It must come under the fostering influence of a
mother's heart, and be reared up by the tender touches of a mother's hand.
This idea is embodied in home as a nursery. This is fourfold in its
conception and relation to the child.
The nursery is physical. This involves the means of keeping the child in
health, and the appliances of a vigorous physical development. The
Christian mother, to this end, should make herself acquainted with the
physiology of the infant body. Many well-meaning mothers, from sheer
ignorance, destroy the health of their children; and it is on this account
perhaps that four-tenths of them die under five years of age. They should
also consider the bearing of the body upon the mind and morals of their
children. How often do ignorant and indolent parents, by giving their
children over to the care of sickly and immoral nurses, ruin forever the
health and souls of their offspring. Much, then, depends upon the physical
nurture of your child. If you would not injure its mind and soul, you must
nurse its body with tender care and wisdom. A vital bond unites them; they
reciprocally influence each other, and hence what affects the one must have
a corresponding influence upon the other. Neglect the body of your child;
destroy its health either by extreme and fastidious care, or by a brutal
neglect, and you at the same time do lasting injury to its mind and morals;
for the body as the vehicle of mind and spirit, is used for spiritual ends,
and should, therefore, be nurtured with direct reference to these.
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