBIES. 
 
 " Gather tip the fragments, 
 That nothing be lost." 
 
 " All work and no play," we are told, ° makes Jack a dull 
 boy ;" but those of us who are always with children find that 
 however carefully and cleverly we may intermingle amusement 
 with the tasks of both " Jack " and his sister, they are often as 
 tired of play as they are of work, and for the time seem to be 
 possessed with the demon of dulness. Our children are little 
 men and women, subject to like passions as we are, and are 
 open to the same temptations that easily beset us. They suffer
 
 1 04 NURSER Y NUR JURE. 
 
 from the spirit of ennui, and would be as ready as any of us 
 to quote if they knew them, the well-worn words — 
 " How weary, flat, stale, and unprofitable, 
 Seem to me all the uses of this world.'''' 
 
 A girl, as a rule, is not so soon or so often tired and tire- 
 some as a boy; she has resources, perhaps in herself, and 
 certainly in her scissors and paper, and needle and thread, in 
 the dressing of her dolls and the management of their home, 
 which are denied to her brother ; but notwithstanding all her 
 domestic cares and pleasures, there will be times when the 
 most notable and patient of our little matrons will become 
 listless and restless, and puzzle and pain us with the weary 
 question "What shall I do?" 
 
 Limiting, as we do now-a-days, and that wisely, the lessons 
 to a few hours, we leave a large margin of leisure ; and while 
 the daily walk and the daily play, and the occasional treat, may 
 generally give a fulness to the young life, there are blanks in 
 summer mornings and winter evenings, wet weather and holi- 
 days, for which some occupation should be found. There are 
 hours when children must and ought to be left very much to 
 themselves, and it is most desirable that when they find 
 they have nothing to do, there should be something which they 
 like to do more than anything else. They have to be trained 
 to be accustomed to leisure ; and we shall have rendered them 
 a great service if we save them from our habits of intemperate 
 work, without exposing them to the mischiefs of idleness or 
 the miseries of ennui.
 
 CHILDREN'S HOBBIES. 105 
 
 " Children's hobbies," like most other questions relating to 
 our homes, include the future as well as the present. We 
 cannot divine the destiny of our children ; they may live long 
 or die early. Our daughters may marry, and our sons may be 
 called to pass their days in some engrossing business or pro- 
 fession ; or there may not appear to be any necessity laid upon 
 them to live for anything or any one ; they may be single 
 women or independent men ; and if so, they will thank us for 
 our nurture, if we have so brought them up that they are able 
 to fall back upon themselves, and find that they are never " less 
 alone than when alone," or more inclined to be busy than when 
 they have nothing to do. The child that never tires of some 
 self-elected object and some self-imposed task, is the father of 
 the man who will never be tiresome either to himself or his 
 friends. The old lady who finds her daily interest and good 
 temper, by spending her strength (by reason of which she has 
 passed threescore years and ten) in her garden and green- 
 houses, would be able to tell you of her girlish taste for flowers 
 and early botanical studies, and might show you some antique 
 albums containing specimens of the flora of the neighbourhood 
 where she was born, and of most, if not all, of the places which 
 she has visited. There is a book of " Verbal Classification " 
 which is well-known and well-used by those who write and 
 speak much, and who are seeking fit and apt expressions for 
 their ideas, which must have given to the old man who com- 
 piled it a rare opportunity of losing and saving his good old 
 age. Having made " words " his hobby for fifty years, he has
 
 1 06 NURSE R Y NUR TURE. 
 
 gathered up in this basket fragments which would otherwise 
 have been lost, and many of us who are often at a loss for a 
 word would have been left to want. 
 
 The boat, scooped out and shaped with a sixpenny knife, 
 the result of much labour in many spare moments and many 
 half-holidays, may not, at last, prove itself more seaworthy 
 than other vessels which have cost as much pains and a great 
 deal more money. The pump or other mechanical contriv- 
 ances, constructed upon principles known only to the inventors, 
 may be considered to be as great failures, by practical men, as 
 others that are lost' in the limbo of the Patent Office. Our 
 servants may complain to us about " the dirt and the mess " 
 made by some young master in his quasi-chemical experiments, 
 and if we are led to explore the laboratory we may discover 
 some silver spoon, or best knife, or some other household 
 article which has been pressed into the service of science and 
 has been fearfully abused. You may some day, as we did, 
 light upon some MSS. (if indeed that term might be applied to 
 what for the greater part had been printed), and find that one 
 of your children has been writing " The Story of my Life :" 
 there would be much, of course, to be altered in the orthography 
 and grammar and punctuation, if not in the composition of the 
 story, before it was further printed ; but a hidden source of 
 pleasure and power might be revealed to you, as it was to us, 
 in the judgment shown in the selection of the subject and 
 the art concealed in the manner of its treatment. The series 
 of drawings made from die woodcuts of some "Book of
 
 CHILDREN'S HOBBIES. 107 
 
 Animated Nature " may not have any money value, seeing that 
 they are neither originals nor good copies, and none of the 
 pictures in the private gallery of water-colours would bear to 
 be exhibited in any other light than that in which they were 
 painted ; but these and the many other products of the leisure 
 and genius of children, if collected into a children's exhibition, 
 might furnish much material for the discussion of the question 
 of children's hobbies. No thoughtful visitor would regard such 
 a collection as so much waste of time or mere child's-play. 
 The little ones would be seen to have worked, and to have 
 worked with a will ; and when the many quiet and happy hours 
 of the past, and the pleasing prospects for the future, were 
 taken into consideration, they would not be judged to have 
 laboured in vain and spent their strength for nought. 
 
 An exposition of the products of the leisure hours of all 
 classes might exercise as favourable an influence on our social 
 life as the Exhibition of the Industry of all Nations did upon 
 our manufactures. We have already proved to us that working- 
 men, notwithstanding the drudgery of their work, can, if they 
 will, find both the time and the spirit to cultivate their personal 
 tastes. The bearing of this ' busy-idleness ' on the home life is 
 very evident, and some acknowledgment of its existence, and 
 perhaps some trifling and indirect guidance and encouragement, 
 might be as advantageous to our people as to our children. In 
 and out of doors we should all be happier if we knew better 
 what to do with ourselves when we had nothing to do. 
 
 There is an aspect of the question which will have pre-
 
 1 08 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 sented itself to those who have been taught to leave the stand- 
 point where some men and things look ' common and unclean ;' 
 as for ourselves, we believe what has been written for our 
 learning and comfort, that " all power belongeth unto God," 
 and that all have, without respect of persons, some portion of 
 power falling to them. We are each in the possession of some 
 talent, and this revelation throws a very cheering light upon 
 our own lot and the lot of our children. These powers are not 
 
 given us 
 
 " To rust in us unused ;" 
 
 and if we employ them according to their nature and tendency, 
 we shall find from their exercise some recreation and refresh- 
 ment, and may conclude, and that justly, that it is the intention 
 of our Maker that we shall be happy. 
 
