powers, these possibilities are converted into activities
by the presentation of divine truth, those spiritual ideas
which are alone addressed to the reason ā ideas of a
spirit world, of God, and law, and duty. When once
the reason has taken hold of these ideas by faith, the
spiritual life is born, its activities are developed, and
we are conscious of a higher nature, of higher powers,
of a higher destiny than that which depends upon our
animal life.
The first thing, then, to be done by the pareilt, after
providing for the material wants of the child, is, by the
presentation of the appropriate truths and ideas, to
bring about this spiritual birth, to develop these spir-
itual powers yet lying dormant in the child. This can
only be done by revealing to the reason of the child
those spiritual facts and ideas and truths which can
alone bring into activity the spiritual in man. But the
child is ignorant of these truths ā indeed, can not ob-
tain them until they are revealed to him by another
mind. Hence it is the duty of the parent to reveal
those facts, to teach those truths, which constitute the
means of moral culture. As the reason of the child
is undeveloped, it can not know, can not decide upon
these truths, upon these revelations and this teaching.
It must rely upon the parent's reason, not its own.
The parent, then, as the revealer and teacher, must
reveal and teach what he believes to be the truth upon
this great question of the spiritual life. Error may be
taught ; the parent may be mistaken ; but still he can
only teach what he believes to be the truth.
In the next place, the child is to subdue its animal
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PARENTS ā THEIR POSITION. 57
nature, and bring it into subjection to the law received
into the spirit. But the animal is born first, and hence
is stronger than the spiritual power in the child. It
is then to be aided in governing itself in this work of
subduing nature to spirit, disobedience to obedience,
gratification to self-denial." It is then also the duty of
the parent to govern as well as to reveal and teach.
It will thus be seen that the parent stands in God's
stead in relation to his child. He is its lawgiver and
its governor. The child, until its intellect and reason
are sufficiently developed, must depend upon its parent
for the law of its life ā for that truth through which
alone it is or can be born of the spirit. The parent is
bound to learn the truth, the right, and reveal it to his
child. He receives God's revelation of Himself, and
he must reveal it to the mind and reason of the child,
who receives it from him as from its God. The parent,
then, is to teach the child what it ought to do, and to
constrain it to do it. He knows what the child ought
to do, and what it ought not to do ā how and when it
should deny its animal cravings in obedience to the
law of God. He knows the way in which the child
ought to go, and it is his duty to train it up in the way
it should go. Teaching and governing are, then, the
two great parental duties, upon a faithful execution of
which depends the future of the child, whether it shall
be a disgrace or an honor to them, a curse or a bless-
ing to society.
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58 CRIME AND THE FAMILY,
CHAPTER VIII.
GOVERNMENT.
Government must begin before teaching. The ani-
mal life commences with the natural birth, and its
tendency is to excess, to the acquisition of an absolute
rule over the yet unborn spirit. This tendency has to
be checked, to be subdued. To do this, the child
must learn the habit of self-denial ā that habit of refus-
ing to act in conformity to the teachings of nature, to
the cravings of the body. This self-denial must result
from an act of volition. It can not be forced against
the will ; hence the will must be constrained to action
by some other motives than those which a mature rea-
son may offer. The child must learn to obey before
It knows the reasons for obedience ; it must obey sim-
ply because the parent requires obedience. In every
act of obedience there is an act of self-denial, an act
of moral discipline. From obeying the law laid down
by parental authority and enforced by parental power,
it learns the habit of obedience, and thus the more
easily will it afterward yield to the law laid down by
its own reason. The teachings of nature are to follow
the cravings -of the body. The training of the parent
should be to learn and habituate the child to yield
obedience to a law coming from without, enacted by
one above and independent of him. As an animal,
the child yields to the cravings of the body, to appe-
tites and passions. But this animal law is to be eub-
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GOVERNMENT. 59
dued ; the child is to be brought under the law of the
spirit, by which the will and conduct are to be influ-
enced and directed ; the animal is to be brought under
subjection, to the spirit and the law of the reason, in-
stead of being influenced by mere animal appetites
and passions. The bodily appetites crave for gratifi-
cation, and the child must form the habit of denying
to the body this gratification. Herein is seen the con-
flict of life, the war between the law in the members
and the law in the mind. I have placed this point in
various aspects in order that all may understand it ;
for on a clear perception of this conflict between the
animal and spiritual in man depends our attaining any
satisfactory knowledge of the necessity and nature of
all government.
