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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
The children of these complainers listen with open ears and receive
the poison of disaffection. Parents are thus blindly closing the avenues
through which the hearts of the children might be reached. How many
families season their daily meals with doubt and questionings. They
dissect the characters of their friends, and serve them up as a dainty
dessert. A precious bit of slander is passed around the board to be
commented upon, not only by adults, but by children. In this God is
dishonored. Jesus said: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the
least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Therefore Christ
is slighted and abused by those who slander His servants.
The names of God’s chosen servants have been handled with dis-
respect, and in some cases with absolute contempt, by certain persons
whose duty it is to uphold them. The children have not failed to hear
the disrespectful remarks of their parents in reference to the solemn
reproofs and warnings of God’s servants. They have understood the
scornful jests and depreciatory speeches that from time to time have
met their ears, and the tendency has been to bring sacred and eternal
interests, in their minds, on a level with the common affairs of the
world. What a work are these parents doing in making infidels of
their children even in their childhood! This is the way that children
are taught to be irreverent and to rebel against Heaven’s reproof of
sin. Spiritual declension can but prevail where such evils exist. These
very fathers and mothers, blinded by the enemy, marvel why their
children are so inclined to unbelief and to doubt the truth of the Bible.
They wonder that it is so difficult to reach them by moral and religious
influences. Had they spiritual eyesight, they would at once discover
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that this deplorable condition of things is the result of their own home
influence, the offspring of their jealousy and distrust. Thus many
infidels are educated in the family circles of professed Christians.
There are many who find special enjoyment in discoursing and
dwelling upon the defects, whether real or imaginary, of those who
bear heavy responsibilities in connection with the institutions of God’s
cause. They overlook the good that has been accomplished, the benefits
that have resulted from arduous labor and unflinching devotion to the
cause, and fasten their attention upon some apparent mistake, some
matter that, after it has been done and the consequences have followed,
they fancy could have been done in a better manner with fairer results,
when the truth is, had they been left to do the work, they would either