"Woman was the finishing grace of creation.

Woman was the completeness of man’s bliss in Paradise.

Woman was the cause of sin and death to our world.

Woman was the means of our redemption.

Woman is the Mother of the human race;

our Companion,

Counsellor

and Comforter in the Pilgrimage of life;

or

our Tempter,

our Scourge,

and our Destroyer.

Our sweetest cup of earthly happiness,

or

Our bitterest draught of sorrow is mixed and administered by her hand.

She not only renders smooth or rough our path to the grave,

but helps or hinders our Progress to immortality.

In Heaven we shall bless God for her aid in helping us reach that blissful shore,

or amid the torments of unutterable woe in another region we shall deplore

the Fatality of her influence,"

-James Angell James-

(Female Piety)

(Continued)

Susannah Wesley was the wife of the distinguished preacher Samuel Wesley. Together they reared 19 children among whom was John, the founder of the "Method-ist" movement, and Charles who wrote some 6,5OO hymns.

The Scriptures tell us, "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."--Proverbs 29:15, Susannah Wesley applied this divine truth to her family.

HOW DID SHE TEACH THEM?

She held a one-half hour weekly conference with each child which was also a time for prayer. This was in addition to a nightly conference with each child as time permitted.

Each evening following school, the children went two by two, the eldest went with the youngest who could speak. In their private rooms they read a chapter in the New Testament along with a Psalm.

In the morning, these children followed the same fashion but read a chapter from the Old Testament and a Psalm.

Private prayers were observed before breakfast or before they came into the presence of the family.

She was successful because she was impartial. She was no Rebekah having a Favorite Jacob.

She was successful because she reached them before they could speak.

"Some parents talk of beginning the education of their children. The moment they were capeable of forming an idea, their education was already begun—the education of circumstances . . . insensible education, which like insensible perspiration, is of more constant and powerful effect, and of far more consequence to the habit than that which is direct and apparent. This education goes on at every instant of time; it goes on like time itself; you can neither stop it nor turn its course.... Here then is one school from which there are no truants, and in which there are no holidays."

-Christopher Andersen-

Childhood is the most impressible period of life. Every object soon becomes a book, every place a school-house, and every event plows in some winged seed which will be bearing their appropriate Fruit for thousands of ages yet to come. The young plant is bent with a gentle hand, and the characters graven in the tender bark grow deeper and longer with the advancing tree. Parents in their religious teaching especially, should seize upon these golden hours of prime, so hopeful and important. If they wait for intellectual development and delay to cast the good seed of the Kingdom into the virgin soil, the enemy will sow his tares and preoccupy the ground."

-John Kirk-

"There is a grave dereliction of duty and a violation of solemn responsibility when parents transfer the task of religious training to a stranger."

-John Kirk-

It was Martin Luther who said, "When parents do not educate their children in the ways of the Lord, there is such a perversion in nature as when fire does not burn, or water wet."

And, it was Susannah Wesley who confessed, "it is better to mourn ten children dead than one living; and I have buried many."

_____________________________

May 2, 1507--Martin Luther is ordained priest of Rome having spent ten years in the Augustinian monastery.

May 4, 1881--Mount Harmon School for Young Men is opened for boys between the ages of 8-12 years. It is founded by Dwight Lyman Moody and is located New Haven, Connecticut.

May 5, 1521--Martin Luther is kidnapped by friends and is taken to the Castle of Wartburg. He will assume the disguise of a knight and will be known as Knight George. A price has been fixed upon his head by the Diet of Worms and his friends feel he cannot safely reach home at Wittemburg.

May 6, 1415--The Council of Constance being filled with such hatred for the Gospel preacher, John Huss, gives orders to dig up his bones and burn them to ashes. John Huss has been dead for several years.

May 9, 1672--John Bunyan is licensed to preach. His church meets in a barn.