Hence the parent's
example should be a correct model of sound morality. The child will be the
moral counterpart of the parent. You can see the parent's home in the
child. He is the moral daguerreotype of his parent. This but shows the
importance of good example in his moral training.
4. But one of the most effectual means is, by moral training, by which we
mean, to draw out and properly direct the moral faculties, and to habituate
them to the exercise of moral principle. Without this, all mechanical
education will be fruitless. To call forth muscular power you must
exercise the muscles. So you give the child moral stamina by developing its
moral faculties, and establishing in them the habit of moral action. This
training has its foundation in the law of habit. It is given, with its
results, in the Word of God. "Train up a child," &c. Also in the old maxim,
"Just as the twig is bent, the tree is inclined."
"Scratch the green rind of a sapling, or wantonly twist it in the soil,
The scarred and crooked oak will tell of thee for centuries to come!"
The power and pleasure of doing a thing depends much upon habit. Our nature
may become habituated to good or evil; we become passive in proportion to
the habit. How important, then, that the moral powers of our children be
trained up to principles and action until habits of good thought, feeling,
and conduct, are established.
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