ntended that you should have a competence, an abundance. It is your
birthright. You are success organized, and constructed for happiness,
and you should resolve to reach your divine destiny.
CHAPTER LVII
A NEW WAY OF BRINGING UP CHILDREN
"Only a thought, but the work it wrought
Could never by tongue or pen be taught,
But it ran through a life like a thread of gold,
And the life bore fruit a hundredfold."
Not long ago there was on exhibition in New York a young horse which
can do most marvelous things; and yet his trainer says that only five
years ago he had a very bad disposition. He was fractious, and would
kick and bite, but now instead of displaying his former viciousness, he
is obedient, tractable, and affectionate. He can readily count and
reckon up figures, can spell many words, and knows what they mean.
In fact this horse seems to be capable of learning almost anything.
Five years of kindness have completely transformed the vicious yearling
colt. He is very responsive to kindness, but one can do nothing with
him by whipping or scolding him. His trainer says that in all the five
years he has never touched him with a whip but once.
I know a mother of a large family of children who has never whipped but
one of them, and that one only once.
When her first child was born people said she was too good-natured to
bring up children, that she would spoil them, as she would not correct
or discipline them, and would do nothing but love them. But this love
has proved the great magnet which has held the family together in a
marvelous way. Not one of those children has gone astray. They have
all grown up manly and womanly, and love has been wonderfully developed
in their natures. Their own affection responded to the mother's love
and has become their strongest motive. To-day all her children look
upon "Mother" as the grandest figure in the world. She has brought out
the best in them because she saw the best in them. The worst did not
need correcting or repressing, because the expulsive power of a
stronger affection drove out of the nature or discouraged the
development of vicious tendencies which, in the absence of a great
love, might have become dominant and ruined the life.
Love is a healer, a life-giver, a balm for our hurts. All through the
Bible are passages which show the power of love as a healer and
life-lengthener. "With long life will I satisfy him," said the
Psalmist,
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