Wanted, recruits for the houses of shame, Some mother"s girl for her place.

Simons, a gambler, was killed in a fight; He died without pardon or grace.

Wanted, to train for his burden and blight, Somebody"s boy for his place.

Wanted for dance-halls, for brothels, for bars, Girls attractive of form and of face, Girls to decoy and boys to destroy; Have you a child for the place?

"Wanted," pleads Satan, "for service of mine, Some one to live without grace, Some one to die without pardon divine; Please train me your child for the place."

That eminent writer, Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilc.o.x, says:

"Every person on earth is making some sort of a cell in his or her brain every waking moment of the day or night.

"Thoughts are things. Thought is energy. Thought is a creative power.

That is why it is so important to direct the minds of human beings to good, kind, helpful thoughts. [Let me add, to direct them, from the very commencement, to the great, loving G.o.d and his Son, our Savior.]

"Parentage is the oldest profession of men and women in the world, but there are the smallest number of prize-winners in that profession of any in the world. [Why? because of a neglected, insulted G.o.d.]

"Real, good motherhood must include the universal motherhood. It must make a woman love her child _so unselfishly_ that she is willing it should suffer while learning its lessons of kindness, thoughtfulness, and protection, rather than to enjoy itself while taking away the joys, the privileges, or the rights of other creatures, human or animal."

The warden of a certain State prison, who is a student of human nature, said to some visitors one day, "If a child is properly educated to the age of ten, no matter what its inheritance, it never becomes a criminal." His sentence includes all the needed preventatives of crime.

Oliver Wendell Holmes when asked, "When should a child"s education begin?" promptly replied, "Two hundred years before it is born."

There would be little or no need of the rescue missionaries had parents and guardians but heeded these words in Deut. 6:5-7: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our G.o.d is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy G.o.d with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thine houses, and on thy gates." "O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!" Deut. 5:29.

It is very, very blessed to undertake the part of a good Samaritan. It is far more blessed so to know and serve the Lord, that our present and future progeny, instead of sharing a destiny similar to many of these depicted between these pages, may, under any and all circ.u.mstances, enjoy the everlasting smile of His countenance, that peace and joy in their souls which this world can never give, neither take away.

Lord, we pray thee, "so teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Psa. 90:12.