The duty of parents is plain and simple. They
know what the child ought to do, or ought not to do ;
and it is their duty to see that the child does do what
it ought, and does not do what it ought not to do.
They are to train it up in the way it should go. The
child is ignorant of all this, knows not w^hat is or is
not for its own advantage ; all knowledge it has leads
it to follow instinct, the cravings of the body. Shall
the parent yield up his child to the guidance of its
animal nature? Shall he allow it to do what he knows
it ought not to do, because it will cry if he constrains
it to act as he knows it ought to act? But one answer
can be given to these questions ā the parent must con-
strain his child to do right, however painful it may be.
On this point there must be no hesitation, no omission,
no failure.
Providence has, however, ordered that these painful
conflicts shall not often be repeated. The child that
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6o CRIME AND THE FAMILY..
has once been made to deny itself a bodily gratifica-
tion yields much more readily the second time, and,
after a number of trials, the habit of yielding, of self-
denial, becomes formed, and the child obeys as of
course. To put certain examples : A child refuses to
sleep, unless nursed to sleep in its mother's arms.
Now, let the child be made to lie down and go to
sleep without this nursing. It will probably rebel,
and cry the first and. second times; but, after a few
trials, it will lie down and go to sleep as quiietly as a
grown-up person. The reason is, that the child has
now acquired the power to subdue its feelings and act
in obedience to a law from without. A child, again,
will get angry and cry, because it can not have some-
thing it wants. Gratify it, and it will insist upon a
like gratification the second and every future time ;
but let it be constrained to deny itself this gratifica-
tion, though it may be accompanied with much grief
and resistance, and it will, after a few repetitions, ac-
quire the power of self-denial, and yield obedience to
authority as gently and as readily as any other well-
trained animal. A child will, when taken to a table,
lay its hands upon everything within its reach. Let
it continue to do so, and by and by it will be impossi-
ble to take it to the table, as it will lay its hands upon
any and everything, and, if then forced to desist, a
storm of anger and passion and hate will be exhibited
which it is frightful to witness ; but let the mother, the
first time the child reaches for anything, snap its
finger, and repeat this just as often as the wrong act
is repeated, and, after a few trials, the child will de-
sist, and may thereafter be taken to the table, where it
will conduct itself as well as a grown-up person, never
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GOVERNMENT, 6l
touching or distur.bing an article any more than the
best bred gentleman in the land. The moment the
child finds that it can not gratify the cravings of
the body or the curiosity of the eye without suffering
pain, it will think no more of it ; habits of obedience
to outward law will be formed, and this obedience will
be yielded of course, and without anger or regret.
These cases are only put by way of illustration, to
show how the child may be learned that habit of self-
denial which lies at the foundation of all moral and
religious culture. The same practice may be applied
to every and all acts of infancy which the parent
knows the child ought not to do.
To carry out such a system of government requires
gentleness and firmness on the part of the parent.
When an effort is once commenced to enforce obe-
dience, it should never be given up, cost what time
and pain it may to parent or child. If the child,
after a struggle, prevails, and succeeds in gratifying
itself, it will be more difficult next time to subdue it.
