part of their education. Our duty to God should be performed before any
other. The strict observance of God’s law, from principle, should be taught
and enforced. For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a
law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers, that they should make
them known to their children: that the generation to come might know
them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and
declare them to their children: that they might set their hope in God, and
not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments: and might not
be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that
set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.”
Here is seen the great responsibility devolving upon parents. Children
who are allowed to come up to manhood or womanhood with the will
undisciplined and the passions uncontrolled, will generally in afterlife
pursue a course which God condemns. These are eager for frivolous
enjoyments and irreligious associates. They have been allowed to neglect
religious duties and indulge the inclinations of the carnal heart, and, as a
consequence, Satan controls the mind and principles. In—–parents have
given him ample room thus to work. Most of the backsliding from God
that has occurred in that place has come in consequence of the parents’
neglect to train their children to a conscientious, religious life. The
condition of these children is lamentable. They profess to be Christians;
but their parents have not taken upon themselves the burden of teaching
them how to be Christians—how to recount the mercies of God, how to
praise Him, how to exemplify in their lives the life of Christ.
When these children enter school and associate with other students,
those who have been really trying to be Christians are ashamed to act out
their faith in the presence of those who have had so much light. They are
ashamed to appear singular
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and deny inclination, and so they throw away their armor at the very time
when it is most needed, when the powers of darkness are working through
these irreligious companions to lead them away from Christ. They enter
upon a path that is full of danger without the protection and support of
religious principle, because they think it will be difficult or unpleasant to
carry their religion with them to the schoolroom, the playground, and into
all their associations. Thus they lay bare their soul to the shafts of Satan.
Where are the guardians of these youth? Who have taken a firm hold of
the throne of God with one hand while with the other they encircle these
youth to draw them to Christ? It is just here that these children need to
know the power of religion, need to be held back with a firm hand.
Many of those who have so long rejected divine guidance and
guardianship are rushing on in the path of levity and selfish pleasure, yea,
more, into baser acts and defilement of the body. As a consequence their
minds are polluted, and religion is distasteful to them. Some have gone
so far in this downward course, and followed so earnestly in the path of
the Sodomites, that they are today nigh unto cursing, and the voice of
reproof and warning is lost upon them. They will never be redeemed, and
the parents are guilty of their ruin. The debasing enjoyments for which
they have made such an enormous sacrifice—health, peace of mind, and
eternal life—are bitterness in the end.
Parents, for Christ’s sake do not blunder in your most important
work, that of molding the characters of your children for time and for
eternity. An error on your part in neglect of faithful instruction, or in the
indulgence of that unwise affection which blinds your eyes to their defects
and prevents you from giving them proper restraint, will prove their ruin.
Your course may give a wrong direction to all their future career. You
determine for them what they will be and what
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they will do for Christ, for men, and for their own souls.
Deal honestly and faithfully with your children. Work bravely and
patiently. Fear no crosses, spare no time or labor, burden or suffering. The
future of your children will testify the character of your work. Fidelity to
Christ on your part can be better expressed in the symmetrical character
of your children than in any other way. They are Christ’s property, bought
with His own blood. If their influence is wholly on the side of Christ
they are His colaborers, helping others to find the path of life. If you
neglect your God-given work, your unwise course of discipline places
them among the class who scatter from Christ and strengthen the kingdom
of darkness.
I speak the things I know; I testify to you the things which I have
seen when I say there is among our youth, among educated young men
of professedly Christian parents, a grievous offense in the sight of God,
which is so common that it constitutes one of the signs of the last
days. It is so full of evil tendencies as to call for decided exposure
and denunciation. It is the sin of regarding with levity or contempt
their early vows of consecration to God. In a religious interest the Holy
Spirit moved upon them to take their stand wholly under the bloodstained
banner of Prince Immanuel. But the parents were so far from God
themselves, so busily engaged in worldly business, or so filled with doubts
and dissatisfaction in regard to their own religious experience, that they
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were wholly unfitted to give them instruction. These youth, in their
inexperience, needed a wise, firm hand to point out the right way and
to bar with counsel and restraint the wrong way.
A religious life should be shown to be in marked contrast to a life of
worldliness and pleasure seeking. He who would be the disciple of Christ
must take up the cross and bear it after Jesus. Our Saviour lived not to
please Himself, neither must we. High spiritual attainments will require
entire
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consecration to God. But this instruction has not been given the youth