 Our life here is to be truly, what it is, full of toil and trial. 
 We live under a law of labour, for six days out of seven we 
 have to work. None can escape the tribulation of time, for 
 we are born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. Our strength 
 and patience are to be found in the revelation that these things 
 are the will of God concerning us, and in the life and im- 
 mortality that are brought to light by the gospel. We are not, 
 however, left only to the work of this world and the hope of 
 the world to come. There is something else given to us, and 
 this is to comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands. 
 We have power given us to labour and to get wealth ; and we 
 argue, therefore, that labour and capital are ordinances of God. 
 We have the promise of power to lay hold on eternal life, and
 
 CHILDREN S HOBBIES. 109 
 
 we believe, therefore, that God willeth not the death of any, 
 but would that all might be saved and come to a knowledge of 
 the truth. We have our work and our religion, and we have 
 them both from God, and therefore we believe in their 
 divinity ; but we have other things from him, and these, for the 
 same reason, should be sacred to us. There are times to rest 
 as well as times to work, times to laugh as well as times to 
 weep, and these times are common to all ; " He giveth to all 
 men liberally and upbraideth not." Holidays as. well as holy 
 days, are of God. The very heathen believed this — 
 
 " Dens nobis Juec otia fecit ;" 
 
 and it was no superstition, for the apostle Paul, in speaking to 
 them, exhorts them not only to associate their " food " but their 
 "gladness" with God ; and the apostle James reminds us that 
 " every good gift is from above, and cometh down from the 
 Father of lights." 
 
 There are ordinary, external, and unchanging sources of 
 amusement and pleasure that are common to all men, and 
 have been so, and will continue as long as the earth remaineth ; 
 but there are, in addition, provisions that have been made in 
 persons themselves for their own enjoyment. There is, or 
 there has been, in each of us, some taste or propensity which 
 has been evidently given to us for our own gratification. It 
 may be some mental faculty, which it is no trouble to us to 
 exercise, but only a pleasure. Or it may be some special 
 correspondence between the mind and one of the senses. 
 " Naturall)Y'as it is said, or, speaking more correctly/'divincly,"
 
 1 1 o NURSE R V NUR TURE. 
 
 we have been endowed with some talent, it may be for art or 
 science or mechanism. These instincts, in sundry ways and 
 divers manners, have been divided by the Father in heaven 
 amongst all his children, whether they have been prodigals or 
 not. He has given to each severally as He would, so that it 
 might be said of these as well as of other things, " Even as the 
 Lord gave to every man;" "giving to all richly to enjoy;" 
 "and whosoever will observe these things, even they shall 
 understand the loving-kindness of the Lord." 
 
 We are thoroughly furnished for our career. We are called 
 to get our own livelihood, to work out our own salvation, and 
 to be happy in ourselves, and we may find that for these things, 
 as for all others that pertain unto life and godliness, God is 
 working in us to will and to do His good pleasure. We have 
 within us, if we live lawfully, renewed day by day, those various 
 powers by the exercise of which we may lead a complete and 
 a happy life. We are not born to starve, nor are we sent into 
 this world to be miserable, nor are we taken out of it to be 
 lost. There is no necessity laid upon us to be the victims of 
 ennui, any more than to become beggars or to be wandering 
 outcasts in eternity. If we work we shall eat ; if we believe we 
 shall be saved ; and if we cultivate some special faculty with 
 which we have been endowed by God, we shall find that zest 
 and happiness, that satisfaction and rest, which, in their way, 
 are as necessary to us as our daily bread and our everlasting 
 salvation. 
 
 Difficulties in homes, like other difficulties in life, will often.
 
 CHILDREN'S HOBBIES. 1 1 1 
 
 if not always, be found to be the result of our having forgotten 
 God. We have said already that there is nothing that need 
 perplex and discourage us in the management of our children. 
 There is always something that ought to be done for them, and 
 sometimes it seems impossible to discover what it is, or if we 
 see what ought to be done, it seems impossible to do it. But 
 what is impossible with man is possible with God. We have 
 our work, and it is given us by one who furnishes the material 
 and offers His help. God does not call us to make bricks 
 without straw. He gives us all things in and for our children, 
 and does not leave us, but works mightily in us, as He does in 
 all who believe. And it is because He is able and willing to 
 do more exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or 
 think, that the nurture and admonition of the Lord will be 
 found to be sufficient for the guidance of any parent and the 
 management of any child. 
 
 Take, for instance, our position when our children are tired 
 both of their work and their play. They want they say to do 
 something — something that is not work and that is not play. 
 Now in that child who may be troubling us with the weary 
 question " What shall I do 1" there is the latent power to interest 
 and amuse itself. It has within it — sealed it may be, as yet, or 
 blocked up, perhaps through our carelessness — a hidden spring 
 of pleasure which might be an unfailing source of refreshment. 
 The water is there, and it may be reached. It may take more 
 or less time and trouble and thought to discover the particular 
 pursuit for which a child has a natural taste, but therein lies
 
 1 1 2 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 part of our work : we have to elicit, to educate, to draw out the 
 latent powers of our little ones, and we need not regret any ex- 
 penditure of ourselves ; and whatever the result may be, we are 
 to remember that we have to make the best of our children, 
 and that they will have to make the best of themselves. 
 
 There are children as well as babies who are but little if 
 any trouble. Many boys and girls will amuse themselves for 
 hours when they are left alone. There are men and women 
 who become rich, or religious, or literary, or artistic, and who 
 are under no obligation to their parents or their teachers. The 
 genius and instincts of children differ in degree as well as in 
 kind. Here and there we meet with those who are early con- 
 scious of the possession of extraordinary power, and they may 
 be left very nearly, if not quite, to the impetus which they re- 
 ceive from its exercise. There are others, and they form the 
 great majority, who have received only a single talent, and 
 that often but a common and ordinary one, and it is lying un- 
 used because its value and use are not perceived by them or 
 acknowledged by others. 
 
 Apparently it is not much that is left for us to do for our 
 children ; it is but little in any case, and in this it is perhaps the 
 least of all. A little help, however, may be a great service. 
 " Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth." Some word 
 or sight in season, some occasional or indirect encouragement, 
 will be sufficient in most cases to make a child exchange its 
 hobby-horse for a hobby, and when it is fairly mounted, with a 
 little discreet oversight and a few hints, it will teach itself to
 
 CHILDREN'S HOBBIES. 113 
 
 learn the luxury of riding. Many have thus been mounted for 
 life, and the pleasures of childhood have continued to be the 
 recreation of manhood, and the solace of age. 
 
 The drawings which have no drawing in them, the fancy- 
 work in which there is neither a picture nor a pattern, but a 
 helpless attempt at both, the expensive tool-box which was 
 given to a boy who had no mechanical instinct, the closed 
 piano, the empty aquarium, the MSS. in prose and verse, the 
 sundry collections of coins, antiques, and insects, the fishing 
 tackle, the bat, the library of dusty books, and the countless 
 other broken-down hobbies which are to be found in the draw- 
 ers, and closets, and lumber-rooms of most homes, are proofs 
 that many, if not all, have tried to amuse themselves and have 
 not been able. These failures are greatly to be regretted, and 
 easily to be explained. Any who are acquainted with the 
 principles and laws of recreation would find no difficulty with 
 any case of " taedium vitae," and they would be able to give a 
 very satisfactory explanation to any one whose desire for an 
 old pleasure had failed. 
 
 We may get hold of the wrong hobby as well as the wrong 
 horse. Hobbies as well as horses differ in their build, and 
 therefore in their pace. " The term ' hobby ' is thought to be 
 derived from the Anglo-Saxon ' hoppan ;' if so, and it seems 
 probable, the name must have been applied to the horse from 
 its pace — an easy ambling pace, neither trot nor gallop, in 
 which the feet are carried unevenly and not straight out."* A 
 
 * Richardson. 
 
 I
 
 1 1 4 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 hobby should be neither work nor play, but something that 
 contains the elements of both. There must be in it a curious 
 and indefinable but pleasant admixture of exercise and rest. 
 A pursuit must be strong enough to carry a man, and its pace 
 must be easy to him, or it will never become his hobby. No 
 one buys a horse for his own riding without knowing something 
 about it, and trying whether it suits him. Now we cannot 
 always choose our business, the way in which we shall gain our 
 livelihood, but we shall have only ourselves to blame if we are 
 not in possession of some pad (it may be a pegasus, for hobbies 
 appear to have wings as well as legs) which seems to have been, 
 as indeed it was, made for us. 
 
