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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
the simple.” “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my
path.”
Here the duties of parents are clearly set forth. The word of God is
to be their daily monitor. It gives such instruction that parents need
not err in regard to the education of their children; but it admits of no
indifference or negligence. The law of God is to be kept before the
minds of the children as the great moral standard. When they rise up,
and when they sit down, when they go out, and when they come in,
this law is to be taught them as the great rule of life, and its principles
are to be interwoven with all their experience. They are to be taught
to be honest, truthful, temperate, economical, and industrious, and to
love God with the whole heart. This is bringing them up in the nurture
and admonition of the Lord. This is setting their feet in the path of
duty and safety.
Youth are ignorant and inexperienced, and the love of the Bible
and its sacred truths will not come naturally. Unless great pains is
taken to build up around them barriers to shield them from Satan’s
devices, they are subject to his temptations and are led captive by him
at his will. In their early years children are to be taught the claims of
God’s law and faith in Jesus our Redeemer to cleanse from the stains
of sin. This faith must be taught day by day, by precept and example.
A solemn responsibility rests upon parents, and how can the Lord
bless them in the positive neglect of their duty? Children can be
molded when they are young. But years pass when their hearts are
tender and susceptible to the impressions of truth, and but little time
is devoted to their moral culture. The precious lessons of truth and
duty should be instilled into their hearts daily. They should have a
knowledge of God in His created works; this will be of greater value
to them than any knowledge of books.
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“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that pro-
ceedeth out of the mouth of God,” are the words of our Saviour. Errors
in doctrine are multiplying and twining themselves with serpentlike
subtlety around the affections of the people. There is not a doctrine of
the Bible that has not been denied. The great truths of prophecy, show-
ing our position in the history of the world, have been shorn of their
beauty and power by the clergy, who seek to make these all-important
truths dark and incomprehensible. In many cases the children are drift-
ing away from the old landmarks. The Lord commanded His people