The Little Child That Is To Be
(This should be read by every young man and woman and by every parent lest they regard too lightly the sublime obligation of parenthood.)
In a room whose window faces the east, the sunrise, a room called Hope, I found the Little Child That Is to Be. A wonderful, wonderful child is he—the Little Child That Is to Be. I often feel that I should like to take every young fellow into this room that faces the sunrise and show him this sweet and slumbering angel-face. And as he looks down upon the head on the pillow I would say, “Take care, when you are making love to the girl of your fancy, that you are securing for the Little Child That Is to Be a mother capable of maintaining the great and holy traditions of motherhood. Take care that you are winning to yourself a woman whom you can set with pride and confidence before the eyes of the Little Child That Is to Be as the embodiment of all that is pure and noble and unselfish and true!”
And I often feel that I should like to take every girl into this little room with the eastern window. And, as she gazed tenderly down into the sleeping face of the Little Child That Is to Be, I would say to her, “Take care, when you ally yourself with the lover of your fancy, that you are securing for the Little Child That Is to Be a father to whom you may always point with proud motherly affection! Take care that you are setting before the eyes of the Little Child That Is to Be, when he wakes up, a father whose character he may copy and in whose safe foot-prints he may plant his own! Take care! Take care! !” And I would have both young men and maidens, as they stand beside this sleeping angel, to remember that whenever they yield to temptation they are striking a more terrible blow at the Little Child That Is to Be than they will ever be able to strike him with clenched fist. And whenever they resist and overcome temptation they are securing for the Little Child That Is to Be a finer heritage than any they will ever leave him in their wills. “Take care, take care!” I would say to every man and maiden, “Take the greatest care, the tenderest care of the Little Child That Is to Be!”
-From “The Golden Milestone” by F. W. Boreham.
The sweetest duet ever heard is the laugh of mother and child.
Alternate Reading: Acts 3:1-26.