[Illustration: THE WORKSHOP AT NAZARETH Picture Copyrighted and Owned by A. R. MOWBRAY & CO., LTD., and printed by their permission. E. P. DUTTON & CO., sole agents in America.] THE CHILD IN THE MIDST _A Comparative Study of Child Welfare in Christian and Non-Christian Lands._ BY MARY SCHAUFFLER LABAREE (MRS. BENJAMIN W. LABAREE) “_And He took a little child and set him in the midst of them._” PUBLISHED BY The Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions West Medford, Massachusetts COPYRIGHT, JANUARY, 1914 CENTRAL COMMITTEE ON THE UNITED STUDY OF FOREIGN MISSIONS FRANK WOOD, PRINTER BOSTON, MASS. FOREWORD The Central Committee on the United Study of Foreign Missions sends out the fourteenth text-book with hearty appreciation of the favor with which the thirteen already issued have been received. The phases of work which have been treated and the manner of their treatment have appealed to a large constituency of various names, resulting in an increase of knowledge and an impulse to pray and work and give. This is not a book for children, but a book about children the world over, and with its accurate statement of facts solicits attention to the great need of new effort in behalf of children in non-Christian lands. The author, Mary Schauffler Labaree (Mrs. Benjamin W.), a missionary daughter, granddaughter, wife, and mother, was born into an environment of missionary intelligence and activity in which her girlhood was trained. Later years of experience in Persia, and subsequent association with many nationalities in our own land, have given her large opportunity to know whereof she writes with tender, sympathetic touch. If the book may lead others to know and do, its purpose will be fulfilled. CENTRAL COMMITTEE ON THE UNITED STUDY OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. MRS. HENRY W. PEABODY. MISS E. HARRIET STANWOOD. MRS. DECATUR M. SAWYER. MRS. FRANK MASON NORTH. MRS. JAMES A. WEBB, JR. MRS. A. V. POHLMAN. MISS OLIVIA H. LAWRENCE. MISS GRACE T. COLBURN. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page FOREWORD v CHAPTER I. The Child in its Helplessness. “The place where the young Child lay” 1 CHAPTER II. The Child at Home. “Train up a child in the way he should go” 45 CHAPTER III. The Child at Play and at Work. “Boys and girls playing in the streets thereof” 87