 A child must choose its own hobby, and it will then be likely 
 to keep to it when it is old. If a boy has eyes that cannot see, 
 or if there be no special correspondence between his eyes and 
 his hand, he should never be encouraged to draw, at any rate 
 for his amusement. No books or masters, and no determina- 
 tion on our part or his own, will be able to give him any real 
 or lasting pleasure in " form." The hour's drawing-lesson is 
 " work " to him, and his consciousness of effort, and his uncon- 
 sciousness of success, are distressing rather than pleasurable. 
 The pursuit may be persisted in for a longer or shorter period, 
 quite as much to the amazement of the rider himself as to the 
 spectators, but the time will come when he will have an oppor- 
 tunity to dismount, and he will do so with a will, being heartily 
 tired of making himself miserable in trying to be happy. The 
 countless variety of objects lying around us and our children,
 
 CHILDREN'S HOBBIES. 115 
 
 free to all, and adapted to the calibre of any, will prevent both 
 us and them from entertaining the error that there is nothing 
 that can furnish them with what they want. 
 
 Our children must ride their hobbies in their own way. If 
 we are doing our best with and for them in other matters, we 
 may leave them very much to themselves as they become 
 engrossed with their favourite pursuits. They will soon and 
 certainly discover their deficiencies, and we may silently make 
 some kindred science one of their lessons, and they will of 
 themselves learn to apply its principles and laws to their play. 
 There is, in all of us, a dislike to compulsion and oversight, 
 and we are seldom really interested in anything that we are 
 obliged to do. We do not meet with many who take " con 
 amore " to their daily work. The pleasure we derive from 
 riding our hobbies, is partly to be attributed to the fact that we 
 are under no obligation to ride or even keep them, and that 
 when we do, we are consulting our own tastes. A pursuit that 
 carries us away from the high road of life, with its yokes and 
 burdens, its responsibilities and rules, is as precious as it is 
 pleasant. We return, whether we are children or men, to the 
 desk in the school, or the counting-house, or the study, 
 renewed in the spirit of our mind, more able and more willing 
 to compete for the prizes that are set before us. There must 
 be some method in our madness as we turn from beaten tracks, 
 and try a gallop across country ; we must always remember 
 that we are riding, and never forget that our hobby is not a 
 horse. Many things may be lawful and even expedient for an
 
 1 1 6 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 amateur which would be the ruin of a student, and we shall 
 only dishearten ourselves or our children if we are expecting 
 results from play that are only given to work. 
 
 If, while the child is under authority, he be taught to 
 remember times and seasons, and trained to the punctual per- 
 formance of his school duties, and is leading a regular home 
 life, he will not be likely to forget himself when he becomes 
 his own master, and suffer his hobby to run away with him. 
 Here again we have presented to us another part of our 
 vocation, as it touches the recreation of our children. They 
 need some restraint, and we have to exercise it. In after-years 
 they will be tempted in many ways to be intemperate in many 
 things, and then they will have no other check than what they 
 have been taught to put upon themselves ; and as they will often 
 thank us when they perceive the cleverness and kindness and 
 care with which we taught them to ride their hobby, so this 
 gratitude will be increased when they find the habits which 
 they acquired in youth remain with them when they are old. 
 
 Some of the so-called " hobbies " which have been lately in 
 the market, and have been palmed off upon buyers, seem to 
 justify the opinion that is held that we are losing our critical 
 faculty. We ought to know something of ourselves and what 
 we want, and something of horses, before we invest our money 
 in a purchase. There is always something to be learnt in a 
 hobby or a horse fair. The most knowing will find themselves 
 sometimes in possession of a screw, and after all not be much 
 to blame. Hobbies may and will differ in many points, but
 
 CHILDREN'S HOBBIES. 117 
 
 there are points necessary to all, and it is because we have 
 found pursuits presented as pleasures, that seem utterly unable 
 to carry away even a child, that our wonder has been awakened. 
 We have never had any great opinion of the fancy for 
 "collecting." The museums of old China have ever been a 
 mystery to us, seeing their possessors are not potters, and seem 
 to know and to care but very little, if anything, about the pottery 
 manufacture. It would be possible to study some of the books 
 and some of the prints that we have seen in large and expensive 
 collections, but they do not appear to have been purchased for 
 the sake of literature or art, but only from the accident of their 
 rarity or age. There does not seem to be much work and play 
 in " collections," and what there may be is very evanescent ; a 
 man's money seems to be soon spent, and a man's interest 
 seems to be soon lost, in the mere possession of things that can 
 be bought and sold. There is, however, a measure of respecta- 
 bility in all these collections, and many others of the class to 
 which they belong. There are children who are childish, and 
 there are those who seem to continue all through life to be 
 moved and engrossed by trifles, but we own that we read with 
 shame the other day, in the memoirs of a late minister, that his 
 hobby was autographs, and that he was ever ready to purchase 
 a specimen with a sermon. If the character of a person could 
 be discovered from his handwriting, this hobby would have 
 that point of " work " about it, which seems to us to be essential. 
 There may be possibilities of pleasure in a pursuit that escape 
 the notice of the most attentive observer. It is said that one
 
 1 1 8 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 half of the world does not know how the other half lives ; there 
 are well-authenticated instances of persons living for a long 
 while without, or with a very little food, and if we take the 
 cases of the postage-stamp collectors of our day, it would seem 
 that we are in the midst of those who differ from us in mind, 
 as the others do in body. A hobby-horse will never grow into 
 a hobby, for there is between them the difference of species. 
 We may try to be pleased with something which can never 
 afford us real pleasure ; but we shall only make ourselves tired 
 and ridiculous. We have therefore to prevent, by all means, 
 our children from taking up with childish things, and if they 
 have got hold of them, to persuade them to put them away. 
 Children's hobbies need not be childish. It is possible when 
 we are young to take up a pursuit which will commend itself 
 to us when we are old. We have to put away too many things, 
 unfortunately, that were a part of our past, so that anything 
 that can be retained, which shall serve to link together our 
 broken life and help to preserve its unity, is of unspeakable 
 value. 
 
 It will be often to us a source of great gratification if we 
 find that the hobby, on which we have spent and are spending 
 so much of our spare time and money, has that stamina and 
 constitution about it, that it is now as valuable to us as it was 
 at first. Proving that nothing is intended to be in vain, which 
 we all are at times inclined to doubt, we shall be saved from 
 those rr* oments of depression which will give us much vexation 
 of spirit, if we have really lost the spare time and money we have
 
 CHILDREN'S HOBBIES. 119 
 
 spent. There is a complementary power, as well as great tena- 
 city of life, in a true hobby, which is gradually revealed and 
 felt. You live to learn that you have really needed it. It is not 
 only of service in the formation of your character, but as all 
 things are related, it is sure to be of greater or less service to 
 you in your professional or business engagements. All these 
 considerations, and many others that might be adduced, are 
 proofs that our hobbies must not be trifling and childish, but 
 must necessarily have in them the element of " work." 
 
