the wise. If we give our protection and counsel grudgingly, or in a
churlish, unkind manner, even to the stranger that is in our gates, we are
no Christians, and deserve to be stripped of what little wisdom and
strength we have hoarded. But there are no words to say what we are or
what we deserve if we do thus to the little children whom we have dared,
for our own pleasure, to bring into the perils of this life, and whose
whole future may be blighted by the mistakes of our careless hands.




Breaking the Will.



This phrase is going out of use. It is high time it did. If the thing it
represents would also cease, there would be stronger and freer men and
women. But the phrase is still sometimes heard; and there are still
conscientious fathers and mothers who believe they do God service in
setting about the thing.

I have more than once said to a parent who used these words, "Will you
tell me just what you mean by that? Of course you do not mean exactly what
you say."

"Yes, I do. I mean that the child's will is to be once for all
broken!--that he is to learn that my will is to be his law. The sooner he
learns this the better."

"But is it to your will simply _as_ will that he is to yield? Simply as