Is it Well with the Child?

White Ribbon, Volume 19, Issue 6, 1 July 1947, Page 1

Is it Well with the Child?

Down through the centuries ♦ his question still rings in our ears. Never in history has there been more organised effort towards securing for the child things to which he lias a right, even before he comes into the world. To work towards his physical well-being is the aim of the IMunket Society in our own land; and that of kindred societies in practically every civilised country to-day. It is a long time since the wife o! Manoah received her instructions from the angel visitant, the child she was to hear later on. No wine or strong drink, or any unclean thing, was to pass her lips, she was told. I odav the IMunket Society gives the same instruction to the mother to he, only

one among many others. It is highly significant that it was the only one given to the mother of Samson. Warnings, suggestions, and the accumulates wisdom of the ages are at the service of the prospective mother. (treat anxiety is shown by all the other mothers she knows as to her health and well-being, anil even more as to that of her child. If she follows out all she is told, her baby should be, and usually is, healthy, strong, and beautiful. Hut, more is to follow. Health, and all that makes for it, may be safely ensured for the child How about the psychological conditions in which lie is slowly developing? The dark

shadow of the Divorce Court has fallen on thousands of young children in our own land. The dislocation of the home atmosphere, the shocks of changes in places of abode from homes where father and mother, brothers and sisters were the normal occupants and to foster homes, orphanages, and such-like substitutes for what is the undisputed right of every child, have been, and are responsible for a dreadful harvest. Delinquency, of which so much is being heard in tincountries of the world, thrives best in the soil of broken home life. It is beyond question that the wave of child crime which has dismayed society everywhere, has had its origin in the wave of irresponsibility of parents, “due to the war.” “Due to the war!” It is a glibly-' uttered phrase. We hear it in all sorts of connections, unnecessary to name. Have w’e become so lax in our standards as to accept it as an explanation for such crimes against our children’s

prospects of becoming fine citizens of a fine country as are being committed «laily by their own parents? Is it too much to claim that if those parents had been brought to see, through religious education, that certain things were wrong, and not to be excused on such flimsy grounds as being “due to the war” many hundreds of these cliildr;*n might still be happy in their own homes with all the security and carefree happiness to which their birth entitled them?

Where is the plague spot? We say the Monte is the place where responsibility should be assumed. But in how many homes is there a true understanding of that responsibility? The vicious circle is revolving; more irre spoilsibility is being evidenced, and we are driven back to positions from which we should never have moved. God itt the heart, in the home, in the school, in the community, realised and owned, is the only answer to the heart-breaking problems surrounding the life of the child of today. Our prayers, our work and thought are needed as never before. “Save the Children” should he our slogan. Our work for Temperance, for “Rible in Schools,” for all that is aimed at restoring to the beautiful childhood of

our time that which seems to be lost, temporarily at least, the guardianship and care which leads to the development of the best, should he our constant caiv. A Christian parentage, a Christian home, and the life of the truly Christian community should be the ot of every child born into our civilisation. Only so can we truly say, “It is well with the child.”