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Accountability for Light Received
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through the day. Those sins which have come to his knowledge,
and also those which are secret, of which God’s eye alone has taken
cognizance, should be confessed. This rule of action, zealously
carried out by the father when he is present, or by the mother when
he is absent, will result in blessings to the family.
The reason why the youth of the present age are not more reli-
giously inclined is that their education is defective. True love is not
exercised toward children when they are allowed to indulge passion,
or when disobedience of your laws is permitted to go unpunished.
As the twig is bent, the tree’s inclined. You love your ease too well.
You are not painstaking enough. Constant effort is required, constant
watchfulness and earnest, fervent prayer. Keep the mind in a praying
mood, uplifted to God; be not slothful in business, but fervent in
spirit, serving the Lord.
You have failed in your family to appreciate the sacredness of
the Sabbath and to teach it to your children and enjoin upon them
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the importance of keeping it according to the commandment. Your
sensibilities are not clear and ready to discern the high standard that
we must reach in order to be commandment keepers. But God will
assist you in your efforts when you take hold of the work earnestly.
You should possess perfect control over yourself; then you can have
better success in controlling your children when they are unruly.
There is a great work before you to repair past neglects; but you are
not required to perform it in your own strength. Ministering angels
will aid you in the work. Do not give up the work nor lay aside the
burden, but take hold of it with a will and repair your long neglect.
You must have higher views of God’s claims upon you in regard
to His holy day. Everything that can possibly be done on the six
days which God has given to you, should be done. You should not
rob God of one hour of holy time. Great blessings are promised to
those who place a high estimate upon the Sabbath and realize the
obligations resting upon them in regard to its observance: “If thou
turn away thy foot from the Sabbath [from trampling upon it, setting
it at nought], from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the
Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor
Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure,
nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the
Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth,