Our Gift | Page 3

George Field, and yet it is not proper for you to do so, without the knowledge and consent of your parents. William and George are not bad boys, and perhaps would be called by people generally, good ones; still, I have remarked a certain levity in their manner, which if only occasional, might be called good humor, but which, recurring as it does at all times and on all occasions, the Sabbath not excepted, makes me fear that their training at home is not what I should desire to have it. For this reason, Mary, I am not willing that Clara should be often in their company, nor do I think your mother would differ from me, should you ask her."
"I wonder," said Mary, "how Clara came to think of this slight circumstance of a walk, in connection with the commandment, 'Honor thy father and thy mother.'"
"I thought she had sufficiently explained that, herself," replied Mrs. Spaulding. "I wish both of you, and not only you, but all young persons, would think a good deal more on this subject. I remember when I was of your age, that many things occurred which I omitted to mention to my mother, but which it would have been much better for me, if I had told her. Sometimes these concerned my bodily health, and I am sure that if I had informed her of them at the time, I should now have a much better constitution than I possess. At other times, I neglected to ask her advice about what I thought were small matters; but the result proved that I should have been saved much trouble had I consulted her."
"In fact," continued Mrs. S., "the command to honor thy father and thy mother, is far more comprehensive, and exacts many more duties, than the young, and, I am sorry to say, the old too, are willing to recognize. The young are too apt to think, when they get into their teens, that there are a great many things about which there is no need of asking their parents' advice and counsel; that they know, then, about as well as their parents what they ought to do; and, by the time they get to be eighteen or nineteen years of age, a good deal better. But, my dear children, it is not so. And the young who reason and act thus, will soon cease to honor their father and mother. No! The Almighty Father, in giving this as one of the ten commandments to the children of Israel, knew the vanity of our nature. He knew how unwilling the young are to learn from the experience of the old, and he therefore proclaimed this command, that they might have it constantly before their eyes.
"I have said, this is a comprehensive command. To honor thy father and thy mother is not merely to show them outward respect. It embraces numberless duties, and among them this; the duty, while you are young, of doing nothing without their knowledge and consent, when you are in a situation to ask it.
"Be assured of one thing. If you are about to go anywhere, or do anything, and a doubt arises in your mind whether it is necessary to ask your mother's permission, be certain that you ought to ask it. The very doubt in your own mind is sufficient evidence of the fact.
"Get into the habit of talking with your mother upon every subject; your diversions, your studies, your health. Never conceal anything from her. Is she not your mother? Did she not give you being? Who then shall you look up to, if not to her?"
"O," interrupted Mary, "I have sometimes begun to talk to my mother about many things which I did not exactly understand, but somehow or other she was not willing to answer my questions."
"Perhaps," said Mrs. Spaulding, "you did not take a proper occasion, or she may have been very busy about something else. You ought always to endeavor to take a proper time for everything. At the same time," she continued, "I am sorry to say that there are some mothers who think children cannot be talked to, and reasoned with, till they are of age. This is a mistaken idea. Children have reasoning faculties, and the sooner we begin to converse with them accordingly, the sooner will those faculties be developed. With this view, we ought always to encourage them to give us their confidence on all occasions, gratify their curiosity, and allow them to talk upon every subject to us. If we do not act thus, they will soon abstain from that frank manner with which children ought always to lay open their whole hearts to their parents."
"O yes," cried Mary; "there is Emma Woodbury,--I do not believe she ever