Article May 19, 1923 Issue

Offend Not the Little Ones

ALICE EDITH RAMSAY

In infancy a child's state of consciousness is made up largely of impressions received in the home life. These earliest gleanings continue to influence him until his horizon widens upon entering school life and the playground. It is the home, then, and not the school, which is responsible for the child's first lessons in morality; and these are imbibed unconsciously through the thoughts and activities of those around him, be they in accord with the teachings of divine Principle, Truth and Love, or wholly apart from such, and savoring of the world, the flesh, and all error. What a responsibility, then, rests on each parent to keep his or her thought constantly dwelling "in the secret place of the most High," for the sake of the child!

We are living in an enlightened age, and our little ones are often wide awake to the moral questions of the day. Sometimes these children are not so much listening to their parents' instructions as watching how they (the parents) live. How true, indeed, is the following from the pen of a modern educator, Professor James: "It is not so much what you say to the children that influences them, as the spirit of your life ... the ideals for which you live"!

In America to-day there is a strong tendency and desire among a certain class of people to turn over the complete responsibility of the education of their offspring to the schools and colleges. Quite recently a public speaker in Canada made the observation: "The modern home seems to be a place where children eat, sleep, and change their soiled linen." To the mortal vision, this may in some instances seem sadly true; but looking deeper, it is apparent that from the moment a child draws his first breath he is breathing the moral atmosphere of home, which is, according to its quality, a strong influence for good or ill. It is here that the child may receive his earliest inspiration towards God, divine Principle. In other words, it is here that he may receive his first standards of honesty, purity, chastity, love,—his earliest tendencies to right thinking. And here, indeed, is the opportunity for cultivating the unfoldment of that greatest of all gifts,—the understanding of the one eternal Ego, divine Mind, our Father-Mother God.

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