 Yesterday we met, quite by accident, jogging along very 
 contentedly, one of the exhibitors in a late " Hobby Show," 
 and as he was civil enough to put his nag through its paces for 
 our edification, and to gratify our curiosity by giving us its his- 
 tory, we are able to present our readers with a sketch from life, 
 in which they will easily detect some of our ideal points of a 
 hobby. Having to call upon a neighbour, who had been an 
 entire stranger, we fixed upon a time when we knew he would 
 be free from his daily engagements, and like most of the tribe 
 to which we discovered him to belong, we found him "at home." 
 He was en deshabille, and without any apology, he ushered us 
 into his little parlour, and our eye fell at once upon a glass case 
 containing some geological and mineral specimens, and looking 
 around we saw, hanging in a frame upon the wall, " an honour- 
 able mention," and buried in its velvet stand, on the table, " a 
 medal." We thought, at once, that we knew where we were, 
 and to break the ice of a first interview, we ventured to enquire 
 the special pursuit in which he had been interested. To our
 
 1 20 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 surprise he named " anatomical preparations." In a moment 
 we bethought ourselves of some unpleasant and unsatisfactory 
 operations in which we had been once engaged when preparing 
 some illustrations for a lecture on comparative anatomy, and 
 imagined that we were about to be introduced to a large, raw- 
 boned, and ungainly steed. Turning to a corner of the room, 
 and opening a cupboard, he brought out of its small stable one 
 of the neatest and cleverest hobbies that we have seen for 
 many a day. With that success which ever attends a simple 
 and resolute obedience to an instinct, with that talent which 
 genius ever uses to shape its ends, perhaps being unconscious 
 of what he was doing, he had decided upon an object which 
 had enabled him for some twenty years to gratify a natural 
 taste, and for which his desire could never possibly fail. A few 
 card-board boxes contained his treasures. In serried rows, a 
 multitude of slips of glass, each labelled, told you what you 
 could not have perceived, that they were specimens of " struc- 
 ture " taken from all parts of the kingdom of nature. Using the 
 term " anatomy " in its ancient and widest sense, and limiting 
 his view to the modern standpoint of the microscope, he had 
 been able, with his little leisure and small means, to produce 
 " anatomical preparations " " of trees, from the cedar-tree that 
 is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the 
 wall ; of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of 
 fishes." 
 
 The hobby had a compactness and completeness and sound- 
 ness about it, which greatly commended it to us, and the result
 
 CHILDREN'S HOBBIES. 121 
 
 of further enquiries seemed to justify us in some of the opinions 
 which we have expressed in these notes. As the enthusiast 
 showed us "the palate of a periwinkle" which was in the 
 course of preparation, we were reminded of our conviction that 
 the element of " work " must always enter into a pursuit which 
 is to be an unfailing resource when we are tired of our toils and 
 our pleasures. 
 
 There was nothing original in the hobby, and nothing re- 
 markable about its history, and we felt therefore that it might be 
 taken as a sample of what might be accomplished by any one. 
 Our idle boy, who is ever in mischief, and our lack-a-daisical 
 girl, who is lolling over her novel or wool-work, might, if they 
 would, turn from drones into bees, but 
 
 " That they would do 
 
 They should do when they would, for this would changes 
 
 And hath abatements and delays as many 
 
 As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents ; 
 
 And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh, 
 
 That hurts by easing. " 
 
 Earnestness finds because it makes opportunities, and it is 
 only those who have not the spirit to set about something, who 
 have "nothing to do" — 
 
 " The keen spirit 
 Seizes the prompt occasion, makes the thought 
 Start into instant action, and at once 
 Plans and performs, resolves and executes." 
 
 The man whom we found engrossed with his " anatomical 
 preparations " told us the old tale. He was the only son of his
 
 i22 N URSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 mother, and she was a poor widow. He was early sent into 
 the world to earn a few shillings in a lawyer's office, and was 
 allowed, as his pocket-money, sixpence a-week. The micro- 
 scopes in an optician's window set him musing, and an old copy 
 of " Evenings at Home," purchased at a book-stall (the well- 
 known origin of many such a fire), kindled his smouldering 
 passion for observation. Flies could be had for catching, and 
 a small lens, costing a few pence, opened up to him the world 
 of wonders, for he had " eyes to see and a heart to under- 
 stand." 
 
 We are tempted at times, as parents, to think that the little 
 that we are able to do for our children is sadly out of keeping 
 with their necessities and our desires. We shall do well at 
 these seasons to remember the influence that our parents had 
 upon us. We might exchange many encouraging experiences. 
 In our own case, for instance, we believe we were moved to 
 select our hobby through our mother, who used to tell us 
 thrice-told tales about her school-girl's life, and how she spent 
 the long summer mornings before breakfast in drawing. There 
 were occasional red-letter days of painting, when in the midst 
 of her home-work and children, she wist not what she did, for 
 while she was painting her picture, she was determining the 
 current of the leisure of a whole life. The fulness and safety 
 of our life as a boy and a youth we are persuaded is to be at- 
 tributed mainly to our passion for the pencil, and though after 
 all we cannot be said really to draw, we have often utilized the 
 gift we have, by pressing it into our service for lectures, and
 
 CHILDREN'S HOBBIES. 123 
 
 the diagrams and cartoons which have been the result have 
 served to supplement what we had to say. During the last 
 few years we have been carried away by our hobby into com- 
 parative composition^ and we flatter ourselves that we are all 
 the happier in the choice of our subject, and in our lines of 
 thought, and light, and shade, and colour. 
 
 A boy that is found making a hobby of an easel is very 
 likely to be found standing at it as a man.
 
 TWIGS FOR NESTS. 
 
 VIII.— THE PARENT'S PATTERN. 
 
 " The voice of parents is the voice of gods, 
 For to their children they are heaven's lieutenants ; 
 Made fathers, not for common uses merely 
 Of procreation (beasts and birds would be 
 As noble then as we are), but to steer 
 The wanton freight of youth through storms and dangers, 
 Which with full sails they bear upon, and straighten 
 The mortal line of life they bend so often. 
 For these are we made fathers, and for these 
 May challenge duty on our children'' s part." 
 
 Shakspeare.
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 No. VIII.— THE PARENT'S PATTERN. 
 
 ' ' Be ye therefore perfect, 
 Even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. '' 
 
 A Bible is never out of place, for let it be opened by any one, 
 anywhere, it will be found to give and to receive light. Occu- 
 pying as we do various positions, and sustaining divers relation- 
 ships, we are each furnished, by our experience of life, with 
 some special information which qualifies all of us to become, 
 in a measure, expositors of Scripture .; and we may all discover
 
 1 28 NURSER Y NURTURE. 
 
 that we shall have something more to learn from revelation, 
 respecting those facts and principles which we have been 
 taught by our contact with Nature and Providence. The 
 works of God, and the circumstances in which He has placed 
 us, seem to have been designed by Him to prepare us to under- 
 stand the complementary teaching of His written word. As we 
 write, we remember a conversation which we once held with a 
 vine-dresser, who had been cutting down his vines to the quick, 
 " that they might bring forth much fruit ;" and our readers will 
 readily recal parallel cases, where they have met with those 
 who have been specially interested in certain verses and 
 chapters of the Bible, which have contained allusions to their 
 daily employment or their professional experience, and who 
 have been equally interesting in their unsophisticated exegesis. 
 
 There is no place where the Bible gives or receives more 
 light than in a home, and while we should never be justified in 
 arguing, from the well-nigh universal diffusion of the Scriptures 
 in families, that there is any corresponding interest in its con- 
 tents, it is possible that there is something more than fashion, 
 which leads nearly every founder of a home to give the family 
 Bible a somewhat prominent position amongst his household 
 goods. The Book which contains the revelation of " The 
 Father," and " The Father's house," may very naturally make its 
 way into every home where there are children, and those who 
 are parents will necessarily know more than others of " The 
 Fatherhood of God." 
 
