Warnings and Reproofs
109
children, you are transgressing the fifth commandment. You know not
where your steps are leading you.
I again plead a mother’s claim, a mother’s love. There can be no
baser ingratitude than that which marks the sin of disobedience to a
Christian mother. In the days of your helpless infancy she watched
over you; her prayers and tears were witnessed of heaven as she affec-
tionately cherished you. For her children she has toiled and planned,
thought, prayed, and exercised self-denial. Through your whole life
her true heart has been anxious and earnest for your welfare. And
yet now you choose your own course; you follow your own blind,
stubborn will, irrespective of the bitter harvest you will reap and the
sorrow you will bring upon her.
Infirmities are gathering about your mother. She needs you; any
attention you may render will be very precious to her. There are
none of her other children to whom she can look. They feel under no
obligation to her. But you will find the privilege which is now yours
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may soon be lost. Do not think, however, that should you neglect your
privilege and your duty as a son, your mother would suffer. She has
true friends who will feel it a privilege to do the duties from which you
withdraw yourself. God loves your mother and will care for her. If her
own children neglect her, He will raise up others to do the work they
might have done, and receive the blessing which was offered them. It
is their privilege to make her last days her best and happiest.
I tell you plainly, God is displeased with your course. There are
troubles before you that you do not discern and which may be avoided
if you choose to follow wise counsel. Our Saviour has made you the
object of His unwearied labors and tender solicitude, that you may
be wise and not ruin your self. He yearns over you in boundless
compassion and love, exclaiming: “How often would I have gathered
thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings,
and ye would not!” Your foolish heart has turned from the counsel of
your best friends.
Because of earnest, faithful warnings to guard you against the
mistakes of a lifetime, you have imagined you were a great benefit to
the church. True, you are capable, in Jesus Christ, of being useful; but,
notwithstanding this, the Lord and the church can get along without
you. You can join the army of Christ’s followers if you will; you may
share in its conflicts and triumphs. But if you choose not to do this,