Child’s First School
133
obedience, reverence, self-control. The educational influences of the
home are a decided power for good or for evil. They are in many re-
spects silent and gradual, but if exerted on the right side, they become
a far-reaching power for truth and righteousness. If the child is not
instructed aright here, Satan will educate him through agencies of his
choosing. How important, then, is the school in the home
Look upon the family circle as a training school, where you are
preparing your children for the performance of their duties at home, in
society, and in the church
Home Education First in Importance—It is a sad fact, almost
universally admitted and deplored, that the home education and train-
ing of the youth of today have been neglected
There is no more important field of effort than that committed to
the founders and guardians of the home. No work entrusted to human
beings involves greater or more far-reaching results than does the work
of fathers and mothers.
It is by the youth and children of today that the future of society is
to be determined, and what these youth and children shall be depends
upon the home. To the lack of right home training may be traced the
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larger share of the disease and misery and crime that curse humanity.
If the home life were pure and true, if the children who went forth
from its care were prepared to meet life’s responsibilities and dangers,
what a change would be seen in the world
All Else to Be Secondary—Every child brought into the world
is the property of Jesus Christ, and should be educated by precept
and example to love and obey God; but by far the largest number of
parents have neglected their God-given work, by failing to educate
and train their children, from the first dawning of reason, to know and
love Christ. By painstaking effort parents are to watch the opening,
receptive mind and make everything in the home life secondary to the
positive duty enjoined upon them by God—to train their children in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord
3
Counsels to Teachers, Parents, and Students, 107
.
4
The Signs of the Times, September 10, 1894
.
5
The Review and Herald, August 30, 1881
.
6
The Ministry of Healing, 351
.
7
Manuscript 126, 1896
.