 We must lead an out-door life, going down into the sea in
 
 THE PARENTS PATTER. X. 129 
 
 ships, we must take the wings of the morning and dwell in the 
 uttermost parts of the sea, we must ascend the mountains 
 whose tops touch the clouds, and we must travel alone through 
 a great and terrible wilderness, before we shall attain to the high 
 and wonderful knowledge of the omnipresence and omnipotence 
 of God, or be able to feel the full force of those Scriptures 
 which describe His majesty and His glory. And we must have 
 homes and children of our own, we must be much in-doors and 
 be leading a home life, before we shall comprehend the good- 
 ness of God as a Father, and repose a childlike confidence in 
 His mercy which endureth for ever. There are psalms which 
 seem as if they were only to be understood at sea, and can 
 only be read with emphasis by seafaring men. A Humboldt 
 or a Livingston might speak as those having authority of the 
 marvellous might of the Creator and Governor of all things, 
 " for that their souls know right well," and a man must be a 
 father before he can know himself, or tell others, how God 
 pities those who fear Him. A mother is in the best position 
 of all others to proclaim the love of God, but even her power 
 will fail her, if she wishes us to learn from anything which she 
 has to say "the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of 
 the love which passeth knowledge." 
 
 The Bible is thus proved by common experience to be a 
 book for all, and our arts and sciences, our daily work and our 
 daily life, instead of being antagonistic to religion or irrecon- 
 cilable with its truths and claims, are, on the contrary, 
 evidences of its verity and value, and are intended to be our 
 
 K
 
 1 30 NURSER V NUR TURE. 
 
 daily and common means of grace. We may have some page 
 of nature or providence or revelation open before us, and we 
 may not be able to understand what we are reading, except 
 some one should show us ; but as soon as we are put into 
 possession of the key, the mysteries of life are solved, and "the 
 glorious gospel of the ever-blessed God," harmonizing and com- 
 plementing our experience, is received as "a faithful saying 
 and worthy of all acceptation." 
 
 We read that " God would have all men to be saved and to 
 come unto the knowledge of the truth,"* and whoso is wise will 
 observe that He is causing all things to work together for this 
 end. All earthly things utter some heavenly truth. Men 
 
 ' ' Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, 
 Sermons in stones, and good in everything." - 
 
 There is something more than superstition and poetry in 
 the ancient and long-lived idea, that "all things are double, 
 one against another," so that we need not check ourselves with 
 the fear that we are the victims of a vain imagination, if we 
 think that " the invisible things of God are seen from the crea- 
 tion of the world," or that our natural and transitory relations 
 illustrate those which are spiritual and eternal : — 
 ' ' Day unto day uttereth speech, 
 
 And night unto night sheweth knowledge. 
 
 There is no speech nor language, 
 
 Their voice is not heard. 
 
 Their line is gone out through all the earth, 
 
 And their -words to the end of the world.'''' 
 
 * 1 Tim. ii. 4. t Ps. xix. 2, 3, 4.
 
 THE PARENT'S PA TTERN. 1 3 1 
 
 We are told that " in Christ were all things created both in 
 the heavens and on the earth, both visible and invisible; by Him 
 and for Him were all created. And He is before all things, 
 and in Him all things subsist."* When our Lord came into 
 the world, He went about in it teaching that truths lay hid in 
 the light and the darkness, the work and the sickness, the bread 
 and the water, and the wine, and the thousand objects which are 
 familiar to us all in common life. He went abroad, and spoke 
 of Himself as the Shepherd, the King, the Master, the Teacher, 
 the Sower. He came into the homes of the people, and sat 
 down at their weddings, and spoke of himself as the Bridegroom. 
 He took up their children in His arms, and spoke of God as 
 the Father. Those who heard these words falling from His lips 
 must have felt that His revelation made all things new. The 
 light that disclosed all men and all things, " serving unto the ex. 
 ample and shadow of heavenly things," — " lighting every man 
 that cometh into the world," was verily " the true light." The 
 Teacher of this religion of common life must have been a 
 teacher sent from God. He must have heard and learned of 
 the Father, or He could not have declared that which had been 
 hidden from the foundation of the world. " In Him was life ; 
 and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in 
 darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."t 
 
 The parables of our Lord often perplexed those who heard 
 them ; and there are still those who regard the analogies of 
 Scripture as obscure and arbitrary. Their conceptions of the 
 
 * Col. i. 16, 17. t John i. 4, 5.
 
 1 3 2 NURSE R Y NUR TURE. 
 
 character of men and this world are such that any resem- 
 blance between earth and heaven, and between man and God, 
 seems to be only fictitious. Types are nothing more to them 
 than poetical fancies. Marriage, for instance, is not a mys- 
 tery ; and the Fatherhood of God is but a figure of speech. 
 The relationships which they sustain to their wives and their 
 children may have been used as similitudes to enable them 
 to form some conception of their Saviour and their God ; but 
 their real relatives they believe to be " those according to the 
 flesh." There is still a slowness of heart to understand that 
 our husband is our maker, and that our father is our 
 God ; and in this lies the secret of much of the worldliness 
 and much of the misery of our home life. 
 
 There is a mystery belonging to our near relationships 
 which has led some to search those Scriptures which refer to 
 homes, and the instincts which are to be found there. They 
 have taken the Word of God as a light, and have explored the 
 great depths in their own hearts, and as far as they could the 
 hearts of those who love them. The wife forgetting her own 
 people and her father's house — the husband leaving his father 
 and his mother, and cleaving to his wife — the mother remem- 
 bering no more her anguish, for joy that a man-child is born, 
 or refusing to be comforted because it is dead — the father 
 nourishing and bringing up children and finding them rebel- 
 lious against him, or falling on the neck and kissing a returning 
 and penitent prodigal, — have not only thus been led to under- 
 stand the iniquity of sinning against God, and the readiness and
 
 THE PARENTS PATTERN. 133 
 
 joy wjth which He receives every sinner that repenteth — the 
 love wherewith Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it 
 — but they have also discovered the transcendental truth, that 
 there is no home but heaven, and no father but God. 
 
 Just as the study of comparative anatomy has revealed the 
 existence of some typical form, which has never been per- 
 fectly embodied in any creature, each organism containing 
 some trace of the master-builder's purpose — giving an earnest 
 of "some better thing;" so it would seem that in the various 
 relationships in human homes we have the shadow of some 
 heavenly pattern, which has been from the beginning the 
 prophecy of time, and which exists only in God, and which 
 is seen only by us when we see Him as He is. 
 
 According to the teaching of our Lord, we are not to rest 
 in anything, or in any one, here. No one is good, and nothing 
 is true. The mysterious manner in which He employed the 
 word "verily," and spoke of "the truth;" the sharpness with 
 which he corrected the popular and careless use of the epithet 
 " good ;" the way in which he referred to the bread we eat, 
 and the water and the wine we drink, the riches we accumulate, 
 the death we die, seems to imply that there is no substance in 
 material things, and that if we are living in this world without 
 God, we are living in a vain show, in a world of shadows. 
 
 We eat the bread that perisheth, but that cannot be " meat 
 indeed," for we hunger, and that alone can be "true bread" 
 which is sufficient to satisfy our craving. We drink and thirst 
 again, but we need to have water, of which if we drank, we
 
 1 34 NURSER V NUR TURE. 
 
 should never thirst. We are born to trouble, and our days are 
 few and evil, and though wine cheers our heart, in it is excess, 
 and we must taste the fruit of " the true vine " if our sorrow is 
 to be turned into joy. Our riches take to themselves wings, 
 and when we die we can carry nothing away ; we need to be 
 "provided with bags which wax not old, a treasure in the 
 heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither 
 moth corrupteth."* We have homes, and there are in them 
 those who love us, but we have never been able to realise our 
 ideal of what a home should be. There are some traces of 
 " parenthood " to be found in earthly parentage, and there is 
 something like a home in a father's house, but it is only in a 
 few things, and for a little while. They perish as we find 
 them. The love of a mother and the pity of a father are, like 
 all other types, incomplete and evanescent. We, by a kind of 
 instinct, " know how to give good things to our children," but 
 they will soon learn what we, alas ! know so well that " we 
 are evil." The home, for a while, is a tabernacle of witness, 
 reared in the wilderness of the selfishness of this world, but 
 the tent is struck ; our parents die, and the home is broken, 
 and were not God our Father, we should be orphans, and if 
 there were no heaven, we should have no home. 
 
