p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 36, No. 40. (10/13/1909)

Earlier text: Religious Bodies in the United States

Establishing the Health of the Child

By Maria L. Edwards, M.D.

II. Diet

By Maria L. Edwards, M.D.

If we desire to lay the foundation of a strong and useful life for the child that is entrusted to us, its early care and early habits are exceedingly important, for a right habit once formed is like a nail driven in a sure place.

We will consider somewhat in detail the various phases of the child’s life that enter into the establishing of its health.

The feeding of the child is one of the first considerations as well as one of the most important factors in the rearing of the child. Under normal, right conditions, no food is so suitable as its own mother’s milk; and that being so, it should be the ambition of every mother to furnish that best means of sustenance. If for any reason that is impossible, the service of a wet nurse is next most desirable; and where that means is not available, the “modified or humanized cow’s milk,” which resembles most nearly mother’s milk, and can be easily obtained or prepared, is usually third best. When a child is doing well, it is not wise to make changes in its food; but if it does not gain weight as it should during the first few months, and acts hungry after having been fed, it is reasonable to suspect that the food it is taking does not give it sufficient nourishment. The proper, regular intervals for feeding should be promptly observed, and then sufficient food should be taken to last until the next feeding—even if it is necessary to keep the little fellow from dropping to sleep before such an amount is taken.

I am tempted to speak quite at length upon what may be termed the “moral phase of the feeding question,” because in early childhood is when the perversion of appetite begins, and the foundation may be laid for a life of gluttony and even drunkenness. Appetite—or the ability to enjoy the food that has been prepared for our bodies — is one of the many blessings from the Creator; but when the appetite is perverted and self-control is lost, it becomes one of the greatest curses. Think for a moment! If there were self-control on the part of every one, in the matter of appetite, there could be no such thing as a drunkard. Slavery to appetite is the one overwhelming cause of intemperance, and the seeds of intemperance are therefore being sown wherever appetite is given the rule.

Parents, not willingly, but thoughtlessly, start the child on the wrong road: first, by feeding the baby if he cries or fusses, instead of searching for the real cause of his discomfort—possibly the little fellow is only asking for a drink of water, or to be turned over; secondly, feeding him when it is for the mother’s convenience to put him to sleep out of the way—just feed him and it is accomplished; third, as the child grows older, “giving something to eat,” as the great cure-all, and still later hiring him with candy, cookies, or something worse, to do the little tasks about the home that he should be taught to do as his part of the family responsibility. If he is sick, something sweet or unusual is urged upon him. He is allowed always to have everything in sight that he wants, even to tea, coffee, pickles; and allowed to choose his own diet from the time he is able to point to the thing he wants and brush aside the thing he happens not to want. Add to this the taking of food, candy, or fruit, any time or all the time, as may suit the fancy of the child, as many are permitted to do, and we have a picture not at all overdrawn, for it is repeated in the early lives of many children. Mothers have even acknowledged, “I do not know what I would do with him if he did not have cookies all the time.” Is it any wonder, then, that after having been early and thoroughly taught that satisfying the appetite is the remedy for almost everything, later in life he has no power to control an appetite that is demanding things that are harmful?

On the other hand, if a baby is fed only his liquid diet, and not allowed to taste of other things, he will sit with the family circle at meal-time, content with his playthings, and never mistrust that the happy circle are eating.

The greatest trouble right here is for the members of the family to withstand the temptation to feed the child everything they are eating. But it is far better for him to stick to his natural food until old enough, as indicated by the teeth that have developed, to take solid food, or until the time for weaning draws near. There can then be added gradually to his diet milk, zwieback, gluten gruel, mild fruit, flaked foods, and later, baked potatoes. The child who has never been urged to taste of everything, is perfectly satisfied with his simple food at regular intervals; and best of all, he is developing a strong digestive power for future life.

[The next article on the Health of the Child will appear in our issue of October 27.]

