Article August 21, 1926 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Rufus Matthew Jones, George H. Morrison

[From the West Australian, Perth, West Australia]

The Rev. Nye conducted the evening service of the North Perth Methodist Sunday School Anniversary. In the course of his address Mr. Nye referred to the reports which had recently come from America with reference to the breakdown of home life, and its disastrous effects upon society. He said that a great deal of attention had been given to the subject of child welfare during the last few years. The most important problem was that of character—the development within the child of a sense of honor, love of virtue, self-control. This problem was still unsolved. It was essentialy a problem of the home; and no matter what soloutions or methods were advocated, they would be ineffectual unless and until the home influences were made right. The only way to insure good, upright, and kindly citizenship in the future days was to secure good home influences in the present time. For example, many people blamed picture shows for much of the juvenile depravity so sadly apparent in modern communities. The remedy lay not so much in a stricter state censorship of films as in a truer affirmation of real goodness within every home circle. This affirmation must be made by the lives rather than by the advice of parents and elder members of families. What parents were would determine what the child would believe, and become. Religion must have its place. The truest foundation of ethics was belief in the ultimate goodness of God. The best portions of the Bible should be read with the children, and they should be accustomed to hear their parents (not their mothers only) pray. Just as the welfare of the next generation depended upon the cultivation of home life and influences, so the sanctity of the home depended upon the enthronement of God in the lives of the men and women of this generation.

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