 Natural affection seems ever to have disposed its subjects 
 to supernaturalism. The customs and the opinions which 
 have prevailed from the earliest ages to our own times, prove 
 he universality and the strength of the conviction, that there 
 
 * Luke xii. 33.
 
 THE PARENTS PATTERN. 135 
 
 is some special sanctity in home, and some special mystery in 
 the parental relation. The heathen have always had their 
 household gods. The very brutes seem to be raised by parental 
 instinct, at any rate during its manifestation, to the scale of 
 humanity. We use the term divine to describe the expression 
 which the great masters saw when they painted the faces of 
 mothers and their firstborn sons. The universal pity for orphans 
 seems to be explained if we suppose that a child, through the 
 loss of its parents, becomes the ward of heaven — that, when a 
 father and a mother forsake a child, then the Lord takes him up. 
 The singular pre-eminence given to the parental relationship 
 in the Bible, not only in its selection as the revelation of God, 
 but in the perpetual and peculiar reference which is made to it 
 from the first page to the last — the fifth commandment being 
 the first with promise — the reform in the home affection having 
 been predicted as the great part of the mission of the fore- 
 runner of the Messiah — the early converts to Christianity having 
 been exhorted to show piety first at home — the full and par- 
 ticular directions given to all believers respecting domestic 
 duties — and the warning that those who fail in the lowest of 
 them are worse than infidels ; — all these divers and manifold 
 testimonies of God and men serve to establish us in the faith 
 that there is more in the relation of parents to their children 
 than earthly ties, and that we have in this institution the 
 mystery of the Divine Fatherhood. 
 
 If the great God be verily our Father, and if He be acting 
 the part of a perfect father toward us, then, as we are often at
 
 136 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 a loss what course to pursue in the management of our children, 
 we may safely follow His example and adopt His principles and 
 His plans. Having had our little ones given us to nurse for 
 Him, we are certain to please Him if we bring them up in the 
 nurture and admonition of the Lord. If " we have received 
 the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father," we shall 
 be delivered from the bondage of nervousness, for, having an 
 unction from the Holy One, we shall know all things. Those 
 Scriptures which reveal the Fatherhood of God will be searched 
 by us as if they had been written for our learning, and our 
 minds will be stirred within us, by way of remembrance, by such 
 words as have been adopted as a motto for these notes. 
 Through patience and comfort of such Scriptures we shall have 
 hope. Notwithstanding the proverbial danger of analogies, if 
 we find these cross-lights reveal to us more distinctly any part 
 of our duty, we shall feel that they must have been given to us 
 for our guidance, and we shall take them, however difficult and 
 dangerous it may be to do so, as a lamp to our feet. 
 
 Walking in the light of these oracles of God, and looking 
 at our homes and all who are in them as they are thus disclosed 
 to us, we shall be kept from the sin that easily besets those 
 who are called to live a home life. We shall be saved from 
 that familiarity and carelessness with which we are too prone 
 to treat the persons and the duties which are daily around us. 
 We shall be ready to put off our shoes from our feet when we 
 find that the home is holy ground. The sanctities of the home, 
 and the reverence for its inmates, will be preserved by the
 
 THE PA RENTS PA TTERN, 1 3 7 
 
 remembrance of " the Father's house." The revelation of 
 heaven as a home will have an indirect tendency to turn tht 
 home into a heaven ; and our children will be likely to become 
 perfect, if we are " perfect, even as our Father who is in heaven 
 is perfect." 
 
 The direct light thrown by these words of. our Lord falls, as 
 all are aware, upon the will of the heavenly Father respecting 
 His children, revealing His purpose that they should become 
 like Him, returning good for evil, and ever ready to be merci- 
 ful without respect of persons, so that they might be " in deed 
 and in truth, as well as in name," the children of their Father 
 in heaven. They, however, with many others which declare the 
 Fatherhood of God, cast a reflected light upon the relation we 
 sustain to our children, and if these scattered rays could be 
 collected, we should be in possession of what was perhaps in- 
 tended to be " The Parent's Pattern." 
 
 The position of the parent having been ordained of God, 
 and bearing, as may presently be seen, so striking a resem- 
 blance to that which He sustains toward us — the purpose of 
 parenthood being the same as His well-known will concerning 
 us — we may, without any presumption, attempt to fashion our 
 homes after the pattern which has been shown us in the mount. 
 
 " God would have all men to be saved, and to come to a 
 knowledge of the truth ;" hence there is, with other things which 
 work together for this "good," this institution of earthly parent- 
 hood. The child is to receive its first notion of God from 
 parents, because He is "the Father," and He wishes men to be
 
 1 3 8 NURSER V NUR TURE. 
 
 trained, from their youth up, to feel as children towards Him. 
 Thus he has ordained that they shall receive their existence 
 mediately through us, and shall be for a while entirely de- 
 pendent upon us for their sustenance and safety, and their in- 
 struction and control. The parent's home is the child's world. 
 His will is its law. His words are its light. His love is its joy. 
 His providence is its care. The parent is the child's God. He 
 can command its circumstances, and so far can command its 
 character. 
 
 To aid us in sustaining this position of a God who is " the 
 Father," we are endowed with parental instinct. We have been 
 formed after the image of Him who created us, and thus our 
 life is wrapt up in the life and welfare of our offspring. A 
 mother cannot forget her sucking child, and she must always 
 have compassion on the son of her womb. A father would pray 
 to God to die in the stead of his son. We love our children, 
 and would spare nothing for their sakes, and they are thus to 
 be induced to believe that God loved the world, and spared 
 not his only-begotten Son, but freely gave Him up for us all, 
 and that He is willing, with Him, freely to give us all things. 
 They are won by our love to them to love us, and our love 
 being thus shed abroad in their hearts, they keep our com- 
 mandments. They are thus trained for the service of sons. 
 
 Our natural instinct may, if we will, be supplemented by 
 supernatural power, and be guided by the direct teaching and 
 example of God. We may become partakers of the divine 
 nature, and thus be perfect even as our Father who is in heaven
 
 THE PARENTS PA TTERN. 139 
 
 is perfect. Kept by the mighty power of God from upbraid- 
 ing, having received mercy, we may be so wrought upon by His 
 spirit as to show mercy. Our goodness may be constantly 
 leading our little ones to repentance for their childish wayward- 
 ness and disobedience, and if it be that they grow up and fall 
 away into " sin as scarlet and red like crimson," their remem- 
 brance of our great pitifulness and forbearance will bring 
 them to themselves, and they will say " I will arise and go to 
 my father." Sinning against us will be to them like sinning 
 against God, and their return to us may lead to their return to 
 Him. 
 