Some Day

SOME day all doubt and mystery Will be made clear; The threatened clouds which now we see Will disappear. Some day what seems a punishment, Or loss, or pain, Will prove to be God’s blessing, sent For very gain. Some day our weary feet will rest In sweet content; And we will know how we are blest By what was sent; And looking back, with clearer eyes, O’er life’s short span, Will see with wondering, glad surprise God’s perfect plan; And knowing that the way we went Was God’s own way, Will understand His wise intent Some day—some day.

—Anon.

I Gave Them Myself

By Clifford M. Loveland

SAID a mother to me one day: “When my children were young, I thought the very best thing to do for them was to give them myself. So I spared no pains to talk with them, to read to them, to teach them, to pray with them, to be a loving friend and companion to my children.

“I had to neglect my house often. I had no time to indulge myself in many things I should have liked to do. I was so busy adorning their minds and cultivating their hearts’ best affection, that I could not adorn their bodies in fine clothes, tho I kept them neat and comfortable at all times.

“I have my reward now. My sons are ministers of the Gospel, and my grown-up daughter is a Christian woman. I have plenty of time now to sit down, plenty of time to rest and keep my house in order, plenty of time to indulge myself, besides going about my Master’s business wherever He has need of me.

“I have a thousand of their memories to cheer and comfort me. Now that they have gone out into the world, I have the sweet consciousness of having done all I could, all that was possible, to make them ready for whatever God calls them to do.”

If all mothers would do as this wise mother did, what different results would we now see among the young men and women of this world. How it would tell for Christ’s kingdom! How much more swiftly would go to the world “the everlasting Gospel,” gathering out from the byways of sin precious souls for the fold of Christ.

Therefore let us gird on the armor, and be ever faithful and watchful, lest we fall. For the Master is near, yea, even at the door. CLIFFORD M. LOVELAND.

Failure That Can Not Defeat

FAILURE is a sickening thing, but we have no right to let it be a signal for giving up. The man who fails because of his failures, has surrendered in a fight that God meant to have him win. “There is no man who has won a perfect victory,” says Speer. “Men are not divided into two classes—the men who fail and the men who succeed. Every man is in the failing class. Men are simply divided into different groups according to the attitude they take toward their failures.” The men who fail and conquer are they who refuse to let their failures speak the last word.

The Vegetarian Cook Book

By E. G. Fulton

By E. G. FULTON

The author has had years of experience in vegetarian cookery and in the management of vegetarian cafes, and cafeterias. With its aid the chef, cook, or housewife is able to prepare appetizing, healthful meals without the use of any flesh food.

This book contains 226 pages, including a handy and well-arranged index of all the recipes given.

Tastily bound in cloth, price, post-paid, 75 cents

Pacific Press Publishing Assn.

Mountain View, California

Portland, Ore. Regina, Sask., Can. Kansas City, Mo.

The Jews

“Give me a proof of the inspiration of the Bible,” said the skeptical Frederick the Great to his court chaplain. “Sire, the Jews,” sententiously responded the preacher. The multiplied predictions regarding the Jews, from Moses to New Testament times, constitute a mass of evidence which can not be set aside. All their faithfulness and prosperity, all their disobedience and calamities, are mighty witnesses of the Word which came to us through that nation.

Helps to Bible Study

Helps to Bible Study. A series of Bible readings, simple and easy, designed as an aid to the personal study of the Scriptures, and adapted to the use of individuals or families; also a valuable assistant for Bible workers. 125 pages. Paper covers, 25 cents; cloth, net, 50 cents. Address this office.

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Daily News Bulletins

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An Illustrated Paper for the Smaller Men and Women, for the Children and Little Ones

Instructive and entertaining, clean, wholesome, sensible. It is a character builder, a helper to father and mother. Our Little Friend would plant seed in the joyous life of the children in the Present, that it may bear blessed fruitage in the Harvest of the Future. Respect your child's individuality. Take the paper for him or her. Only 50 cents a year.

Address, OUR LITTLE FRIEND, Mountain View, Cal.

Bibles

Bibles.—Remember that we are headquarters for anything in the Bible line. We shall be pleased to send you our catalog of Bible selections on application. Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal.

