More than this you can do.  Train your own precious children to value their abundant privileges, and embue them with the earnest desire to impart freely what is so freely given.  Look upon your son, your pride and joy.  A few years hence may find him living side by side with one of those unfortunate boys who knew no better than to desecrate the holy day with gambling.  Will he be able to withstand the influences which will surround him in such society?  That, under God, depends on your prayers and efforts.  Ask earnestly for grace to prepare him to do the blessed work, wherever he goes, of winning souls to Christ, and not be himself enticed to evil.  Your daughter—­your gentle, bright-eyed one—­over whom your heart yearns with unspeakable tenderness—­her home may be yet appointed far toward the setting sun.  For her sake, lend all your influence to the good work of saving those rapidly populating towns from the dominion of evil.  Labor and pray, and day by day, instil into her young mind the principles which governed her Savior’s earthly life—­who went about doing good, and who valued not the riches of heaven’s glory that he might redeem souls.

SIGMA.

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Original.

THE STUPID, DULL CHILD.

There is always great danger of wounding the sensibilities of a timid, retiring child.  It requires great forbearance and discrimination on the part of parents and teachers, in their endeavors to develop the latent faculties of the minds of such children, (whether this dullness is natural, or the effect of untoward circumstances,) without injuring the sensibilities of the heart.

This is especially true at the present day, when the world is laying such heavy demands upon the time and attention of parents.

We not unfrequently hear a father confessing, with regret, to be sure, but without any apparent endeavors to obviate the evil, that his time and thoughts are so absorbed in the cares of his business, that his little children scarcely recognize him, as he seldom returns to his family, till they are in bed, and goes forth to his business before they are up in the morning.

This is, indeed, a sad evil, and if possible ought to be remedied.  How can we expect that such a father will understand the peculiar temper and dispositions of his children so as to aid a mother in their proper training?  Perhaps in some cases such evils cannot be remedied.

But, alas! what heavy responsibilities does such neglect, on the part of the father, devolve upon the mother!  Methinks the circumstances of such a mother may be even more difficult to meet than if she were a widow!

We invite the attention of parents to a consideration of this topic and some of the evils growing out of the wrong treatment of timid, dull children.  We can do no more at present than attempt to show, in a given case, how such an existing evil was cured by forbearance and kindness.  The illustration is taken from “Pictures of Early Life,” in the case of a little girl by the name of Lilias Tracy.