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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
but if you do only those things necessary to your temporal comfort
and happiness, you will find time to read your Bible with prayerful
interest and to perfect a Christian character.
Brother K, you have had many discouragements; but you must be
earnest, firm, and decided to do your duty in your family, and take
them with you if possible. You should spare no effort to prevail upon
them to accompany you on your heavenward journey. But if the mother
and the children do not choose to accompany you, but rather seek to
draw you away from your duties and religious privileges, you must
go forward even if you go alone. You must live in the fear of God.
You must improve your opportunities of attending the meetings and
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gaining all the spiritual strength you can, for you will need it in the
days to come. Lot’s property was all consumed. If you should meet
with loss you should not be discouraged; and if you can save only a
part of your family, it is much better than to lose all.
Dear brother and sister, as parents you are in a great measure
accountable for the souls of your children. You have brought them
into existence; and you should, by precept and example, lead them to
the Lord and the courts of heaven. You should impress them with the
thought that their temporal interests are of little consequence when
compared with their eternal welfare.
These dear children are living among worldly people, and they are
imbibing a love for the vanities of life. Your son L is a kindhearted,
fine-spirited boy; but he needs the watchful care of a mother whose
daily experience in the Christian life will fit her to counsel and instruct
him. He is at just that age when a tender, judicious mother can mold
him by her influence; but I fear, Sister K, that you seek rather to mold
your children after the fashion of this world, and neglect to teach them
that the important work of life is to form characters that will ensure
immortality.
If L neglects to become acquainted with religious subjects and
practical Christianity, his life will be a mistake. He should see that
he needs an education in spiritual things, that he may use his abilities
wholly for God. The Lord calls for young men to work in His vineyard.
Young men should not neglect the essential branches of education.
But if they turn their entire attention to secular study, and neglect to
become intelligent on the great subject of religion, and do not acquire
a Christian experience, they are becoming disqualified for the work of