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Our Duty to the Children: 58 total pages.

of love. Who shall say that her own cheerful, useful, holy thoughts, as she sits by her sleeping child or passes in and out where it is lying, have not an effect upon the opening life? As the child grows, the variety of the mother's opportunities increases. She does not yield to every wish, in the thought that if the child is gratified angels have the best oppor­tunity to do their blessed work. In some of the child's wishes the mother sees a sign of selfish­ness, of greediness, of willfulness. To encourage that would be to hinder the angels in their work. So from the very first she checks these unholy things in wise, loving ways, and encourages instead states that are free from selfishness. The effort to bend the child to these most innocent states and most open to the influences of heaven cannot begin too soon. And who can see the opportunities so quickly as the wise mother? Where can the same tenderness and patience be found as in the mother's love? How carefully for the child's sake must parents and teachers avoid all anger or other unheavenly feelings in their relations with the children,

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