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the weight of evil Satan is pressing in upon your children. The children
cannot do this of themselves. Parents can do much. By earnest prayer
and living faith, great victories will be gained. Some parents have not
realized the responsibilities resting upon them, and have neglected the
religious education of their children. In the morning the Christian’s
first thoughts should be upon God. Worldly labor and self-interest
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should be secondary. Before leaving the house for labor, all the family
should be collected together, and taught that they must respect and
reverence the hour of prayer. The father, or mother in the father’s
absence, should with humility and a heart full of tenderness, with
a sense of the temptations and dangers before themselves and their
children, plead fervently before God that he would keep the children
through the day. By faith bind your children upon the altar, entreating
for them the care of the Lord. Ministering angels will guard children
who are thus dedicated to God. It is the duty of Christian parents,
morning and evening, by earnest prayer and persevering faith, to make
a hedge about their children. They should patiently instruct them-
kindly and untiringly teach them how to live in order to please God.
Impatience in the parent excites impatience in the children. Passion
manifested by the parents, creates passion in the children, and stirs up
the evils of their nature. Some parents correct their children severely
with a spirit of impatience, and often in passion. Such corrections
produce no good result. In seeking to correct one evil, they create two.
Continual censuring and whipping hardens children, and weans them
from their parents. Parents should first learn to control themselves;
then they can more successfully control their children. Every time
they lose self-control, and speak and act impatiently, they sin against
God. They should first reason with their children, clearly point out
their wrongs, show them their sin, and impress upon them that they
have not only sinned against them, but against God. With your heart
subdued and full of pity and sorrow for your erring children, pray with
them, before correcting them. Then your correction will not cause
your children to hate you. They will love you. They will see that you
do not punish them because they have put you to inconvenience, or
because you wish to vent your displeasure upon them; but from a sense
of duty for their good, that they may not be left to grow up in sin and
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wickedness.