Matthew Twenty-four Second Coming of Christ

An exposition, verse by verse, of one of the most striking chapters in the New Testament; covering our Lord’s great discourse on the destruction of Jerusalem, the end of the world, and the special signs of His second coming to reward His children. The facts of fulfillment given make this pamphlet worth many times its price. 94 pages, price 10c.

PACIFIC PRESS Mountain View, Cal.

The Blessed Rain

Our first rain of the year has fallen. So quiet, so unheralded it came, as to be almost a surprise. For only a little time the south wind blew, gently, freshly, with the slightest feeling of a coming shower, just a suggestion of dampness in its kiss upon the brow, bared to its benediction. Then in the night came the rain; so gentle and warm it fell, all through the night and the next day, welcome every moment. It cleared the foul and murky air of dust and smoke. It put out the forest fires which weary men, oftentimes defeated, had been fighting for days. It filled all the cracks and gaps in the sun-dried earth. It washed clean the dirty green foliage and dusty evergreens. It washed out, sweetened the atmosphere till it seemed that hungry lungs could not drink enough. It awakened new bird songs. The great mountains came nearer in clearer outline through clean washed air. Even now, tho but a few days have passed since it fell, a ghost of green is seen playing over the erstwhile gray, dead fields, the promise of the reality to be. Even so God sends His Spirit to the hard, dry, barren hearts of earth. If they will open as has the ground to receive it, its gracious life-giving power will cleanse and make fruitful the barren life. Praise God for the rain and its fruitage. Praise Him for its lessons.

Articles Omitted

By Editor

Articles Omitted.—We regret that we were compelled to omit several articles from this issue. Mr. Taylor’s contribution on “The Sabbath Through the Ages” goes over again; and the article on Christian Science, by our associate editor, must wait till next week. Still we do not feel that the paper is lacking. It is filled with important and excellent matter on the great questions of prophecy,—God’s light for the world in darkness.

The Monterey Flood as a Warning

On another page will be found two more striking illustrations of the awful flood in Monterey, Mexico. What an illustration that flood and its consequences are of this great sinful world! The millions of the world are warned repeatedly of their coming doom. If catastrophes come, they seek temporary refuge; and when the event is over, they laugh and go on their way. Sometime the great and awful catastrophe will come from which there is no escape, just as it came to the many thousands in the Mexican city. They thought in Monterey that this flood would be like all the other floods. They could take temporary refuge on the tops of their houses or on the upper floors, laugh for a while at the mad torrent, and then go on their way; but in this instance their dwellings and their all were swept to destruction. So in the last great act in the drama of this world, finished sin will meet its full fruitage; and those who would not be warned, but who have continued to identify themselves with the sin, will be swept to sin's destruction. “To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.”

A Wicked Invention

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer some months ago referred to a “gun silencer”, placed on the market in the state of Washington. It is cheap,— costing only $5.00,— light, small, can be easily and quickly fastened to a gun-barrel, and renders the report of a gun audible but a few feet away. There is a good law against it in Washington; the penalty for its use is from one to five years in the penitentiary. It permits the hunter to shoot game at will, and enables the murderously inclined to kill his fellow man with much less risk of detection. Its use should be everywhere prohibited.

Our Next Issue

By Editor

Our Next Issue.— The general subject of our next issue is “Present-Day Conditions Minutely Foretold.”

There will be special articles on the following topics:

“Conditions in the Religious World,” by Prof. G. W. Rine;

“The Prospects of Peace,” by Asa Oscar Tait;

“Nearness of the End,” by Mrs. E. G. White;

“Conditions in the Social World,” by L. A. Reed.

There will be other articles of equal importance. This number will show the Bible to be an emphatically up-to-date book. Other books grow old, but the Bible keeps ever fresh, ever young, ever filled with the life of the Infinite. The Christian knows this living freshness in his every-day experience. But even the worldling can see it in the light of God’s prophecies.

Our next issue is the third in our special series. Now is the time to subscribe. Back numbers can be furnished. For six months, only 75 cents.

