These have been called the moral sentiments; and upon
their proper training depends the formation of a positive moral character.
The conscience comes under this head. The parent should train that
important faculty of the child. It should be taught to act from the
standpoint of conscience, and to form the habit of conscientiousness in
word and deed. This includes the training of the motives also, and of all
the cardinal moral virtues, such as justice, honor, chastity, veneration,
kindness, &c. "Teach your children," says Goodrich in his Fireside
Education, "never to wound a person's feelings because he is poor, because
he is deformed, because he is unfortunate, because he holds an humble
station in life, because he is poorly clad, because he is weak in body and
mind, because he is awkward, or because the God of nature has bestowed upon
him a darker skin than theirs."
This early education should commence as soon as the necessities of the
child demand it. A child should be taught what is necessary for it to know
and practice as soon as that necessity exists and the child is capable of
learning. Scripture sanctions this. Our fathers did so. It was the
injunction of Moses to the children of Israel: Deut. vi., 6-9. God commands
you to break up the fallow ground and sow the good seed at the first dawn
of the spring-life of your children, and then to pray for the "early and
the latter rain,"
"Teaching, with pious care, the dawning light
Of infant intellect to know the Lord.
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