o beg God
again of His mercy to make a rainbow shine around us, there shall still
be a rainbow round the throne in our hearts.

And, while we look into our own hearts, and remember the rigorous
demand of God for the pure heart, lastly, let us safeguard our
children. "Whoso shall cast a stumbling block in the way of one of
these little ones, it were better that a millstone were hanged about
his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea." Why?
Because it robs them of the joy of the rainbow, because that subtle
suggestion, that careless talk, that stumbling block placed in the way,
dims the children's view of Heaven, "where their angels do always
behold the face of our Father Which is in Heaven." I pray you, then,
my friends, safeguard the rainbow for your children, as well as for
yourselves. Many careful writers, among others the Head Master of
Haileybury, recommend, as a great safeguard, the teaching to children,
before knowledge is conveyed to them from impure sources, the simple
facts of life. "They are innocent," says the latter writer, "of
impurity, indescribably eager for wholesome knowledge, perfectly
trustful of their parents, and, though self-absorbed, are capable of
being easily trained to a tone of mind to which sympathy is congenial
and cruelty abhorrent. Such a description is literally true of the
great majority of quite young children, and we believe that qualities
such as these elicited the great saying, 'Of such is the kingdom of
Heaven.'" He goes on to say that "such a trustful, innocent frame of
mind is the very frame of mind to receive from the father and mother
this simple instruction in the facts of life which would save many a
fall and many a misery in the days to come; and is far," he says, "from
sullying the purity of the child's mind." "People sometimes speak of
the indescribable beauty of the children's innocence, and insist that
there is nothing which calls for more constant thanksgiving than their
influence on mankind, but I will venture to say that no one quite knows
what it is who has foregone the privilege of being the first to set
before them the true meaning of life and birth, and the mystery of
their own being. Not only do we fail to build up sound knowledge in
them, but we put away from ourselves the chance of learning something
that must be divine." [1] God help us, then, for ourselves, in our
home, in the nation, and, above all, among the children, to secure tha