Alcohol’s Effects on Children

That strong drink affects the children of drunkards is shown by observations carried on for six years in the University of Helsingfors. These observations covered 5,845 families with 20,008 children, showing a mortality of 32 per cent among the children of heavy drinkers; 23 per cent in the families of moderate drinkers; and only 13 per cent in the families of abstaining parents. At the end of the eighth month of life, of the children of abstainers 27 5-10 per cent were toothless; of the children of moderate drinkers 33 9-10 per cent; and of the children of heavy drinkers 43 3-10 per cent, showing a much better and more rapid development on the part of children of total abstainers.

Appendicitis

At the International Medical Congress held at Budapest last month, Professor Sonnenberg, of Berlin, took strong ground that surgery in the treatment of appendicitis was not necessary at all times; that many cases resulting from catarrhal inflammation could be treated without having recourse to an operation; and mentioned the fact that he had seen three hundred cases of acute appendicitis cured without an operation. We have understood that it is a well-known fact and joke among physicians that a great many of the so-called appendicitis operations were disappointing to the surgeon in finding nothing the matter whatever with the appendix.

Work Among the Colored People

Sabbath, September 18, Elder W. C. White spoke to the church in Mountain View on the work in the South and the great need among the colored people. Our work among this class is not of a political character; its purpose is the saving of souls and the making of soul-savers among those saved. In other words, it is the work of developing character through Christ and Christian teaching, thereby making useful men and women of the community. He spoke of the work in Vicksburg, Miss., as an example of the difficulties in starting the work, but out of the Vicksburg school have come four ministers, ten or twelve teachers, colporteurs, and other good workers for humanity. Funds are greatly needed; they are needed in Atlanta, Ga., in Huntsville, Ala., in Nashville, Tenn., in connection with schools and sanitariums for Negroes. It was an earnest plea for advanced, self-sacrificing work which is already telling in souls saved, in fruits harvested. It is to be hoped that if any of our readers missed the offering for the South, October 2, they will not fail to send some donation for that work. The SIGNS OF THE TIMES will be glad to forward any which may be sent them.

Temperance Agitation in Chicago.

The temperance parade in Chicago, September 25, numbered 25,000. They marched through the streets crying their rallying note of “Down with the Saloons.” Major-general Frederick D. Grant, headed the parade. One of the exhibits was a big wagon hauling a black coffin followed by sixty-seven men robed in ghastly sheets, each of whom carried a banner on which were given the name and manner of death of persons who have died in Chicago in the last few years as the result of the saloon. Most of these banners recorded murders in saloons on Sunday. A woman dressed in deep black accompanied by several small children bore a banner on which was inscribed, “My Husband and Our Father Made Drunk in Chicago Saloons Killed Himself.” This ghastly exhibit told a little, but O, so little, of the fearful ravages and evils wrought by the saloon! Only the revelations of God’s judgment can tell the whole story.

Germany and England.—

Malcolm Clarke, in writing from Berlin, September 25, to the Hearst papers, declares that all the strong voices in Germany are not for war with England. The two-power standard which England has contended for is blamed as responsible for Germany’s increase in naval preparations, yet some of the strongest Germans do not believe that there will be any war. Mr. Clarke says, “While contemplating these assurances of the probability of peace with England, Germany, the home of beer, is involved in the throes of a beer war that threatens to have serious national consequences, because of increased duty on this universal beverage.” There is consumed in Germany an average of thirty gallons a year for every man, woman, and child; while in Bavaria, it is upward of fifty gallons.

Magnetic Storm

In connection with a rain-storm spreading from East to West in the United States, were very serious magnetic troubles which placed telegraph wires, telephones, and even the Atlantic cables out of commission for hours at a time. The best electricians in the country, like Edison, could give no explanation of it whatever. The veteran electrician could only say, “I wish I knew, I wish I knew.” Some occurrences like that, wholly unforeseen, emphasize the great fact so hard for humans to believe, that man knows very little, and that the very best he can do, and the greatest of all his inventions and works, are powerless before the mighty forces of the universe.

Two Industrial Training Schools

Announcements of two training-schools lie before us: “Oakwood Manual Training School,” Huntsville, Ala.; “the Berean Industrial School,” Malaga, Wash. Both of these are very neatly gotten up, and present good courses of studies in the grades covered. The first school is for the training of Negro young men and women. For particulars address the principals of these schools.