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Counsels on Sabbath School Work
The children should be surrounded by the best of influences and
associations. Parents who undertake this work in the fear and love of
God, will guard every word, that they may hear nothing that would
pain them when their own conversation is repeated by the children.
They will seek to supply the weakness, ignorance, and deficiency in
their children by high moral instruction, that they may grow up strong
in purity, with well-established habits that tend to health and happiness.
With such an education they will gather up that kind of knowledge that
will perfect the character in symmetry and strength.
Neglect Fraught With Danger
If the youth are left to pick up an education, they will find that every
facility will be furnished. From a variety of sources the knowledge
of evil will be brought to the mind, and, perhaps, in afterlife it can
never be wholly effaced. When parents neglect their duty in laying
the foundation of character for their children, bringing the very best
principles as timbers for their character building, this neglect will
be supplied by the enemy of God and man, and the youth will be
indifferent to virtue and truth. The home should be made the most
pleasant place in the world. What is the outward and the artificial
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compared with the true and the natural? The Lord has given to the
children faculties that need the most careful training from both parents
and teachers.
Those to whom God has committed the responsibility of disci-
plining the youth should be in a condition to cooperate with Him in
developing the precious gifts of mind and heart, that they may gain
that kind of knowledge that will give increasing strength, and will be
an acquisition that can be carried into the future, immortal life....
A Work of the Highest Importance
To mold and fashion the character of children and youth is a work
of the very highest importance, and in this work it is essential to present
Christ in His matchless love to the mind, that His counter and stronger
charms may eclipse the attractions of the world. The youth must not
merely see a theory, however logical, but the loving character and
glory of Christ. They must be led to behold the riches of the eternal
world, until they are encouraged, animated, and won. The love of