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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Home Ideals (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 83. Waking a Queen.
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Waking a Queen.
And plans should be matured early to give the child the best schooling it is possible for him to have. Better fewer, plainer clothes on his back, and simpler food in his stomach, and a harder bed for his sleep, if so there may be better drilling for his mind. There is no finer investment of hard-earned, sweat-wet dollars than in giving boy or girl a good schooling. And "good" here means schooling with sensible standards and strong discipline, and with the dignity of labour and the need of experience honoured along with book study.
Then comes the time when the child wakes up, if he does. There is no greater moment in a child's life than when he catches fire with the great purpose of life, and wakens up to the part he is to play in life. Father and mother should eagerly plan and pray for the child's awakening to a good consciousness of his powers, and to a strong life-purpose. They should pray too, for courage and patience to help wisely and strongly when that time comes.
There's a fine bit of description in a recent nature book that helps greatly here. A mother eagle had tried in vain to tempt her little one to leave the nest on a high cliff. With food in her talons she came to the edge of the nest, hovered over it a moment, so as to give the hungry eaglet a sight and smell of food, then went slowly down to the valley, taking her food with her, and telling the little one to come and he should have it. He called after her loudly and spread his wings a dozen times to follow. But the plunge was too awful; he was afraid and settled back into the nest. The writer tells the story thus:
"In a little while she came back again, this time without food, and hovered over the nest, trying every way to induce the little one to leave it. She succeeded at last, when with a desperate effort he sprang upward and flapped to the ledge above. Then after surveying the world gravely from his new place, he flapped back to the nest, and turned a deaf ear to all his mother's assurances that he could fly just as easily to the treetops below, if he only would.
"Suddenly, as if discouraged, she rose well above him. I held my breath, for I knew what was coming. The little fellow stood on the edge of the nest, looking down at the plunge which he dared not take. There was a sharp cry from behind, which made him alert, tense as a watch-spring. The next instant the mother-eagle had swooped, striking the nest at his feet, sending his support of twigs and himself with them out into the air together.
"He was afloat now, afloat on the blue air in spite of himself, and flapped lustily for life. Over him, under him, beside him hovered the mother on tireless wings, calling softly that she was there. But the awful fear of the depths and of the lance tops of the spruces was upon the little one; his flapping grew more wild; he fell faster and faster. Suddenly—more in fright, it seemed to me, than because he had spent his strength—he lost his balance and tipped head downward in the air. It was all over now, it seemed; he folded his wings to be dashed to pieces.
"Then like a flash the old mother eagle shot under him, his despairing feet touched her broad shoulders, between her wings. He righted himself, rested an instant, found his head; then she dropped like a shot from under him, leaving him to come down on his own wings. It was all the work of an instant before I lost them among the trees far below. And when I found them again with my glass the eaglet was in the top of a great pine, and the mother was feeding him.
"And then, standing there alone in the great wilderness, it flashed upon me for the first time just what the wise old prophet meant, 'As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings—so the Lord.'" (Deu_32:11-12 <http://www.crossbooks.com/verse.asp?ref=Dt+32:11>; "Wilderness Ways," by W. J. Long.))
There is no task requiring more God-taught tact and strength and patience than this thing of teaching the child to know and use his powers rightly. And there is no greater joy than, with the rainbow mist in your eyes, to see your child wake up. All unconsciously there comes a new light in his eye, overspreading the face, a new decisiveness in the step, and a new ring in the voice. That is a rare bit of the trainer's full, sweet reward.
Seventy-odd years ago a small group of gentlemen rode through the darkness of the night, and rapped vigorously at a house in old England. They awakened a young girl sleeping within, and told her she was a queen. And as her gracious majesty, Queen Victoria, of ever blessed memory, heard the news she exclaimed, "I'll be a good queen," and begged their prayers that so it might be.
It is among the happiest days in a mother's life when she can awaken her daughter, and tell her she is a queen; and then find that her training has led her into a sweet, queenly womanhood. And it's among the gladdest days of a father's life, when his son awakes into his royal manly power, and with fine modesty and sturdy self-reliance and self-discipline, finds himself habituated by that father's touch and life to be a man.