Boys: their Work and Influence

Оглавление

Unknown. Boys: their Work and Influence

INTRODUCTION

BOYS

HOME AND SCHOOL

GOING TO WORK

RELIGION

COURAGE

MONEY

AMUSEMENTS

HOME DUTIES

SELF-IMPROVEMENT

CHUMS

COURTSHIP

HUSBANDS

Отрывок из книги

What a curious fellow a boy is.  I wonder if boys ever think about themselves.  A young monkey is full of mischief, a young puppy is full of play, a young kitten is always ready for fun, but a boy seems to combine the qualities of all three, and to have a stock of his own to jumble up with them.  A boy has so many sides, not only an outside and an inside; he is a many sided being.  See him at one time and you would hardly suppose him to be the same creature that you had seen a little while before.  Now he is a bright nice spoken lad, in a few moments he is a bullying tyrant, now he is courteously answering those who speak to him, now words come from his lips that shock the hearer.  Now he would scorn to have his word doubted by a comrade, now he does not hesitate to lie to escape punishment.  Now fearless, now a coward, now full of spirits, now in the depths of woe—sunshine or joy, wind and calm, silence and tumult, all seem to have their place, and to make up that incomprehensible and yet delightful animal a boy.

Now boys, I want you to think of yourselves—not to think how good or how bad you are—what fine fellows you are, and what important persons, but what you are capable of becoming.  You will not remain boys always—you are now, in the midst of all your oddities, forming your character, and shaping your future course, drawing out of the midst of all your contradictions the character that will make you honest God-fearing men, like in your degree to the perfect pattern of manhood which God has set before us in Christ—or you are letting yourselves be moulded into the selfish sensual being, which too often degrades the name of man.

.....

Boys and girls alike should learn from their mother to say their prayers night and morning, and when they become too old, or mother too busy for them to say them at her knee, they should never omit to say them by themselves.  I heard the other day of a rough labouring man, who on his death bed sent for the priest of his parish.  He said he had never been inside a Church since he had been a man.  He had done his work honestly, and lived steadily, but had altogether got out of the way of going to Church.  There was one thing, however, that he had always done.  Long years ago, as a lad, he had promised his mother never to get up in the morning or go to bed at night without saying his prayers.  This promise he had kept faithfully.  Night and morning that rough strong man had knelt and said the same prayers which he had first learnt at his mother’s knees.  Those prayers had been heard and had brought their blessing to him.  Church going on Sunday is as important as daily prayers.  A Sunday morning should never be allowed to pass without seeing you at Church.  Lie a bed on Sunday morning is the devil’s version of the fourth commandment.  There is plenty of time on Sunday for Church as well as for walks and talks.  Sunday is not to be a miserable day, or all Church and prayers, but God first and then ourselves.  Sunday school you will most likely be sent to as long as you go to day school, and you will be wise not to give it up as soon as you are what you would call your own master.

Both home and school ought to have their pleasures as well as their work.  Do your work thoroughly, and do your pleasures thoroughly also.  Share your pleasures with the others, and with father and mother.  You can give much pleasure to father and mother, as well as to yourselves, if you try.

.....