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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
the world to engross their time, strength, and thought; and when the
Sabbath comes, it finds them so utterly exhausted that they have nought
to render to God on His holy day, no sweet piety to grace the home
and make the Sabbath a delight to their children. They are seldom
visited by a minister, for they have placed themselves out of reach of
religious privileges. An apathy steals over the soul. The children are
contaminated by evil communications, and the tenderness of soul that
they once felt dies away and is forgotten.
Parents who denounce the Canaanites for offering their children to
Moloch, what are you doing? You are making a most costly offering to
your mammon god; and then, when your children grow up unloved and
unlovely in character, when they show decided impiety and a tendency
to infidelity, you blame the faith you profess because it was unable to
save them. You are reaping that which you have sown—the result of
your selfish love of the world and neglect of the means of grace. You
moved your families into places of temptation, and the ark of God,
your glory and defense, you did not consider essential; and the Lord
has not worked a miracle to deliver your children from temptation.
You who profess to love God, take Jesus with you wherever you go;
and, like the patriarchs of old, erect an altar to the Lord wherever you
pitch your tent. A reformation in this respect is needed, a reformation
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that shall be deep and broad. Parents need to reform; ministers need to
reform. They need God in their households. They need to build the
waste places of Zion, to set up her gates and make strong her walls for
a defense of the people.
There is earnest work to be done in this age, and parents should
educate their children to share in it. The words of Mordecai to Esther
may apply to the men and youth of today: “Who knoweth whether
thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Young men
should be gaining solidity of character, that they may be fitted for
usefulness. Daniel and Joseph were youth of firm principle, whom
God could use to carry out His purposes. Mark their history, and see
how God wrought for them. Joseph met with a variety of experiences,
experiences that tested his courage and uprightness to the fullest extent.
After being sold into Egypt he was at first favored and entrusted with
great responsibilities; but suddenly, without any fault on his part, he
was unjustly accused and cast into prison. But he is not discouraged.
He trusts in God; and the purpose of his heart, the purity of his motive,