THE TRAINING OF A SON

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 40, 14 January 1944, Page 2

THE TRAINING OF A SON

This is a letter written by "Woodbine Willie" (the Rev. G. A. Studdcrt Kennedy) when on active service in France, to his Avil'e about the education and training of his son:— 1. Make him a sportsman. Encourage him to play games and always play the game. 2. Teach him to despise cowardice and never to be afraid of anything or anyone save God. 3. Teach him as soon as you can what his body is for, about his powers of procreation, and about the necessity of, cleanliness in body and mind. 4. Teach him to" tell you everything about hiiAscli',, and especially everything of that, sort. 5. Teach him that being a gentleman means using your life to help and to serve your fellow-men as much as ever you can, and that it is dishonourable to desire, only to make money and be comfortable. If he has brains, teach him that he must use them to lead on to better things, and teach him that a gentleman should choose, one of the poor-ly-paid but honourable professions. ... Teach him to love and rover ence. women. Encourage him when young to have plenty of girl friends, and to treat them as comrades and never to play with them and deceive them. Teach him that the man who deceives a woman is a cad and a scroundrel and that he must try to live straight. 7. Last, and most important,, about his religion. Teach him to love 1 Jesus Christ, as the patte.ru God-Man. Teach him that, and leave him free. Don't force his religion in any way, especially if lie has brains. There are bound to be. in these coming years very rapid developments in Christian thought, let him go his way, and do not be pained or shocked so long as he keeps his. love of Jesus Christ. If he wants to become a priest let him, but never force, .him in any way. Only teach lxiiii constantly that a gentleman must give, not get, must serve; and not be served. Guard him from vulgarity and snobbishness, and never let liiin speak contemptuously of anyone except a coward. 1 think that is all. Kiss him for me and give him my blessing; and when he is old enough, tell him my life story as only you Avoiild teil it,, knowing that most of the time. I tried hard to do right, and when I sinned, was sorry in my heart, as I am now. (The llcv. G. A. Studdcrt-Ken-nedy died in 1929. He was vicar of St. Paul's, Worcester. He served in the. European War as a military chaplain. He wrote '•Rough Rhymes of a Padre" under the name • of Woodbine Willie.)

snatched from him. lost sixty-] live of my hcst lambs last night/' he said. "Wolves got in." The sympathetic pastor expressed his ownj grief over his great loss of his; friend's. "And how many sheep did they kill besides?" he asked. The shepherd looked surpriseo. "Don't you know,," lie answered, ''that a wolf never will take an old sheep so long as lie can get a lamb?" The "lambs" are being cruelly ruined by the enemy of souls to-day. Who is there with the. shepherd heart to weep over this loss, to set about to bring to the lambs and the 1 sheep the protection that is to be found only in Christ? Let us not forget that only a small proportion of the "lambs" for whom Christ, died are attending Sunday School to-day.