The Parents' Review

A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture

A Calendar.

[Probably by Julia Firth.]

In Mr. Ruskin's scheme for the education of the children of his Society of St. George, he appoints that they are to learn the history of five cities: Athens, Rome, Venice, Florence, and London. Their teachers are to cultivate in them the feelings of Admiration, Hope, and Love, "Admiration is the faculty of giving Honour. It is the best word we have for the various feelings of wonder, reverence, awe and humility, which are needful for all lovely work and which constitute the habitual temper of all noble and clear-sighted persons." As one means of cultivating this admiration, he says that in the history of the five cities he has named, the children are to "learn so far as they can understand, what had been beautiful and bravely done; and they shall know the lives of the heroes and heroines in truth and naturalness; and shall be taught to remember the greatest of them on the days of their birth or death; so that the year shall have its full calendar of reverent Memory. And, on every day, part of their morning service shall be a song in honour of the hero whose birthday it is; and part of their evening service, a song of triumph for the fair death of one whose death-day it is; and in their first leaning of notes they shall be taught the great purpose of music, which is to say a thing that you mean deeply, in the strongest and clearest possible way; and they shall never be taught to sing what they don't mean."

As a little attempt to carry out this idea, we have a St. George's Calendar for our family use, but it is very incomplete and wants a great deal of filling up. On the Saints' Days in our Prayerbook Calendar we sing hymn No. 353 in the Hymnal Companion, tune Paradise.

From all Thy saints in warfare, for all Thy saints at rest,
To Thee, O blessed Jesu, all praises be address'd,
Thou, Lord, didst win the battle that they might conquerors be;
Their crowns of living glory are lit with rays from Thee.

[Here we insert the stanza for the special Saint's Day to be celebrated.]

Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, and all the sacred throng,
Who wear the spotless raiment, who raise the ceaseless song;
For these, passed on before us, Saviour, we Thee adore,
And, walking in their footsteps, would serve Thee more and more.

Then praise we God the Father, and praise we God the Son,
And God the Holy Spirit, eternal Three in One;
Till all the ransom'd number fall down before the throne,
And hounour, power and glory ascribe to God alone.

For other saints, I have written suitable rhymes, and as they are chiefly Italian, three of the cities may be considered as fairly represented. I have not seen my way to memory of heroes of ancient Rome and Greece, to whom it is also difficult to assign a special day.

In memory of some English heroes I propose a reading instead of a chanted rhyme; as for instance; of Tennyson's Ode, on the birthday or death-day of the Duke of Wellington.

This paper is a mere suggestion, and this Calendar with its many blanks can be filled up by others, so that each family may have its enthusiasm fostered and its sense of fellowship deepened by recollection of the noble men and women who, in various ways, and under widely differing circumstances of creed, nationality and environment, have blessed the world and deserved the grateful homage of their kind.

(We commend this idea to parents as an excellent method of fixing in the children's minds some knowledge of those men and women whose lives have been of value to the world, that their ambition may be stimulated in the direction of self-denial and noble aims, and of impressing upon their memories the leading events in our history. In working it out readers might consult the early Nos. of the "Review of Reviews" for 1893.)--Ed. P.R.

January.

1st. Sing "O God of Bethel." Read Gen. xxviii. 10-22.

2nd.

3rd. St. Genevieve of Paris. Add verse to hymn as above.

For Genevieve, the Maid of France, we also praise Thee now,
The shepherd girl who early made a consecrating vow;
Of onward rushing armies she stayed the cruel power,
And used her strength for Christ and peace, and help in sorrow's hour.

4th.
5th.

6th. Epiphany. Sing "As with gladness men of old."

7th.
8th.
9th.
10th.
11th.
12th.
13th.
14th.
15th.
16th.
17th.
18th.
19th.
20th.

21st. St. Agnes. Add verse to hymn as above.

For fair St. Agnes, pure and brave, we praise Thy name to-day,
And ask for grace to lead Thy lambs, "lest they should faint or stray";
With gentle strength and constancy to keep the appointed road,
Which may be rough and yet will lead to Jesus Lamb of God.

22nd.
23rd.
24th.

25th. Conversion of St. Paul. See printed hymn.

26th.
27th.
28th.
29th.
30th.
31st.

Proofread by LNL, May 2021