ting.

For this tremendous responsibility mother-love has always been
sufficient. The most ignorant women have trusted to it; and the most
learned have found it potential when all their theories failed. And
neither sage men nor wise women will ever devise anything to take
the place of mother-love in the rearing of children. If there be
other good things present, it glorifies them; if there be no other
good thing--it is sufficient. For mother-love is the spirit of
self-sacrifice even unto death, and self-sacrifice is the meat and
drink of all true and pure affection.

Still, this momentous condition supposes some central influence, some
obligation on the child's part which will reciprocate it; and this
central influence is found to be in _obedience_. There was once a
child in Jewry who was called "wonderful," and yet the most
significant fact recorded of his boyhood is that he "was subject unto
his parents." Indeed nothing else is told of the child, and we are
left to conclude that in the pregnant fact of his boyish obedience lay
the secret of his future perfect manhood. Unselfish love in the
mother! cheerful obedience in the children! in whatever home these
forces are constantly operative, that home cannot be a failure. And
mother-love is not of the right kind, nor of the highest trend, unless
it compels this obedience.

The assertion that affectionate firmness and even wholesome
chastisement is unnecessary with our advanced civilization is a
specious and dangerous one. The children of to-day have as many
rudimentary vices as they had in the days of the patriarchs; as a
general thing they are self-willed and inclined to evil from their
cradles; greedy without a blush, and ready to lie as soon as they
discover the use of language. A good mother does not shut her eyes to
these facts; she accepts her child as imperfect, and trains it with
never-ceasing love and care for its highest duties. She does not call
impudence "smartness," nor insubordination "high spirit," nor
selfishness "knowing how to take care of itself," nor lying and
dishonesty "sharpness." She knows, if the child is to be father to the
man, what kind of a man such a child will make.

How to manage young children; how to strengthen them physically; how
best to awaken their intellects, engage their affections, and win
their confidence; how to make home the sweetest spot on earth, a place
of love, order, and repose, a temple of purity where innocence is
r