 Becoming partakers of the divine nature, and adopting the 
 divine pattern, our purpose and glory will be their holiness. 
 They will perceive, from the providence and law of our home, 
 that we are so ordering all things that they may know God and 
 Jesus Christ whom He has sent. The plans of the nursery, the 
 choice of the school, the decision of the business, will be sub- 
 servient to this, if we become perfect even as our Father who 
 is in heaven is perfect. Strong in the Lord, and in the power 
 of His might, we shall snap, as if they were threads, the cords 
 of custom by which we should be otherwise bound. Our joy 
 will be in their salvation ; with a single eye and a steady pur- 
 pose we shall do our utmost that they may keep themselves 
 from the corruption that is in this world, through the lust of 
 the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Their ac- 
 ceptance with God will take the precedence of their accepta- 
 bility to man, and knowing that they who will live godly must
 
 1 40 NURSE R Y NUR TURE. 
 
 suffer persecution, we shall train them to endure hardness as 
 good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Taught of God the law of self- 
 sacrifice, we shall lay down our lives that that which is holy, just, 
 and good may be magnified and made honourable. Being holy 
 as He is holy, " we shall command our children and house- 
 holds after us, and they will keep the way of the Lord to do 
 justice and judgment ; that the Lord may bring upon us that 
 which He hath spoken unto us." 
 
 " With the Father of lights there is no variableness, neither 
 shadow of turning." The unchcuigeableness of God is our pattern 
 for consistency ; He is invariably the same. In all His com- 
 mandments and ordinances He is the same God. In all His 
 dealings with us, in all His warnings and chastenings,- there are 
 the same justice and mercy. " The Lord our God is one 
 Lord."* He instils the same truth, in the same loving way — line 
 upon line, precept upon precept, day after day, year after year. 
 The God of our youth is the God of our manhood, and the God 
 6f our old age. He has thus drawn the reverential regard of 
 His children, and we approach Him as " the same God over 
 all, blessed for evermore." 
 
 . A child, by the constitution of its nature, is disposed to re- 
 gard its parent at first in a similar manner. It looks up to 
 him as if he would never change, and as if he would ever be 
 able and willing to supply all its need. It relies on his kind- 
 ness and power, his wisdom and justice, as if they would never 
 fail. This confidence continues as long as the parent, to the 
 
 * Deut. vi. 4.
 
 THE PARENTS PA TTERN. 141 
 
 eye of the child, remains the same. It is a wonderful but 
 necessary provision for parental work, but it is lost through in- 
 consistency, and when thus forfeited it is never regained. God 
 has ever dealt with his people that his word need never be 
 questioned. His word has been truth. All He hath spoken 
 He hath done. Any who have known Him feel that " it is im- 
 possible for God to lie." " God is not a man that He should 
 lie, neither the son of man that he should change his mind ; 
 hath He said, and shall He not do it X or hath He spoken, and 
 shall He not make it good ¥'* God is faithful to His promises, 
 and faithful to His threatenings ; and we therefore believe His 
 word to the uttermost, and, believing, we are saved. Except 
 our children can be taught to trust they will be ruined, and it. 
 is evidently the purpose of God that they should believe in 
 us, that through their faith in us they may be led to believe in 
 Him, and in Jesus Christ whom He has sent. 
 
 "And who is sufficient for these things?" "and how shall 
 we order our children, and how shall we do these things unto 
 them?" We are ourselves "but as little children, and know 
 not how to go out or come in." Our thoughts may well trouble 
 us, as we think of ourselves and our position and responsi- 
 bility ; but in the multitude of our thoughts within us, there are 
 comforts of God that can delight our soul. We are, indeed, as 
 elder children teaching those who are younger, and having 
 partially committed to us their care and management, but our 
 Father and their Father is in heaven, and He knows what 
 things we have need of. He knows our frame, and remembers 
 
 Num. xxiii. 19.
 
 1 42 NURSER Y NUR TURE. 
 
 we are but dust, and He is able and willing to work in us to 
 purpose and perform His good pleasure. We are not sufficient 
 for anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. 
 We cannot afford to fear, — 
 
 " Our doubts are traitors, 
 And make us lose the good we oft might win 
 By fearing to attempt.' 1 '' 
 
 We are not left to the written word of God alone for our 
 encouragement and guidance. God is speaking to us in divers 
 manners and at sundry times, and is ever saying the same 
 things. The promises of revelation, as well as its lessons, are 
 repeated in nature. Seed-time and harvest do not cease. Men 
 around us are casting their seed into the ground, and the earth 
 is bringing forth fruit. The seed springs and grows up, first 
 the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear. 
 Men work and sleep. They believe and enter into rest All, 
 whatever be their field, whether they are sowing the seed of the 
 kingdom or that of the bread which perishes, are labourers to- 
 gether with God, and " every man shall receive his own reward, 
 according to his own labour." Without God no man can do 
 anything, but with God all things are possible. " I have 
 planted, Apollos watered ; but God gave the increase. So.then 
 neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth ; 
 but God that giveth the increase. 5 '* "Be patient, therefore, 
 brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold the husband- 
 man waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long 
 patience for it, until he receive the early and the latter rain. 
 
 * 1 Cor. iii. 6, 7.
 
 THE PARENTS PATTERN. 143 
 
 Be ye also patient ; stablish your hearts, for the coming of the 
 Lord draweth nigh."* 
 
 " They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy. 
 He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, 
 Shall doicbtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." \ 
 
 New and unspeakable was our joy when it was first told us 
 that we were parents, and we have only to " occupy " the posi- 
 tion in which we have been placed — to employ the power and 
 imitate the example we have received from God — and we shall 
 rejoice with the joy, than which there is none greater, of seeing 
 our children walking in the truth. The gardener turns the 
 sapling which way soever he will, for 
 
 "As the twig is bent 
 The tree's inclined ;" 
 
 and let us train up a child in the way he should go, and when 
 he is old he will not depart from it. 
 
 The unfeigned faith that was in Timothy dwelt first in his 
 grandmother Lois, and in his mother Eunice. Many of us can 
 call to remembrance that the faith that is in us dwelt first in 
 our parents, and if we be not slothful, but followers of those 
 who through trust and patience inherit the promises, we may be 
 persuaded that it will be found in our children also. 
 
 " The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting 
 Upon them that fear him, 
 And his righteousness unto children's children, 
 To such as keep his covenant, 
 And to those that remember his commandments to do them.' 1 '' * 
 
 ♦James v. 7, 8. t Ps. exxvi. 5, 6. + Ts. ciii. 17, 18.
 
 144 
 
 NURSERY NURTURE. 
 
 " Be not deceived ; God is not mocked ; for whatsoever a 
 man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his 
 flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to 
 the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us 
 not be weary of well-doing; for in due season we shall reap if 
 
 we faint not." * 
 
 * Gal. vi. 7, 8. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 Printed by R. Clark, Edinburgh.
 
 By the same Author. 
 Illustrated by Photographs printed by Negretti and Zambra. 
 
 THE 
 
 Expositions of the Cartoons of Raphael. 
 
 Price 8s. 6d. cloth elegant. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM REVIEWS. 
 
 " In place of the old insipid annuals, we have now a numerous race of books 
 far better adapted for the gifts which help so much to make Christmas merry 
 and the New Year happy. Various in size, price, and character, they suit all 
 purses, ages, and temperaments. At the head of our present batch we may 
 place Expositions of the Cartoons of Raphael (Nisbet and Co.), the author of 
 which is Richard Henry Smith jun., evidently a man of artistic taste and strong 
 religious feeling, who has made his residence near Hampton Court an opportu- 
 nity for continuous study of the famous cartoons, and seems to have constituted 
 himself a sort of oral interpreter of 'the divine painter 1 to groups of holiday 
 people, glad of every information about the artist and his work. Thus, he says, 
 he had been led on to write these popular expositions of the stoiy of each car- 
 toon." — Morning Star. 
 
 " The handsome book now before us, containing a Photograph of each of 
 the Cartoons, with Mr. Smith's veiy thoughtful and tasteful comments upon them, 
 will serve to perpetuate and to improve the salutary as well as gratifying impres- 
 sions which a view of those grand paintings must create." — Daily News. 
 
