And they should be told that it is
always a bad sign, when children talk on matters which parents call
vulgar and indecent, and that the company of such children should be
avoided. Disclosing details of wrong-doing to young and curious
children, often leads to the very evils feared. But parents and
teachers, in this age of danger, should be well informed and watchful;
for it is not unfrequently the case, that servants and school-mates
will teach young children practices, which exhaust the nervous system
and bring on paralysis, mania, and death.
And finally, in regard to the early religious training of children,
the examples of the Creator in the early training of our race may
safely be imitated. That "He is, and is a rewarder"--that he is
everywhere present--that he is a tender Father in heaven, who is grieved
when any of his children do wrong, yet ever ready to forgive those who
are striving to please him by well-doing, these are the most effective
motives to save the young from the paths of danger and sin. The rewards
and penalties of the life to come are better adapted to maturer age,
than to the imperfect and often false and fearful conceptions of the
childish mind.
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