Than to fail, it is much better not to begin. Failure
injures the moral training of the child ā develops in it
self-will, resistance, anger, and, in the end, hate. Un-
subdued, the child remembers only the pains of the
conflict, and hate toward the cause of it is the emotion
which is developed in its little bosom. Children who
are half-governed ā governed just enough to develop
bad feelings, instead of being subdued to the gen-
tleness consequent on obedience ā will become bad-
tempered, vindictive, full of hate toward parents and
all exercising authority over them ; but if they are left
to follow the cravings and teachings of nature, their
bad passions and feelings will remain dormant, while
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62 CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
by the other process they are developed, and will
gather strength and energy, until the child becomes
alnyost a fiend, and reason then will, when matured,
never be able to obtain the mastery over it. But,
while firmness characterizes every act of govern-
ment over the child, gentleness, not harshness or
anger, should shine out in the countenance of the
parent. The child should feel that anger has no in-
fluence in the effort to constrain its conduct and ac-
tions; that kindness and love are burning in the
heart, while decision sits upon the brow and beams
forth from the eye. Harshness should be avoided as
well as cruelty. Punishment, as it is usually under-
stood, v^^ill seldom be necessary, if the system of gov-
erning is begun early enough. Let the more time be
devoted in enforcing obedience. Decision will bring
this about. The child will yield if it sees determina-
tion in the parental look. The child will discover
this in the tones of the voice, in the look of the eye,
in the cast of the countenance, and will yield, when
under other circumstances it would not.
Some undertake to govern by playfulness, by smiles,
by sugar-plums ; but this is no government at all. Gov-
ernment is authority' , force, something awful, not mere
sport and pastime. Reverence should be the emotion
developed in the bosom of the child in view of one who
governs ; authority should appear in his eyes clothed
with something grand and awful and mysterious and
sacred. A child wJio has been guided by mere gen-
tleness and playfulness and rewards, may be gentle
and loving, but it will not feel reverence for any one ;
and the child who does not fear and . reverence his
father on earth, will hardly ever fear and reverence his
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GOVERNMENT. 63
Father in heaven. While the father is the represent-
ative of authority- and becomes an object of reverence,
the mother is the embodiment of kindness and gentle-
ness, and becomes the object of love. Thus the char-
acter of both will become impressed upon the child ;
the emotions of both reverence and love will be de-
veloped in it, and its character will be marked by firm-
ness and gentleness.
There is a great, a criminal neglect on the part of
parents in this respect. Children are allowed ā nay, are
stimulated ā to obey nature rather than an outward law.
Their whims are indulged, their appetites gratified,
and their passions allowed to break forth in ft^arful
ebullitions. No restraint is brought to bear upon their
development; and hence, their spiritual powers unde-
veloped, and their animal propensities strengthened,
they enter upon life without habits of self-control
having been formed. They give way to animal indul-
gences, live .a mere animal life, and practice the vices
incident to such a life, as our natural appetites and pas-
sions tend to run to excess, and thus become self-
destructive in their action.
This exercise of authority should be constantly car-
ried on until the age of emancipation arrives. The
parent should see that the child does what it ought to
do, and does not do that which it ought not to do.
This is the rule to be inflexibly followed, and with un-
yielding firmness. If the child wishes to go where it
should not, or do what it should not, the parent must
not only prohibit, he must command and enforce his
command, otherwise he is guilty of being an accom-
plice in the misdeeds of his child. And yet how many
parents allow their children to go where they know they
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64 CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
ought not to go, and do what they know they ought
not to do? How often are children allowed to be away
from the parental home, away from family restraints
and influences, their parents know not where? Is this
as it should be ? Are such parents living up to the
calls* of duty? The truth in such cases generally is
that the children govern, instead of being governed;
they go where they choose, do what they choose, while
their weak miserable parents are at home dreading the
fearful consequen.ces that must necessarily ensue from
such a course of life, originating in their neglect.
There is no time that the child should not obey until
it is emancipated from the family. The parents should
watch over its conduct, and exercise their authority
whenever the child goes astray ; there is no other
method of saving it from the fatal consequences attend-
ant upon wrong doing and wrong living. This ani-
mal nature must be subdued ; habits of self-denial and
of ready obedience to outward law and authority must
be formed ; and then, vyhen reason is matured, the child
will be guided by it into the full development of its
spiritual life, which is the end and aim and crowning
glory of humanity.
