HOW TO BRING UP CHILDREN RESPECTABLY.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume I, Issue 12, 2 September 1861, Page 6

HOW TO BRING UP CHILDREN RESPECTABLY.

Chapter 11. Obedience, that is, that the children should listen to their parents. The deafness with which Maori children are deaf to their parents, is a great evil. This is a great error: look at Deuteronomy, 21 ch., 18-21 v.—"lf 'a man have a stubborn and rebellious son

which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him. will not hearken unto them; then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the elders of his city and unto the gate of his place, and they shall say unio the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey oar voice; he is a gluiton, and a drunkard". And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die, so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear." It was God who originated this system of destroying the deaf and rebellious child; and we see the greatness of this evil, of disobedience. Look also at Proverbs, 50 ch., 17 v., "The eye (hat mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat if." Such is the end of disobedience, death. God will disgrace and destroy that disobedient child, according to the word in the fifth of the laws, " Honor ihy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God givc-ili thee." The mistake of the Native with regard lo his children is, that he allows them freely to acquire the habit of disobedience. He says, "he wont listen." Exactly, he will not obey you, the parents allow him to be deaf, and yours is the fault. Perhaps you say, during the infancy of the child, "bye and bye, when he grows bigger and becomes an adult, his deafness will cease, and his obedience will be seen." Not at all, that is a mistake, but raiher in its infancy, before it can walk, and before it knows how to converse, see, how even then it knows how lobe self-willed, and so in its earliest childhood it can be taught obedience. Let not our young offspring be given up to rebellion, but to the early practice of obedience, And hence I press you not lo allow our children lo be surrendered to that great evil, deafness. Do not, do not. Let us not waste our great and precious treasure. Great is our love for our children; and so let them be held under obedience, that they may be good and healthy, and always respectable. Rebellion is from Satan, but obedience is from God. ''Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." Perhaps you arc enquiring, and saying, how can he be taught during his childhood. Look you, you must begin early, and not leave it long, but during its infancy. Obedience first, obedience first, in its littleness,

it will know how to listen, and will be taught by you to obey. Yon teach your children how to eat, how to talk, how to crawl, how to stand, and how to walk,—that is good: it is well for you thus to instruct your children, and so let them be also taught to listen that they may early understand this good thing, obedience. By no means "illow it to be deaf. If you see that your children are becoming disobedient, slrive, teach, talk, in kindness, in love, and with forbearance. If the child perseveres in rebellion, do not allow it, hold it fast, teach it aright, be strong to restrain, be paiient, be firm. But hold tight your grasp, be faithful, and you shall drag your child into obedience and life, and God shall make your voice to be heard, the voice of the father. Yes, the voice of the father must be attended to, the voice of the mother must be respected: let not that voce be trodden upon, it is a sacred voice; and let not your sacred voice be trodden under foot by your child, lest that tapu destroy him. This is a true tapu, the tapu of a parent's authority, and is a tapu derived from God; many are the children who have suffered from this cause, from their disregard and disobedience to the voice of their parents. But probably you are asking, " How must we act, if our children determine to be disobedient." Attend, and I will tell you. Our children come from God, his love to them is great, ihey are his great treasure; now He says, that we are to take charge of these his sacred treasures, we are to protect and hold them. Now, if they strive to do wrong, and continue to persevere; if ihey will not obey the word of affection, if they will not attend to the sacred voice of the parent, then you must chastise, you must whip to produce pain, and cause trembling to produce obedience. "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. Withhold not correction from the child, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." "If ye endure chastening, God dealelh with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasieneth not?" But, let the chastisement be proper, and not wrathful; do not flog using angry expressions, and with the appearance of wrath; rather, chastise in love: flog, attended with good remaiks; flog, accompanied by insiruclion, and striving to recover him to what is good, and to bring him back to pbedience. Be very cautious of that thing,

chastisement. JDo not whip severely, do not strike harshly; bat flog lightly and with affection. Great is the mistake of the Maories with respect to this work, the punishment of children ; they castigate improperly, with the appearance of anger and with wrathful expressions. It is because of the anger of his own heart towards his child that he now begins to chastise him in wrath and he hurls him to the ground, and dips in the mud, and ducks him in the water, as if he were slaying his enemy. Now you see ihe error of this kind of chastisement, and you must give it up entirely. This is not flogging, this is killing. Friends, obedience is the thing. Let our children be taught obedience, that they may walk straight in the path of what will conduce to their respectability.