FOUR little children sat on a settle one rainy afternoon, for they could not run down the lane and play there as usual. Fancy these four little creatures sitting all in a row for an hour together, longing to be tumbling about and making a noise, and imagine their misery! One of the four, sitting between the others, began at length to fidget and kick its legs about, upon which the mother shouted at the child, “Be quiet!” After a while, upon the little creature repeating its movements, the mother took it up and bounced it down hard upon the settle, crying, “There, sit quiet.”
Thus were these four small children taught the bliss of home on the rainy afternoon, and taught the duty of doing nothing on the settle.
On another afternoon these four children began to play at sitting quiet on the settle. Very happy they looked; their faces were brimful of fun, indeed so delighted they seemed, that a lady, who happened to open the door of the cottage in search of the mother, felt assured there must be some mischief brewing.
As she watched them, they cried to her, “Look, we are having such fun! We are sitting still, and see, we have lighted a fire under the settle.” And sure enough they had, and only by the providential entry of the lady into the house, were these little children saved from being burned.
The four children on the settle on the rainy day are quite a parable to us, for had their mother had the wit to give them occupation instead of forcing them into doing nothing, they would have learned how to amuse themselves instead of so nearly destroying themselves. Give them something to do; if carried out would often save many a child from misery.
Give them something to do, we would say to such older Christians, as try to repress and suppress the young. No good comes out of denouncing the misdirected energy of young converts, or of thumping them down to silence in their seats, but in leading them into wise paths, there is great profit. Some older Christians are like the distracted mother, who would set all her small burdens in a row, and simply cry out to them, “Be quiet.” Now, be sure of this, the end of such training will be mischief, and just because there is so little wit to direct young Christians into gracious occupation, do they often begin to play with the fire, almost to their destruction.