the harmony, and so the happiness of the world, and brings discord and trouble and pain. In some wise way, in earliest years, a child should learn that "Sorrow tracketh wrong

As echo follows song,
On, on, on."

Even a baby, when he has done wrong, may be made to feel that disobedience brings pain and sorrow either by a mere touch of physical pain or by an offended look, or a gentle reproving word, or the deprivation of some privilege.

1. John Ruskin tells how he learned obedience in early childhood by physical pain. "One evening," he says, "when I was yet in my nurse's arms, I wanted to touch the tea-urn, which was boiling merrily. It was an early taste for bronzes, I suppose; but I was resolute about it. My mother bade me keep my fingers back; I insisted on putting them forward. My nurse would have taken me away from the urn, but my mother said, 'Let him touch it, nurse. So I touched it, and that was my first lesson in the meaning of the word liberty. It was the first piece of liberty I got, and the last which for some time I asked."

2. A mother had taken her year old baby with her on a visit. While she and her hostess were busy about something, the baby started off on a voyage of discovery. He had managed to crawl under a table of peculiar construction and had become penned in by its legs. His cries called the mother's attention. She saw the child was not hurt, nor in danger, and went on with what she was doing, only remarking, "He got himself into the scrape, he must get himself out again." The child cried awhile, till seeing this brought no one to

his aid, nor did it release him, stopped and set himself in earnest to the problem of getting out. He tried one way that didn't work. He tried another, and that failed too; till finally by lying flat on the floor and pushing himself out feet foremost, he escaped and went on his way to play. "Why didn't you take him out?" his mother was asked. "Because he must learn to look where he goes; and if he must get himself out, he'll be more careful about getting into trouble." He grew to be unusually selfreliant.

3. Another mother, when her child wanted the candle although she had told him it would burn, let him have his own way, so that he would find out what "burn" meant.

LEADER: To some, the conduct of these three mothers would seem hard-hearted, but they all understood the value of a little "wholesome letting alone." This brings up the whole question of home punishments. What do you mothers say to that?

4. There are some who still argue for physical punishment, and Bible warrant for it seems to be provided in Solomon's warning not to "spare the rod and spoil the child." There are big families that have been raised to useful lives on that text.

It is argued that when a child's mentality is but partially developed, physical pain, inflicted in a judicial temper and in such a way as to do no bodily harm, is an effective and proper way to associate pain and disobedience and create in early years the conviction that "the way of transgressors is hard."

This I think may be confidently said, that there are some children so far advanced in wrong doing, so unresponsive to milder corrections, that physical punishment, deliberately inflicted, may do them good. For example, the boy who had again and again disregarded his father's

warning not to read bandit stories lest he should come to think heroic the mean fellows who never earned an honest dollar but took it by force from those who had. His father found him again reading stories of these sneaking assassins. The boy was so absorbed that he did not know his father was near until his hand came down like a hammer on his shoulder. But he was, too full of his subject to be wholly upset. Looking up he exclaimed, “Unhand me, villain, or there will be bloodshed." "Oh, no," said the father; "Nothing worse than woodshed this time."

Best Defense of Corporal Punishment

5. The best defense I have seen of corporal punishment in the home is the following letter published in the Chicago Daily News: "I am a busy English mother with a flock of ten, the eldest being seventeen years. My husband and I have struggled hard to bring them up in a decent way and I am proud of the result. And we didn't use moral suasion, either. Every one of my children has been punished for his or her sins, and if I had used moral suasion I am afraid there wouldn't be much time for anything else. No, I just paddled them soundly when they were naughty, and I found that a few spanks administered when they were little saved a great many when they were grown. "I never scold and harp on their faults and I never put them to bed for a day or half day.

"And I don't make them learn poetry or Bible verses or give them some housework to do, as I have noticed that in time these 'punishments' become hateful to the offenders, and surely none of those things ought to be hated by anyone.

"And I don't deprive them of going to some place of amusement to which they have been looking forward for weeks perhaps. And I don't deprive them of their food.

"I just take the offender to my own room and have a short heart-to-heart talk and then I administer a sharp switching. A switching never injured anyone's mind or body to my knowledge. There the guilty one must sit until the tears are dry and the heart is repentant, and then all is forgiven. Sometimes it takes quite a time for the offender to feel sorry for what he has done. But my experience is that this method is far the best. They all know what to expect and it does away with promises and threats, which are the worst things possible.

"Cruel and heartless,' you say. Neither. It is no pleasure to me to have to punish my babies, for they are all young, but it is my duty to bring them up the best way possible. My three eldest have not been punished for years and they are three manly, well-behaved boys. And the children all love and respect their parents above all else. I am proud of my babies.”

6. Another mother, asked how she raised a large family to worthy manhood said: "By pr'ar and hickory."

"In most families," says Dr. Josiah Strong, "the rod, like Aaron's, has budded and brought forth almonds and sugar plums. Children are hired and coaxed instead of being commanded, and accordingly grow up to consult inclination rather than obligation." A little girl was lying across her mother's knee when her little brother opened the door; whereupon she twisted her head about to say, "Johnnie, go away, don't you see we are busy." She appreciated that family discipline is for all parties concerned important business.

FATHER. 7. Recalling my own boyhood I do not see that any harm came from physical punishment, but good rather. My father never whipped in anger. To do that is hardly less than a crime. A father whacking his little boy about in passion, said, "My boy, do you know why

I'm licking you?" And the little fellow replied, with quivering lip, "'Cause you's bigger than me.' That was what the angry father deserved. Chicago teachers not being allowed to whip, Bobby's teacher wrote his mother that he was a very bad boy and should have a whipping at home. The mother replied; "Lick him yourself. I ain't mad at him."

My father made it a law as unchangeable as the laws of Medes and Persians that he would not punish his boys on the same day the offense was committed. He would promise a switching for the morrow, and he always kept his word. He would lie awake half the night, dreading the task because he was so tender-hearted, and I would lie awake all night for I was tender too." And he would postpone the ordeal until sunset warned him that he must whip or lie and then he would do his duty. But such whippings made so much trouble in "anticipation" as well as "possession" that a few were sufficient.

8. This question was asked of a large number of persons: "What punishments or rewards have you ever had that did you good or harm? (Dr. Arthur McDonald, Everybody's Magazine, Oct., 1901.) "The majority claimed to be benefitted by punishment. The boys thought the effects of a good plain talk were salutary, and none had a complaint to make against a good 'dressing-down.' Many were grateful for having had punishment in due season. There is a time in many a boy's life when he thinks he is lord of everything, and it would seem that a good whipping is often the best way to cure this defect. Tenderness is excellent for most children, but there are certain natures on which it is wasted, because they simply abuse it. Conscience does not seem to be very powerful in children before the age of nine. Preaching, or advice