Parental Training
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companions to lead them away from Christ. They enter upon a path
that is full of danger without the protection and support of religious
principle, because they think it will be difficult or unpleasant to carry
their religion with them to the schoolroom, the playground, and into
all their associations. Thus they lay bare their soul to the shafts of
Satan. Where are the guardians of these youth? Who have taken a
firm hold of the throne of God with one hand while with the other they
encircle these youth to draw them to Christ? It is just here that these
children need to know the power of religion, need to be held back with
a firm hand.
Many of those who have so long rejected divine guidance and
guardianship are rushing on in the path of levity and selfish pleasure,
yea, more, into baser acts and defilement of the body. As a consequence
their minds are polluted, and religion is distasteful to them. Some
have gone so far in this downward course, and followed so earnestly in
the path of the Sodomites, that they are today nigh unto cursing, and
the voice of reproof and warning is lost upon them. They will never
be redeemed, and the parents are guilty of their ruin. The debasing
enjoyments for which they have made such an enormous sacrifice—
health, peace of mind, and eternal life—are bitterness in the end.
Parents, for Christ’s sake do not blunder in your most important
work, that of molding the characters of your children for time and for
eternity. An error on your part in neglect of faithful instruction, or in
the indulgence of that unwise affection which blinds your eyes to their
defects and prevents you from giving them proper restraint, will prove
their ruin. Your course may give a wrong direction to all their future
career. You determine for them what they will be and what they will
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do for Christ, for men, and for their own souls.
Deal honestly and faithfully with your children. Work bravely
and patiently. Fear no crosses, spare no time or labor, burden or
suffering. The future of your children will testify the character of your
work. Fidelity to Christ on your part can be better expressed in the
symmetrical character of your children than in any other way. They
are Christ’s property, bought with His own blood. If their influence is
wholly on the side of Christ they are His colaborers, helping others to
find the path of life. If you neglect your God-given work, your unwise
course of discipline places them among the class who scatter from
Christ and strengthen the kingdom of darkness.