Training of Children

TRAINING OF CHILDREN.

BY CxEO. D. KIRBY. Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not de- part from it. — Proverbs 22: 6.

My duty is to explain some of the things parents should teach their children, and how it should be done. I must confess to a certain degree of weakness in treating this subject; for, while I take a father's interest in my children, my time is so fully occupied in the daytime earning a livelihood, and my evenings either in studying lessons for some of the organizations of the Church, or in attending meetings of the same, that the training of our dear ones has devolved upon their mother, to a very great extent. I

will say, however, that I believe children should be taught to ask a blessing on the food. This instils into their little hearts a knowl- edge that a supreme Power is responsible for our possession of and that it is always polite to return thanks for a gift. When it,

my children were infants, my work was such that at noon I could remain at home* considerably more than the customary hour, and I always ate with my baby on my knee; and as I blessed the food, it was perfecly natural to clasp the little hands in mine, and by the time the child could lisp words at all, it could ask a blessing. In the matter of prayer, my children have all been taught never to go to bed until they have said their prayers, which consists of the Lord's prayer. When I'm at home at bed time, however, we en- gage in family prayer, in which we all take turns at leading, and I am trying to teach them to pray extemporaneously, but the fact that they pray is the important step in their education. Children should be taught reverence for God and humanity,