The question may be asked whether corporal pun-
ishment should in any case be resorted to? I say un-
hesitatingly yes. God punishes for wrong doing, for
disobedience to His commands, and shall man assume
to be wiser in his government than God is in His ? The
duty is to make the child do right, avoid wrong, and
this duty must be performed, however painful it may
be ; and if words will not bring the child to obedience,
then some other method must be resorted to. And what
other than coercion is there when moral suasion has
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GOVERNMENT. 65
failed? Besides, the body is the seat of those appe-
tites and cravings which lead the young astray ; pleas-
ure is the thing* sought after by the animal man : hence
pain inflicted upon the body is calculated to dissuade
the animal man from gratifying his natural, his ani-
mal wants. Animals are broken and subdued by
such a system of discipline ; the elephant and dog
and horse are, by the infliction of bodily pain and the
exercise of authority, made to deny self and act in
obedience to a law laid down by another. The child,
ere reason is developed, is an animal, and can only
be governed as such ā can only be made to obey and
follow like an animal that law, which its reason will
by and by discover to be right and best adapted to de-
velop its whole being and secure its highest happiness.
If, however, the child is early governed, its appetites
and its will early subdued, little or no corporal punish-
ment will be required. Real punishment is required
only in those cases where government has for a time
been neglected ; then, punishment may be necessary to
hold in check appetites and passions which have been
allowed to acquire strength and power over the will by
indulgence. It is painful to punish those we love ; yet
how much more painful, Tiow agonizing to stand beside
the dying pillow and to bury the bloated body of a
child who has run a career of vice and crime 1 Let
parents ponder and weigh well the two alternatives and
deliberately choose between them. In the performance
of duty there is always hope ; in its neglect there is
always danger.
It is said by some that children should not be gov-
erned, that they should be left free to form their own
5
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66 CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
habits and opinions. But it must be seen that such a
theory of human culture is all wrong ; that, left to
themselves, they grow up animals, and not spiritual
beings ; live the animal life, seeking the gratification of
their bodily or animal wants, instead of living a spir-
itual life and seeking only the satisfaction of their
spiritual wants. A theory of education, therefore,
which leaves the child to itself, to follow the leadings
of nature, must be all wrong and productive of the
most disastrous consequences. It is the spiritual in
man which, demands culture and development, requires
to be nurtured and strengthened, so that the law which
the reason may ultimately approve, shall become the
law of life, and, holding in check the animal powers,
shall subject them and the whole being to the law of
reason, to the law of the spirit, which is none other
than the law of God.
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TEACHING SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 67
CHAPTER IX.
TEACHING ā SPIRITUAL CULTURE.
Thus far I have only considered government as a
mere outward. force, brought to bear on the child and
constrain it to act as it ought' to act; but the child is
endowed with reason and intellect, which, when de-
veloped and matured, must become the guide and law
of its life. The child must be taught those facts and
principles and truths by which its life is to be shaped
and molded. When intellect and reason have become
sufficiently developed, the child becomes a free, re-
sponsible actor ā one who is to be its own teacher and
governor, and to form its own moral judgments, its own
laws of right and wrong. This hour comes to every
matured human being sooner or later. Each learns to
know the right and the wrong, the thing which ought
to be done and the thing which ought not to be done.
But before the child is capable of thus perceiving the
correctness of its moral judgments, it must be taught
these laws, so that when it comes to maturity there
will remain to it only the labor of perceiving the triith
of the opinions and moral judgments which it has al-
ready been. taught, and by which its inward life has
been stimulated into action, and is already being
shaped into that image which it ought to carry home
to its God in heaven, if it is there to find fit compan-
ionship and a happiness which surpasses all the pow-
ers of the understanding.
