Avalon Chronicles #54: "Raising Our Young"

Avalon Chronicles #54: "Raising our Young"

by Allen B. Clark     www.combatfaith.com
                                 www.combatfaith.blogspot.com

Proverbs 22: 6 "Train a child in the way he should go,
                             and when he is old he will not turn from it."  

                            Zondervan. New International Version. Life Application Study Bible. 1991.
   
The practical application for this verse was found by me in the American Dictionary of the English Language by Noah Webster 1828. Introduction page 12. Available at www.face.net.  

"...Noah Webster's system of education included rather than excluded the influence of the American home:

(Webster wrote:)

     'All government originates in families, and if neglected there, it will hardly exist in society...The foundation of all free government and of all social order must be laid in families and in the discipline of youth...The Education of youth, an employment of more consequence than making laws and preaching the gospel, because it lays the foundation on which both law and gospel rest for success.'

     Noah Webster's own childhood had been blessed with a Christian home. His Pilgrim heritage through Governor Bradford provided him with the ingredients of Christian self-government, responsibility and work habits which would serve him well throughout a long, active life. When the family farm was mortgaged to send him to Yale College he took his parental benediction with him.

     'We wish to have you serve your generation and do good in the world and be useful and may so behave as to gain the esteem of all virtuous people that are acquainted with you and gain a comfortable subsistence, but especially that you may live as to obtain the favor of Almighty God and His grace in this world and a saving interest in the merits of Jesus Christ, without which no man can be happy.'"

     Appropriating seriously the merits of Jesus Christ can bring peace and tranquility to all to bring us as much happiness as we can possibly know in our earthly existence.

     Approximately two decades ago I procured a copy of this monumental original first edition of Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary. He had traveled to Europe, studied other languages and great literature as well as the Holy Bible to compose his dictionary. I keep it beside my study chair and refer often to it. One will not find slang or the inane terminology used by so many today in it, but one is uplifted and edified to learn the true and correct and beautiful meaning of our language. Noah Webster in my opinion can truly be considered one of the Founding Fathers of America!