As already stated, the primary instincts of the child favor the development
of selfishness and the gratification of the appetites and passions. The
utmost care, therefore, must be exercised by the parents, from the very
beginning, if the affections and desires of the child are to be trained
away from itself and not permitted to become self-centered. Happy is the
child whose mother knows how to direct those earliest manifestations of
love. The undisciplined senses and appetites easily degenerate into
indulgence of passion, or grow into that moral control which delights in
temperance.

The inborn desire for praise and recognition may express itself in bragging
vanity, or expand into heroic endeavor. So, too, there is a physical love
which expresses itself in a mere caress and a higher, purer, more glorious
love which manifests itself in service and self-sacrifice. The tremendous
hug of the little arms and the kiss of the rosy lips are manifestations of
physical love; while the child is in this loving mood the wise mother
should ask of him some little service, slight at first, but sufficient to
make him put forth some effort to serve her. In this way she can transform
this mere selfish love into the beginning of that spiritual love which
Christ commended when He said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

The parent stands to his child for the time being, as the one supreme
source of every power and blessing; the wise parent may establish
between himself and the little one almost the same beautiful and solemn
relationship as that which exists between the Supreme Giver of all good and
His children. "Not every one that sayeth unto me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in Heaven."

"Love is to be tested always by its effect upon the will. From the