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68 CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
To secure the child's happiness, to protect it against
the cravings and despotism of its animal life, the spir-
itual powers must be developed, strengthened, and
niatured. The spiritual must control the animal, if
the child is to become a perfected being, shaped in the
image of its Maker, finding within itself the power
and the law to subdue its animal life and bring it into
sweet subjection to that life within, lived by faith in
God. This moral nature, these spiritual powers, this
inward and higher life, can only be developed by the
application of appropriate means, and these means are
the truths which the human mind has received from
revelation, and which it is required to reveal to other
minds destitute of the. rich possession. The animal
life is developed by contact with the outward, material
world through the instrumentality of the senses. ^ By
sensation is the animal life begun and carried on, while
the understanding, in studying these sensations, -per-
ceives the nature and causes of them ; and out of these
perceptions it constructs systems of science, which in-
clude all the phenomena of sensation and perception.
But the spirit in humanity can not be roused into life
by any such agency. It is only by the reception of
moral truth ā of the idea of God, and of the true rela-
tion which humanity sustains to Him and to itself.
These truths and facts are su-persensual ā they are
spiritual, and can be received only by revelation.
The parent becomes the revealer and teacher of these
facts and truths to the mind of his child. These facts
and truths were originally revealed by God to man,
and by man have been revealed to man through the
generations which have lived and died.
But it will be seen that this teaching regards the
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TEACHING ā SPIRITUAL CULTURE. 69
reason by which it is comprehended ; but, in order to
study these facts and truths, to comprehend them, the
intellect, or knowing faculty, must be developed and
cultivated. These various powers of the intellect are
developed and strengthened by exercise and practice.
Hence education becomes a matter of duty, a subject
of the deepest moment to the spiritual as well as the ani-
mal life of the individual. We can not fully apprehend
spiritual facts and truths, unless the intellect, which is
to study and know them, is properly cultivated. The
cultivation of the intellect is as important to our spir-
itual knowledge and life as the cultivation of the un-
derstanding is to our knowledge of material facts and
truths, and the perfection of our animal life. Both are
to be cultivated as essential means to the perfection of
our spiritual life ā ^that life which is developed inde-
pendent of the material body, and which will continue
to live when this body shall have again mingled with
the common earth. Education is therefore a moral
duty resting upon every parent to whom God has
given the custody of immortal souls. It is not my de-
sign to dwell upon mere intellectual culture. I as-
sume that every parent understands and faithfully
discharges that important duty toward his children.
The main object of our present study is to ascertain
how a human spirit is to be developed, enabled to ap-
prehend God and His laws, and man's relation to Him.
The object, the work in hand is to call into activity, to
wake up the spiritual life in a -human soul, and give to it
that culture and vigor which will enable it to bring the
animal nature under subjection to the spiritual liCe.
In this study two things are to be regarded, to be kept
constantly in view, in the discussion which follows.
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70 CRIME AND THE FAMILY.
The first matter to be done is to reveal or teach the facts
and truths by a faith in which the spiritual powers are
excited into action, and the spiritual life may be
initiated ; the second matter relates to the mode,
manner, or method in which these facts and truths
ought to be revealed and taught to the infant and
youthful mind. The object of all teaching should be
the development of the moral, religious, spiritual
powers in humanity, and the education of them up to
that spiritual life which is the end of all life. Method
looks to the end to be obtained ; teaching, the means
by which that end can alone be secured ; the one
looks to spiritual culture, the other to the truths and
facts by which that culture alone can be effected ; the
one is the Christian life, the other the means of work-
ing out that life. I shall first proceed to discuss the
facts and truths which must be revealed and taught to
the infant mind in order to effect its spiritual develop-
ment and culture, and the order in which these facts and
truths must be revealed, if they are to have their legiti-
mate effect in forcing into activity those powers and ca-
pacities which are the foundation of the spiritual life, in
the activity of which that higher life consists. The
other branch of the inquiry ā the method or mode-r-will