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 " But it is not in the Photographs, after all, that the great charm of this 
 book lies, for us : — it is in the expositions of the great painter furnished by Mr. 
 Smith. . . . How much this man sees ! The clear indication of the great 
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 its whole significance, which mark each exposition, interest us not only by the 
 interpretation of Raphael, but by the display of powers of keen analysis and of 
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 revive the fallen taste for the Cartoons. The book may Confidently be recom- 
 mended as one likely to be reverenced by all." — Illustrated Times. 
 
 " This is a most dainty and pleasant book to set before the public. — Freeman. 
 
 " In the Expositions of the Cartoons of Raphael Photography is well employed 
 in reproducing with great accuracy the celebrated works of the Italian master 
 which now rest at Hampton Court. Although Mr. Smith does not pretend to 
 be an art critic, he makes some very sensible remarks on painting, and describes 
 the Cartoons so thoroughly, that it is evident he has made them a particular 
 study." — Morning Post. 
 
 "A study of this volume will go far towards showing how much the artist 
 intends that the superficial observer fails to recognise." — Manchester Examiner 
 and Times. 
 
 " Mr. Smith has spent some years in the study of these paintings, and, as 
 the result of his careful application, has gained such an insight into their whole 
 meaning, and such an appreciation of the excellences displayed by the painter, 
 that he is a most instructive and entertaining guide. A further attraction to 
 the non-professional reader is the simple and intelligible manner in which Mr. 
 Smith has written his expositions, avoiding all technicalities." — Sheffield and 
 Rotherliam Independent. 
 
 " It is pleasant to listen to Mr. Smith as he eloquently expatiates on Raphael's 
 marvellous knowledge of Scripture. The binding and general execution of the 
 volume are in the first style of art." — Clerical Journal. 
 
 " This is a most delightful volume. We welcome it as an artistic work that 
 will throw a new charm over the world-famed Cartoons of Raphael. The writer 
 of the Expositions has evidently had his heart in the subject. His remarks not 
 only tend to elucidate the meaning of the painter, but are full of earnestness and 
 graphic beauty. The religious aspect of the subject is brought at the same time 
 into strong relief; and those who love the Scripture narratives will read those 
 Expositions with peculiar interest. Both, therefore, as a work of artistic excel- 
 lence and of instructive teaching, the volume is very welcome." — Bradford Review. 
 
 " W r e cannot follow Mr. Smith through his paraphrase — the idea of which 
 is veiy happy ; he has made the Cartoons preach the gospel fully and impres- 
 sively, yet without the least approach to cant. We are sure the book, which 
 the publishers have justly done their part in recommending by beautiful print- 
 ing and an elegant exterior, will find its way to many a drawing-room, and, 
 better still, to many a fireside in this approaching Christinas." — Patriot. 
 
 LONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET, W.
 
 Also by the same Author. 
 Illustrated by Photographs. 
 
 Expositions of Great Pictures. 
 
 Crown Svo, 8s. 6d., elegantly bound. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 •• We know not if Mr. R. H. Smith's Expositions of Great Pictures, illustrated 
 by Photographs, are meant specifically to form a Christmas book, a purpose 
 for whieh the volume is certainly well adapted. The Photographs are well 
 reduced from Engravings ; the comments of Mr. Smith are those of a sensible, 
 discriminating, and well-informed man ; and the book is handsome in form, 
 without being bulky or pretentious." — The Guardian. 
 
 " It is a great boon to the art lover to possess literal transcripts, so to speak, 
 of the greatest pictures in the world. The uninstructed, moreover, will derive 
 much information and careful guidance from the loving knowledge and trained 
 enthusiasm of Mr. R. H. Smith. All the subjects being scriptural, and the 
 letterpress being strongly imbued with a religious feeling, the book is peculiarly 
 adapted to the season now approaching." — Daily News. 
 
 " The Expositions are conceived in a good taste and in a fervent piety, and 
 many most interesting historical particulars are incorporated with them." — 
 Clerical Journal. 
 
 " The Expositions of the Cartoons of Raphael, published three years ago by 
 the Rev. Richard Henry Smith, made him known as a writer having remark- 
 able power of interpreting the purpose and feeling of a great painter ; and ot 
 drawing from the pictures of such a painter having sacred subjects the fulness 
 and force of their holy suggestion. He now gives us a companion volume, — 
 Expositions of Great Pictures, illustrated like the former work with Photographs. 
 It is unnecessary again to dwell on the peculiar quality of Mr. Smith's Exposi- 
 tions, as proceeding from devotion to art, including both long and loving studies 
 and much personal practice, and from pure and intense religious purpose. The 
 strength and beauty of his first book are not wanting to the second. The book 
 is one of perpetual interest, and belongs truly to literature— not to the crowd of 
 mere publications. It is artistically and religiously instructive; always pleasant 
 and refreshing to read ; and satisfyingly beautiful to look upon." — A T onconformisl.
 
 " These great pictures have evidently been most carefully studied by the 
 author, who analyses them thoroughly, and describes them at considerable 
 length in a spirit of earnest and full appreciation of their merits, and with a 
 desire to teach others not merely their value as pictures, but the important 
 sacred truths expressed on the different canvases — truths which can only be 
 read by those who seek for something more than form and colour. The photo- 
 graphic illustrations are taken from early engravings, not from the pictures them- 
 selves ; some of which, from their age and consequent loss of colour, would 
 come out most inefficiently from the camera. These copies therefore reflect 
 the originals of a more favourable time than our own." — The Art Journal. 
 
 "The descriptive matter is interesting and unaffected, and maybe read with 
 advantage by ordinary persons unacquainted with the peculiar terms so familiar 
 to art critics." — Record. 
 
 " Among the books of the season to which Photography has been success- 
 fully applied we may mention Expositions of Great Pictures. The Photographs 
 are well printed, and to each subject is appended several pages of explanatory 
 text, in which the history, feeling, and associations of the picture, together with 
 such expositions of the designs as are seen necessary to their full understanding- 
 are very well given. The book is beautifully printed on toned paper, and forms 
 a veiy appropriate and elegant present." — The Bookseller. 
 
 "The author of this book is already favourably known by his Expositions 
 of the Cartoons of Raphael, and this volume cannot fail to add to the reputation 
 he has previously won. To a thorough familiarity with the pictures of which 
 he treats, and perfect competence to discuss their artistic merits, he adds a 
 clear insight into their spiritual significance, without which all attempts to ex- 
 pound their teaching would be mere trifling. The union of these qualities is so 
 rare, that we know not of any other work ocaupying the ground which Mr. 
 Smith has here made his own, setting forth the characteristic beauties of each 
 painting with the skill of an enthusiast in art, while he brings out the great 
 lessons they teach with the earnestness 'of a sincere believer in that gospel 
 whose truths they Illustrate. The fidelity of his descriptions, the attention he 
 has devoted to the humblest details, the variety and fulness of the information 
 he has brought to bear on his subject, the discrimination of his criticisms, the 
 devoutness of his spirit, and, not least, the genuine catholicity which he every- 
 where displays, combine to stamp upon his book a character of singular excel- 
 lence. Its negative are hardly less than its positive merits. We have here 
 no morbid sentimentalism, no fantastic spiritualising, no ignorant pretentious- 
 ness, no straining after effect. The author had some words of instruction to 
 address to his readers, and he has spoken them with a great simplicity, which 
 is itself an indication of that power which nothing but a thorough grasp of the 
 subject can give." — Patriot. 
 
 ONDON: JAMES NISBET & CO., 21 BERNERS STREET, W
 
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