Training of Children
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and thorns, and choke out every plant of heavenly growth; and the
harvest that will be gathered the judgment alone will reveal. But how
sad is the thought that when life and its mistakes are viewed in the
light of eternity, it will be too late for this aftersight to be of any avail.
The utter neglect of training children for God has perpetuated evil
and thrown into the ranks of the enemy many who with judicious care
might have been co-laborers with Christ. False ideas and a foolish,
misdirected affection have nurtured traits which have made the children
unlovely and unhappy, have embittered the lives of the parents, and
have extended their baleful influence from generation to generation.
Any child that is permitted to have his own way will dishonor God and
bring his father and mother to shame. Light has been shining from the
word of God and the testimonies of His Spirit so that none need err
in regard to their duty. God requires parents to bring up their children
to know Him and to respect His claims; they are to train their little
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ones, as the younger members of the Lord’s family, to have beautiful
characters and lovely tempers, that they may be fitted to shine in the
heavenly courts. By neglecting their duty and indulging their children
in wrong, parents close to them the gates of the city of God.
These facts must be pressed home upon parents; they must arouse,
and take up their long-neglected work. Parents who profess to love
God are not doing His will. Because they do not properly restrain
and direct their children, thousands are coming up with deformed
characters, with lax morals, and with little education in the practical
duties of life. They are left to do as they please with their impulses,
their time, and their mental powers. The loss to the cause of God in
these neglected talents lies at the door of fathers and mothers; and what
excuse will they render to Him whose stewards they are, entrusted
with the sacred duty of fitting the souls under their charge to improve
all their powers to the glory of their Creator?
My dear brother and sister, may the Lord open your eyes and
quicken your minds, that you may see and redeem your failures. You
are neither of you living with an eye single to the glory of God. You
show but little power to stand up for Jesus and in defense of the faith
once delivered to the saints. You have neglected your duty in the
family and have proved that youth entrusted to your care are not safe.
Thus God looks upon your work in the home; thus it stands registered